Renowned novelist, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, has penned a lengthy piece wherein she reflected on toxic behaviour of today’s youth, citing her personal ordeal in the essay.
In the three-part article titled, “It Is Obscene: A True Reflection In Three Parts” which she published on Tuesday, June 17 via her official website, the multiple award-winning author also touched on new generation social media culture as well as cleared the air on transphobic allegations.
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Transphobia, according to Merriam Webster Dictionary is the ‘irrational fear of, aversion to, or discrimination against transgender people‘.
Bearing her mind in the lengthy article, Chimamanda opined that the usage of social media by young people in spreading falsehood against others and how fast it sticks without some sort of verification.
She also observed how young people on social media have been stripped of the opportunity to learn, grow, due to fear of being criticised by some ‘learned‘ fellows on social media.
The multiple award-winning author observed that young people nowadays have done away with their humanity, lacking in compassion, but still find a way to defend their actions.
She pointed out that present day youth have a massive sense of entitlement, inability to show gratitude or apologise, stressing;
In certain young people today like these two from my writing workshop, I notice what I find increasingly troubling: a cold-blooded grasping, a hunger to take and take and take, but never give; a massive sense of entitlement; an inability to show gratitude; an ease with dishonesty and pretension and selfishness that is couched in the language of self-care; an expectation always to be helped and rewarded no matter whether deserving or not; language that is slick and sleek but with little emotional intelligence; an astonishing level of self-absorption; an unrealistic expectation of puritanism from others; an over-inflated sense of ability, or of talent where there is any at all; an inability to apologize, truly and fully, without justifications; a passionate performance of virtue that is well executed in the public space of Twitter but not in the intimate space of friendship. I find it obscene.
Further more, Chimamanda noted how social-media-savvy people emphasise on compassion and kindness but fail to practice what they preach.
She stated;
There are many social-media-savvy people who are choking on sanctimony and lacking in compassion, who can fluidly pontificate on Twitter about kindness but are unable to actually show kindness. People whose social media lives are case studies in emotional aridity. People for whom friendship, and its expectations of loyalty and compassion and support, no longer matter.
People who claim to love literature – the messy stories of our humanity – but are also monomaniacally obsessed with whatever is the prevailing ideological orthodoxy. People who demand that you denounce your friends for flimsy reasons in order to remain a member of the chosen puritan class.
Chimamanda added;
People who ask you to ‘educate’ yourself while not having actually read any books themselves, while not being able to intelligently defend their own ideological positions, because by ‘educate,’ they actually mean ‘parrot what I say, flatten all nuance, wish away complexity.’
Ask them a question and you are told that the answer is to repeat a mantra. Ask again for clarity and be accused of violence. (How ironic, speaking of violence, that it is one of these two who encouraged Twitter followers to pick up machetes and attack me.)
She stated that there is now a generation of young people on social media that are so terrified of having the wrong opinions so much so that they rob themselves of the opportunity to think, learn and to grow.
The Half Of A Yellow Sun author said;
I have spoken to young people who tell me they are terrified to tweet anything, that they read and re-read their tweets because they fear they will be attacked by their own. The assumption of good faith is dead. What matters is not goodness but the appearance of goodness. We are no longer human beings. We are now angels jostling to out-angel one another. God help us. It is obscene.
In buttressing her point of view, she detailed her experience with two young writers who participated in her writing workshop in Lagos state some years ago as well as cleared the air on allegations of her being transphobic.
One of the unnamed person, now identified as Akwaeze Emezi, had partaken in a Lagos writing workshop and also described herself as a fan of the ‘Half of a Yellow Sun’ author.
Emezi, whose parents are Nigerian-Indian, has continued to earn 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 in 2019 as part of her journey to becoming gender-fluid, adopting non-binary gender).
The relationship between the duo, however, went south after Emezi criticised Chimamanda on social media over her unorthodox conviction about trans women.
In a 2017 interview, Chimamanda had spoken on whether or not trans women are to be considered “women”.
In response, the award-winning author dismissed the need to prioritise terminological inclusion while favouring an experiential view to it.
She expressed;
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. If you lived in the world as a man with the privileges the world accords to men. Then you switched gender.
Chimamanda further stated;
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.
This is the Chimamanda interview that caused the brouhahapic.twitter.com/Dn8FCeJ1Ym
— Naija Class Captain (@NaijaClassCapt) June 16, 2021
Having been a trans in Nigeria, Emezi, however, reacted by referring to Chimamanda as well as JK Rowling as “transphobes” in a series of Twitter outburst where she aired her disagreement with their views on transgenders.
When she first made her transphobia public, I speak for those of us who genuinely loved and looked up to her, that shit broke our hearts. Me, I had graduated from her workshop + published a whole piece about it, I actually developed my nonfiction voice there.
— akwaeke emezi (@azemezi) November 16, 2020
To now know that people will happily throw trans people under the bus rather than hold her accountable for her views? To be reminded that for so many people, CNA is untouchable and trans people are not worth deplatforming her? 💔
— akwaeke emezi (@azemezi) November 16, 2020
In the lengthy article, Chimamanda expressed that she expected that if Emezi had concerns with what she said during the interview, she could have contacted her privately for clarity for the sake of the relationship they both had.
She aired her displeasure with Emezi while sharing emails she got from them (Emezi) who at some point sought to mend the cracks.
Chimamanda expressed;
I welcomed her into my life. I rarely do this because my experiences with young Nigerians left me wary of people who are calculating and insincere and want to use me only as an opportunity. But she was a bright young Nigerian feminist and I thought that was worth making an exception. She spent time in my Lagos home. We had long conversations. I was a support-giver, counsellor, comforter.
Then I gave an interview in March 2017, the larger point of which was to say we should be able to acknowledge difference while being fully inclusive, that in fact, the whole premise of inclusiveness is a difference.
I was told she went on social media and insulted me. This woman knows me enough to know I support the rights of trans people and all marginalized people. That I have always been fiercely supportive of difference, in general.
And that I’m a person who reads, thinks, and forms my opinion in a carefully considered way. Of course, she could very well have had concerns with the interview. That is fair enough. But I had a personal relationship with her.
Chimamanda also accused Emezi of lying “manipulatively” in a manner that exposed her to “reputational damage”.
Although she never mentioned Emezi’s name throughout in the write up, Chimamanda stated that the subject included her name (Chimamanda) in the biography of her book despite reacting “viscerally” to being referred to in the news as Chimamanda’s protege.
Chimamanda said she, as a result, sought to remove her name in Emezi’s book bio as she used it without consent.
Below is an excerpt of Emezi’s Twitter rant which confirms Chimamanda’s statement in the article;
I was okay with it because tbh, I agreed that my connection to her shouldn’t be used to sell my work. We do not stand for the same things. I didn’t and still don’t want her name on my books.
— akwaeke emezi (@azemezi) November 16, 2020
Chimamanda expressed that the tweets got her further attacks even to a point where the recent death of her parents was dubbed a punishment for her being “transphobic”.
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The award-winning author alleged that Emezi through her vile criticism encouraged her followers to also physically attack her.
As of the time of this report, the parties involved had yet to react to Chimamanda’s publication.
