By Sunday Elijah
A Nigerian author, Chimamanda Adichie, has been awarded an honorary doctorate degree by the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium.
The University conferred Adichie with the honorary degree at their main campus on Friday.
A statement by the institution quoted Rector of the University, Vincent Blondel, saying Adichie “develops a discourse on gender equality rooted in singular experience and is universal in scope.”
“She focuses on the experience of differences and makes us feel the fragility of what we sometimes hold to be true without having questioned it,” he added.
Describing Adichie as one of her generation’s most gifted writers, Professor of English Literature at the UCL, Daria Tunica added that the writer was very frank in her views and in her writings.
“Adiche’s work is filled with love and warmth, so it shows us our good sides, but also confronts us with our darker sides”, she added.
This latest achievement is Adichie’s 16th honorary degree award, as she has also received the same from some of the world’s notable universities, including Yale University, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Edinburgh, Duke University, Georgetown University, and Johns Hopkins University.
In her acceptance speech, Adichie appreciated the school and the management for the award.
Speaking on the theme of the ceremony, “The Fragility of Truth” she said, “There is mounting disinformation all over the world with severe consequences for all of us, and today it is easy to dress up a lie so nicely that it starts to take on the glow of the truth. It is time for us to seek truth and to insist on measures that make it possible for truth to prevail”.
It is pertinent to note that, in recent times, Adichie has decried the attitude of Catholic priests, pertaining to her parents’ funeral.
In an essay last year, the “Purple Hibiscus” writer gave an insight as to why she separated herself from Catholicism.
