Why I Hid The News Of The Birth Of My Twins At 47 From The Public Till After One Year—Chimamanda Adichie

Why I Hid The News Of The Birth Of My Twins At 47

OpenLife Nigeria reports that Chimamanda Adichie, the award-winning author, has welcomed twins with her husband at age 47.

The boys, born in April 2024, were revealed during her interview with The Guardian on Saturday.
The writer revealed she kept the birth of her twin from the public to “protect” them.

She said that Nigerians’ curiosity about people’s personal lives makes her even more reluctant to share.
“I want to protect my children. I’m okay with having them mentioned, but I don’t want the piece to become about them,” she said.

“So, here is the thing, Nigerians are inquisitive. They want to know about your personal life. Because of that, I am resistant. I very rarely talk about it,” she said.

Adichie will be releasing her first feature-length novel in 11 years in March.
The novel titled ‘Dream Count’ is a reflection on love, desire, and the intricacies of womanhood explored through the lives of four distinct women.

Talking about her writing hiatus, she revealed it happened unplanned after she got pregnant with her first child.
Adichie said she struggled for years to reconnect with her creative self after feeling “cast out” from the part of her that imagines and creates, even though she could still write nonfiction.

“I did not want to leave such a long gap between novels. When I got pregnant with my daughter, something just happened,” she said.
“I had a number of years in which I was almost existentially frightened that I wouldn’t write again. It was unbearable.

“There are expressions like ‘writer’s block’ I don’t like to use because I’m superstitious. But I had many years in which I felt cast out from my creative self, cast out from the part of me that imagines and creates; I just could not reach it.

“I could write nonfiction, that was fine. But that’s not what my heart wanted.”
Adichie is married to Ivara Esege, a Nigerian doctor. The lovebirds tied the knot in 2009 and welcomed their first daughter in 2016.

Aside from being a novelist, Adichie is also a feminist. She is best known for her themes on politics, culture, race, and gender. She has received global recognition and won numerous awards.

In 2019, Adichie became the first Nigerian to receive the United Nations Foundation’s Global Leadership Award.
The writer has also made the New African’s list of ‘100 Most Influential Africans’, New Yorker’s ’20 under 40′, and Time Magazine’s ‘100 Most Influential People’.

Born on September 15, 1977, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a Nigerian author and activist.
Regarded as a central figure in postcolonial feminist literature, she is the author of the novels Purple Hibiscus (2003), Half of a Yellow Sun (2006) and Americanah (2013).

Her other works include the book of essays We Should All Be Feminists (2014); Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions (2017); a memoir, Notes on Grief (2021); and a children’s book, Mama’s Sleeping Scarf (2023).

Born and raised in Enugu, Adichie studied medicine and pharmacology for a year and half at the University of Nigeria.
At 19, she left Nigeria for the United States to study at Drexel University, and would later study at three universities: Eastern Connecticut State University, Johns Hopkins University, and Yale University.

She first published Decisions, a poetry collection, in 1997, which she followed with a play, For Love of Biafra, in 1998. She published Purple Hibiscus in 2003.

Her father’s story during the war supplied material for her second novel Half of a Yellow Sun.

Citing Chinua Achebe and Buchi Emecheta as inspiration, Adichie’s style juxtaposes Western and African influences, with particular influence from the Igbo culture. Most of her works, including her writing and speeches, explore the themes of religion, immigration, gender and culture.

She also uses fashion as a medium to break down stereotypes, and was recognised with a Shorty Award in 2018 for her “Wear Nigerian Campaign”.

Adichie’s 2009 TED Talk, “The Danger of a Single Story” is one of the most viewed TED Talks and her 2012 talk, “We Should All Be Feminists” was sampled by American singer Beyoncé as well as featured on a T-shirt by the French fashion house Dior in 2016.

Adichie has received numerous academic awards, fellowships, and other honours, among them a MacArthur Fellowship in 2008 and induction into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2017.