What makes Americanah powerful, however, and ultimately quite devastating in parts, is its refusal to refrain from pulling punches. While immersed in this vast, sprawling book about uncomfortable, unpleasant, and often unmentioned truths about racism in 21st-century America, the acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s killer seemed a kind of judgment about America itself, the America that not-white Americans and immigrants have been telling us about America for years, decades, centuries.Īs a novelist, however, Adichie is not interested in passing judgment, which is what makes her a likeable writer. I came to the end of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s recent novel, Americanah at the same time the verdict to acquit Trayvon Martin’s killer was passed. So is decolonial love a kind of radical love? And is it possible? Not just in romance, but in friendship? Or in romantic friendships? (I want to have hope, or have the ability to imagine a time when YES is possible, but all I can think right now is, No.) Although Ifemelu’s African American experience is very different from the African-American experience, the central question that Junot asks-“Is it possible to love one’s broken-by-the-coloniality-of-power self in another broken-by-the-coloniality-of-power person?”-is I think one of the central questions of Americanah, even if it’s not consciously articulated. It’s not that Curt is an Evil American White Man it’s just that he’s an American white man. I mean, in the hands of people like Adichie, you get the point of words, but what’s the point of a reviewer’s words?īut the wonderful Sridala reminded me of this Junot Diaz interview, where he talks about decolonial love and though Americanah is about many things, the romance between Ifemelu and her white boyfriend is one of the more complex aspects of the book that really got to me. I reviewed Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah for Pop Matters awhile back, and would like to say more but writing the review exhausted me because there was so much to say and I didn’t even articulate a tenth of what I wanted to say and what’s the point of words, even.

American chimamanda ngozi adichie