"Nobody can force me to change my surname to my husband's name"- Chimamanda Adiche

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the author of three award-winning novels, Purple Hibiscus (2003), Half of a Yellow Sun (2006), and Americanah (2013), and a short story collection, The Thing around Your Neck (2009) spoke out during her recent interview with the Sunnewsonline, reasons why she uses Igbo language without explaining the meanings in her novel. She also talked about why she will not change her surname to her husband's last name and will like to be address by her family's name Ms. Adiche. Read below..
Mrs Chimamanda Adichie, wel-come back to Nigeria…

 Before we start, please, I just want to say that my name is Chimamanda Adichie. That’s how I want it; that’s how I’m ad-dressed, and it is not Mrs but Miss. Ms: that’s how I want it. I am saying this, because I just got a mail from my manager this morning. It seems that there are people who attended the church service, and they wrote about it, addressing me as Mrs. Chimamanda (Esega). I didn’t like that at all. So my name is Chimamanda Adichie, full stop!
You mean? 

This is because it is also responsible that people be called what they want to be called.

What actually was it like growing up?

 My childhood was happy very, very, very happy. It was just wonderful, and, I think, for me, they saw from the beginning that I was very interested in reading and encouraged it. I remember when I could fill up an exercise book in my quest to write a novel, and my mother would buy me more. So, they were very supportive. And when I think that I would be writing, I feel it is I what I’m here to do. It was also that they let their child express herself, because nobody knew what could make a child successful when he or she grows up. But it’s just ideal that they had this child, who liked writing quite early. They bought her exercise books so that she could write more.

I have taken time to read your books and discovered that in your usage of Igbo language (code-mixing), you don’t explain them the next line, unlike Chinua Achebe who does. So, why was it so? 

It’s because I want people to go and learn Igbo. Many of my edi-tors, many of them disapprove of that style, but I refused. I tell them it is because of two reasons: one is because Igbo is a peaceful and beautiful language; and my language matters so much to me, and, also, I am writing about a people who are speaking both languages; another reason is that when I was growing up, I read books where characters speak French –a book in English, and you will see one sentence in French, and nobody explains that. We were supposed to try and understand. So, if you can do that with French, why not Igbo? Both of them are beautiful languages. So, I don’t take any excuses for that. There are many editors I have quarreled with be-cause of that. I know because, if you read it carefully, you can kind of understand what it is. And, then, if you are really that curious, you can go online and learn it; you can go and learn Igbo. There are Igbo programmes in various universities. It is not that hard.

And it does not bother you whether your readers understand you?

Almost one million people from across the globe read Half of the Yellow Sun, and they understood, and it has Igbo words in it. So, it didn’t bother them. Also, as a writ-er, I read books with little bits of the languages I don’t understand, but it doesn’t really; in fact, it gives me the fl-vours of that language, and I like that. I think the question is a bigger question about the family and our language, because, if I wrote French in a book, I don’t think I would be asked questions about it, because the ideas are French. You can put French in an English book, it’s OK; but be-cause it is Igbo, and we think Igbo doesn’t have that much value, people will get confused. Igbo is as beautiful as any other language.

So, I urge parents to allow their children to speak Igbo language. Some Igbo educated parents don’t allow their children to speak Igbo. It’s a disaster. They should just speak Igbo. Ndi’gbo can’t even read Igbo. It troubles immensely, because we are losing so much. It is very easy to speak Igbo language. The same Igbo parents, who don’t teach their children Igbo, teach them French. It’s very annoying. I don’t even want to lose my voice talking about it because it is a very sad thing. My friends, who are Yoruba, would prefer their children to speak their language.

Many of them live abroad, but still speak Yoruba. But, even in Igbo land, when you speak Igbo to your fellow Igbo, they will start speaking English in response, because we now think that our language is so low that we have to show that we have arrived by speaking English. It is just terrible.

You started by telling me that you’re not “Mrs.”… (cuts in)

My name is Chimamada Adichie. If you want to put label for me, put Ms.

  But people know that you’re married. As an Igbo girl, you know our culture… (Cuts in again)

What does our culture do? Let me tell you about our culture. This thing that you are calling our culture –that when you marry somebody, you’ll start call-ing her Mrs. Somebody –is not our culture; it is Western culture. If you want to talk about our culture, you need to go to people in real Igbo land. But it is true. My grandfather’s name is David. His name is also Nwoye. They call him Nwoye Omeni. Omeni was his mother. You know why? It is to help distinguish him, because there are often many wives. So, it was his mother that they used to identify him. They know that all of these people came from the same compound, but whose child is this one. You may go and ask people who is Nwoye Omeni, and they’ll tell you it is my grandfather. So, conversation about culture is a long one. I don’t even want to have it.

  But, at what point would you change your name?

Yes; because it’s all fused. You cannot then come and impose something on somebody. Nobody should come and impose something on somebody, because, if you come and tell me it is our culture, I’ll tell you it is not our culture. Where do you want to start counting? Do you want to start counting in 1920, or do you want us to start counting from 1870?  

But culture is dynamic…

Exactly my point, which is why this is new. If culture is dynamic, you cannot use it as conservative tool. We can-not then say it has to be this because it is our culture. My point is that it is a new thing. Things are changing. We live in a world now where women have a right to bear the name they want. So, we cannot say this is how we do it. If some women want to do it that way, that’s fine! God bless them. Some women won’t do it. I am one of those women, and nobody will come to use culture to tell me that I should do what I don’t want to do.