Chimamanda's “Americanah Mirror”

According to Vanguard, US based Nigeria born writer, Chimamanda Ngozi-Adichie, defended her intelligence and how well informed she is about her home country, despite residing abroad, during the unveiling of her new novel, 'Americanah', in the presence of her fans and book lovers last weekend at Terra Kulture, Lagos.
For the celebrated writer, life outside Nigeria has helped her a great deal but surprisingly, she has refused to be carried away by westernisation just as some of her colleagues have.

While Chimamanda continues to dole out bestselling works from the States, nothing seems to be separating her from identifying herself with African cultures, be it in her manner of dressing and speaking. She earned for herself, additional admirers as she fielded questions from the audience during the event.

Americanah, published by Farafina, is coming shortly after the release of her collection of short stories, titled, The Thing Around Your Neck, which comes as a bridge between Americana and her award-winning Half of a Yellow Sun.

The title Americanah, “comes from the word Nigerians use for those who have left the country for the US and become "Americanised"-a borderline insult. Adichie's heroine Ifemelu is surprised to find the term applied to her when she returns home after 15 years in the US.

Especially since she's always felt ambivalent about America: the country not only separated her from her teenaged love, Obinze, who had his visa denied, it also made her truly conscious of race for the first time. But upon her return, she and Obinze are reunited and must see how their very different expatriate pasts affect both their relationship and their lives in a newly independent Nigeria."

It was highly reassuring for her fans, during the book presentation, to hear her declare her love for Nigeria as she indicated that 'ours is ours and mine is mine’; a statement by a character in Chinua Achebe's No Longer at Ease. According to her, "I have been published outside the country. But it is good to be home. The readership that matters most to me is the Nigerian readership."

The simple but brilliant writer also explained that Americanah is about some factors that define the existence of so many young Nigerians who have left the country in search of greener pastures in foreign lands only to come back several years later.

Though it was not easy getting past Tolu Ogunlesi's prying questions in relation to her personality, ideologyand vision, Adiche smartly gave a befitting answer to them all. "I am interested in ideas. I borrow a lot from my life. But to be a novelist and write good fiction, you have to stand one step away, you are not participating fully," was her modest answer to the question of whether she is not in any way, exploiting a character in Americana, Ifemelu, in her narrative of her own 'exile' story.

The use of the word exile, did not go down well as she protested each time it came up during the course of conversation with the anchor, Tolu Ogunlesi. She however, explained that there is usually a semblance between she and her characters but maintained that there is a "meaningful and professional distance between her and Ifemelu".

The manner in which Chimamanda made her explanations which were spiced several times with humour, earned her deafening applause from the enthusiastic audience. The show however took another turn when the winner of Big Brother Africa, Ebuka, who could not hide his love for Adichie's works, after commending her, asked if she could write in her mother tongue, Igbo.

Chimamanda at this juncture, could not help throwing back the same question to Ebuka, though humorously. she further pointed out that books written in indigenous languages may end up being read by no one or very few people, due to the fact that the number of individuals who speak these languages have drastically reduced, stressing that the Nigeria education system which upholds the don't-speak-vernacular syndrome, has made matters worse.