De Nigeriaanse schrijfster Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie werd geboren op 15 september 1977 in Enugu.
Chimamandas moedertaal is Igbo, hun familie stamt uit Abba in de staat Anambra. Haar vader was de eerste hoogleraar statistiek in haar land. Ze werd geboren als vijfde van zes kinderen en groeide op in Nsukka, ook in een huis dat ooit bewoond werd door Chinua Achebe. Na haar afstuderen begon ze een studie in Nigeria, maar al snel ging zij, 19 jaar oud, naar de Verenigde Staten. In 2001 studeerde ze summa cum laude af in communicatie- en politieke wetenschappen.Haar romans zijn in meerdere talen vertaald, waaronder Duits, Spaans, Nederlands. Zij woont afwisselend in Nigeria en in de VS.

Uit: Half of a Yellow Sun

„Master was a little crazy; he had spent too many years reading books overseas, talked to himself in his office, did not always return greetings, and had too much hair. Ugwu’s aunty said this in a low voice as they walked on the path. “But he is a good man,” she added. “And as long as you work well, you will eat well. You will even eat meat every day.” She stopped to spit; the saliva left her mouth with a sucking sound and landed on the grass.

Ugwu did not believe that anybody, not even this master he was going to live with, ate meat every day. He did not disagree with his aunty, though, because he was too choked with expectation, too busy imagining his new life away from the village. They had been walking for a while now, since they got off the lorry at the motor park, and the afternoon sun burned the back of his neck. But he did not mind. He was prepared to walk hours more in even hotter sun. He had never seen anything like the streets that appeared after they went past the university gates, streets so smooth and tarred that he itched to lay his cheek down on them. He would never be able to describe to his sister Anulika how the bungalows here were painted the color of the sky and sat side by side like polite well-dressed men, how the hedges separating them were trimmed so flat on top that they looked like tables wrapped with leaves.

His aunty walked faster, her slippers making slap-slap sounds that echoed in the silent street. Ugwu wondered if she, too, could feel the coal tar getting hotter underneath, through her thin soles. They went past a sign, ODIM STREET, and Ugwu mouthed street, as he did whenever he saw an English word that was not too long. He smelled something sweet, heady, as they walked into a compound, and was sure it came from the white flowers clustered on the bushes at the entrance. The bushes were shaped like slender hills. The lawn glistened. Butterflies hovered above.“

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Enugu, 15 september 1977)