AMERICANAH | CHIMAMANDE NGOZI ADICHE

Thus it is the bounden duty of black America to begin this great work of the creation of Beauty, of the preservation of Beauty, of the realization of Beauty…First of all he has used the Truth – not for the sake of truth, not as a scientist seeking truth, but as one upon whom Truth eternally thrusts itself as the highest handmaid of imagination, the one great vehicle of universal understanding.

-Francis Dubois

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Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche’s Americanah is a novel which does not shy away from the truth. It tells a harrowing truth about what it means to be Black in 21st Century America and Britain. She covers so much in her discussion of the truth through a wide array of topics, race being the prominent theme, but also successfully renders an exploration into the definitions of beauty, identity, race, relationships, privilege, migration and love.

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The book centres upon two characters, Ifemulu, a young Nigerian woman who immigrates to America to attend university, and Obinze, her high school sweetheart who moves to London seeking opportunity, after being denied a visa to the US. Their differing experiences abroad stand side by side as the novel takes on an alternating narrative structure. At the crux of the novel is the the lived experience of migration, and the consequences of dislocation, Obinze’s thought at a dinner party of an old friend summarises the condition succinctly, ‘they would not understand why people like him who were raised well-fed and watered but wired in dissatisfaction from birth to look towards somewhere else…’ Their Nigerian middle-class upbringing, which entailed education, evangelic Christianity, and the romanticized view of the West through their mutual love of English classics, is punctured by their experience of life in the West.

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I personally enjoyed Ifemelu’s chapters more than Obinze’s but I’m unsure if that is a personal thing with me being able to relate more to her experience. Adiche’s prose is gorgeous, witty and lyrical, and is strongest in articulation in Ifemulu’s chapters, specifically in the excerpts of Ifemulu’s blog: “Raceteenth or Various Observations About American Blacks (Those Formerly Known as Negroes) by a Non-American Black.

A standout blogpost extract titled “ Friendly Tips for the American Non-Black: How to React to an American Black Talking about Blackness”, articulates the hardships of dialogue around race, ‘Don’t say “Oh it’s not really race, it’s class. Oh it’s not race, it’s gender. Oh it’s not race it’s the cookie monster.” You see American Blacks actually don’t WANT it to be race. They would rather not have racist shit happen. So maybe when they say something is about race, it’s maybe because it actually is?” Some friendly and wise advice, but also witty prose. It is in these blog posts that Ifemelu is able to work through her first experience of racism as a Black person in America, in these blogposts she highlights her experience of chemically relaxing her afro hair in order to fit into societal constructs of beauty, and also to impress her white lover. Ifemelu’s story is very much a bildungsroman as she navigates her becoming, and discovery of sexuality through her relationship with Curt – which enlightens the reader to the intricacies of a bi-racial relationship, and her love affair with Blaine which showcases the highs and pitfalls of at times arbitrary political correctness and “woke”-ness.

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Beyond race, the novel is about self-invention and reinvention, as the title suggests. Ifemulu is called Americanah as she returns home, as her family and friends recognise her changed personality. It can be deduced that the novel isn’t about becoming American, but what the repercussions are of the experience of being an immigrant and coming home. Furthermore, throughout the novel Adiche addresses a prominent irony, that of a Nigeria which is critical of Americanisms which devalues their culture, whilst at the same time, endorses foreign values.

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Adiche strives for authenticity as she explores identity, through layers of culture, politics, and nation. She successfully exhibits a fictional story with an undeniable resonance of the reality of what it means to be a Black woman or man, in an imperially white-centric world, which is progressing, but still has far to go, this book exposes the little and many ways in which society is still ignorant and at times backwards. The book motivates the reader to think of immigration and the lived experience of migrants in a different way, to go beyond appearances, hearsays, stereotypes and status quo, but to see them as people with a story to tell, worth listening to. As Dubois suggests she uses the truth, not for the sake of truth…but as one upon whom Truth eternally thrusts itself as the highest handmaid of imagination, the one great vehicle of universal understanding.

Rating: 8/10