Yes, there's a problem with gender as it is today, and we must fix it, we must do better.

She wanted to ask him why they were all strangers who shared the same last name.

If I had not grown up in Nigeria- and if all I knew of Africa were of popular images- I too would think that africa was a place of beautiful landscapes, beautiful animals and incomprehensible people fighting sensless wars, dying of poverty and aids- unable to speak for themselves and waiting to be saved by a kind white foreigner.

Perhaps it is time to debate culture. The common story is that in "real" African culture, before it was tainted by the west, gender roles were rigid and women were contentedly oppressed.

I think you travel to search and you come back home to find yourself there.

The best novels are those that are important without being like medicine; they have something to say, are expansive and intelligent but never forget to be entertaining and to have character and emotion at their centre.

We teach girls to shrink themselves, to make themselves smaller. We say to girls 'You can have ambition, but not too much'.