Award-winning author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has said the death of her 21-month-old son, Nkanu, has changed how she feels about Nigeria, adding that she no longer wants to return to the country.
The writer made the remarks in an interview with The New York Times. When asked whether Nigeria still felt close to her heart, Adichie answered without softening the blow.
“My feelings toward Nigeria have changed. I do not want to go back to Nigeria,” she said.
Nkanu, one of her twin boys, died in December 2025 after a medical emergency at Euracare in Nigeria. Adichie said the child first developed a fever and was placed on antibiotics by her husband, Ivara Esege. When he did not improve, the couple took him to hospital. She said he was later sedated with propofol for an MRI, suffered cardiac arrest, and died the next day.
She recalled a doctor coming to her after the procedure.
“He was very calm and he said to me, ‘Well, look, they gave him too much Propofol.’ Those were his exact words, which I will never forget until the day I die.”
In June, Adichie publicly alleged medical negligence in the care her son received. A coroner’s inquest is now examining the circumstances of the death. Reports say the proceedings have been marked by delays and disagreements between the family and the hospital. Euracare has reportedly accused Adichie and her husband of destroying evidence by cremating their son’s remains, a claim tied to the ongoing process.
The pain has cut into a bond she once described as central to her life and work. Before Nkanu’s death, she said Nigeria was where she received “everything” that made her a writer. That closeness has not survived the loss in the same way.
She said her children may be the only reason she would consider going back. Her daughter still calls Nigeria her “happy place.” The admission sits beside her own grief, which she described as both immediate and strangely distant.
“I mean, it is so surreal, all of this. I still can’t believe we’re talking about my son who died. You’re going through something, but you also feel like you’re outside of it,” she said.