The double recognition from Germany and Sweden within weeks marks another chapter in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s decorated career and reinforces the global resonance of African storytelling in shaping contemporary literary discourse.
By Abioye Damilare Samson
Nigerian author and global literary icon, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, has been honoured with two major European literary prizes, underscoring her enduring influence as one of the most powerful and influential voices in contemporary literature.
Adichie received the 20,000 Euro Felix Jud Prize at the opening of the Harbour Front Literature Festival in Hamburg. The award, endowed by the Felix Jud Association, celebrates individuals in literature, art, and culture who embody “resistant thinking” through their work. Kenyan author, Auma Obama, half-sister of former U.S. President Barack Obama, delivered the laudatory speech in Adichie’s honour.
Shortly after, Adichie was celebrated again, this time at the Gothenburg Book Fair in Sweden, where she received the Sjöjungfrun (The Mermaid Award) before a sold-out audience of 1,500 people. Established in 2024 to mark the Book Fair’s 40th anniversary, the award recognises a fiction writer whose work has profoundly touched Swedish readers. American author Joyce Carol Oates was the inaugural recipient in 2024, making Adichie the second to receive the honour.
“I am grateful for this award, which recognises my calling – because that is precisely what writing fiction has always been for me: a calling, the central and defining part of my life”, Adichie said. “I am equally moved by the rich literary symbolism of the Mermaid as by the knowledge that my work has resonated so deeply with Swedish readers”.
Born in 1977 in Nigeria, Adichie is celebrated for novels such as Purple Hibiscus and Americanah, which have sold millions of copies and been translated into more than 50 languages. Her 2014 feminist manifesto, We Should All Be Feminists, continues to shape global gender discourse, while her recent work, Dream Count, deepens her exploration of race, migration, and belonging.
“Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is one of the most influential voices of our time and a dream guest for the Book Fair”, said Oskar Ekström, Gothenburg Book Fair’s program director. “Her literature sparks vital conversations and inspires readers across the globe”.
The double recognition from Germany and Sweden within weeks marks another chapter in Adichie’s decorated career and reinforces the global resonance of African storytelling in shaping contemporary literary discourse.