Chimamanda, Others For Women4Africa Awards

THE 2007 Orange Prize winning author, Chimamanda Adichie, is on the shortlist of nominees for the inaugural edition of the Women4Africa Awards taking place in London today. Adichie has been nominated for the International African Woman of the Year category alongside three other Nigeria-based amazons.Also penciled down for the awards is May7ven ' real name, Yemisi Odegbami ' the artiste daughter of former Nigerian national football team skipper, Segun Odegbami.Unlike Odegbami's daughter, who is being recognised with three other women of African origin for their achievements in their chosen careers, the judging panel will decide who among the four nominees in Adichie's category should be named as the International African Woman of the Year.However, Adichie, whose 2003 first novel, Purple Hibiscuswas awarded the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book in 2005, will not be attending and will therefore not know whether she has won the coveted award until, perhaps the early hours of Sunday.Speaking with The Guardian during the week, co-founder of the Award, Sam Onigbanjo, revealed that the popular author has prior commitments ,hence she won't be in London on Saturday (today). 'She's got other prior engagements by the time we notified her of her nomination,' Onigbanjo noted. Though unable to specify which prior engagement is keeping her away from today's event, Adichie's inability to make the date might not be unconnected with the ongoing production of her second novel, Half a Yellow Sun, winner of the 2007 Orange Prize for Fiction, which is currently being adapted into a movie that includes award winning actor, Chiwetel Ejiotor . Onigbanjo also disclosed that Nollywood actress, Stella Damascus, who's an ambassador for the organisation, will be attending as an invited guest.Other categories of the award project include: Business Woman of the Year, Author/Blogger of the Year, Entrepreneur of the Year and Media Professional of the Year. Of the 14 categories, all the four nominees in Adichie's category ' International African Woman of the Year ' and Educator of the Year are all based in Nigeria.
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