Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

As teenagers in a Lagos secondary school, Ifemelu and Obinze fall in love. Their Nigeria is under military dictatorship, and people are fleeing the country if they can. Ifemelu departs for America to study. She suffers defeats and achieves triumphs, all the while feeling the weight of something she never thought of back home: race. Obinze had hoped to join her, but post-9/11 America will not let him in, and he plunges into undocumented life in Britain.

Years later, Obinze is wealthy in a newly democratic Nigeria, while Ifemelu has achieved success as a writer of an eye-opening blog about race in America. When Ifemelu decides to return home, she and Obinze will face the hardest decision of their lives.

I loved this book. It’s one of those books that makes you think differently and notice things you had never noticed before. Through her characters, Adichie expertly explores the contradictions inherent in all ways that racism can manifest, articulating them perfectly in every context.

The book opens with Ifemelu at a hair appointment, on the cusp of returning to Nigeria for the first time in 15 years. The narrative flashes forwards and backwards to that scene throughout the book whilst she explores her memories of growing up Nigeria and of her newer life in the USA.

When Ifemelu’s life in Nigeria is disrupted by military unrest, she takes an opportunity to continue her studies in Philadelphia, leaving behind her boyfriend Obinze. The USA is a huge culture shock and something that stands out to Ifemelu – which forms the basis of this book – is the way in which race and racism is handled in the USA in comparison to Nigeria. Ifemelu’s perspective on this issue is outlined in various anecdotes throughout the book but a key part of Americanah is her blog posts which set out her own observations on the matter.

First, Ifemelu finds it strange that her white colleagues and acquaintances seem to be more sensitive to the concept of racism than she is. They avoid mentioning race at all if they can help it, other than to vehemently denounce racism, but Ifemelu has no qualms describing herself as black or highlighting cultural differences between herself and her American friends. She finds that the idea of everyone being the same underneath the colour of their skin is misplaced and ignores the diversity of the human population.

On diversity, Ifemelu finds that the USA is highly diverse on the surface, with people of all kinds of nationalities and races living and working there. However, she notices that she is assumed to affiliate with her black colleagues and classmates due to also being black. Ifemelu disagrees – black Americans might have some shared experiences resulting from the remnants of the USA’s history of slavery and its consequent social hierarchy, for example, but Ifemelu has not experienced that so she lacks the shared history and affinity she is assumed to have.

Ifemelu also observes that even positive gestures can have an undercurrent of racism. For example, she encounters people who are specifically complimentary or kind to black people and she interprets this as being singled out for her skin colour. This jars with her experiences in Nigeria where, as a result of almost everyone being black, personal differences are much more noticed, in contrast to the USA where she feels that all black people seem to be grouped together as one.

Meanwhile, Obinze’s story is something of a sub-plot but explores the important topic of the difficulties in being a migrant. He has been unable to move to the USA but has made it to England where he works illegally as he does not have a National Insurance number. He is ashamed of the work he has to accept, and every day there is a risk that he will be identified and sent back to Nigeria.

Ifemelu’s experiences have obvious parallels to Adichie’s and I read this as a semi-autobiographical novel. Although some of Ifemelu’s experiences might be stereotyped, in light of the quality of Adichie’s writing I have no doubt that they are based on real experiences and are articulated honestly and clearly. Americanah made me change the way I think about race, particularly on a micro-level – so much of our world view is based on stereotypes and, actually, all Ifemelu wants is to be accepted for who she is, not who people think she should be.