Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie — author of such books as Americanah and Half a Yellow Sun, and a celebrated feminist who has been sampled by Beyoncé — has accused a younger writer who was once her student, Akwaeke Emezi, of being an opportunist who has tried to build on her former teacher’s fame.
Earlier this month, Emezi, who uses they/them pronouns, was invited to give a list of Pride Month reading recommendations on Morning Edition, and their latest book, Dear Senthuran: A Black Spirit Memoir, received a stellar review.
In order to understand their current battle, you have to go back a few years — and it takes some untangling to comprehend their exchanges.
The BBC interviewer had asked Adichie about feminism as it relates to trans women.
In the land of 280 characters-or-less hot takes, some Twitter users were quick to equate Adichie with J.K.
2017, they noted that after the debut of their first novel, Freshwater, Adichie had asked for her name to be removed from Emezi’s bio and promotional materials, ostensibly due to Adichie’s comments about trans women.
“We have a generation of young people on social media so terrified of having the wrong opinions that they have robbed themselves of the opportunity to think and to learn and to grow,” she writes.
On Wednesday, Emezi posted Instagram stories and a lengthy IGTV video responding to Adichie’s essay.
You can’t ‘both sides’ when one party has power and is punching down at a more marginalized party.” They added that, especially in the context of widespread anti-LGBTQ sentiment in Nigeria, this situation has provided anti-trans and anti-queer forces another opportunity to attack those communities.