The Headstrong Historian
The Headstrong Historian (2008) by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie The story centers on Nwamgba, a Nigerian woman who, after her husband’s sudden death, seeks justice against his cousins, whom she believes killed him, as well as the reinstatement of her family’s inheritance. Her efforts ultimately push her son into the hands of colonial missionaries, who threaten to disrupt and subsume Nwamgba and her family’s culture and identity. As her characters navigate their relationships within an increasing colonial power dynamic, Adichie underlines the importance of history and legacy, female resilience, and the dangers of colonial education.
Quotes
[edit]- lost pregnancies and buried babies”
- Page 199
- the Igala and Edo traders, [and] the white-skinned men”
- Page 201
- his name [is] Anikwenwa as far as she [is] concerned”
- Page 208
- like a person diligently acting a bizarre pantomime”
- Page 212
- silently carve[s] designs on her pottery uncertain of how to handle a woman crying about things that did not deserve tears”
- Page 213
- primitive culture instead of a worthwhile topic like African Alliances in the American-Soviet Tensions”
- Page 217
- grace in her straight back”
- Page 209
- sharp-tongued, headstrong,” and he often found her exhausting because she was the type of girl who crossed gender lines and “wrestled her brother to the ground”
- Page 199
- she, unlike others, had not spent too much time going round and round in her speech”
- Page 209
- she had believed that her chi and his chi had destined their marriage” and could not otherwise be deterred from her plans to marry him
- Page 198
- Did Nwamgba not know that Obierika was an only child, that his late father had been an only child whose wives had lost pregnancies and buried babies? Perhaps somebody in their family had committed the taboo of selling a girl into slavery and the earth god Ani was visiting misfortune on them.”
- Pages 198-199
- “Her father found her exhausting, this sharp-tongued, head-strong daughter who had once wrestled her brother to the ground. (After which her father had warned everybody not to let the news leave the compound that the girl had thrown a boy.)”
- Page 199
- So she took Anikwenwa on long walks, telling him that the land from that palm tree to that plantain tree was theirs, that his grandfather had passed it on to his father. She told him the same things over and over, even though he looked bored and bewildered, and she did not let him go and play in moonlight unless she was watching.”
- Pages 203-204
- This story] would cause her to make a clear link between education and dignity.
- Narrator ("The Headstrong Historian"),