SAN FRANCISCO, January 04, (THEWILL) – Award-winning author, Chimamanda Adiche, has said that for Igbos in the southeast geo-political zone to achieve their quest to produce the next president of Nigeria in 2023, they need to strategise politically amid the agitation for self-determination by their youths.
Chimamanda who bared her mind in a recent interview she had with television personality, Ebuka Obi-Uchendu, explained her views in the context of Igbo culture as well as her well-known feminist convictions.
She said: “There is no Biafra. There are new movements but, for me, it’s a question of being practical. Where would the border be? What is propelling these movements is a sense of marginalisation, which I think is completely valid.
“But this idea that the answer is independence is what I’m not convinced of. Nobody has made a logical case for me. Quite frankly, I’ve observed the terrible leadership that we have in the southeast.
“Igbo people cannot unite if, for example, we say we want an Igbo president. And then we’re talking about Biafra. There is a lot of political work we need to do in the southeast.
“We need to do a lot of rethinking on how we strategise politically before we can talk about Biafra.”
Explaining her views on feminism with regards to the Igbo subculture, the writer stated that she was against the “misogynistic” tendencies of some of the cultural practices in the east.
“There are things I quarrel with, in Igbo culture. It’s misogynistic, as are many cultures. That’s the problem. The world is misogynistic. At my father’s funeral, they showed where the widow (my mother) would sit,” she explained.
“And they showed where the sons in the extended family (umunna) would sit. That’s where those coming would go to present whatever they bring. It’s the sons’. And that was the end. My father had three daughters.
“There was no place for them. I raised the question and a man in my umunna said we would have to loiter around. There’s a problem with that. There’s a woman who apparently is going to run for governor in Anambra state.
“I’m having a conversation with a group of people and what they’re saying is, ‘Can a woman rule Anambra?’ Do you need a dangling organ to rule a state? It’s hard enough for both and female politicians.
“But women have this additional problem of perception, a reason for which many people won’t vote them. Igbo culture is just not very good when it comes to gender. Culture as we have it are rules men made to benefit men.
“In my hometown, I seem to have this status of an ‘honorary man’ and that’s because of my achievements. People adapt when they see some benefits to it which means that it’s changeable. It’s engraved on the stones.”
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