Self-actualization occurs when a person utilizes his/her potentials, doing the best that you are capable of doing. It is a fulfilled desire of a person who has struggled to maximize his/her talents.
There are certain characteristics that self-actualized people display.

 It takes a lot of diligent efforts before a person can be acceptably called “self-actualized” person. A self-actualized person accepts the unknown and works even when he hardly have an idea of what the result would be. He does not get cowered in midst of challenges. They do not pin their hope on the familiar.


Self-actualized people also have purpose in every second of their life. They are simple motivated by growth. They struggle to grow to perfection and to develop more.  They set their head above waters to actualize satisfaction even when others are giving up in their quest.


There are numerous self-actualized people who have really made a feat with their different potentials. They include great scholars like late Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Ben Okri, Christopher Okigbo, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie etc. In this case, I will like to use Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (CNA) as an example of an effusive self-actualized person.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a Nigerian Novelist, non-fiction writer, short story writer, and actress. Her prolific writing skills had brought her the title “the most prominent” of a “procession of critically claimed young Anglophone authors that is succeeding in a attracting a new generation of readers to African literature”.

 Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was born to Igbo parents Grace Ifeoma and James Adichie on 15th September 1977 in Enugu, Nigeria. She is a native of Abba in Anambra State. She completed her tertiary education at University of Nigeria. At 19, she got a scholarship to study communications and political science at Drexel University in Philadelphia, USA.

Chimamanda has received a lot of awards. She received a Bachelor’s Degree from Eastern connecticut, with the distinction of summa cum laude in 2001, and in 2003, she completed a Master’s Degree in creative writing at John’s Hopkins University later in 2008, she received a Master of Arts Degree in African studies from Yale University.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has been a shining armour right from a young age. She began writing at the age of ten. She was inspired to start writing after reading Chinua Achebe’s book, “things fall apart”.

Chimamanda who currently lives in United States usually organizes writing workshops in order to give back to Nigeria. she is the author of three novels, purple Hibiscus (2003), Half of a yellow sun (2006) and Americana (2009). She has written a short story titled “the things around the neck” (2009). Her works has been translated into thirty languages and has appeared in various publications, including The New Yorker Granta, The O. Henry Prize Stories, The Financial Time and Zoetrope.

Her novel, Purple Hibiscus won the common wealth writer’s prize and Half of a yellow sun won the orange prize and became a National Book critics circle award finalist. Her latest novel Americana was published around 2013, and has received numerous accolades. She has won the National Book critics circle Award for fiction and Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize for Fiction. Chimamanda greatest strength and skills are her ability to create characters. She is in fact, a creator of characters.

There are many other contributions of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie which are so spectacular. She is a GBTQ rights activists. She has severally campaigned for them in her country and beyond. In 2015, she was listed as one of the 100 most influential people by the time magazine. Adichie’s feminist tall and 2012 commonwealth lecture on “connecting culture” gave rise to the awareness of women’s emancipation.

She always says “I realized that people who looked like me could live in books”. She has been writing about the Nigerian experience throughout her career. She asserts her rights boldly without any fear. One excellent features of Chimamanda is her frequent use of her local dialect Igbo both in her write ups and speech. She believes that the local language of a person should not go into extinction anywhere seen.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is really an embodiment of self-actualization. She is a literary icon who has utilized her potential in every ramification. Nigeria has a lot of self-actualized personalities indeed. Every young Nigerian writers look up to her for inspiration. She has really inspired a lot of people through her excellence.