Dear Ijeawele

Dear Ijeawele

Adult parenting/feminism
"When a couple of years ago a friend of mine from childhood,
who'd grown into a brilliant, strong, kind woman, asked me to tell her
how to raise her baby girl a feminist, my first thought was that I did
not know.
It felt like too huge a task."
Following a dinner and dance in honor of the visiting African
Scholars at UMaine I arrived home totally elated. This excitement and
a heavily muggy ambiance meant sleep was going to elude me at least
awhile. I reached for my go to remedy, the next book in my stack. By
great good fortune in the guise of coincidence it happened to be
written by a Nigerian woman.
Luckily Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie reconsidered and decided the
task was manageable. Her Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in
Fifteen suggestions packs a wealth of wisdom into a deceptively slim
volume: sixty-three pages in all.
Each suggestion covers one aspect of feminist daughter raising.
The language is straightforward and the concepts are bold. Adichie is
not a fan of what she considers Feminism Light. The tone, though,
conveys the intimacy of a woman speaking to a treasured friend. This
particular voice is both compelling and touching.
This is a wonderful book to give a new mother. It's a good read
for people who interact with young girls in any capacity. When I
volunteer in the library, for example, I make sure to compliment the
story hour set in non gender biased ways.
On a personal note, I had the most amazing birthday. I saw so many
dear friends and heard from others. My friend Liv treated me to Sweet
Frog frozen yogurt. Eugene took me to Dennys for supper and gave me a
musical card and money. I talked to all three of my children on the
phone. Today is sunny enough for me to hang all the laundry outside.
So it's an at home work day. Tomorrow I get to leave church after the
choir sings our anthem to go to a family picnic to celebrate my
birthday. Katie and Jacob will come all the way from Portland! That
will be so much fun!
A great big shout out to the friends and family members who make my
life such a happy one.
jules hathaway


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