In her book Americannah, Chimamanda writes about two Nigerians, Ifemelu and Obinze, who lived and worked in the United States before returning to their native country. The first goal of this essay is to determine how Adichie's book encourages readers to reconsider how class, country, and gender interact. Second, to determine how much Ifelemu adheres to a type of feminism that is influenced by the confluence of class, gender, nationality, and race.
The author claims that "in the early years of the 17th century, the first Africans that came to the United States possessed similar legal status with the other European migrants." Both of them had jobs as housemaids on farms. However, towards the end of the 17th century henceforth, the dark-skinned Africans were demoted to slavery as a result of numerous laws introduced by the government in place at that time (Baker 13). It is at this time that race became a reality and a tool that the Africans were low, classless, and were not fit for anything but slavery. Since the discovery of racism, Africans were subjected to forced servitude since the Americans had a perception that the skin color and the texture of their hair made them hard enough to carry out hard jobs sometimes without any pay.
Gender politics interconnected with racism results in exciting but painful and stressful experiences as experienced by Ifemelu in the novel. As a female, there are politics of hair as experienced by the Nigerian lady. She has to go travel to low-income areas to get a salon that can work on her curly and hard textured hair. There were different classes of salons; low-class ones that were to attend to classless dark-skinned African women like Ifemelu, and the prestigious ones that only women with white hair could use since they were regarded to be of class. (pg. 312)
In the novel, Ifemelu’s experience reveals how race influences the social status that one occupies in the society. There exist a strong correlation between nationality and economic status of an individual. Ifemelu, a Nigerian immigrant in America, is subjected to financial pressure that makes life unfair to her. The lady faces harsh conditions that prompt her into an affair with a white man. The hopelessness she faces is a manifestation of the agony the new immigrants face. The white young man, Cart, on the other hand, took advantage of her situation and fulfilled his desires. The action depresses and disappoints Ifemelu since she had a feeling that she went against the love she had with her boyfriend, Obinze. The frustration that the experience gave the Nigerian lady made her cut links with her boyfriend, roommate, and the outside world to concentrate and give full attention to the new white boyfriend so that she can have it secure economically and socially.
Ironically, women in the novel are depicted as heterogeneous beings and can be entitled to different privileges in America irrespective of your nationality and race. On page 326 paragraph 3, Ifemelu lands herself a job in Kimberly’s house. She afterward dates Kimberly’s cousin. From this point, the lady improves in her social status as her boyfriend took her to classic trips unlike other immigrants.
In the novel, the author brings out the opportunity that associates itself with racism, nationality, and gender. Ifemelu after her frustration from breaking up with her white boyfriend Curt decides to use this as an opportunity start her racial blog known as an observation about American blacks formerly known as Negros. This blog involves various discussions such as American tribalism, Michelle Obama, and several other topics. This blog acts as a source of living to her and gives her another chance to be successful. Ifemelu succeeded in her blogging business since she was an outsider.
On page 290 of Americanah, intersectionality of gender and racism depicts itself. The page is written to juxtaposition her life in Nigeria and that in America. Whereas Nigerian university was characterized by strikes and interruptions, in America, she encounters racism. The author wants readers to understand how racism can affect a woman in a foreign country like America, where discrimination on immigrants took place. The lady’s statement on racism depicts the reality of racism in America and the interconnection with African immigrants in America. Ngozi in her novel describes that nationality of the two lovebirds in high school remains to be one, but when they both depart ways to outside western countries; they both undergo racism in these different counters. In Americanah page 334, we see Obinze being deported back to Nigeria due to the adversities he goes through in Germany even though he had transformed by making friends and getting a job. The interconnection between his class and nationality enhances his deportation. The author wants the reader to understand the fact that the interconnection between race, class, and nationality makes an immigrant face adversities in foreign countries irrespective of their gains in those nations.
The author expects readers to interpret that in Nigeria race is not an issue. Despite the gains that the Americans derive from racism, they have decided to embrace equality that tends to transcend the boundaries of different nationalists. There is a difference between Nigeria and America regarding justice, racism, and class. Ifemelu recognizes that back at home, equality has nothing to do with which race you come from but in her first days in America, this turns to be a fallacy and every good and bad thing and situation is attached to the race from where you come. She emphasized this in one of her blogs while in America, and this is captured on page 220.
“Dear Non-American Black, when you choose to come to America, you become black. Stop arguing, Stop saying I’m Jamaican or I’m Ghanaian. America doesn’t care. So what if you weren’t ‘black’ in your country? You’re in America now. We all have our moments of initiation into the Society of Former Negroes.”
The above blog was emotionally triggered by the kind of unfair treatment that the lady witnessed in America to the immigrants. Equality issue was just like a story that had no relevance and meaning to non-Americans. Chimamanda aims to ensure that readers of his novel deeply understand the interconnection between racism and equality in Nigeria and America. In Americanah 9, the author depicts the interconnection that exists between class, gender, race, and institution offering employment opportunities. Adichie explains in the novel that. The reader needs to understand the interconnection between American laws and their nationalities. The rules say that whenever anyone irrespective of your gender as long as you are an immigrant, you will face deportation back to your motherland.
In the novel, the author wants the reader to realize that in the western nations, there is a close connection between low-class African immigrants and races. From the above, the African immigrants in America end up getting less than what they expected. In americanah 35, Irene narrates how she had the colossal expectation in American university from the perception she had about America when she was back at home. Her narration shows the reader that no matter the level of IQ that you have; no comparative advantage over the other immigrants.
Furthermore, the interconnection between race gender and nationality is also evidenced in institutions. The author suggests the reader have a glimpse of institutional racism and its connection with nationality, gender, and class. Ifemelu experienced this kind of racism when she had a chance to go to a school career with hope to be recruited for the job. She gets disappointed since the recruiters became non-committal to her when they came to know of her nationality as a non-American. They argued that “they feared to hire her since if they did so, they could descend into the dark tunnel of immigration.” From this point of view, the author suggests that the reader needs to acknowledge the interconnection that institution is offering employment in America with nationality and class of the job seekers. It comes clear that non-Americans are not given equality as far as work is concerned.
Ifemelu practices aversion of feminism to a higher level as far as the Americanah novel is concerned. There exist a misinformed notion that feminism is entirely concerned with women’s rights; there is some sense of truth in this statement but what is most important is the goal of feminism. Ifemelu is a radical feminist in this novel. She walks through a desperate journey to empower herself by rejecting the roles that the society continuously bestowed on her. There are also struggles that men have to go through for them to be equally considered as women like in the case of Obinze.
Ifemelu makes a bold step of creating her blog to offer a platform for discussing issues that affect the life of immigrants especially backs from Africa. She dwells on racism, and this makes her be successful and accepted in the society since she championed the concerns of her people. The above is a bold step, and Chimamanda’s novel portrays the struggles she had to go through for her to gain self-empowerment. In Americanah 336, some African American lady called Shan expressed that Ifemelu succeeded in her blogging business because she was a complete outsider. If she could have been an American, she would not have been accorded the space to blog on an issue like racism. The above tells that Ifemulu was brave enough to take the risky path to her empowerment.
The lady also expresses the act of feminism when she decides to take advantage of the job that Kimberly gave her to entice Cart to fall in love with her. She uses this opportunity to climb the social ladder by getting a remarkable job, going to classic outings and obtaining a green card. Before this, she was doing a low-class kind of work and even could not afford herself a reputable salon.
Feminism is expressed by Ifemelu in America when she overcame her fears and started to celebrate her skin color and femininity. Through this, she gains confidence in herself and also of other people. Her radicalization attitude earned her scholarship to further her education as a way of advancing her knowledge and comes back to her motherland as an accomplished lady. In the novel, the author explains how Ifemelu had to live with the issue of breaking up with her new white boyfriend Cart. The consequences involved would be severe including losing her job and green card, but she risked it all and decided that she would live with the consequences of her actions.
In the novel, the lady takes a bold step of abandoning fake American accent and hairstyle and joins her fellow Nigerian students. As a result of this, she finds life a bit friendly since she became real to herself; this is captured on page 40. The above grant her success and relieve her of minor stress that she had to go through as a result of not being real. Ngozi expresses well in the novel that Ifemelu after completion of her purpose came back to her motherland and revived her love for the former boyfriend, Obinze. She takes the opportunity to remarry with the guy at the time when he was doing well economically. The high top up to her achievements and reveals how opportunistic she is.
The fact that Ifemelu decides to separate with her high school boyfriend, leave her motherland and goes to a foreign land where there are a lot of uncertainties and unknown circumstances. She does a feministic act by doing this and goes to America where a lot of challenges befall her.
Transnationalism and immigration play a more significant role in bringing out the message that the author needs the reader to digest. We can see transnationalism enhancing Ifemelu’s feminism. She crosses the border from Nigeria to America that is a foreign nation. Due to transnationalism, the lady gets more challenging life options abroad. Immigration is an issue that raises eyebrows in foreign countries in this model. It brings out the interconnections between different classes of individuals, their races and the gender that they belong. From the model, immigration is viewed by the Americans negatively, and they want to ensure that they remind the foreigners that they don’t belong.
In conclusion, interconnectivity between class, gender, race, and nationality forms the basis of almost all the themes in Adichie’s story. Feminism is depicted by the female character. However, a character like Obinze experience feminism in his venture in Britain. Social class is correlated with race.
References
Hewett, Heather. "Coming of age: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and the voice of the third generation." English in Africa 32.1 (2005): 73-97.
Okuyade, Ogaga. "Changing Borders and Creating Voices: Silence as Character in Chimamanda Adichie's Purple Hibiscus." Journal of Pan African Studies 2.8 (2009).
Norridge, Zoe. "Sex as Synecdoche: Intimate Languages of Violence in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Half of a Yellow Sun and Aminatta Forna's The Memory of Love." Research in African Literatures 43.2 (2012): 18-39.
Fwangyil, Gloria Ada. "A Reformist-Feminist Approach to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus." African Research Review 5.3 (2011).
