A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Dear Ijeawele or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions

When reading this short letter to Adichie’s friend, it is important to note how timeless the letter is. Upon first reading, it is striking that although time has seemingly changed this idea of sexism and equality of the sexes has not. Women are still fighting for equality. What is even more striking is that although Chimamanda Adichie rejects the use of tradition, she appears to base her letter in tradition. What is meant by this is that she rejects ordinary tradition, but seems to offer this new wave of tradition. She urges her friend Ijeawele that she that she must start a new tradition for her one-week old daughter and that is to raise her in the light of feminism. She tells her to look back at the way In which they, the mother and Adichie, grew up and what they were taught from their childhood. She gives an instance of when she was told as a child to bend down properly when sweeping. She recollects, “I remember being told as a child to ‘bend down properly while sweeping, like a girl’” (14). In Adichie’s recollection, one can see that she is urging Ijeawele to change this traditional upbringing. Adichie was taught that she must bend properly because it is the right thing to do for a girl, from her parents and not that it will be most effective to bend properly in order to clean the floor. Thus, indicating that there needs to be a new tradition in which the younger generation is taught lessons to understand and not because of gender roles.

Secondly, Adichie makes a note about Language, she indicates that Ijeawele should question language. The interesting thing about this suggestion is that language changes overtime. With each generation there is a new language that emerges and an old language that dies. Diction and connotation change overtime as well within a  language. For instance, the meaning of the term queer has changed within 90's kids language. Although the dictionary definition, the diction of the word still seems to mean "strange" or "odd." The word has been championed with the LGBTQ family to reverse the connotations of the word strange and odd often being words that would normally outcast someone or separate them from another group of people. I agree with Chimamanda Adichie when she states that Language is "the repository of our prejudices, our beliefs, our assumptions," in this six suggestion (26). I think this also goes into the questioning aspect, since language changes over time it seems that it is a social construct and what is meant by this is that in the same way in which time shapes us, language is shaped by us and thus meaning that it has the ability to change with what we do with it. Although time can not change with what we do with it, time will still continue on, it becomes more meaningful or less meaningful with what we do with that time. Similarly, the language that we use become less meaningful or more meaningful depending on the way in which we use it. Thus, Adichie is asking that we give less meaning to those words that bind us to gender roles and we give more meaning to the language that allows us to have much more freedom within our identity.