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Kalamu ya Salaam's information blog

PRI's The World
⋅ MAY 23, 2013

 

 

Race, Identity, and Good Hair:

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

on Her New Novel, ‘Americanah’

BY  
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in the Nan and Bill Harris Studios (photo: Marco Werman)

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in the Nan and Bill Harris Studios (photo: Marco Werman)

 

Bestselling Nigerian author, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie stopped by the studio recently to speak with Anchor Marco Werman about her latest novel, “Americanah.”

(Photo: Alfred A. Knopf)

It’s a classic love story with a global twist.

The main characters Obinze and Ifemelu, meet as high school kids in Nigeria.

They fall in love at first sight but then hardships in the country split them apart, continents apart.

Ifemelu forges a new life in America, coming of age as she navigates her new immigrant identity that is fraught with all sorts of revelations about race, identity and even hair.

Years later, upon returning home to Nigeria, she finds that she has become what Nigerians call an “americanah.”

Many scenes of the novel take place in a hair salon in Trenton, NJ. In our conversation, Adichie spoke about the role of hair:

Adichie also spoke about the late Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe:

Below, Adichie reads from “Americanah”

 

>via: http://www.theworld.org/2013/05/race-identity-and-good-hair-chimamanda-ngozi-adichie-on-her-new-novel-americanah/