Chimamanda Ngozi talks about Vice President Francia Márquez in Filbo – Music and Books – Culture

The 35th edition of the Bogota International Book Fair (Filbo) will take place until May 2. One of the guests is the Nigerian writer and feminist, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

Ngozi was part of the inauguration of Filbo on April 18, there he gave an opening speech and shared with Vice President Francia Márquez. In addition, on April 19, he participated in a conversation with Claudia Morales and then had space to sign his works.

(You may also be interested in: What are the 15 best books in history, according to ChatGTP?).

Prior to this space, the Nigerian writer was present at a press conference in which EL TIEMPO participated. There she referred to issues of feminism, race, education and she commented on the importance of the vice president in occupying this position.

Chimamanda has written different books in which addresses feminism and he believes that, although some years have passed since he wrote about this subject, things have changed little.

“We have the same concerns. The conversation about feminism could become more mainstream, but it doesn’t necessarily carry over to the conquest of equity. There is no place in the world where men and women are equal. Even so, I remain very interested and passionate about the question of men and women as equals.”said the writer.

In addition, he added that: “Men and women are people, we are not saying they are the same, because they are not. Obviously if men and women were the same we wouldn’t even have patriarchy. Looking at the discrimination that women have suffered over the years, we can see that it is based on ways in which they are different from men. Men have said: ‘Well, you give birth naturally and that means you don’t have a brain you can use’ (…) and that kind of thing”.

(You may also be interested in: Four books to get to know Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie)

The writer has also been recognized in the world for putting on the table the thesis of the ‘Unique story’ or ‘The story of the victors’since on other occasions he has assured that “the consequence of the unique history is that: steals people’s dignitymakes it difficult to recognize our human equality, emphasizes our differences rather than our similarities”.

At the press conference, he referred to the danger of a single story in Colombia, recalling a comment made by Vice President Francia Márquez at the inauguration of Filbo, in which she recounted how she grew up with stories from books in which the only story was of white Colombians. Chimamanda indicated that this was a damagenot just for black youth, but for everyone because “If you only accept half of a story, then you are accepting lies, because if a story is not told completely, then it is a lie.”.

In the same way, he assured that, as an example for girls, not only of black complexion, but in general, “Vice President Francia Márquez is very promising and makes me feel optimistic. Not just because she’s a black woman, but also because she doesn’t hide who she is and I think that’s a wonderful thing that says to black girls, ‘There’s nothing wrong with you, you’re perfect just the way you are and you don’t need to look like something that You’re not'”.

Likewise, Ngozi considers that it is admirable that the young women of this country defend their vice president, as he affirms that “only those who have been in that position have felt that all the pain changes, because now there are these young girls and when they look up they see that it is possible to achieve it and I think that is the important thing”.

In the space, they also discussed the situation that the writer is going through a few months ago, in which she has been “cancelled” for apparently having controversial opinions towards the trans population, this was what she responded to the subject:

(You may also be interested in: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, in conversation with Velia Vidal FILBo Digital)

“The reason why I have decided not to talk about it again is because there is a kind of authoritarian attitude around it, making it difficult to talk or even ask questions. When they say that someone was a man in the past and now she is a woman, I would like to start with the question of what is a woman, but then this question in many circles is something that you cannot say. I grew up in Nigeria and when I was three years old I was severely limited in my life and how I grew up. For that reason, I questioned my family why girls can’t and that’s my experience,” Ngozi declared.

In the same way, he assured that his policy is very open and that he loves “the idea of ​​difference and I love people who are not conventional, who have the courage to live their life without caring what the world thinksbut I think this topic has a lot of problems with language and I don’t want to talk about this, because when you have good intentions people just want to deliberately misinterpretandChimamanda said.

(Further: ‘I’m a feminist and I stand up for those who wear heels’: Chimamanda Ngozi)

Finally, in this space he was asked if he regretted something he had said in the past: “I think there are situations where I would have liked to say things a little better, but no, in general I think that everything is a controversial issue. There is always someone who will have a problem with something you say and there will be someone who willfully and deliberately misunderstand it and that could be critical. I no longer spend a lot of time thinking about what people say about me, because I started talking about this subject knowing that, of course, the critics were going to come, this is not a very popular topic (feminism). So people can criticize if they want, I still sleep very well”, said the writer while letting out a laugh at the end.

Laura Camila Ramos Conde
LATEST NEWS EDITORIAL

More news in El Tiempo