Writer Chimamanda Adichie, a Nigerian author and novelist living in the US, has advised young people all across the world to spend more time reading.
Adichie announced this while receiving the W.E.B. Du Bois Medal on Thursday at The Harvard Centerr Honors in Massachusetts, United States.
The 45-year-old author of Purple Hibiscus said in her acceptance speech that she left Nigeria rather than pursue a medical degree at the insistence of her parents because “I was created to tell stories.”
She then urged young people to adopt a reading culture after providing some insight into how her family in the US, who were responsible for her great literary career, received her.
The Writer Chimamanda Adichie said, “And it’s such an honour for me to be on this stage. It’s such an honour for me to be honoured to get this WEB Du Bois Medal for so many reasons.”
“The most meaningful thing for me as a writer is to know that I can create something that means something to other people. And so what moves me the most is to hear from people who have read me and who say, your work made me feel seen, your work made me think differently, your work made me feel that I was not alone.
“And I’m so grateful for this award because again it just makes me feel that what I’m doing matters and it’s a gift to feel what you’re doing matters.
“For the young people who are here, if you care about anything, please care about reading, reading is so important, reading is magical, books are magical.
“And I really think that one of the best ways to counter what seems to me to be a really ugly tsunami of book bannings going around in this country is to read. The only way that we can answer to censorship of books is to read books,” she said.
Speaking about embracing books at the expense of social media, Adichie said, “And so for you young people, I just want to make a very small suggestion, how about you give up social media for you know, two weeks, three weeks, a month, and read, read, read.”
