Americanah

Hello HElloooooooooo ! 

For those who still have some  time to read ( in english of coursee) I recommend a novel I discovered this summer thanks to Mr. Leah :p This novel is called Americanah and was written by the Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie! enjoooooy !

What’s the difference between an African-American and an American-African? The New-York Times

This novel is Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's third novel. Adichie is a woman, born in Nigeria and living both in Nigeria and in the United States just like her main character Ifemelu.

Through her book Adichie describes how it is to be black in America, in Nigeria and in England but also describes how it is to be a human and particularly a woman in these societies .

Nigeria is under military dictatorship and people try to leave the country. As a teenager Ifemelu leaves Nigeria and her first love Obinze to go and study in America .

In America Ifemulu discovers something she had never heard of back in Nigeria, the concept of race. Ifemelu is now black and is an African-American, freshly arrived from Nigeria .

In the novel Adichie explains that in college “the African-American join the Black Student Union, while the American-African sign up with the African Students Association”.

Coming back to Ifemelu arriving to the United Sates, she starts a blog entitled “Raceteenth or Various Observations About American Blacks (Those Formerly Known as Negroes) by a Non-American Black” and wins a fellowship at Princeton which leads her to discover the difference between African-American and American-African . In the meantime Obinze, her love , outstays his visa and takes illegal jobs in London. The novel is also about immigration , a new kind of immigration “raised well fed and watered but mired in dissatisfaction.”

Ifemelu and Obinze are not flying war, fear or starvation , they are flying the lack of possibilities ,“the oppressive lethargy of choicelessness.”

Years later Ifemelu decides to return home to the displeasure of her family who does not understand why she would leave America. “At least you are now an American citizen , so you can always return to Nigeria” her father said. When she arrives she meets Obinze who is now wealthy in a new democratic Nigeria.

The novel descibes their love story and the differences other cultures created between them.

I loved this book as much as I loved Purple Hibiscus . This is about race and racism, natural hair and braids , African-American and American-African, leaving home and returning , love and family and women and men .

I also loved the simple writing that gives to the novel an other aspect of reality and makes it a testimony more than a simple fiction .