This is why a lot of people here, when thinking of race and class, instinctively speak of “blacks and poor whites,” not “poor blacks and poor whites.” Many of Adichie’s best observations regard nuances of language. In college, the African-American joins the Black Student Union, while the American-African signs up with the African Students Association.Īdichie understands that such fine-grained differentiations don’t penetrate the minds of many Americans. In her native country, she didn’t realize she was black - she fit that description only after she landed in America.
An American-African is an African newly emigrated to the United States. She might write poetry about “Mother Africa,” but she’s pleased to be from a country that gives international aid rather than from one that receives it.
So an African-American is a black person with long generational lines in the United States, most likely with slave ancestors. “Americanah” examines blackness in America, Nigeria and Britain, but it’s also a steady-handed dissection of the universal human experience - a platitude made fresh by the accuracy of Adichie’s observations. For her, it seems no great feat to balance high-literary intentions with broad social critique. What’s the difference between an African-American and an American-African? From such a distinction springs a deep-seated discussion of race in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s third novel, “Americanah.” Adichie, born in Nigeria but now living both in her homeland and in the United States, is an extraordinarily self-aware thinker and writer, possessing the ability to lambaste society without sneering or patronizing or polemicizing.
0 kommentar(er)
