Naipaul, 'misogynist prick'

Sir Vidia has gone and done it again. He made up with Paul Theroux at this year's Hay Festival only to stir the hornet's nest at the same event with a diatribe about female writers. "[They are] unequal to me," Naipaul said, going ahead to single out Jane Austen for particular criticism for her supposed "sentimentality, the narrow view of the world. And inevitably for a woman, she is not a complete master of a house, so that comes over in her writing too."

He said further, ""I read a piece of writing and within a paragraph or two I know whether it is by a woman or not." Causing The Guardian to run the Naipaul Test with a quiz: Can you tell an author's sex by their writing? I must say George Elliot had me fooled for years on the strength of the writing, until I stumbled across some enlightening biographical information. But back to Naipaul.

His former editor, the 95-year-old Diana Athill is similarly dismissed for writing "feminine tosh. I don't mean this in an unkind way." I shudder to think what Naipaul would say if he meant to be unkind.

All this was coming within days of Tea Obreht's youngest-ever win of the Orange Prize for Fiction, which is only awarded to women, and which regularly generates debate about whether there is any merit in a prize exclusively for females (Nadine Gordimer once rejected being shortlisted for it). The overriding argument is always this: the affirmative action of a prize specifically for women is needed because it is not a level playing field, and there exists a deep prejudice still against their writing. Naipaul's outburst seems to buttress the point.

Well, trust the women to not let the Mongoose go scot-free. Diana Athill just laughed it off, suggesting that her writing only became "feminine tosh" to Naipaul because she didn't admire his work so much anymore. Whenever she wants to cheer herself up, she says, "At least I'm not married to Vidia." Thank God for that.

Other writers have not been as gentle. Booker Prize winning author of 'The Bone People', Keri Hulme called Naipaul a "misogynist prick" and a "slug". That should tell him.

Aminatta Forna on Orange shortlist

And so Aminatta Forna's 'The Memory of Love' continues its onward awards march. The novel, already winner of the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best Book, Africa Region, has made the shortlist for the 2011 Orange Prize.

Also on the shortlist: Emma Donoghue for 'Room', Emma Henderson for 'Grace Williams Says It Loud', Nicole Krauss for 'Great House', Téa Obreht for 'The Tiger's Wife', and Kathleen Winter for 'Annabel'. UK Guardian has done a series of intros to the competing novels, here.

Winner will be announced on June 8 in London. Lola Shoneyin's 'The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives' was on the longlist but hasn't made it to this stage. Oh well.

New Read 1

I last bought Harper's Bazaar (or was it Harpers & Queen?) when Salman Rushdie wed Padma Lakshmi in New York and the pictures (featuring writer-wedding goers including Zadie Smith & Kathy Lette) were splashed on the pages of the magazine. Golden couple now blissfully divorced... I bought the magazine again this month, the June issue, after I read on Petina Gappah's blog about a story in there contributed by Orange Prize winner -
~
(talking of the Orange, how the prize went totally drain-ward this year, with the wholly misguided choice of that embarrassment of a celebrity who's always falling drunk out of clubs, changing clothes on the streets and being pictured with strange stuff seemingly up her nose - as a judge! I'm talking of Lily Allen, who people actually thought was cool. Once. The choice of Allen as judge raised not a few eyebrows - including Maggie Gee's - and apologists used up all their choice words defending the selection. Lily Allen left the Orange with peels only, when she 'dropped out' of the judging panel. Soon after, we learned she'd actually been dropped by the organisation after failing to turn up at judges' panel meetings. She helped 'select' the longlist, apparently - by phone. She more than proved the point some made all along, that she had no place on a literary award judging panel. Ms Allen has gone even more erratic since, only a few shades better than Amy Winehouse. Pity. It shouldn't happen to an Orange Prize judge. Or, it shouldn't have happened to the Orange Prize).
~
- anyhow, about what we were speaking... I read on Petina Gappah's blog that Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has a new short story in the current issue of Harper's Bazaar, so I went and got me a copy. Amarachi is the story, about a young Nigerian woman who comes back home from America for her wedding, all changed (to her mother Mrs Njoku's consternation), and with a Kenyan fiance in tow.

Since 'Amarachi' is all of one page, I don't suppose Harper's will thank me for reproducing the page visually here, but here's an excerpt we typed up earlier:
~
"They were on their second cups when Sochienne said she wanted to have her wedding at Amarachi, the village house where she had spent her childhood holidays; she preferred a venue of emotional significance to an overpriced gilded hall. Mrs Njoku choked on her tea. The hall was already paid for but, more important, Amarachi was old, the grounds sloped, this was the rainy season and the mud would ruin women's shoes and nobody would take a wedding seriously if it was held in that backwater. Indeed, nobody would come."
~
Not quite what Mrs Njoku planned for her daughter's wedding. The short-short story is illustrated with images posed by the author herself. It seems she channelled the mother in one image, and the daughter in another. Wordsbody's preferred image is reproduced here. Those wanting to read what happens with the wedding at Amarachi, are to seek out Harper's Bazaar.

A Letter

Dear Chimamanda,

The news of the award of the 2007 Orange BroadBand Prize for Fiction for your book, Half Of A Yellow Sun was received with joy by Nigerian Writers at home and abroad. This coming after your meteoric rise in literary circles in recent years has further confirmed our long-held belief in your excellent literary skills. With this award, you have become a beacon of hope to many Nigerian writers especially those who are still struggling in obscurity in spite of their commendable literary profiles.

May I on behalf of members of The Association Of Nigerian Authors extend a warm and hearty congratulations to you on this feat. We are sure that this is just the beginning of many more laurels in your literary career.

With very best wishes.

Wale Okediran
ANA President.

In Praise of...

In Praise of Chimamanda Adichie's 2007 Orange Prize

By Obiwu

The winning of the 2007 Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's new novel, Half of a Yellow Sun 2006), is a matter for serious reflection.

Now we will have to address the significance of Adichie in contemporary Nigerian literary praxis. We will have to ask why Nigerian literature has been in the doldrums since Wole Soyinka's Nobel Prize in 1986 and Ben Okri's Booker Prize in 1991. What made the writing of the third generation's Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, and Christopher Okigbo as globally commanding as the writing of the first generation's Olaudah Equiano? What made the writing of the second generation as weak as the writing of the fourth generation and much of the fifth generation?

Adichie has rediscovered the magic of great art and serious discourse. She has eschewed pretentiousness and self-flagellation; she has taken the bull by the horn, called a spade a spade, mocked national injustice and travesty, and given hope to the faint in spirit. She has not asked for charity and has not hidden her disgust for the debasing mess of porridge in which many self-adulating "writers" have stewed themselves.

Adichie prides herself as a child who was raised in the faculty house at Nsukka which was previously occupied by Achebe and Michael J. C. Echeruo. She has carved her art as "the branch of a giant fennel" which was the fountain of Achebe, Soyinka, and Okigbo's discursive thriller. Like the three elders she has drawn her subjects on a historical national dilemma. Her direct model in Africa is none other than Nadine Gordimer.

As Achebe says of Okonkwo in Things Fall Apart, Adichie has washed her hands and dined with elders. I toast Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's winning of the 2007 Orange Prize in honour of the one who "came almost fully made." I toast for the re-centering of serious discourse in Nigerian and African literature. I toast for the global acclaim of Half of a Yellow Sun and the emergence of Biafran Babies literature!

Obiwu

An Orange Revolution - in words & images

Chimamanda's Night of Glory
By Molara Wood

*published in This Day, 8 June 2007

As widely predicted, Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie triumphed at the 2007 Orange Prize for Fiction on Wednesday night, winning the award for her second novel, Half of a Yellow Sun.

Going to the Royal Festival Hall venue of this year's ceremony, one could be forgiven for missing one's way. The prestigious centre of the arts on the banks of the River Thames had been closed for some time, and scaffolding was still up around the building and doorways were sealed. Guests had to walk around the building. But once they got to the functioning entrance, it was splendour all the way. The Royal Festival Hall would be officially re-opened to the art-going public in just two days, but the Orange Prize Ceremony allowed a magnificent preview.

Two Olympic style flames burned on either side of the expansive orange carpet that led from the sidewalk into the venue, up the wide stairways and all the way to the Ballroom in the belly of the Royal Festival Hall, where it was all going to happen. It was already teeming with people, with more arriving by the minute. Made up mostly of writers and book lovers, it was at least a more representative crowd than the Shortlist Readings, which took place the night before in the Purcell Room, part of the same South Bank Complex that includes the Royal Festival Hall.

The Shortlist Readings of Tuesday 5th June saw a sold out audience made up of mostly middle class white women. And very few men. As for the blacks, there were only five; four women and one man. The reading went well, but the night ended on a sour note for Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, who finished signing autographs only to find that her bag had been stolen. The author lost her personal effects and, painfully, a notebook in which she had written preparatory notes for her next novel.

But when Chimamanda arrived at the Orange ceremony, nothing in her bearing betrayed the upsetting loss of the night before. Wearing a cream dress with a bold red midriff sash made from the same material as her headwrap, she looked every inch a winner. It was a long road from the 2004 Orange Prize, for which Chimamanda was short-listed, for the first time, for her debut novel, Purple Hibiscus. She was relatively unknown then, and left empty handed as Andrea Levy scooped the prize. Much has happened since, and Chimamanda is now a bonafide literary celebrity in her own right on the international stage. And in the run up to this year's prize, British bookmakers William Hill and Ladbrokes made her the odds-on favourite to win. Chimamanda, still only 29, was the woman to beat.

'

As the ceremony began, Orange Prize co-founder and honorary director Kate Mosse, took the stage to declare that this year's was one of the best-selling shortlists ever. The paperback edition of Half of a Yellow Sun alone has sold 187,000 copies in Britain since its release in January. With a line-up including Kiran Desai (short-listed for her Booker Prize winning novel, The Inheritance of Loss) and Xiaolu Guo (for 'A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers'), Mosse told the gathering that this was also the most international shortlist ever, "with representatives from every continent."

Flying the flag for the whole of Africa, Chimamanda watched as the preliminary awards were announced. A trio of shortlisted authors, Guo, Rachel Cusk (Arlington Park) and Joanne Harris (The Observations) kept each other company nearby. Desai, wearing a stunning Indian sari, was further away in the gathering. Completing the shortlist of six was Anne Tyler (for Digging to America) who was not present. According to the chair of the judging panel Muriel Gray, Tyler is "notoriously reclusive and never leaves Baltimore." Representatives stood in for Tyler at the reading and at the award ceremony.

The Orange Award for New Writers came first, and it went to Karen Connelly for another war novel, "The Lizard Cage", set in Burma. As she read a prepared speech, I leaned over and asked Chimamanda if she too would read from a note on winning. The author replied that she had no speech prepared. "Being favourite is the kiss of death," she said. "I will not be surprised if I do not win."

We didn't have long to wait, because Muriel Gray was soon back on the stage to announce the big prize. "There is absolutely nothing controversial about this year's shortlist," she declared, informing that the judges (including seasoned profiler of African writers, Maya Jaggi) were unanimous in their choice of winner.

Then Chimamanda's name was called out, to sensational reactions in the Royal Festival Hall Ballroom. The author went on the stage to accept the limited edition winner's bronze statuette known as the "Bessie" drawing laughs when she declared herself happy to take home "this little thing with its cute breasts." She mentioned that, "Writing is the only thing I really care about," and added that she had to go and make a call to her family in Nigeria. Chimamanda's editor, Mitzi Angel, later described the author's onstage performance as "poised" and "controlled" - adding that, "She does the same in her writing. She is always thinking, and she cares deeply about her country. She will become one of the most important writers in the world."

In the razzle and dazzle of cheers and press photographs that immediately followed, Kiran Desai was the only shortlisted writer who got the chance to congratulate the new Orange prize winner before she was whisked away from the gathering for media formalities. Others would have to wait until her return, but the Nigerian writers who had come to support their own, were allowed to accompany her through a series of behind-the-scenes interviews and photo-calls. The Nigerian party comprised scholar/writer Wale Adebanwi, journalist Tolu Somolu and myself; all three of us were at the Orange ceremony three years before, when Chimamanda first appeared on the shortlist.

Poet Odia Ofeimun, fresh from his participation at the 12th International Poetry Festival in Cuba, had stopped over in London to attend the Orange ceremony. He said of Chimamanda's win, "It is a confirmation of what the world always knew, that good literature comes from Nigeria. She is a very good representation of the best that comes out of the country." Ofeimun added that, "There is this wise old woman's way to her youthfulness, which makes it imperative that we listen to her. The great thing is that she is very young and has a huge future ahead."

Adebanwi, who interviewed Adichie on the publications of both her books, said, "I am very excited because I knew it was only a matter of time for Chimamanda to win a big prize." He observed that, "She's got the capacity to tell the traditional African story by the moonlight with a refreshing modernity that is extremely powerful. We should be proud of her." Adebanwi felt that the theft of Chimamanda's handbag was strangely prescient. "Maybe losing her bag was an indication of a new story. What was taken away yesterday has been returned in a wonderful way today."

Chimamanda herself had seen the bag's loss as a bad omen. "I was thinking: this is not good." Winning the prize however, made her "very happy." She had come off the stage before realising that she didn't thank some people publicly, especially her editor Mitzi Angel. "Writing is something you do alone," Chimamanda said, "and it takes other people to help make things happen. I've been very fortunate to have Mitzi who understands my work."

The feeling is mutual for Mitzi, who never doubted that Chimamanda would reach the heights. "I feel very privileged to be publishing her." Asked if it had been a risky venture taking on a then little known Nigerian female writer, the editor replied, "I don't think of it in terms of risk. If someone's a good writer, it will become obvious to everyone. To me, Chimamanda was ahead of her game."

The author's publicist, Michelle Kane, had a strong feeling that she would win. "She is an extraordinary voice. It was time for her to be recognised and it was shown tonight. And she won it!"

And won it, she did. Asked what she thought her Orange triumph means, Chimamanda replied, "I hope it will open more doors, not just for Nigerian writers, but for African writers. I hope African writers will see this and think that they can do it too. I remember when I was looking for a graduate programme in the US, and I saw that Edwidge Danticat had been at the same place; I immediately felt that since she had been there, I would be fine too."

The Orange Prize recognises excellence in women's writing, and the author's mind went to her fellow Nigerian female writers. "We are taking over from the men!" she declared.

We the Nigerians present had unrestricted access as Chimamanda gave radio and television interviews. She answered questions and posed for photographs while we sent frantic text messages to writers and artists in Nigeria to communicate the news. Kate Mosse came in with the winner's £30,000 cheque, a part of the ceremony that had been accidentally missed out on the stage. And so we were among the few witnesses to the belated presentation of the cheque, which made it all the more special.

Prize-winning Zimbabwean writer Petina Gappah phoned through on my mobile and became the first to congratulate the new Orange winner by telephone. And there was still that phone call to the Adichie family to be made. But first, it was back to the ceremony in the Ballroom. Among those waiting to congratulate Chimamanda and talk with her, were: Zadie Smith (2006 Orange winner), Andrea Levy (2004 winner), Jackie Kay, Margaret Busby and John Agard. There was a wonderful evening ahead and - as many predicted on the night - a great future. In the end, it seemed clear that Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Orange Prize triumph had never really been in doubt.

• Words & images © MW

The News After the Night Before

Chimamanda wins the Orange!

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie wins the Orange Prize for her second novel, Half of a Yellow Sun. It was her second time on the shortlist.
Chair of the panel of judges, Muriel Gray, watches moments after the annoucement. Also shortlisted were Kiran Desai, Rachel Cusk, Xiaolu Guo, Jane Harris and Anne Tyler.
Adichie kisses the 'Bessie' the Orange Prize's bronze statuette.
Adichie takes a congratulatory call from Zimbabwean writer Petina Gappah. In the background are Odia Ofeimun & Tolu Somolu.
Kate Mosse of the Orange Prize organisation gives the new prize winner her cheque for £30,000

• More Orange Prize photos at the next blog update.
• Images © MW
  

The Way We Were

L-R: Ike Anya’s brother, Ike himself, Cyril Nri, Chimamanda, her (then heavily pregnant) sis-in-law Tinuke Adichie, Wale Adebanwi & myself.

~

It was 8 June 2004, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was the only debut novelist & the youngest writer on the Orange shortlist - for her book, Purple Hibiscus. 3 years on, and she’s hotly tipped for the prize, this time for Half of a Yellow Sun. How will the story end this time? All will be revealed on Wednesday 6 June when this year’s winner is announced.

• Broadband Orange Prize

Orange Prize: the 1st time round... in words & pictures

Binyavanga Wainaina & Ike Anya

Wale Adebanwi, Chimamanda & her brother, Chuks. Adichie is up for the Orange Prize for the 2nd time for 'Half of a Yellow Sun' - award to be announced in London on Wednesday 6 June 2007.

Middle, Turner prize winning artist Grayson Perry who came as his alter ego… a little girl.

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Chimamanda’s Day @ the Orange Prize

Caribbean-British Writer Andrea Levy was declared the winner of this year's Orange Prize for fiction on June 8 for her novel Small Island. Nigeria's Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie had been shortlisted for her debut novel, Purple Hibiscus.

As the day drew near, my search for a copy of Purple Hibiscus became more and more frantic, as I would enter every bookstore only to be told they'd just sold their last copy. In a last ditch effort, I headed for the Index Bookshop in Brixton, which specialises in black writing - and got lucky. And so it was that on the day of the Award ceremony, I had only read 20 or so pages of one of the most talked about books of this year.

Newspaper columnist Wale Adebanwi and I took the London Underground to Waterloo and from there made our way on foot to the South Bank. We came across writer Ike Anya and his brother by the National Theatre; and our band of four went looking for the venue - a gigantic white tent called The Room By The River. The inside was decked out to resemble a Victorian landscaped garden for the ceremony. Hosts and hostesses dressed like Victorians wafted around, tempting guests with cocktails and canapes.

The place was filled with the literati and the arty, with all manners of people in-between. Pottery artist Grayson Perry, winner of the 2003 Turner Prize, had turned up as his female alter-ego, Claire. He wore a baby-doll dress, a wig with a pink bow in it, full make-up and high-heeled shoes. Holding an oriental-style ladies' fan, he looked serenely about him as I plotted ways of getting close enough to take his picture. Exasperated by my timidity, Wale snatched the camera from me, went close to the gender-bending artist, and clicked.

Huge banners bearing images of the shortlisted books signposted corners of the garden dedicated to each of the six authors. We familiarised ourselves with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's corner, where four copies of Purple Hibiscus - once so elusive to me - now lay invitingly open on two garden benches.

Chimamanda soon arrived, looking like a Hollywood starlet in a glamorous gold dress. Wale and I were meeting her for the first time, though he had recently done an extensive interview with her for a Nigerian newspaper. She and Ike come a long way. She was relieved to see us, saying: "I'm very happy that my people are here." Ike and I wielded our cameras like weapons, clicking away as a dizzying array of people came up to greet Chimamanda, who bore it all with good grace.

Purple Hibiscus is already out in the Dutch language; other translations are in the pipeline, including French and German. The writer is working closely with those in charge of the translations to ensure that no meaning is lost, especially on the Igbo words used in the book. Of this year's shortlisted authors, Chimamanda is the youngest and the only first time novelist. She also received the most notice in the British press but told us she didn't think she'd win. The shortlist was a formidable field including Booker Prize winner and author of 11 books, Margaret Attwood.

A female writer in a tight, short dress made a beeline for Chimamanda. She needed no introduction since her name - Kathy Lette - had been emblazoned across the chest area of her dress. Lower down, the dress screamed the title of her new book, Dead Sexy, published that very day, or so she told us. Lette was a walking billboard for her book, which I quickly concluded had no chance of ever being shortlisted for any prize. She fussed all over Chimamanda, telling her that Purple Hibiscus would be the night's winner, and floated off. "See?" Wale said. "That lady just said you will win." Chimamanda replied in broken English: "You think say dat one sabi wetin e dey talk?"

Wale and I were struck by how 'grounded' Chimamanda was. Tolu Somolu of the online magazine Gisters had attended the Orange Prize writers' Reading event at the British Library the night before. She said of Chimamanda's performance: "She really captured the imagination", adding that the writer is "confident, articulate and modest with it too."

Chimamanda's brother Chuks and his wife Tinuke were in our group, as well as Kenyan writer Binyavanga Wainaina, winner of the 2002 Caine Prize. Nigerian Chika Unigwe is on this year's Caine shortlist along with two Ugandans, a Kenyan and a Zimbabwean. Wainaina is rooting for either Uganda or Kenya: "My mother is Ugandan so either way, I'm happy." But he is not complacent about Nigeria's literary muscle, saying: "Nigerians are juggernauts. They can wipe us out just like that."

After winning the Caine Prize, Wainaina set up a website (Kwani?) for short story writing. This has been "wonderful", according to Ike who informed me that the website produced not just last year's winner, but two of this year's shortlisted writers. Ike went on to talk about forthcoming novels by Unigwe and Sefi Atta, declaring that: "Nigerian women are coming."

"I am Kate Mosse", a glamorous lady on the stage was saying as the ceremony began proper. "What is Kate Moss the supermodel doing presenting a literary prize?" I asked no one in particular. We moved closer to the stage and saw that this was indeed a different Kate Mosse. She went on to talk about the Orange Prize, and its recently announced prize for New Fiction to be given out from next year.

Shortlisted author Gillian Slovo - daughter of anti- apartheid hero Joe - was nearby. She and other competing writers were to mount the stage in turns following an audio-visual response on each book by artist Martin Farrell. This was to be in alphabetical order, in which case Chimamanda should have gone first. But someone must have mistaken her middle name, Ngozi, for part of her surname - and so it was that found she herself fourth in line.

Ike became uneasy as the audio-visual responses commenced, saying: "If they put some useless jungle drumming in Chimamanda's own, I will vex." When it was finally relayed on two giant screens, we were not quite sure what it was but since there was no drumming, Ike seemed satisfied. "It is the dream of every judging panel that they find an astonishing new voice and I think we have found one", head of the panel of judges Sandy Toksvig said of Chimamanda, who went up to be presented with a bouquet of flowers.

Ike was telling me: "That Chimamanda even made it onto the shortlist... this tiny girl among experienced middle-aged writers... It is such a major achievement."

Noise erupted as Andrea Levy was declared the winner. As she gave her speech, Wale nudged me to take a picture, asking mischievously: "Won't you take her? Or are we angry?" 'We' were not, so my camera clicked once more.

Chimamanda had taken it very well and told me: "Being on the shortlist was an honour. I just felt so lucky. I'm looking forward to doing more things and climbing higher." Ike was also upbeat, telling her: "Next stop the Nobel!"

A 30-piece band began to play as the congratulations, commiserations and partying began in earnest. Nigerian actor Cyril Nri, a star on long-running British television drama The Bill, had reviewed Purple Hibiscus for the Orange Prize website. He now shared with us the book's effect on him. Having left Nri village in 1968, the actor found that "there were lots of bits in the book that brought back memories... lots of things that touched" him. Not least is the theme of Catholicism in Chimamanda's book. Referring to the family in novel, Cyril said: "I felt the silences in the house."

Martin R Kenyon of The Council For Education In The Commonwealth is another admirer of Chimamanda's talent. He first met the writer when she was shortlisted for the Caine Prize in 2002, and helped change all the American spelling in Purple Hibiscus into the English style.

He expressed the belief that she would have won the new prize starting next year, and suggested that Purple Hibiscus has the "feeling" of Turgenev, a 19th century Russian writer.

The ambition of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's writing declares itself from the first line of Purple Hibiscus, with its allusion to Chinua Achebe. "He is the most important writer for me", declared Chimamanda, who sees herself as "writing in the tradition he started." Arguing that Achebe has "done his bit", she now wants to do "something different but in a sense similar." She believes the author of Things Fall Apart "wrote on his own terms, not apologising for what he was doing. I want to do the same." In her view, "African writers sometimes are apologetic, working in a way they think is expected of them." Clearly not an option for Chimamanda.

She is looking forward to Readings being organised for her in Nigeria by the online magazine Farafina, as an opportunity "to make my people know me." She also wants Purple Hibiscus published in Nigeria, and West Africa as a whole in a "cheap enough" version by local publishers who will "do the book well."

Chimamanda's UK publishers, Fourth Estate, invited her 'friends' to a trendy Pizza eatery nearby. As we made our way across from The Room On The River, Jason Cowley of The Observer, a UK newspaper, was asking if I thought Chimamanda would grow in the same regard as Buchi Emecheta. My answer was an emphatic "No".

Chimamanda's hero, Achebe, pillories in Home And Exile "a much advertised author living in London" who had described her fellow Nigerian and African writers as "stilted". She, however, was different because the African in her had been "diluted" - even her publishers no longer put her books in the African section. Achebe is damning: "The psychology of the dispossessed can be truly frightening." He does not name her, but all clues point to only one person. As I understand it, this is the kind of "apologetic" writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has vowed never to become.

Over pizza and lasagne in the restaurant, her editor, Mitzi, reflected on the Orange Prize result, saying: We were disappointed that she didn't win but we don't mind because we know she's a star." Fourth Estate will also publish the writer's next book, which is to be about the Nigerian civil war. Chimamanda bared her mind on the war: "It lives with me... all of us who have family members who are divided by the war." She feels it is necessary to write about it, "to bear witness."

Jason Cowley and Binyavanga Wainaina were discussing the US elections and the latter was arguing for Bush's re-election. I said loudly across the table to him: "I am rabidly Anti-Bush!" I had spoken too soon, as Wainaina turned out to be even more Anti-Bush than I. He was telling Cowley: "Remember we (Kenyans) got bombed twice." He continued: "I want the American public to know that their lack of interest in politics has repercussions. Their support for Bush has repercussions, and the only way they will learn is to vote him back in."

Formerly the Literary Editor of the New Statesman, Jason Cowley was a Caine Prize judge in 2001, and again in 2002 "when we awarded the prize to this Anti-American here", he said jokingly of Wainaina.

Chimamanda and I talked some more, about her recent photo-shoot for Vogue magazine for which she wore a Chanel top and Jimmy Choo shoes; and the beads in her hair that are fast becoming a signature look. She explained: "I like beads, I like that it makes people think African... my hair is natural. Being a devotee of natural tresses myself, I was elated. But Ike Anya and Wale Adebanwi were clearly mystified by the way the conversation was going. "The advantages of being a woman interviewer", I taunted them.

I finally hugged Chimamanda goodnight at 11pm, so Wale could hop on an 11.30 coach back to Cambridge. He was to catch a flight to Lagos at seven the next morning yet squeezed in the Orange Prize ceremony. I had been away from home, and children, for over 12 hours. Ike - still with Chimamanda's party in the restaurant - was in the thick of medical exams. But Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was worth it. As the Americans would say: "She is good people."

Cyril Nri, Tolu Somolu, Adichie & Ronnie Ajoku

Jason Cowley & others heading to dinner after the Orange Prize, 8 June 2004.

• “Chimamanda's Day @ the Orange Prize” - by Molara Wood - published 13 June 2004 in The Guardian, Lagos.
• Words & Images © MW