Because of writers like Chinua Achebe and Camara Laye … I realized that people like me, girls with skin the color of chocolate, whose kinky hair could not form ponytails, could also exist in literature.
Chimamanda Ngozi AdichieRead
Culture does not make people - people make culture. So if it is in fact true that the full humanity of women is not our culture, we must make it our culture. [...] A feminist is a man or a woman who says, 'yes there is a problem with gender as it is today and we must fix it. We must do better.'
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes that culture is shaped by people, and it calls for the active involvement of individuals in addressing gender issues.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's quote highlights the idea that while culture influences people, it is ultimately people who have the power to shape and redefine culture. She points out the importance of acknowledging the existing gender disparities and encourages both men and women to take responsibility in addressing and correcting these issues to create a more equitable society. This perspective underlines the necessity of collective action and the belief that positive change in culture requires proactive participation from everyone.
Themes
CultureGenderFeminismEqualityChangeSociety
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech advocating for gender equality, I might say, 'As Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie reminds us, culture does not make people; people make culture.'
More from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
All quotes →The real tragedy of our postcolonial world is not that the majority of people had no say in whether or not they wanted this new world; rather, it is that the majority have not been given the tools to negotiate this new world.
Chimamanda Ngozi AdichieRead
If I had not grown up in Nigeria- and if all I knew of Africa were of popular images- I too would think that africa was a place of beautiful landscapes, beautiful animals and incomprehensible people fighting sensless wars, dying of poverty and aids- unable to speak for themselves and waiting to be saved by a kind white foreigner.
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Stories can break the dignity of a people, but stories can also repair that broken dignity.
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You can't write a script in your mind and then force yourself to follow it. You have to let yourself be.
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Non-fiction, and in particular the literary memoir, the stylised recollection of personal experience, is often as much about character and story and emotion as fiction is.
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