"Performing Gender: Sometimes I do and Sometimes I don't" -- Moe Lecture in GWS by Chimamanda AdichieMarch 10, 2014 at 7–8:30 p.m.

"Performing Gender: Sometimes I Do and Sometimes I Don't"

Public lecture by Chimamanda Adichie, Nigerian American writer.

In Nigeria, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's novel Half of a Yellow Sun
has helped inspire new, cross-generational communication about the
Biafran war. In this and in her other works, she seeks to instill dignity into the finest details of each character, whether poor, middle class or rich, exposing along the way the deep scars of colonialism in the African landscape.

Americanah, Adichie's most recent book, is a story of love and race centered around a young man and woman from Nigeria who face difficult choices and challenges in the
countries they come to call home.

As teenagers in a Lagos secondary school, Ifemelu and Obinze fall in love. Their Nigeria is under military dictatorship, and people are leaving the country if they can. Ifemelu"beautiful, self-assured"departs for America to study. She suffers defeats and triumphs, finds and loses relationships and friendships, all the while feeling the weight of something she never thought of back home: race. Obinze"the quiet, thoughtful son of a professor"had hoped to join her, but post-9/11 America will not let him in, and he plunges into a dangerous, undocumented life in London.

Years later, Obinze is a wealthy man in a newly democratic Nigeria, while Ifemelu has achieved success as a writer of an eye-opening blog about race in America. But when Ifemelu returns to Nigeria, and she and Obinze reignite their shared passion"for their homeland and for each other"they will face the toughest decisions of their lives.
Fearless, gripping, at once darkly funny and tender, spanning three continents and numerous lives, Americanah is a richly told story set in today's globalized world: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's most powerful and astonishing novel yet.

Adichie builds on the literary tradition of Igbo literary giant Chinua Achebe"and when she found out that Achebe liked Half of a Yellow Sun, she says she cried for a whole day. What he said about her rings true:"We do not usually associate wisdom with beginners, but here is a new writer endowed with the gift of ancient storytellers.