Sammy Faces
When recently asked about my favourite contemporary author, I named without hesitation Nigerian award-winning novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. She is the incredible writer behind the powerful novels "Purple Hibiscus", "Half of a yellow sun", "Americanah" but also THAT TED talk on Feminism which was later sampled by none other than singer powerhouse Beyoncé.
There are many reasons people love Chimamanda as a person or as an author (from natural hair lovers to feminists) but as far as I'm concerned, I have identified myself so much with every single female character in her books that I now feel as if she is an imaginary friend of mine who can speak to my deepest soul.
After I read Purple Hibiscus 3.5 years ago, I went on Amazon and bought everything she had written at the time including her collection of short stories "That thing around your neck". Reading these books always left me wanting for more and also lead me -among other things- to my decision to start this blog so I could write down my thoughts about life and everything I love.
When I began reading "Half of a yellow sun" I was immediately hooked into the story (seeing myself as Olanna of course) and could hardly put the book down. After a few days - and half nights of fast reading, I finally re-emerged as a new person who felt the urge to tell everyone around me - FB included - to read this book.
Following my FB recommendation, an old university friend picked up the book "Half of a yellow sun" on his way to Nigeria. Upon his trip return he somewhat also felt compelled to share his thoughts on the book via a 2 page essay, thereby triggering a joint review on characters we fell in love with, things we liked, parts we thought were too long, scenes that were too much, etc. Fast forward to today and that old classmate is now also the amazing person I share my life with.
So there you have it, I fell in love whilst falling in love with Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie, and that in itself could be the single reason I want everyone else to love her, for the amazingness of this woman can only bring more awesomeness to your life.
Now go ahead, grab yourself a book, listen to her talks, read about her and may you hopefully come back with at least one new reason to love this woman.
till next time
-Sammy Sam, a true fan
