Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Oluyemi Adetiba-Orija, and Others Make BBC 100 Most Inspiring Women for 2021

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Oluyemi Adetiba-Orija, and Others Make BBC 100 Most Inspiring Women for 2021

The BBC has released its list of 100 most inspiring and influential women from around the world for 2021. The list includes powerful women selected from a broad range of sectors including Culture & Education, Entertainment & Sports, Politics & Activism, Science, and Health. It further highlights women playing their part to reinvent our society, our culture and our world. 

Among them are two Nigerians –   Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi, an author; Oluyemi Adetiba-Orija, a criminal lawyer; and others such as Malala Yousafzai, the youngest-ever Nobel Peace Prize laureate; Fiamē Naomi Mata’afa, Samoa’s first female prime minister; and Professor Heidi J Larson, who heads The Vaccine Confidence Project.

The BBC says women from Afghanistan make up half of the 2021 list.‘ Some of them appear under pseudonyms and without photos for their own safety. This year’s list recognises the scope of their bravery and their achievements as they are forced to reset their lives.

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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi

“Let’s use this moment to start to think about health care as a human right everywhere in the world – what a person deserves simply by virtue of being alive, not when you can afford it.”

A Nigerian author and feminist, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi’s works have been translated into more than 30 languages. Her first novel, Purple Hibiscus, published in 2003, won a Commonwealth Writers’ prize and in 2013, her novel Americanah was named one of The New York Times’s top 10 books. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s landmark TED Talk in 2012, We Should All Be Feminists, started a worldwide conversation about feminism and was published as a book in 2014. She recently wrote Notes on Grief (2021), a very personal tribute to her father after his sudden death.

Oluyemi Adetiba-Orija

“For the world to be reset, we all have a role to play! Speak, advocate and support good causes, ensuring freedom and safety for the world.”

Oluyemi Adetiba-Orija is a criminal lawyer and founder of the all-women law firm Headfort Foundation, which offers pro-bono legal services. Based in Lagos, Nigeria, the four-person legal team visits prisons to help poor and wrongly detained inmates who are unable to get bail, as well as citizens enduring long pre-trial detentions (in Nigeria, those awaiting trial makeup about 70% of the prison population). Oluyemi Adetiba-Orija and her team focus on underage offenders, offering them another chance at life outside prison. Since it started operating in 2018, the foundation has provided free legal assistance to more than 125 people charged with minor offences.

We are proud of the Nigerian, African, and other women from around the world who have been recognized for their works.