Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a celebrated Nigerian author, and writer has been elected to the chieftaincy in her native Anambra State.
The 45-year-old novelist was honored a few weeks after advising young people all over the world to spend more time reading during her lecture at The Harvard Center Honors in Massachusetts, US.
She said: “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.”
