Chika Unigwe

Chika Nina Unigwe (born 12 June 1974) is a Nigerian born Igbo author who writes in English and Dutch. In April 2014 she was selected for the Hay Festival's Africa39 list of 39 Sub-Saharan African writers aged under 40 with potential and talent to define future trends in African literature. Previously based in Belgium, she now lives in the United States.

Night Dancer (2011)

 * There is no Muslim Nigeria and no Christian Nigeria. There is only one indivisible Nigeria. Kaduna belongs to all Nigerians. No religion endorses violence or gratuitous cruelty. Regrettably, some undesirable elements have incited these ugly clashes and those elements will be fished out and properly punished.


 * People who are quick to pay compliments, baby-baby, are also quick to withdraw them.


 * Blood is thicker than water, you hear. Ha! Let me tell you, some blood flows thinner. And some water is as thick as sludge.


 * S is for sins. What is a sin? At Catechism, she was taught to repeat, 'Sin is an offence against reason, truth and right conscience.' But she could not tell what sins she was supposed to be atoning for. What were her mother's sins? Mma swallowed all the words she wanted to say and started eating the food she no longer tasted.


 * S is for sir. It's what you called your father if you'd never lived with him. If you did not know where his medication box was. If you did not even know what he was taking medication for. No, sir. Yes, sir. S is for strangers multiplied by five. Ten eyes watching her, sizing her up, maybe wondering what she was doing there. What was she doing here? And all this talk of tradition, which had pushed her mother away in the first place. Roll. Dip. Swallow. She had met her father.
 * A parent never apologises, even if he regrets his actions. It is the child who should apologise.
 * Sometimes in life, we have to take a stand. It does not help to sit on the fence, even if we have to hurt the people we love-love. That is what I want you to remember. If I have taught you anything, I want it to be that.
 * You children, you forget that no matter how high the okra tree grows, it's never mightier than the hand that planted it.
 * No matter the size of your husband's penis, no other woman should know it.
 * People who are quick to pay compliments, baby-baby, are also quick to withdraw them.
 * It is not the thing that we fear the most that crushes us but that which we have failed to fear.
 * Determination makes one impervious to pain.

On black sisters street (2007)

 * Never give up if your heart and your head tell you are right. People can disappoint you, but your heart and your head will never. Make them your best friends.
 * Life is like a set of false teeth. The world sees what you show it: Clean teeth wey white like Colgate. But you know for inside dat your real teet' don rot finish!