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Chimamanda Adichie Breaks Silence On 4-Year Feud With Author, Akwaeke Emezi

Published

4 years ago

Jun 16, 2021.

The relationship between the duo appeared to have gone south after Emezi criticised her benefactor on social media

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Nigerian novelist-cum-feminist, has penned a lengthy piece wherein she detailed her side of the story regarding her four-year feud with Akwaeke Emezi, an author she had mentored, EKO HOT BLOG gathered.

Emezi, whose parents are Nigerian-Indian, has earned herself several awards for her 2018 debut novel ‘Freshwater’.

Born in Umuahia and raised in Abia, Emezi identifies with the pronouns “they/them” after she removed her breasts as part of her journey to becoming gender-fluid.

Emezi had a couple of years ago partaken in a Lagos writing workshop staged by Chimamanda.

Having been a fan of Chimamanda for many years, the relationship between the duo appeared to have gone south after Emezi criticised her benefactor on social media over the ‘Half of a Yellow Sun’ author’s unorthodox conviction about trans women.

In a 2017 interview, Chimamanda had addressed questions as to whether or not trans women are to be considered “women”.

The author had also dismissed the need to prioritise terminological inclusion while favouring an experiential view to it.

“My feeling is trans women are trans women. I think the whole problem of gender is about our experiences and how the world treats us. It’s not about how we wear our hair, whether we have a vagina or penis,” she had said.

“If you lived in the world as a man with the privileges the world accords to men. Then you switched gender.

“It’s difficult for me to accept that we can then equate your experience with that of a woman who has lived from the beginning in the world as a woman; who has not been accorded those privileges that men are.

“I’m saying this also with sort of the certainty that transgendered people should be allowed to be. Right?

“I don’t think it’s a good thing to conflate everything into one. I don’t think it’s a good thing to talk about women’s issues being exactly the same as the issues of trans women because I don’t think that’s true.”

Having grown up as transgender in Nigeria, Emezi, however, reacted by referring to Chimamanda as well as JK Rowling as “transphobes” in a series of Twitter outbursts where she aired her disagreement with their views on transgenders.

Months after Emezi’s criticism, Chimamanda took to her website to put out a three-part publication in which she denied allegations of being transphobic.

The multiple award-winning novelist also argued that Emezi was well in the know of her opinion on the matter.

Chimamanda said she, as a result, sought to remove her name in Emezi’s book bio as she used it without consent.

She also alleged that this got her further attacks where Emezi said her parents’ “death was a punishment for her transphobia”.

“She could have emailed or called or texted me. Instead, she went on social media to put on a public performance. After she publicly insulted me, it was clear that this kind of noxious person had no business in my life, ever again.”

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