“I came from a country where race was not an issue; I
did not think of myself as black and I only became black when I
came to America.”
The comment is from a blog post by Ifemulu, the main character in
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah. Ifemulu, a
Nigerian, came to the United States to study and ends up staying
13 years. After setbacks and humiliations, she becomes a
well-known blogger about “American Blacks (Those Formerly Known as
Negroes) by a Non-American Black.” She gives up the blog to act on
the urge to return to Nigeria.
Ifemulu’s love, Obinze, was left behind when she went to the
States. He also tries out the West — as an illegal immigrant in
the UK. He fares miserably and ends up being deported.
Through their experiences and that of Africans they know at home
and abroad, Adichie explores myriad facets of race, identity,
migration, and displacement. The United States and Britain are
tough going for immigrants, but Nigeria isn’t a nirvana for its
native people. The military government of Ifemulu’s and Obinze’s
childhood was corrupt, the population poor; under the subsequent
democracy, cynicism and dishonesty are pervasive as people push to
get ahead.
Playing out against the political backdrops are Ifemulu’s and
Obinze’s relationships with one another and with others. In the
States, Ifemulu cuts off contact with Obinze because she is
ashamed about a debasing sexual encounter when she was desperate
for money. She has affairs with a wealthy white man and an African
American professor. Abandoned by Ifemulu, Obinze marries and
fathers a daughter. Love still burns between them when Obinze and
Ifemulu reconnect in Nigeria and have to decide whether they can
be together.
Adichie, a native Nigerian, won the 2014 National Book Critics
Circle Award for Americanah.
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