Black History Month: Recognizing Black Immigrants and Refugees

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is an award-winning and bestselling author whose writings have been translated into 30 languages. Her 2009 TED Talk “The Danger of a Single Story,” is one of the most viewed TED Talks of all time with over 11 million views. Based out of Maryland, Adichie’s work takes on topics including politics, religion and love related to the Nigerian Civil War, the immigrant experience in the U.S. and feminism.

Born in Nigeria, Adichie studied medicine and pharmacy at the University of Nigeria. At 19-years-old, she left for the United States to study at Drexel University, eventually earning master’s degrees from both Johns Hopkins and Yale University. She was awarded fellowships at Princeton, MacArthur, and Yale. She has also received 17 honorary doctorate degrees.

Adichie’s first novel “Purple Hibiscus,” won the Commonwealth’s Writer’s Prize while her second novel “Orange Prize,” won the Orange Prize. Her third novel “Americanah,” won the U.S. National Book Critics Circle Award and was named one of the New York Times Top Ten Best Books of 2013. A member of both the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Adichie was named one of the most influential people in the world by TIME Magazine and one of the world’s 50 greatest leaders by Fortune Magazine.