Key Takeaways
- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie says Nigeria no longer feels like home after the death of her 21-month-old son Nkanu Nnamdi, telling The New York Times, “I do not want to go back to Nigeria.”
- Nkanu suffered cardiac arrest and died within 24 hours after receiving propofol for an MRI at a Lagos hospital, prompting negligence proceedings against physicians and an ongoing coroner’s inquest.
- Adichie and her husband, Dr. Ivara Esege, say they want accountability rather than a lawsuit and plan to return to Nigeria because their surviving children remain deeply connected to the country.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie says the death of her 21-month-old son has changed something she once considered fundamental: her sense of Nigeria as home.
In July, six months after Nkanu Nnamdi died following a medical emergency at a Lagos hospital, Adichie had yet to return to the country where she was born and spent significant stretches of her life. In a new interview with The New York Times, the acclaimed author acknowledged how dramatically her relationship with Nigeria has shifted.
“My feelings toward Nigeria have changed,” Adichie said. And when asked whether the country still felt like the place where she belonged, her answer was even more direct: “I do not want to go back to Nigeria.”
That represents a painful break for Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, whose connection to Nigeria has shaped both her life and much of her work. Adichie and her husband, Dr. Ivara Esege, maintained homes in Nigeria and Maryland, regularly bringing their children to Lagos for Christmas, Easter and summer visits.
Their 10-year-old daughter recently told her mother, “Nigeria is my happy place.”
Now the country is also inseparable from Nkanu’s death.
Nkanu, one of the couple’s twin sons, became ill while the family was in Lagos last December. After his condition failed to improve, the family planned to transport him to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Maryland. Before the medical evacuation, his doctors in the U.S. requested additional tests to make sure he was safe to travel, and the family took him to Euracare Hospital.
Adichie said Nkanu was given propofol to keep him still during an MRI. While she waited outside, a doctor rushed into the room where the procedure was taking place. She later recalled being told, “Well, look, they gave him too much Propofol.”
“Those were his exact words, which I will never forget until the day I die,” she said.
Nkanu suffered cardiac arrest and died within 24 hours.
Adichie and Esege have since pushed for answers about their son's treatment. Nigeria’s Medical and Dental Council initially found negligence involving three physicians and suspended them pending further proceedings; one doctor was subsequently cleared.
A coroner’s inquest into Nkanu’s death was opened earlier this year but is currently stayed pending judicial review. The couple says they are not suing the hospital or doctors and instead want accountability that could prevent another family from experiencing the same loss.
The grief has also followed Adichie home to Maryland. Nkanu’s highchair remained beside his twin brother’s, his clothes still upstairs. She said she sometimes catches herself putting two of an item into an online shopping cart before remembering she now needs only one.
The family nevertheless plans to return to Nigeria, largely because their surviving children still feel deeply connected to it.
“They’re the reason we’re going,” Adichie said.
