Americanah

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Before I start this piece, I want to ask you a question: when was the last time you read a book for fun? If you’re like me, that was this afternoon (I’m reading A Moveable Feast by Hemingway - he was quite the misogynist), but it can be really hard to motivate ourselves to pick up any form of writing. Extracurriculars, homework, and busy social lives can leave us little to no time to relax at all, nonetheless with a novel. However, as young feminists the importance of reading books that spread our message cannot be stressed enough (and doing the opposite is unfortunately necessary as well). So, even if you don’t have enough time to read more than 15 minutes a day, I’m here to tell you about a book that will open your eyes and truly change your life. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah is a poignant and moving book that will leave you feeling educated, loved, and proud to be a feminist.

We are part of a movement that has truly evolved. It is no secret that when the Feminist movement first began, it was not inclusive. Women of color, members of the LGBTQIA+ community, sex workers, and basically all women that weren’t white and rich were denied any say in what was going on. It has been a long road coming, and we still have a long road in front of us. This basically means that most celebrated ‘feminist’ literature, although important, is very exclusive and unfulfilling of the modern goals of the movement. However Americanah describes the story of a complex African woman that has to take on many new struggles as she moves to New Jersey. It’s already making huge waves, winning the National Book Critics Circle Award, becoming a national bestseller, and being named one of the best 10 books of the year by the New York Times.

The novel tells the story of a Nigerian woman who moves to America for school and how this impacts her feelings about race and love. As our feminism continues to grow to be more inclusive of WoC this is an extremely important narrative. Throughout her stay in America, the protagonist keeps a blog running about her struggle as a black woman (since she comes from a place where race was never a word that she knew). The blog posts featured in the chapters of the book provide amazing insight and are extremely educational about some important topics regarding race such as reverse racism, cultural appropriation, and sex work. The entire book is extremely educational, subliminally, which is perhaps why it is so important and capturing.

Many of us are in high school (I’m a sophomore), and as our education often places emphasis on the western world and western literature, it is extremely thought-provoking (and important) to read a book that bridges our world with one most of us haven’t been exposed to in our studies already.

The protagonist, Ifemelu, is a self-aware and straightforward woman and her uneasy perception of the world creates a book that is interesting to read, instead of gritty and with pages that feel heavy with this-is-starting-to-feel-like-a-chore syndrome (this often happens in novels regarding race). She is truly a person I wish existed to help our fight continue, involuntarily she becomes a huge feminist role model for anyone reading the novel. The author, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a world-renowned Nigerian writer. She has put out multiple books, and also gave a TedTalk about feminism that was made into an essay called “We Should All Be Feminists”. She is truly becoming an icon for intersectional feminism through her writing and activism. Adichie writes with unparalleled eloquence and beauty despite talking about some uncomfortable (but necessary) issues such as racism, depression, classism and sex work. This is so extremely uncommon that reading her work feels like jumping into a cold pool; it is both reviving and an experience like nothing I have ever felt. It is something you remember long after you read her last words. Pick up a copy at any local bookshop - you’ll be hooked!