' The Aim Of The Festival '

Nigerian author, Chimamanda Adichie and Reni Eddo-Lodge, the author of novel, ‘Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race,’ were part of the Women of the World Festival 2018 , where they talked about today’s most pressing cultural issues including blogging, social media and discussions on race.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Women of the World (WOW) is a UK-based festival that celebrates the achievements of women and girls as well as looking at the obstacles they face across the world.

 

The 2018 edition started on the 7th of March and ended on the 11th.

 

The aim of the festival is to inspire new generations of young women and girls.

 

Reni Eddo Lodge                             Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

 

Chimamanda speaks on being black in the US, why she often writes about race and gender, among other things.

 

The award winning author said  “I didn’t think of myself as black until I went to the US.

 

In Nigeria, I didn’t think of myself as black. We have many problems in Nigeria but race is not one of them, so, in Nigeria, we are busy saying, Yoruba, Igbo and all of that but we don’t do race.

 

I went to the US and suddenly I was black and it really was a learning experience because I had come from a place where authority figures were black, where black achievement was normal.

 

And in the US, I realized that black achievement was seen as remarkable and extraordinary.

 

The Nigerian part of me thought it was so stupid but it was also a way for me to confront my ignorance.

 

I didn’t know much about African-American history, so I started to read and initially, I didn’t want to be black, I didn’t want to be identified as black because I knew that black in America came with a baggage”.