Americanah | Summary

By Summary Station

Adichie’s Americanah is an enlightening, yet educational epic, based on the lives of Ifemelu and her childhood boyfriend, Obinze. The story spans three countries, America, Nigeria and the UK, while highlighting the issue of race and the oft-romanticized view of the West. It also shines a light on the nature of corruption in Nigeria and how it affects its citizens.
Ifemelu’s childhood in Nigeria is less about race and more about survival, as well as the limitations experienced by those who live there. Adichie highlights the rampant corruption found throughout Nigerian politics, the military and in the infamous 419 schemes. This corruption, particularly in government, results in the majority of Nigerians competing for honest work, money, electricity, and food, among other things. A few “lucky” Nigerian women are able to circumvent the limitations of their class by becoming a mistress to a high-ranking general or government official. This is the case for Aunty Uju, who, being supported by a man referred to as The General, is able to secure job as a physician and live a lavish lifestyle in Dolphin Estates.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Summary Station
• Release date: Apr 17, 2016
• ISBN: 9781311174420

Summary Station

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Book preview

Part 1

Chapter One

The book begins with Ifemelu, the protagonist, making her way from Princeton to Trenton and the Mariama African Hair Braiding salon to have her hair braided. She is in the process of returning to her native country of Nigeria and has decided to return her nappy hair to the style commonly worn in Nigeria.

Ifemelu is an intelligent, opinionated woman and anonymous writer of the popular blog, Raceteenth or Various Observations about American Blacks (Those Formerly Known as Negroes) by a Non-American Black. Following her arrival in America, Ifemelu began the blog as a way to process the nuances of race in America, through her personal experiences. She writes blog posts with titles such as, "Badly-Dressed White Middle Managers from Ohio Are Not Always What You Think and Not All Dreadlocked White American Guys Are Down". She has just written her final blog post and is contemplating the two-hundred and seventy-four comments she has received in its wake. The blog had grown into something see hadn’t expected and provided a way for her to earn an income through advertising and speaking gigs.

In returning to Nigeria, Ifemelu closes her blog, and ends her relationship with Blaine, her boyfriend of three years.

Welcomed by the women of Mariama African Hair Braiding, Ifemelu sits down with Aisha to begin the long, arduous process of hair braiding.

Chapter Two

Obinze, Ifemelu’s first love, sits in his Range Rover reading an unexpected email from Ifemelu. She refers to him by his old adage, Ceiling. Following Ifemelu’s move to America, she had begun to distance herself from him to the point where they were no longer even speaking. She has sent sporadic emails since then, but this is the first where she refers to him as