Introduction
This is a story how Chimamanda became Nigeria’s unofficial Global Ambassador.
Like Oprah, Chimamanda does not need a surname to be recognized.
Indeed Chimamanda is Nigeria’s Global Ambassador.
BBC named her amongst its list of 100 inspiring and impactful women from around the world for 2021 alongside Melinda Gates.
Awards
On 20 May 2019, Chimamanda received an honorary degree from Yale University
The award was on top of the honorary degree, doctor honoris causa she received from Universite de Fribourg, Switzerland.
She also received honorary degree, Doctor of Humane Letters from Amherst College, Haverford College, University of Edinburgh
John Hopkins University also honoured her.
Below is an abridged list of her other recognition:
- 2010 Listed among The New Yorker’s “20 Under 40”
- 2015 Listed among Time Magazine’s “The 100 Most Influential People”
- Chimamanda was one of 15 women selected to appear on the cover of the September 2019 issue of British Vogue, guest-edited by Meghan, Duchess of Sussex.
- Cited as one of the Top 100 most influential Africans by New African magazine in 2019.
- Chimamanda was also elected in March 2017 into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. This made her the second Nigerian to be given such an honour, after Prof. Wole Soyinka.
Nigeria’s global ambassador
A global sensation as you can see, she has done more to project Nigeria’s battered image all over the world.
She has done more to project a positive image for Nigeria than Nigeria’s Foreign Ministers, past and present.
Chimamanda has done more than all Nigeria’s Ambassadors, past and present, in all countries combined.
She has addressed more elite audiences than all the VCs in Nigerian universities combined.
Her books have sold more copies than those written by all VCs and HODs in all Nigerian universities combined.
She has addressed Harvard, Yale, and Penn among many other Ivy League Schools.
Her Purple Hibiscus, Half A Yellow Sun, Americanah and other books fly off the shelf.
How did Chimamanda manage to achieve so much when her contemporaries in Nigeria sell pure water for survival?
How did Chimamanda from a tiny village in Enugu State, unheralded less than ten years ago, garner so much global stature?
Can you imagine, university lecturers many years her senior sell stapled mandatory “lecture notes” to hapless students to eke out a living?
What Chimamanda did right
Chimamanda did three things right.
First, she sought out a mentor in the person of Chinua Achebe and other icons.
Second and third, she learned to write and speak.
She did not just learn to write and speak, she learned to do so at the elite level.
You too can model Chimamanda and become a global sensation if you push yourself a little harder by doing what matters.
Success as they say leaves clues.
I teach these ideas to my students and followers and if you want to hear and learn more from me register for my Podcast #ExperienceAnnex.
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