Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: ‘I Worry That What We’re Looking at Is the End of Curiosity’
The writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie isn’t afraid to speak her mind. Her most well-known novel, Americanah, explores race, love, and migration through the story of a young Nigerian woman who moves to the U.S.; in 2013, she gave a TEDx talk titled “We Should All Be Feminists,” which Beyoncé sampled on her song “Flawless,” bringing Adichie to instant international attention. In recent years, she’s been discussing what she sees as an unhealthy level of cultural self-censorship. She sat down with Atlantic senior editor Gal Beckerman at The Atlantic Festival to discuss the role of storytellers, the right to express oneself, and the importance of intellectual freedom.
This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
Gal Beckerman: Recently, I rewatched your viral 2009 TED talk, “The Danger of a Single Story,” in which you describe the way that the people can sort of limit one another with very constricting narratives about who they are. I wanted to ask you about the state of the single story right now, with a slight twist. When I watched that TED talk, it seemed to me that you were talking about how people impose a single story on one another. But I also see that we’re in a moment where people are imposing single stories on themselves, whether it be race or gender or political affiliation. When you gave that talk, did you have that aspect in mind?
