Discussion questions for “Americanah” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

2. The novel opens in the Ivy League enclave of Princeton, New Jersey. Ifemelu likes living there because “she could pretend to be someone else, . . . someone adorned with certainty” (3). But she has to go to the largely black city of Trenton, nearby, to have her hair braided. Does this movement between cities indicate a similar split within Ifemelu? Why does she decide to return to Nigeria after thirteen years in America?

I did not think the movement between cities indicated a split within Ifemelu. It was just a reality of how difficult it can be to find a hair salon that can do African hair especially braiding in a country where the majority are non-blacks. Ifemelu decided to go back home after thirteen years because America did not feel like home. She missed Nigeria.

3. How much does your own race affect the experience of reading this or any novel? Does race affect a reader’s ability to identify or empathize with the struggles of Ifemelu and Obinze? Ifemelu writes in her blog that “black people are not supposed to be angry about racism” because their anger makes whites uncomfortable (223). Do you agree?

I found I could relate to Ifemelu especially the parts of the story in Nigeria. There were so many things that were similar to my own experiences. I think it would be hard for say an American or British to relate to Ifemelu’s or Obinze’s struggle in settling in a new country. Only someone who has had to settle in a new country would understand. Race is just difficult to address. I do not interact with many white people ( I do not have anything against people of other races but just that I have lived in countries where black people are  the majority) so I would be lying to say what they feel about racism.

4. Aunty Uju’s relationship with the General serves as an example of one mode of economic survival for a single woman: she attaches herself to a married man who supports her in return for sexual access. But Uju runs into a serious problem when the General dies and political power shifts. Why, given what you learn of Uju’s intelligence and capabilities later, do you think she chose to engage in this relationship with the General instead of remaining independent?

Knowing other people who had these kind of affairs, I think it is just an easy way to live. While it would take Uju’s peers years to be able to buy a car, any car, she instantly had a car with a driver. Everything was provided for her including helping her family.

5. Ifemelu feels that Aunty Uju is too eager to capitulate to the demands of fitting in. Uju says, “You are in a country that is not your own. You do what you have to do if you want to succeed” (120). Is Uju right in compromising her own identity to a certain extent? How is Dike affected by his mother’s struggles?

In Shona we have a proverb that says, “A prince is a servant in a foreign land.” You can not expect to fit in as you were in your own country. For most people after you arrive in a foreign country without a job, its most likely you will have to take a lower job than you had in your own. However I think you should not compromise your identity. When I first arrived in Bermuda, all the Bermudians I met would say they did not understand my accent. Which confused me because I think the Zimbabwean accent is easy to understand. I think Uju was wrong in not teaching her son Igbo which I think would have given her son an identity.

6. In the clothing shop she visits with her friend Ginika, Ifemelu notices that the clerk, when asking which of the salespeople helped her, won’t say, “Was it the black girl or the white girl?” because that would be considered a racist way to identify people. “You’re supposed to pretend that you don’t notice certain things,” Ginika tells her (128). In your opinion and experience, is this a good example of American political correctness about race? Why does Ifemelu find it curious? Do you think these attitudes differ across the United States?

I have not lived in the United States to be able to comment on this.

7. For a time, Ifemelu is a babysitter for Kimberly, a white woman who works for a charity in Africa. Adichie writes that “for a moment Ifemelu was sorry to have come from Africa, to be the reason that this beautiful woman, with her bleached teeth and bounteous hair, would have to dig deep to feel such pity, such hopelessness. She smiled brightly, hoping to make Kimberly feel better” (152). How well does Kimberly exemplify the liberal guilt that many white Americans feel toward Africa and Africans?

 I do not know.

8. Ifemelu’s experience with the tennis coach is a low point in her life. Why does she avoid being in touch with Obinze afterward (157–58)? Why doesn’t she read his letters? How do you interpret her behavior?

I think she felt ashamed of what had happened and did not want Obinze to know what had happened. Opening the letters, would only remind her that she missed Obinze.

9. In her effort to feel less like an outsider, Ifemelu begins faking an American accent. She feels triumphant when she can do it, and then feels ashamed and resolves to stop (175). Which aspects of her becoming an American are most difficult for Ifemelu as she struggles to figure out how much she will give up of her Nigerian self?

I think the most difficult is the political correctness and her accent.

10. Ifemelu realizes that naturally kinky hair is a subject worth blogging about. She notices that Michelle Obama and Beyoncé never appear in public with natural hair. Why not? “Because, you see, it’s not professional, sophisticated, whatever, it’s just not damn normal” (299). Read the blog post “A Michelle Obama Shout-Out Plus Hair as Race Metaphor” (299–300), and discuss why hair is a useful way of examining race and culture.

Africans have been straightening their hair for decades but it was only to make it look like Caucasian. I guess it was look acceptable to Caucasians and now its just what people do. All other races their hair is acceptable as is except for blacks. It is like the way that black people have been treated historically.

11. What does Ifemelu find satisfying about her relationships with Curt and Blaine? Why does she, eventually, abandon each relationship? Is it possible that she needs to be with someone Nigerian, or does she simply need to be with Obinze?

I think with both Curt and Blaine she loved the new experiences that she had with them. She abandons both relationships because they did not get the Nigerian part of her. I think she simply needed to be with Obinze.

12. Ifemelu’s blog is a venue for expressing her experience as an African immigrant and for provoking a conversation about race and migration. She says, “I discovered race in America and it fascinated me” (406). She asks, “How many other people had become black in America?” (298). Why is the blog so successful? Are there any real-life examples that you know of similar to this?

I think the blog is successful because she is honest about who she is and her experiences from an immigrants point of view.

13. Obinze goes to London, and when his visa expires he is reduced to cleaning toilets (238); eventually he is deported. On his return home, “a new sadness blanketed him, the sadness of his coming days, when he would feel the world slightly off-kilter, his vision unfocused” (286). How does his experience in London affect the decisions he makes when he gets back to Lagos? Why does he marry Kosi? How do these choices and feelings compare to Ifemelu’s?

I thin his experience in London hardens him. After going to London where life is supposed to be easier than in Nigeria, he finds it is not easy. When he comes to Nigeria, he decides to do what he has to do survive. He marries Kosi because she keeps pressuring him to do so. Obinze and Ifemelu did what they had to do to survive where they were.

14. While she is involved with Curt, Ifemelu sleeps with a younger man in her building, out of curiosity. “There was something wrong with her. She did not know what it was but there was something wrong with her. A hunger, a restlessness. An incomplete knowledge of herself. The sense of something farther away, beyond her reach” (291–92). Is this a common feeling among young women in a universal sense, or is there something more significant in Ifemelu’s restlessness? What makes hers particular, if you feel it is?

 I do not think this a common feeling among young women.

15. When reading Obinze’s conversations with Ojiugo, his now-wealthy friend who has married an EU citizen, did you get the sense that those who emigrate lose something of themselves when they enter the competitive struggle in their new culture (Chapter 24), or is it more of a struggle to maintain that former self? Does Adichie suggest that this is a necessary sacrifice? Are all of the characters who leave Nigeria (such as Emenike, Aunty Uju, Bartholomew, and Ginika) similarly compromised?

When people migrate, they are able to create a new personality completely different from what they were before. I think this is who Emenike always wanted to be but it would have been difficult for him to do so in Nigeria. Some of the characters change who they are to be able to survive.

16. Aunty Uju becomes a doctor in America but still feels the need to seek security through an alliance with Bartholomew, whom she doesn’t seem to love. Why might this be? How well does she understand what her son, Dike, is experiencing as a displaced, fatherless teenager? Why might Dike have attempted suicide?

I think she wanted the respect that is awarded to married women in many African countries. Single women are seen as promiscuous. Uju then settles for a man who is available. I do not think she understands Dike at all. Dike is American by birth but I do not think he identifies with being American. He does not know much about his father or his /Nigerian culture. I think he felt lost and led him to attempt suicide.

17. Is the United States presented in generally positive or generally negative ways in Americanah?

If you are American I think this book would sound negative but as an outsider it gives me an idea of what I could face if I ever lived in the United States.

18. The term “Americanah” is used for Nigerians who have been changed by having lived in America. Like those in the novel’s Nigerpolitan Club, they have become critical of their native land and culture: “They were sanctified, the returnees, back home with an extra gleaming layer” (408). Is the book’s title meant as a criticism of Ifemelu, or simply an accurate word for what she fears she will become (and others may think of her)?

I don’t think it is a criticism but more descriptive. However if one keeps mentioning where they have been and how much better it was there, then people will use it as a form of criticism.

19. How would you describe the qualities that Ifemelu and Obinze admire in each other? How does Adichie sustain the suspense about whether Ifemelu and Obinze will be together until the very last page? What, other than narrative suspense, might be the reason for Adichie’s choice in doing so? Would you consider their union the true homecoming, for both of them?

Obinze and Ifemelu are as different as day and night but they get each other and they make it work. Adichie takes us through Obinze’s struggle of what  would happen if he left Kosi and it almost feels like he has given up until towards the very end. I don’t think either Ifemelu or Obinze would feel happy being with other people.

20. Why is it important to have the perspective of an African writer on race in America? How does reading the story make you more alert to race, and to the cultural identifications within races and mixed races? Did this novel enlarge your own perspective, and if so, how?

For me as an African, reading the perspective of an African author, put race in words and situations that I could relate to. Like Ifemelu, most Africans don’t get to interact with other races until you leave your own country. More than race this book showed the struggle of the immigrant that is rarely shared with people when they are leaving Africa for any western country. Many Africans leave home thinking life in America or Britain is like what you see in the Sitcoms.