We Should All Be Feminists
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, 1990
Politics & society EssaysContemporary fiction
A short, lucid case for feminism, told through personal stories, Nigerian expressions and the small instructions that shape girls before they can object.
Feels like grief, tenderness and nostalgia. About memory and friendship.
A page from the book
Some people leave a hole in the world that no amount of language can fill.
Okoloma was one of my greatest childhood friends. He lived on my street and looked after me like a big brother: if I liked a boy, I would ask Okoloma’s opinion. Okoloma was funny and intelligent and wore cowboy boots that were pointy at the tips. In December 2005, in a plane crash in southern Nigeria, Okoloma died. It is still hard for me to put into words how I felt. Okoloma was a person I could argue with, laugh with and truly talk to. He was also the first person to call me a feminist. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.Adichie’s 2012 TEDxEuston talk was sampled by Beyoncé on 'Flawless'; the 2014 book version became a pocket-sized global primer.
Books that feel like this
More by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Americanah
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, 2013
A Nigerian woman returns to Lagos after years in America, and a love story becomes a sharp, funny reckoning with race, hair and belonging.
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Questions readers ask
- What is We Should All Be Feminists like?
- Feels like grief, tenderness and nostalgia. About memory and friendship.
- What should I read after We Should All Be Feminists?
- If you liked We Should All Be Feminists, try The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Ann Brashares), The Tattooist of Auschwitz (Heather Morris) and The Song of Achilles (Madeline Miller).
A taste of the feed
Look at how texture and fabric become extensions of physical grace.
The pants clung to Lena’s waist and followed the line of her hips. They held close to the shape of her thighs and fell exactly to the tops of her feet. When she took two steps forward, they appeared to hug each of her muscles as they shifted and moved. Carmen gazed in wonder at how different was their effect from Lena’s bland uniform of J. Crew khakis.
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants · Ann Brashares
What a man promises himself when survival is not enough.
Lale makes a vow to himself: I will live to leave this place. I will walk out a free man. If there is a hell, I will see these murderers burn in it.
The Tattooist of Auschwitz · Heather Morris
To know someone so well that sight becomes optional.
I could recognize him by touch alone, by smell; I would know him blind, by the way his breaths came and his feet struck the earth. I would know him in death, at the end of the world.
The Song of Achilles · Madeline Miller
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