Oral Storytelling Traditions and Their Influence on the Narrative Technique of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

This study examines the influence of Igbo oral storytelling traditions on the narrative techniques employed by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in her novels Purple Hibiscus, Half of a Yellow Sun, and Americanah. Adichie occupies a central position in contemporary African literature and is frequently discussed in relation to her engagement with feminist politics, the Biafran war, and the Nigerian diaspora experience, but comparatively less undergraduate attention has been paid to the oral literary inheritance that shapes her narrative structures and voice. The study draws on oral narrative theory and applies close reading to identify formal features of Adichie's fiction that echo the conventions of Igbo storytelling, including communal narrator perspectives, the use of proverb and song as narrative punctuation, non-linear temporal organisation, and the privileging of community memory over individual heroism. The analysis focuses particularly on the framing of stories within stories in Purple Hibiscus and the choral narrative voice in Half of a Yellow Sun. Findings demonstrate that Adichie's fiction deliberately recalls the performative, audience-oriented character of oral narrative even as it works within the conventions of the English-language novel. The study argues that recognising this oral dimension enriches readings of Adichie's formal choices and resists reductive comparisons with Western literary antecedents. The research contributes to the growing body of undergraduate scholarship that situates Nigerian Anglophone fiction within its oral and vernacular literary contexts. Keywords: oral tradition, narrative technique, Chimamanda Adichie, Igbo storytelling, African fiction.