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Thousands of people across social media have been posting about Nigeria's literary heritage after a journalist asked acclaimed writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie if there were any bookshops in her country.
People have tweeted about the author more than 16,000 times since the question was asked in a public interview on Thursday evening in Paris.
A response on Friday posted by Adichie on her Facebook page has drawn a further 13,000 reactions and more than a thousand comments, and been shared over 3,000 times across the social networking site.
The interview - part of the Night Of Ideas event, a French government-backed initiative - was broadcast on Twitter and Facebook by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and has been viewed nearly 38,000 times.
#NightOfIdeas : #ChimamandaNgoziAdichie launches the #NuitdesIdees at the Quai d’Orsay in Paris pscp.tv/w/1rmxPOoqLoXJN
End of Twitter post by @francediplo_EN
Journalist Caroline Broue asked Adichie if people read her books in Nigeria. Adichie replied, "They do, shockingly."
Broue then asked: "Are there any bookshops in Nigeria?"
Broue added news in France about Nigeria was dominated by stories of Boko Haram and violence, and the bookshop question was an invitation for Adichie to talk about a different aspect of her country.
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The author of Americanah and Purple Hibiscus replied: "I think it reflects very poorly on French people that you have to ask me that question.
"My books are read in Nigeria. They are studied in schools. Not just Nigeria, across the continent in Africa."
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Some people took to Twitter to provide figures on libraries and bookshops across Nigeria.
Libraries in Nigeria: universities alone account for over140, public; about 316,&several private ones built for public use. While borrowing books is easy in schl libraries, It's difficult to achieve same in the public ones.Hence that affects how we get our books&use the pub. Lib.
End of Twitter post by @hadekneeyi
Others praised the author's reply and criticised the journalist's questions, but acknowledged the "reality" of the perception of Nigeria.
A good journalist should have done the work to research Nigeria instead of expecting Chimamanda to do the work but this is the reality of how Nigeria is viewed in French media. twitter.com/ymscientist/st…
End of Twitter post by @ronkelawal
Yea we have libraries in Nigeria. Our sitting room, our balconies, our Lecture theaters, our church libraries. Yes we have libraries but mostly importantly we read. We read large and wide. Dont miss the point here. We are readers and thinkers.
End of Twitter post by @_Fraulious
Some wished to remind people of Nigeria's literary heritage, by citing writers and poets such as Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe and Ben Okri.
In 1986, Soyinka was the first African to be awarded the Nobel prize for literature. Achebe won the Man Booker International Prize in 2007, beating writers including Ian McEwan and Salman Rushide.
However, some respondents thought such writers were not being read enoughin their home country.
These days nobody really talks about Authors. How many Nigerians even still read books talk more of books by indigenous authors?
Nigerian Novelists are GREAT.There are so many new books out there that Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, Ben Okri,Sefi Atta would be extremely proud of
End of Twitter post by @MsFisayo
In her Facebook post the day after the interview, Adichie said Broue was "trying to be ironic," which had not worked, and wished that the journalist "would not be publicly pilloried."
She added: "I am a Nigerian writer whose early education was in Nigeria. It is reasonable to expect that Nigeria has at least one bookshop, since my books are read there."
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