Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has been on HardTalk Extra with Gavin Esler. I'll reserve my judgement for later. In the meantime, enjoy. Item starts at 2minutes in:
me too, I wait to see your judgment because all I was thinking when I was watching that was "this is girl is fine sha, and she certainly knows how to blat her eyes"
me too, I wait to see your judgment because all I was thinking when I was watching that was "this is girl is fine sha, and she certainly knows how to bat her eyes"
LOL no doubt! i was thinking the exact same thing... i just didn't say that because i didn't want to look any more shallow than i am!
other than that, i think she was talking sense, sha.
I couldn't really focus on what she was saying (she's said the same tired anti-western guff a hundred times in a hundred places by now) - all I could register was the constant coquettish expressions - the batting of eyelids, the lowering of the face, the laughter. As a woman, I find it slightly demeaning that she has to flirt so outrageously in her interviews in order to make her point.
The one point I would take issue with in the interview is her response to Esler's question about whether Nigeria (as elsewhere in Africa) is losing touch with its culture in favour of imported American culture. Denying the reality of the rapid cultural expropriation at work in igboland (as elsewhere) smacks of the romanticism of someone who can only write from a distance..
She made sense but this is the first interview I've seen. Does she always do the eye thing in all her interviews? If this is her usual manner of speaking publicly, then that's alright. Otherwise, it was as if she was flirting with the man. That was the only unease I had with the interview.
I have seen her in several interviews and she behaves like that a lot. I like her writing alot and I think she is very talented. But I must admit, her coquettishness I find a bit off putting. I saw her live once in London with Diana Evans. Where Evans was gracious, she was a bit uppity. I decided there and there that I'd rather read her than see or listen to her.
I think some women have learnt to behave and unconsciously respond to people (man or woman)in a sexualised manner. Some of my female friends who are also her fans, say they find this aspect of her rather irritating and slightly affected and I guess perhaps demeaning.
I found her quite charming as she always is when doing interviews. Was she really flirting? I'm not entirely sure. Coquettishness? I can't think of a single woman in the public eye from Diana to Angelina Jolie who has not employed a similar technique at some point when being interviewed. When men employ this technique we are called charming, when women do it, they are flirtatious.
I am starting to sense a slight backlash from some of the comments made here. Yes you may complain about hearing the same "anti-Western guff" being repeated many times but surely the point is no less valid. Her writing has forced people to class her as a political writer. Thus the questions posed of her in any interview will be, largely, political nature. There can only be a finite number of political standpoints that an individual can have.
Let us not adopt the British mentality of building people up only to plot ways of knocking them down again.
13 comments:
well...?
i'm interested in hearing your judgment!
me too, I wait to see your judgment because all I was thinking when I was watching that was "this is girl is fine sha, and she certainly knows how to blat her eyes"
bat not blat
me too, I wait to see your judgment because all I was thinking when I was watching that was "this is girl is fine sha, and she certainly knows how to bat her eyes"
LOL no doubt! i was thinking the exact same thing... i just didn't say that because i didn't want to look any more shallow than i am!
other than that, i think she was talking sense, sha.
I couldn't really focus on what she was saying (she's said the same tired anti-western guff a hundred times in a hundred places by now) - all I could register was the constant coquettish expressions - the batting of eyelids, the lowering of the face, the laughter. As a woman, I find it slightly demeaning that she has to flirt so outrageously in her interviews in order to make her point.
The one point I would take issue with in the interview is her response to Esler's question about whether Nigeria (as elsewhere in Africa) is losing touch with its culture in favour of imported American culture. Denying the reality of the rapid cultural expropriation at work in igboland (as elsewhere) smacks of the romanticism of someone who can only write from a distance..
Pray tell Nkem: what DID you think?
Was she flirting with him??? Methinks so. Anyway, she was very soft-spoken and poised
aderonke:
i'm not sure i understand what part of the interview registered to you as "anti-western guff".... care to explicate?
She made sense but this is the first interview I've seen. Does she always do the eye thing in all her interviews? If this is her usual manner of speaking publicly, then that's alright. Otherwise, it was as if she was flirting with the man. That was the only unease I had with the interview.
I have seen her in several interviews and she behaves like that a lot. I like her writing alot and I think she is very talented. But I must admit, her coquettishness I find a bit off putting. I saw her live once in London with Diana Evans. Where Evans was gracious, she was a bit uppity. I decided there and there that I'd rather read her than see or listen to her.
I think some women have learnt to behave and unconsciously respond to people (man or woman)in a sexualised manner. Some of my female friends who are also her fans, say they find this aspect of her rather irritating and slightly affected and I guess perhaps demeaning.
Alex
er... me, i want to do tatafo. is she seeing somebody? perhaps the guy conducting the interview?
I found her quite charming as she always is when doing interviews. Was she really flirting? I'm not entirely sure. Coquettishness? I can't think of a single woman in the public eye from Diana to Angelina Jolie who has not employed a similar technique at some point when being interviewed. When men employ this technique we are called charming, when women do it, they are flirtatious.
I am starting to sense a slight backlash from some of the comments made here. Yes you may complain about hearing the same "anti-Western guff" being repeated many times but surely the point is no less valid. Her writing has forced people to class her as a political writer. Thus the questions posed of her in any interview will be, largely, political nature. There can only be a finite number of political standpoints that an individual can have.
Let us not adopt the British mentality of building people up only to plot ways of knocking them down again.
Thanks for sharing...I am in the middle of reading her book - Half of a Yellow Sun - and it was interesting to hear her personal POVs.
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