Book Review: Dear Ijeawele or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions

Author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Adichie’s Feminist Manifesto has not received the credits it deserves.

Adichie writes a feminist manifesto which every parent should read and apply when raising their children-note that I said children not daughters. In the Manifesto, Adichie is writing a guide for her friend on how to her soon-to-be-born daughter as a feminist. It is an easy read, relatable and practical. It is similar to the Karl Marx Communist Manifesto and Nancy Fraser’s (and friends’) Feminism for the 99% in structure and purpose. The good news is that you will not need a dictionary or to understand the history of the bourgeoisie or that of feminism to make sense of it. 

The author points to basic things like calling a little girl ‘princess’ a term Adichie says is loaded with assumptions of delicacy.

Another common statement said to girls particularly in the African setting (I’m sure there are equivalent statements in other cultures), ‘What are you doing? Don’t you know you are old enough to find a husband?’. In the Kenyan setting a common phrase girls are told jokingly is, ‘You better learn how to cook/clean or he will send you back.‘ Meaning that if a woman cannot cook for her husband, he will divorce her. Adichie says these phrases condition women to aspire to marriage. For me here, I would have liked if she had gone further to say that there is nothing wrong with aspiring to marriage in itself. The issue is to aspire only to marriage and also that aspiration being placed on girls rather than they desiring it for themselves.  

Adichie also talks about encouraging little girls to be whomever they choose to be. If a your baby girl likes to play with trucks instead of dolls or prefers her hair short or unbraided, let her. 

As the title tells us, Adichie’s Manifesto includes fifteen suggestions. I strongly recommend this reading. You only need about an hour to get through the entire book -but the insights you will get!! This is the kind of book best kept close, for rereading.

Get your copy here.