Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has lost one of her toddler twins to the cold hands of death, her relatives announce.
According to an official family statement, Nkanu Nnamdi, the novelist’s 21-month-old son with her spouse, Dr. Ivara Esege, died on Wednesday following a brief illness.
Omawumi Ogbe issued a statement on behalf of the family, saying they were “devastated by this profound loss” and thanking well-wishers while also requesting privacy and prayers.
Adichie, an award-winning writer based in the United States, is recognized for works such as Half of a Yellow Sun, Americanah, and her 2012 TED Talk and essay We Should All Be Feminists, which Beyoncé sampled in her 2013 song Flawless.
Her work, as a significant character in postcolonial feminist writing, delves into issues of gender and immigration.
In 2015, she was named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people.
Adichie, 48, welcomed her first child, a girl, in 2016. In 2024, her twin boys were delivered via surrogacy.
In 2020, her 2006 novel Half of a Yellow Sun was named the best book to win the Women’s Prize for Fiction in its 25-year history.
Speaking to the BBC last year about the release of her novel Dream Count, she stated that she wanted her books to be read across Africa.
She also described the “terrifying” writer’s block she suffered while pregnant with her first kid.
“It’s a really frightening place to be, because writing is the thing that gives me meaning,” the acclaimed author told Emma Barnett.
In a BBC lecture on free speech in 2022, the author stated that young people are becoming “afraid to ask questions for fear of asking the wrong questions.”
During one of the BBC’s annual Reith lectures, she stated that such a climate may lead to “the death of curiosity, the death of learning, and the death of creativity.”
“No human endeavor requires freedom as much as creativity does,” she added.
