Adichie is the author of this essay. In addition, she’s a fiction writer whose works include the novels Purple Hibiscus, Half of a Yellow Sun, and Americanah and the short story collection The Thing Around Your Neck. Adichie has won many awards for her work, including the MacArthur “genius” Fellowship.

Adichie grew up in Nigeria and now lives in both Nigeria and the US. This essay is based on a TED talk that Adichie delivered in 2012 at a conference dedicated to Africa. In her introduction to the essay, Adichie states that she’d hoped to counter stereotypes that the word “feminist” invoked and was nervous about how the audience would receive her speech—but that “their standing ovation gave me hope” (3).

Okoloma was a close childhood friend of Adichie’s who later died in a plane crash. Adichie recalls an argument that she once had with him, a memory that both opens and closes the essay. In the argument—the substance of which Adichie can no longer recall—Okoloma called her a “feminist.” Adichie didn’t know the word’s meaning at the time but assumed from Okoloma’s