“People sometimes say, ‘You’re an African writer; you’re a Nigerian writer.’ And in their minds, they have an idea about what that should be and what you should write. So it becomes a very prescriptive kind of label—which I don’t like very much. … So I don’t mind being called that so long as it’s not a prescriptive label and so long as that label has room for many other labels, because I am a Nigerian writer, quite happily; I’m an African writer; I’m an Igbo writer; I’m a Black writer; I’m a feminist writer. I’m all of those things.”
Adichie, the author of Americanah, which was selected as the common-reading book for Pomona’s incoming class of 2018, visited Pomona in early October 2014, meeting with students, visiting classes and reading from her work in a public event at Bridges Auditorium. Above center, she poses with a group of students following a discussion at Smith Campus Center. —Photo by Carrie Rosema