Chimamanda Adichie Finally Opens Up About Son’s Death, His Cremation & Nigeria
Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has opened up about the devastating loss of her 21-month-old son, Nkanu, revealing how his death has changed her family, her experience of grief and her relationship with Nigeria.
Nkanu died in January 2026 after developing complications during medical procedures at Euracare Multi-Specialist Hospital in Lagos. Adichie and her husband, Dr Ivara Esege, have alleged medical negligence, while Euracare has denied wrongdoing. A subsequent Medical and Dental Council investigation found a prima facie case of negligence against three doctors involved in Nkanu’s care.
Speaking to The New York Times, Adichie recalled that Nkanu was given Propofol for an MRI before suffering cardiac arrest. She said a doctor later told her, “Well, look, they gave him too much Propofol” — words she said she would never forget. The family has also alleged that they were not properly informed about the seriousness of his condition or exactly when he died.
At home, reminders of Nkanu remain everywhere. His highchair still sits beside his twin brother’s at the dining table, while his clothes remain folded in his room. Adichie said she sometimes adds two of the same outfits to her online shopping cart before remembering that she now needs only one.
The couple also chose to cremate Nkanu rather than hold another funeral. Having already experienced the deaths of Adichie’s parents and Esege’s brother, they felt unable to go through another funeral. Adichie recalled asking her husband the day after Nkanu died, “Do we have to have another funeral?” They decided to cremate him and keep him with them because, as she put it, “we can’t leave him behind.”
That decision has since become part of the legal dispute surrounding the coroner’s inquest into Nkanu’s death, with Euracare challenging the proceedings partly because the child had been cremated before the inquest began.
For Adichie, grief has also become a physical experience. She described feeling it in her stomach and chest, alongside an overwhelming exhaustion. But as a mother, she said she cannot fully surrender to her grief because she still has to care for her children and protect them emotionally.
Perhaps most strikingly, Nkanu’s death has changed how Adichie feels about Nigeria. The country had long been a second home for her family, where they spent Christmases, Easter and summers. Her daughter still considers Nigeria her “happy place”, and Adichie has often credited Nigeria with giving her the experiences that shaped her as a writer.
But that relationship has now been deeply altered.
“My feelings toward Nigeria have changed,” she said.
When asked whether Nigeria was still where she felt she belonged, Adichie gave an answer that captured the depth of that change: “I do not want to go back to Nigeria.”
For a writer who has long described Nigeria as home, the statement reflects how profoundly the loss of her son has reshaped not only her life, but her relationship with the country itself.
