Wednesday 17 June 2015

Americanah - by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie




"Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s style isn’t to rant or preach, but her message is powerful and profound. The Nigerian based writer tells engaging and hilarious stories of her own experiences relating to race and gender in a way that blows the cover on the double standards we still live amongst today." -  Riposte.

•••

It started with a TED talk, followed by another TED talk, and bam, I was enamoured with Chimamanda. She owns her style, she's a brilliant mind, and now that I've finished devoured Americanah, I want to read everything she's ever written.

Want to be inspired? Watch her in action:


In my world, there are three types of books:

• those I read and then give away because I know I'll never read them again.
• those I treasure and take great care of.
• those I devour. In that case, I end up turning the corner of pages I want to read over and over again.

Here are two pages I loved in Americanah:

Hispanic means the frequent companions of American blacks in poverty ranking, Hispanic means a slight step above American blacks in the American race ladder, Hispanic means the chocolate-skinned woman from Peru, Hispanic means the indigenous people of Mexico. Hispanic means the biracial-looking folks from the Dominican Republic. Hispanic means the paler folks from Puerto Rico. Hispanic also means the blond, blue-eyed guy from Argentina. All you need to be is Spanish-speaking but not from Spain and voilà, you’re a race called Hispanic. 

When I started in real estate, I considered renovating old houses instead of tearing them down, but it didn’t make sense. Nigerians don’t buy houses because they’re old. A renovated two-hundred-year-old mill granary, you know, the kind of things Europeans like. It doesn’t work here at all. But of course it makes sense because we are Thrid Worlders and Third Worlders are forward-thinking, we like things ot be new, because our best is still ahead, while in the West their best is already past and so they have to make a fetish of that past.

•••

Book recommendation? Hit the comment section!