Chimamanda Adichie Distances Herself From Beyonce’s “Type Of Feminism”

Writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has shared her thoughts on Beyonce and her “type of feminism.”

The duo had collaborated on Beyonce’s Flawless, with Adichie’s popular speech, We Should All Be Feminists sampled in the song.

“‘In the first place: of course Beyoncé asked permission to use my texts, and I did give her permission,” Adichie said in a recent interview with Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant.

“I think she’s lovely and I am convinced that she has nothing but the best intentions. In addition, Beyoncé is a celebrity of the first order and with this song she has reached many people who would otherwise probably never have heard the word feminism, let alone gone out and buy my essay.”

READ: Chimamanda Adichie’s New Film Scores Ghanaian Rapper M.anifest As Music Director

Chimamanda Adichie’s feminism is not Beyonce’s

She however revealed that she was surprised by some of the reaction to the song.

“I felt such a resentment (laughs loudly). I thought: are books really that unimportant to you? Another thing I hated was that I read everywhere: now people finally know her, thanks to Beyoncé, or: she must be very grateful. I found that disappointing.”

She however stated that her feminism and Beyonce’s feminism were different kinds.

“Still, her type of feminism is not mine,” she said. “As it is the kind that, at the same time, gives quite a lot of space to the necessity of men. I think men are lovely, but I don’t think that women should relate everything they do to men: did he hurt me, do I forgive him, did he put a ring on my finger? We women are so conditioned to relate everything to men. Put a group of women together and the conversation will eventually be about men. Put a group of men together and they will not talk about women at all, they will just talk about their own stuff. We women should spend about 20 per cent of our time on men, because it’s fun, but otherwise we should also be talking about our own stuff.”