Читать онлайн «Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions»

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This eBook first published in Great Britain by 4th Estate 2017

Copyright © 2016, 2017 Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library

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This is a slightly expanded version of a letter written by the author as a Facebook post on 12 October 2016

Source ISBN: 9780008275709

Ebook Edition © March 2017 ISBN: 9780008241049

Version: 2018-01-11

For Uju Egonu.

And for my baby sis, Ogechukwu Ikemelu.

With so much love.

Contents

When a couple of years ago a friend of mine from childhood, who’d grown into a brilliant, strong, kind woman, asked me to tell her how to raise her baby girl a feminist, my first thought was that I did not know.

It felt like too huge a task.

But I had spoken publicly about feminism and perhaps that made her feel I was an expert on the subject.

I had over the years also helped care for many babies of loved ones; I had worked as a babysitter and helped raise my nephews and nieces. I had done a lot of watching and listening, and I had done even more thinking.

In response to my friend’s request, I decided to write her a letter, which I hoped would be honest and practical, while also serving as a map of sorts for my own feminist thinking. This book is a version of that letter, with some details changed.

Now that I, too, am the mother of a delightful baby girl, I realize how easy it is to dispense advice about raising a child when you are not facing the enormously complex reality of it yourself.

Still, I think it is morally urgent to have honest conversations about raising children differently, about trying to create a fairer world for women and men.

My friend sent me a reply saying she would ‘try’ to follow my suggestions.