Award-winning writer, Chimamamda Adichie reveals she was a victim of sexual assault

By Patricia Uyeh

Joining the #MeToo movement, award-winning writer, Chimamanda Adichie made a shocking revelation that she was sexually assaulted at the age of 17. She disclosed this during an address at the just concluded Stockholm Forum for Gender Equality.

According to the ‘Americannah’ writer, she went to meet a media influential person, whom she thought would help promote her book of poems.

She went further to reveal her experience with the person and how within a minute, the man in question slipped his hands down her clothes and then moved on to her bra to fondle her.

She said:

“I was so shocked that I did nothing for seconds but then, I pushed his hand away, gently, nicely, because I didn’t want to offend him. Later that day, I broke out in a rash on my face, neck, and chest, as though my body was recoiling, as though my body was saying what my lips had not said.”

That experience has made the prolific writer to become a feminist and a proud advocator of gender equality that encourage women who have been abused or violated before to come out and share their stories.