Celebrated Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie says she worries that society is suffering from an ‘epidemic of self-censorship’.
Speaking in the first of the four annual Reith Lectures for the BBC’s Radio 4, all themed on freedom, Adichie said of the climate of fear arising from a perceived risk of causing offence: ‘Nothing demonstrates this better than the recent phenomenon of “sensitivity readers” in the world of publishing, people whose job it is to cleanse unpublished manuscripts of potentially offensive words.’
She added: ‘This, in my mind, negates the very idea of literature.’
Adichie, who is acclaimed for novels Half Of A Yellow Sun and Americanah, said young people were growing up ‘afraid to ask questions for fear of asking the wrong questions’.
There was a risk that such an atmosphere could lead to ‘the death of curiosity, the death of learning and the death of creativity’.
She added: ‘No human endeavour requires freedom as much as creativity does.’
Adichie also expressed concern that some people don’t speak up for fear of vicious criticism or becoming the latest target of cancel culture.
‘We are all familiar with stories of people who have said or written something and then faced a terrible online backlash.
‘There is a difference between valid criticism, which should be part of free expression, and this kind of backlash, ugly personal insults, putting addresses of homes and children’s schools online, trying to make people lose their jobs.’
She added: ‘To anyone who thinks, well, some people who have said terrible things deserve it … no. Nobody deserves it. It is unconscionable barbarism. It is a virtual vigilante action whose aim is not just to silence the person who has spoken, but to create a vengeful atmosphere that deters others from speaking.’
In the remaining Reith Lectures, former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Rowan Williams will explore freedom of worship; Dr Fiona Hill, former White House adviser to the President on Russia, will talk about freedom from fear; and author and musician Darren McGarvey will discuss freedom from want.
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