The Immigrant Experiences of Africans in Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie’s Americanah

Abstract

This paper aims at portraying the challenging experiences of African immigrants in Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie’s Americanah who often feel a sense of alienation in their host country due to racism, socio-economic, and cultural exclusion among others factors. The West has a narrow-minded perspective of African migrants as basically people seeking a better life away from the diverse miseries of their homelands such as poverty, conflicts, wars, and many others. As such, these immigrants are often expected to be deeply grateful for being allowed in a Western so-called developed country. Through content analysis, the paper uses postcolonial theory based on the criticisms of Edward Said, Homi Bhabha, and Frantz Fanon among others to analyse the shift of contemporary African literature from a theme of anti-imperialism to the exposition of contemporary, transnational and multicultural issues as reflected in Americanah. Adichie in this text explores different cultures of United States, England, and Nigeria from an African perspective, identifying the Western culture as the “Other”, criticizing Western standards and stereotypes about Africa. The paper finds out that most Africans leave their homelands for foreign lands because they have dreams and want better opportunities for themselves in which case, they may or may not succeed. They however, realise that life out of Africa is not as rosy as envisaged as many encounter difficulties adjusting to a new culture and abode. Those who have not been able to realise their dreams are caught between the mirage of either returning home or remaining there as slaves. The findings also illustrate that race is a hegemonic, normative, American social construction that is engrained in the American society; the reason most of the African immigrants are yoked with frustrations because of the racist culture in which they find themselves.