Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on One of the seven covers of T - 2017 Greats Issue

The 2017 T Greats issue, coming out on the 22nd of October, celebrates masters in their fields: an innovator of modern theater, an influential auteur, an author turned public intellectual, an artist redefining sculpture, a fashion designer with a painter’s eye, an actor who’s perfected the art of the subtle — and a female rapper who’s reinventing the rules.

In an article written by Dave Eggers, Chimamanda was described as;

“A humanist on and off the page…The rare novelist to become a public intellectual — as well as a defining voice on race and gender for the digital age”

The article tells the story of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in front of a small class of literature students at Cardozo high school in Washington, D.C.

“So, what should we talk about?” she asked. In front of an audience, Adichie speaks with great precision, measuring every word, her Nigerian-British accent sounding to American ears both opulent and daunting.

No one raised their hand.

Adichie was wearing a T-shirt that read, in glittering letters, “We Should All Be Feminists,” and she carried a Christian Dior bag that bore the same message, both inspired by her 2012 TEDx Talk, which has been viewed over four million times. The students had been assigned to read Adichie’s essay based on the talk, and thus it was dispiriting when the first question came from a young man, originally from Ghana, who very politely asked how Adichie was balancing her work with the responsibilities of motherhood.

She looked down and smiled. She took her time, and then, with her chin still lowered, she raised her eyes to look kindly at the student.

“I’m going to answer your question,” she said, “but you have to promise me that the next time you meet a new father, you ask him how he’s balancing his work and the responsibilities of fatherhood.”