By Erin Stott To paraphrase Ebony Utley’s review of ‘Purple Hibiscus’: the power of this narrative is that we readers – through Kambili’s perspective and cognition – sense and feel the oppression that laces the novel, without ever naming it. Whilst young Kambili’s voice cannot fully articulate the effects of colonialism, strict catholicism or hypermasculinity […]

By Riziki Millanzi “’Imagine what the Standard would be if we were all quiet.’ It was a joke. Ade Coker was laughing; so was his wife, Yewande. But Papa did not laugh. Jaja and I turned and went back upstairs, silently.” There’s a well-known saying in the English language that says that ‘sometimes silence speaks […]

Talking about her first published book, Purple Hibiscus, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie describes how, “in a sense it’s kind of my first baby and it’s the first baby that I’ve sent out into the world, and when I wrote that book I didn’t think anybody would read it. I thought maybe four people would; three family […]