Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (1977, Enugu,

Nigeria)
NIGERIA is on the western coast of Africa. Hundreds of languages are spoken in
this country (Yoruba, Igbo, Fula, Edo, Hausa, Ibibio, Tiv and English.) It is a country of
abundant natural resources, notably large deposits of petroleum and natural gas. The national
capital is Abuja. Lagos, the former capital, retains its standing as the country’s leading
commercial and industrial city.
Modern Nigeria dates from 1914, when the british Protectorates of Northern and
Southern Nigeria were joined. The country became independent on October 1, 1960, and in
1963 adopted a republican constitution but elected to stay a member of the Commonwealth.
Important cities mentioned in her stories: Enugu, Lagos, Abuja…

● History of Nigeria
- circa 800 BC - Jos plateau settled by Nok - a neolithic and iron age civilizations.
- circa 11th century onwards - Formation of city states, kingdoms and empires,
including Hausa kingdoms and Borno dynasty in north, Oyo and Benin kingdoms in
south.
- 1472 - Portuguese navigators reach Nigerian coast.
- 16-18th centuries - Slave trade sees Nigerians forcibly sent to the Americas.
- 1809 - Islamic Sokoto caliphate is founded in north.
- 1850s - British establish presence around Lagos.
- 1861-1914 - Britain consolidates its hold over what it calls the Colony and
Protectorate of Nigeria, governs through local leaders.
- 1922 - Part of former German colony Kamerun is added to Nigeria under League of
Nations mandate.
- 1960 – Independence.
- 1993 November: Gen Sani Abacha seizes power, suppresses opposition.
- 1995 - Ken Saro-Wiwa, writer and campaigner against oil industry damage to his
Ogoni homeland, is executed following a hasty trial. In protest, European Union
imposes sanctions until 1998, Commonwealth suspends Nigeria’s membership until
1998.
- 2000 - Adoption of Islamic Sharia law by several northern states in the face of
opposition from Christians. Tension over the issue results in hundreds of death in
clashes between Christians and Muslims.

○ Biafra War.
Biafra is a secessionist western African state that unilaterally declared its
independence from Nigeria in May 1967. It constituted the former Eastern Region of Nigeria
and was inhabited principally by Igbo (Ibo) people. Biafra ceased to exist as an independent
state in January 1970.
 In the mid-1960s economic and political instability and ethnic friction characterized
Nigerian public life. In the mostly Hausa north, resentment against the more prosperous,
educated Igbo minority erupted into violence. In September 1966, some 10,000 to 30,000
Igbo people were massacred in the Northern Region, and perhaps 1,000,000 fled as refugees
to the Igbo-dominated east. Non-Igbos were the expelled from the Eastern Region.
Colonizers bring many different ethnicities together, which causes that, as soon as
they leave, the different ethnicities start to rebel against each other, declare independence…
war.

● Nigerian Culture.
Nigeria artistic heritage: naturalistic statues produced at Ife; the bronzes made for the
king of Benin. The terra-cotta figurines of the nok are some of the earliest statues in existence
from sub-Saharan Africa. Ekpe masks and ikenga (personal shrines) from sub-Saharan
Africa. Ekpe masks and ikenga (personal shrines) from the Igbo in eastern Nigeria and ibeji
(twin) sculptures from the Yoruba in western Nigeria are just three examples of the art
produced in pre-colonial Nigeria.
Nigerian literature is known throughout the world. Wole Soyinka, who won the 1986
Nobel Prize for Literature, was the first black African to receive the award. Other Nigerian
writers with a worldwide audience include Chinua Achebe, Buchi Emecheta, Flora Nwapa,
Amos Tutuola, Gabriel Okara, Kole Omotoso, John Pepper Clark, Ben Okri, and
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was a voracious reader from a young age, she
found Things Fall Apart by novelist and fellow Igbo Chinua Achebe transformative. After
studying medicine for a time in Nsukka, in 1997 she left for the US, where she studied
communication and political science at Eastern Connecticut State University. Thus, she split
her time between Nigeria and the US, she received a master’s degree in creative writing from
Johns Hopkins University and studied African history at Yale University.
Her work has drawn extensively on the Biafran war in Nigeria during the late 1960s.
Early in the life Adichie, the fifth of six children, moved with her parents to Nsukka, Nigeria.
Nsukka, university town, Enugu state, southern Nigeria. Nsukka is an agricultural-trade
centre for the yams, cassava (manioc), corn (maize), taro, pigeon peas, and palm oil and
kernels produced by the local Igbo (Ibo) people. Weaving is a traditional local craft. Coal
deposits have been discovered east of Nsukka around Obolo. Nsukka is the site of the
University of Nigeria (1960), the first university established in Nigeria after independence.
Pop. (2006) local government area, 309,633.
In 1998, Adichie’s play For Love of Biafra was published in Nigeria. It was among
the earliest works in which she explored the war in the late 1960s between Nigeria and its
secessionist Biafra republic. She later wrote several short stories about that conflict, which
would become the subject of her highly successful novel Half of a Yellow Sun (2006.)
As a student at Eastern Connecticut State University, she began writing her first novel
Purple Hibiscus (2003). Set in Nigeria, it is the coming-of-age story of Kambili, a 15-
year-old whose family is wealthy and well respected but who is terrorized by her fanatically
religious father.
Half of a Yellow Sun (2006) was Adichie’s second novel and it was built primarily on
the experiences of her parents during the Nigeria-Biafra war. The result was an epic novel
that vividly depicted the savagery of the war (which resulted in the displacement and deaths
of perhaps a million people) but did so by focusing on a small group of characters, mostly
middle-class Africans.
Americanah (2013) centres on the romantic and existential struggles of a young
Nigerian woman studying (and blogging about race) in the United States.

● POSTCOLONIAL ISSUES IN ADICHIE’S SHORT FICTION.

○ Pre-colonial cultures: nativism (idealization of the precolonial condition). For example,
in Imitation we see the Benin masks and the terracotta issue and we notice how different
characters react differently to them. Nkem seems to value the precolonial artistic
manifestation but he uses them to, somehow, construct his anti-colonial discourse. Thus,
he talks about and attacks the british exploitation of this art. However, what are they (the
American art collectors) doing with this art? Taking it to America and exposing it in
western museums. On the other hand, the wife has a different relation with the masks,
she is always presented as looking at the masks: she sees quite critical with the masks
and does not rely on her husband’s opinion. Somehow, it is as she was looking at herself
in the mask, she sees herself as an imitation mask, only used for decoration. Then, she
pays more attention to a specific aspect of the pre-colonial situation that we understand
as going against nativism, which is that they made human sacrifices. Here we have two
different attitudes to the pre-colonial situation: from idealization and political
appropriation to criticism.
○ Colonization: military occupation of Nigeria by the British, expoliation of art (seen in
Imitation), Christianization of part of the population, imposition of English, forced union
of regions with different ethnic, linguistic and religious identities.
■ For example, in A Private Experience, we have a very good example of the ethnic
problems caused by colonization (hausas from the north -Muslims- vs. the Igbos from
the south -Christians-). Here, two women from two different ethnic groups help and
understand each other in a very dramatic situation such as a riot.
■ In Imitation, we he talks about the exploitation of art, he says that it has been extracted
during the Punitive Expeditions (late 1800s). Moreover, the British (among many others
like the Spanish when they colonized Morocco) used the concept of pacification to talk
about the military occupation of other territories to exploit their resources.
■ The issue of diglossia is also really interesting in these stories: when do the characters
use English and when Ibo (the vernacular) on purpose? For Adichie, being understood is
a priority, that is why she usually cleverly provides the english translation to the
vernacular expressions used in her stories.
○ Colonial discourse: superiority of the white race, culture and way of life, euphemistic
language to disguise the oppression.
■ For example, even if their are black, in most of these stories they would value the lighter
black skin, they would consider it more beautiful. We see that in Cell One, when the
narrator (the sister) who is dark skinned explains that everyone value her brother’s lighter
skin (interiorization of the colonial discourse). Moreover, they watch western tv
programs, western films, eat western food… usually they consume western mass culture,
not high culture.
○ Resistance to colonization: anti-colonialism (accounts of the past).
○ Effects of colonization on post-colonial Nigeria:
■ Civil War (Biafra 1967-1970). For example, in Ghosts we see very clearly the whole
political dialogue between Ikenna and James, what they did after the war: both of them
left the war. Thus, the protagonist, James, seems to accuse Ikenna of treason, of leaving
his country during the war.
■ Dictatorship that steal the country’s wealth (Nigeria’s oil and gas) and neo-colonialism
(continued exploitation of the ex-colony’s natural resources); corruption. Why do many
countries, after the independence, become dictatorships? The amount of corruption at all
levels is very surprising, everybody is part of that system of corruption. For example, in
Ghosts, when they are talking about the new headmaster of the university, the mention of
teachers giving higher marks when they receive and envelope… Also, the violence and
police brutality seen in Cell One is a very good example of dictatorship and corruption.
■ Social conflicts between ethnic groups (Muslim, poor, northern, Hausas and Christian,
richer and southern Igbos.)
■ Linguistic conflict: diglossia (characters’ use of English and vernacular African language
in different situations and for different purposes).
○ Hegemony: (domination by consent) consumerism of Western products; desire to leave
Nigeria and live in the USA (expatriates -rich- vs. emigrants -poor-). This is very
obvious in nowadays Nigeria, however, London is no longer the metropolis, the US is
since many nigerian people go there looking for a job to improve their living conditions
significantly.
○ Mimicry: social behaviours that imitates those of the colonizer or other Western countries
(e.g clothes) Mimicry is not the same as hegemony. In one of the stories, we see an Igbo
woman wearing a shirt with the statue of liberty on it.
○ Hybridity: mixed identity (Western and African); e.g language. Transnational identities:
effects on gender and class relations, lack of belonging. Could this concept overlap the
concepts of hegemony and/or mimicry? It is possible because someone that mimics
someone is, somehow, a hybrid. In the case of mimicry, we see in Adichie’s stories the
transnational identities as most of the characters still have family in Nigeria so they go
back to their home country but they no longer feel like they belong anywhere, not to
Nigeria and definitely not to America. (We also see this in the poem Daughters of Colony
by Eavan Boland - anglo-irish.)
 ● The Thing Around Your Neck, 2009. when analysing stories, always explain
the colonization in that specific country, the colonizing past, their current situation…
that is, establish the context.

○ “CELL ONE”.
The title is an enigma for us already, it generates intrigue about what happens in this
place. The protagonist of the story is the narrator’s brother and he undergoes the experience
of maturity (bildungsroman - which mean ‘maturity novel’ in german.)
The main themes of the story are violence, police corruption and brutality, passage
from irresponsibility to solidarity and family network/life. The narrator is the protagonist's
sister, as we have said, and she denounces the other characters’ self-deception. The story
takes place in several nigerian cities such as Mbaise, Enugu and Nsukka camps during three
years.
Moreover, the characters are from a middle-class African family, which is very
common in Adichie’s stories because it is what she knows.
- Plot: from ironic detachment (she is really ironic when describing her family) to suspense
about a life-or-death situation (when the brother is transferred into another prison). As for
closure (all the enigmas have been solved), in this story we do not have it because in the
very last paragraph, the narrator tells us that the brother will not say anything about what
happened there (silence, the enigma is still open).
- Narrator: protagonist’s sister (irony); she denounces the other characters’ self-deception.
The narrator is actually a participant in the action. Her attitude is one of mainly irony
throughout the story, she is very critical with the family until the moment of climax, when
she will change together with his brother.
- Places: Enugu, Nsukka campus. Where the family lives, the father is a professor at Nsukka
university, the capital is Enugu.
- Time: 3 years (from the brother’s first thefts to his imprisonment and release). Time is
needed for a character transformation.
- Characters: middle-class African family. she very often focuses on middle class African
people because that is the class she knows better
- Post-colonial aspects: Hegemony, hybridity, mimicry, linguistic conflict, American way of
life (in Nigeria.)
- She describes Nigerian people eating Corn Flakes, watching American tv, reading
anglophone writers… which is an example of hegemony, mimicry, colonial discourse.
- Linguistic conflict reflected in when the characters in the novel chose English to talk
and when the do not. (diglossia)
- Complex mixture of everything: globalization, mimicry, hegemony… mass culture is
imitated (clothes, language, food, tv, literature...)

○ “IMITATION”
This story is set in the post-colonial period, after the independence of Nigeria but it is
actually set in America and its main theme is the transnational identity of nigerian expatriates
(the rich nigerians that can afford going abroad): she is in America but she has continues ties
with Nigeria. This theme is related with the colonial experience: at the beginning of the
colonization process, it is people for the metropolis that go to the colony. However, once
independence is achieved, it is people from the colony that go now to the metropolis because
the colonizers leave a huge network of connections and facilities to move from the colony to
the metropoli.
Conflict in a couple: a woman that realizes that her husband is cheating on her, he is
Nigeria and she is in America. and she wants to put an end to that division.
Particular issues: the expropriation of art from the colonies, the anti-colonial discourse is used
by the husband to denounce the exploitation of art.

○ “A PRIVATE EXPERIENCE”
It is set in Nigeria. The main theme could be the ethnic conflict between muslims and
christians but also the establishment of a friendship between two women of different ethnic
groups. Somehow, Adichie is also manipulation the plot giving us information about it that
the characters will know later. Would this be different if Chika knew that her daughter was
going to die?
- Postcolonial issues:
● Christianization of part of the population: For example, in A Private Experience,
we have a very good example of the ethnic problems caused by colonization (houses
from the north -Muslims- vs. the Igbos from the south -Christians-). Here, two women
from two different ethnic groups help and understand each other in a very dramatic
situation such as a riot.
● Mimicry: social behaviours that imitates those of the colonizer or other Western
countries (e.g clothes) Mimicry is not the same as hegemony. In one of the stories, we
see an Igbo woman wearing a shirt with the statue of liberty on it.
● Colonial discourse: superiority of the white race, culture and way of life, euphemistic
language to disguise the oppression.

○ “GHOSTS”
Coming to terms with the Biafran war, since the characters have a problem of
conscience regarding their participation in that war, so ghosts from the past come back so the
protagonist will again revise his participation in that war. The war is in part a consequence of
colonialism.
- Superficial analysis of the plot. (internet)
In the story’s setup, James introduces the idea that there's supposed to be a huge
difference between traditional practices and the habits of those who are Western-educated. He
suggests, though, that he doesn't see the traditional practices as silly; rather, they're just not
for him. However, even if he doesn't think traditional practices are silly per se, James appears
to have internalized some of the superiority that he's implied comes from his Western
education. James describes Ikenna as a prominent voice against widespread corruption, and
also presumably for Biafran independence.
 This story takes place on the Nsukka campus, where "Cell One" took place. We see
that the police corruption of "Cell One" isn't the only kind of corruption that plagues the
campus. The government isn't properly paying its employees, and this has been going on for a
long time. The troubles of the Nsukka campus also feature in some of Adichie’s other works.
James is describing the Nigerian invasion of Biafra during the Nigerian civil war. In
James' mind, the war should've been an easy victory for his side. These flashbacks suggest
that James lives with the memories of the war as though the war itself is a ghost that visits
him. When taken with the ghost-like return of Ikenna, the story becomes a study of how
people in the present deal with the ghosts of their pasts to inform both the present and the
future.
Notice that James' first reaction is to think that Ikenna betrayed the cause. This
suggests that Ikenna was possibly a flighty person when James knew him in the '60s and '70s.
James also still carries some anger towards the sabos, indicating that he still feels the horrors
and betrayals of the war. Whatever his feelings about Ikenna are, James also left Nigeria in
the aftermath of the war rather than stay and join the restoration effort. Though it seems like
it was a healing experience for James and his family, it also makes James's feelings about
Ikenna's time in Sweden more complicated. Ikenna is certainly aware that having left during
the middle of the civil war makes him seem like a coward to many of those who stayed. He
seems guilty for having done so.
Even if he didn't mean it, James' language confirms that he privately thinks less of
Ikenna for leaving. James uses this true story with a lie thrown in to bolster his relationship
with Ikenna and make up for admitting his unsavory private thought. The detail that James
uses in the story shows again that the memories are visceral and have remained with him.
Saying that Ebere "visits" puts James's opening line in a different light, as it makes it
obvious that James doesn't just tolerate the traditional practices—he actively believes in
unexplainable things like ghosts. Ikenna, however, shows the result of his own Western
education when he treats James like a madman. With Ebere's visits, James gets to maintain a
sense of family and community that it seems like he's otherwise lost.
Again it’s suggested that James lives with the weight of the civil war and what might
have happened. He sees that the war robbed him of the opportunity to truly pass on his
culture to his American grandson, and also of a closer relationship with his daughter (if only
in a physical sense).
James returns to the idea of widespread corruption, which understandably offends
Ikenna (who presumably stood against such things as a lecturer at Nsukka). Ikenna lives with
his memories like James does, though Ikenna's memories aren't tainted by the uncomfortable
truths of the present. Notice that James doesn't seem to think that there's anything he can do
about the corruption; he's just resigned to living with it.
The fake drugs are another facet of the widespread corruption. It seems that Ikenna
actually knows about Ebere’s death, and is trying to bring it up, but James resists talking
about it. Now, James is connected to his community and his family, both dead and alive.
However, he doesn't mention Ebere's visits to his daughter. He has to lie by omission in order
to balance these connections in this life.
 The story suggests that James would be struggling to cope with his ghostly memories
if Ebere didn't “visit.” Maintaining that familial connection to his wife is obviously vitally
important to James's health and wellbeing. In this case, the lies he tells seem to have a net
positive effect. Though nobody talks about the war, James suggests that everyone who
experienced it lives with the memories of it just like he does. People ignore or sidestep the
truth around other living people, but the war lingers like a ghost.

- Deeper understanding of the story. (class notes)

Throughout the whole story we have a 1st person narrator but the reader cannot know
whether he is reliable or not because we know he is haunted by memories of the war and that
he sees his dead wife. Thus, we also know he thought Ikenna was dead but now turns out he
is not. Or maybe he is dead and Ikenna is just another ghost visiting him.
The main themes of this story are women, marriage and gender roles; stories and
representation; family and lies; colonialism and violence and the American dream.
➔ 1st passage
1st person narrator – problem of reliability.
He is talking to a man who he thought was dead, the title, Ghosts, is related to
post-colonialism, ghosts are a reminder of past injustices and the traumas. The narrator has
interiorized colonial discourse, the superiority of western education and superiority in
contrast with African superstition, however, he believes in ghosts.
In this passage, the narrator is critical and ironic.
➔ 2nd passage
Gives information about Biafran war and about the narrator’s side – he is on the side
that fights in favour of the independence of Biafra, he refers to Nigerian army as vandals and
Biafran army as troops. He gives precise dates. There are references to the displacements of
population because of the evacuations. Different social classes are affected by the conflict.
Post-colonial issues: colonizers brought together two states that were completely different, as
a consequence there were two ethnic groups fighting against each other.
➔ 3rd passage
After the colonizers arrived and brought together the two states a problem of loyalty
appeared, which side did people belong to? The narrator thinks that his friend may have been
a sabo because he left for Sweden. Justification of who did what for the Biafran cause, who
was loyal enough and who not. Ikenna was at the beginning a hero of the Biafran war, but
here the narrator thinks that if he did not die, maybe he was a traitor. Problem: reliability of
the narrator, Ikenna may be a real ghost, but he also sees his wife, who is dead, Ikenna may
be a ghost from the war. The whole thing is an excuse for the narrator to gives us information
about the war.
➔ 4th passage
They are reproaching things to each other , there is a sense of guilt for abandoning the
country, Ikenna needs to justify why he left, he seems to be giving many details to justify
why he left, he seems to feel guilty. There is a need for justification for leaving your country
in difficult situations.
 ○ “ON MONDAY OF LAST WEEK”
In this story we have the issue of lesbian infatuation between an American and a
Nigerian woman. Also, the issue of language is very important and it is reflected in the use of
half-cast, seen as something offensive in America but as a privilege in Nigeria. This is
somehow an example of hegemony and colonial discourse: being part ‘western’ is something
positive, better than being Nigerian.
We have this nigerian woman, Kamara, working as a nanny for an biracial couple: a
jew (Nill) and an african-american (Tracy), which brings up a very significant issue: there is a
special hostility in the US between african-american and jews. Why? Possible because during
the 60s and 70s many african-american converted to islam.
Furthermore, the only mentioned of African-american people brings up the issue of
slavery. Many middle class african-american visited Africa to know their roots, the pas of
slavery… For example, Tracy visited Ghana.
There is a reference to the father giving books to the jewish school that the boy goes
to, we don’t know whether it is a normal school or a religious school, but the names seems to
be that of a religious institution. A Jewish school receives a donation of books about
Ethiopian Jews but the teacher never reads the books. What is going on? He is married to an
African woman, but he is Jewish, the son is biracial, but he is Jewish. The son is expected to
have the religion of the father, not the mother, first issue. In Ethiopia there is Jewish people,
but most of them have moved to Israel, for the husband is very important that this is known.
Why doesn’t the teacher want to use the books? There is a class division according to ethnic
origins (social class component), the Jews with more prestige are the Jews from central
Europe, the Sabari Jews are lower in the social school, but even lower are the ones who
moved to Israel from Northern Africa.
The green card: is the dream of all immigrants in the US because it gives you a
working permit (it is like having a british passport for immigrants in the UK). This reflects
the inequalities of the world we live in, the privilege someone from western countries has
over someone from Africa, in this specific case.
Adichie cannot be accused of nativism because she does not idealize the pre-colonial
situation, the vernacular culture. Her feminist convictions are very strong so she is very
explicits about the problems of corruption and police brutality, the patriarchal system... The
moment when the protagonist has a personal crisis of falling in love with the African
American woman and how her relationship with her husband is not the relationship she
expected, then she calls a friend, but the friend has her own problems, she begins to cry,
another woman was pregnant for her husband and is going to have a boy. Here he tells how
families privileges having sons over daughters. This is one of the many examples in which
she does not idealized the vernacular culture at tall, her feminist convictions are very strong
and she is very explicit about the problems in the country.

○ “JUMPING MONKEY HILL”

- Theme: identification of power relations within that workshops.
- Whatever the writers write about needs to be approved by the organizer.
 - Some writers want to write about what they think is important for them and the
organizer judges, he decides what is realistic and what not as if he knew first hand
Nigeria reality.
- They try to promote literature that talk about wars and conflicts whereas literature that
talks about homo-erotic they think is not real.
- Many writers do not dare to go against him because he can be very helpful for the
publications. Everybody notices how he is treating the narrator and nobody mentions
that. Example of hegemony and colonial patronage.
- Appearance of new colonial institutions.

○ “THE THING AROUND YOUR NECK”

Adichie uses a very original technique in this story: the narrator is dressed up as a
you, somehow this splits the narrator into two parts, one speaks to the other (I vs. You).
The end of this story is very interesting as we see Akunna rejecting a potential
boyfriend (white) apparently good because it reminds her that even good people with good
intentions have privileges that she will never have in America and this is something that
really upsets her and troubles a possible relationship with this guy.
➔ 1ST PASSAGE: two first paragraphs and the third one until lake.
In this passage we see clear examples of:
- Mimicry: her family does not want her to be like them in some aspects, they want
her to imitate the american way of life.
- Immigration: The conditions in which they lived (dictatorship, extreme poverty...)
forced them to look for a new a better life. Here, we have a very important
concept, present in many Adichie’s story and in many others, we could say that it
is a post-colonial issue: the visa, which is a lottery. This is related to the story The
American Embassy, where we see the visa process as something arbitrary.
- Nigerian fantasies about the West: There is a clash of cultures in both reality and
fantasy. We see how the idealization of the West are broken but also how the
idealization of Nigeria made by the westerns is also broken, reality gets in the
way of all of that.

➔ 2ND PASSAGE: Third paragraph, from lake to the end.

In this case we have:
- Hybridity: ‘All-white house even though his wife had to drive an hour to find a
hair salon that did black hair’ This sentence is a perfect example of how
nigerians tried to imitate american life (they even succeeded sometimes), but the
difficulties did not disappear, they still had to face many obstacles for being
black. In this case, finding someone that knew how to do black hair.
- Importance of looking diverse for big companies: The history of discrimination
(slavery) in America (specially in the South) is still trying to be ‘corrected’
nowadays in a very hypocrite way, sensibilities regarding racism and
discrimination are very present today. In this story, we see how the company the
 husband works in wants to include him in the photo to try and show how diverse
it is, even though he does not even work in that group.
- Adaptation: is a very common theme in all the stories of people going abroad to
live. It must not be confused with assimilation because, in this case for example,
she keeps her roots but she is forced to adapt to the american way of life: college,
work… This is related to hybridity.

➔ 3RD PASSAGE: ‘He showed you how to apply… all kinds of wild animals.’
In this fragment, the concept of The Other is very important: by making the colonized
into something radically from them, the colonizer feels better, the colonized is inferior,
poorer, he does not have what the colonizer does (cars, houses...)
We also see here the process of adaptation reflected in the cashier job, the community
college… which is related to hegemony, the ruling classes (colonizer) convinces the lower
ones that their traditions are better.
Moreover, there is an obvious criticism of America (its culture and traditions):
reflected in the ironic description of the girls and in the ignorance at the end of the paragraph
(eating wild animals).
America shows itself to be not hospitable to black people and his lack of hospitality is
seen as normal. Americans know very few about black people of Africa. There is a strong
criticism to America and Americans, she criticizes their ignorance and arrogance. Here we
can see again the cultural clash. We can see misconceptions, prejudices and fantasies that
they have about the other. Issue of the other and the lack of knowledge they have about the
other. The colonizers define the other and this makes them feel superior since the other are
clearly less than them. They have prejudices against people that have black skin and they use
self tan. Irony. For the protagonist this is bizarre.

➔ 4TH PASSAGE: Following paragraph.

Here, we have a house that looks like an African one initially (food, language,
names...) it is apparently described in a very idealized way but, in contrast, the narrator tells
us about the sexual abuse (her uncle tried to molest her). Thus, Adichie break with the
idealization of Nigeria, with the idealization of home, that is, with nativism.
Akunna is only trying to survive, she has no options but to imitate the colonizers’
values. Her boss is also an immigrant (hispanic) that exploits other immigrants - irony used to
represent that there is corruption in America too.

○ “THE AMERICAN EMBASSY”

Here we have a time reference which is General Abacha’s dictatorship, so we have a
particular place (Nigeria) and a particular moment. This dictatorship was mainly
characterized by its violence and lack of the basic human rights and freedom of the press. The
only option for the characters seems to be escaping. At the end, she refuses to leave, she
wants to stay where her son’s grave is. It is also mentioned the hard and even humiliating
conditions of the interviews to get a VISA, and in this case we see how the protagonist
refuses to use her son’s story in order to get it; she has the opportunity to leave to America
and she refuses it.
- Lack of the basic human rights and freedom, like freedom of the press. For this reason
the husband has to run away.
- Post-colonial Nigeria with a military dictatorship.
- The only option presented to the characters seem to be escaping, the husband escapes
because of a network that allows him to escape.
- The son is killed by paramilitary.
- For her the only option is to seek for asylum at the American embassy.
- At the end she refuses to leave, she wants to stay at the place where his son’s grave is.
Leaving America is the most desirable thing to do in your life but she refuses to go
through this humiliating condition.
- In this story we see the conditions to obtain a visa and the humiliating conditions of
interviews. She is not willing to use the death of her son to claim that visa, she is not
going to use such a personal thing just for a visa.

○ “TOMORROW IS TOO FAR”

Apparently, less postcolonial content, although there is too. The girl feels envy for her
brother, so she provokes an accident that ends up supposing his death. She’s very resentful for
the patriarchal society in which she lives in, but she did not want to kill him. In this society,
girls are taught that they count very little, what count is the promotion of men’s lives.
- Apparently not much post-colonial content.
- Story about a girl that feels envy of her brother and provokes an accident, as a result
the brother dies. Initially it seems like this. But she is living in a patriarchal society
that only values what the brother does, as a result she is very resented. She doesn’t
want to kill him. Is accidental.
- We have Nigeria with a patriarchal society in which girls are taught that their
aspirations and desires count very little, promotion of men’s lives.
- Girl goes live to America and returns when the grandmother dies.
- Grandmother – patriarchal woman. She only focuses on the boys promotion and
interests and that provokes the girls’ resentment.
- Transnational identity.
- The father is Nigerian and the mother African. The mother resents the marriage of her
son with an African American woman because they have two different cultures.

○ “THE ARRANGEMENTS OF MARRIAGE”

A woman is escaping to America because their parents have arranged her a marriage
with a man who is Nigerian but has been living in the USA for many years. His husband is
her instructor: PYGMALION MYTH: the man constructs the woman he desires. They are in
America but they have a British accent (because Nigeria was a British colony) so we can see
a very strong mimicry between them, trying to afford an american accent and vocabulary,
which sometimes even becomes funny. We also can notice the contrast between the very
traditional issues, for example of this type of arrangements of marriage which are highly
idealized but which actually are very difficult, there are many lies about it and also a huge
fetichism for it and for the document that will make you legal and may help you survive in
the new country.
The idea of the American Dream, fantasies that nigerians have of the life in America
that they learn through American films (colonial discourse + hegemony). The lies in the
communication between the Nigerian in America vs the Nigerian in Africa: he says ‘our
house’ constantly but then she realises it was only an apartment.
IMPORTANCE of the city of Lagos. At the airport, she is confiscated her nigerian
ingredients. They humiliate her. Transnational identity: she arrives in New York but she still
wants to cook Nigerian food.
Native Nigerian practices: how this arrangements of marriages hide some relevant
truths that are ignored. This young woman has been forced and is not given an alternative. It
is not her will or fantasy. Situation of RAPE within marriage: she doesn’t accept the situation
but she doesn’t have an alternative, because if she didn’t do that she would be living in the
streets with no papers and that would be even more dangerous. CRITICISM OF NATIVE
NIGERIAN PRACTICES OF MARRIAGE ARRANGEMENT.
The marriage arrangement by the uncle who idealizes it, whose smile of happiness for
the new couple is compared to the one he has when his team of any sport wins.
The boyfriend’s mother doesn’t want her son to be married to an American; she would
have different costumes and would not be as submissive as a Nigerian one. The idea is: Who
would you control better?
This young woman never wanted to go to America, she wanted to stay and study in
Nigeria; internal process of domination within the families.
- The humour is very often in the mimicry.
- This is a story of emigration, again a Nigerian woman going to the USA because her
marriage has been arranged. This young woman is an orphan and for that reason she
has no one to protect her. The family is the one that arranges her marriage with this
man. When she arrives there is a contrast between the way she thinks and the way she
speaks.
- The husband functions as the instructor telling her what she has to say or do. He is
constructing the woman that he desires.
- Since Nigeria was a British colony when Nigerians go and live in America is that they
speak British English, not American English.
- Contrast between very traditional practices (arrange marriages).
- Idealization of arranged marriages.
- Lies (about the visa etc).
- Obsession with the visa

○ “THE SHIVERING”
A story about equivocations. We see the character in an American campus, which
indicates a privileged emigration, and therefore a colonial patronage: an American degree
will help you to have a successful live even in Nigeria if you decide to come back (many
didn’t). In this story we have once more the problem of the VISA.
 The privileged elite. Religious conflicts as well: she does not practice catholicism but
she has a personal crisis and goes back to the church, where she finds that many of the
priests’ names are Irish, so we confirm that the church is catholic. We see here the conversion
of the indigenous people. She meets a young man who is panthagostal and for her he looks
like a religious fanatic.
- American campus.
- Nigerians that go to these universities will be very successful in Nigeria.
- Colonial patronage.
- Hegemony, people are willing to do it in order to improve their life conditions.
- Problem with the visa, his own visa has expired and he can be expelled.
- Inspectors to check papers, they are immediately returned to the country.
- Risks entailed in this experience.
- Religious conflict, the protagonist is not very religious, she does not practice her
Catholicism but she has a personal crisis because her boyfriend has left her and she
goes to a Catholic church. The young man the she meets is Pentecost. Very curious
combination.

○ “THE HEADSTRONG HISTORIAN.”

➔ 1st passage:
- many years after her husband died...praise name. In this passage we find a critic of
nativism by the writer. There is a reference to slavery. The issue that we see here is
that in African societies African people traded with African people. In this community
is a taboo to sell women, what about men?
- Critic of slavery and patriarchy.
- This is presenting the society in the pre-colonial period.
- Problem about fertility – very sexist.

➔ 2nd passage:
- Earlier in the story we were informed that he husband comes from a family with many
miscarriages, but the blame is on the woman. They relate infertility to guilt.
- Polygamy – she cannot have children and their cousins suggest the husband to look
for a second wife. Polygamy as pre-colonial practice. Example of how polygamy was
a common practice in Africa before the arrival of the colonizers.
- The wife is very submissive, she accepts the polygamous situation, she is willing to
look for a second wife and she also accepts the cousins even though she doesn’t like
them. Very submissive wives' in the pre-colonial situation.
- Little sorority between women. Women talk about her, blaming her.

➔ 3rd passage:
- We see the class distinctions, Adichie in presenting this pre-colonial society is not
idealizing it because of the critics against patriarchy, very clear presentation of social
discrimination of descendants of slaves.
 - Arrival of colonizers, traders that do trade but also bring guns. Later we see that they
are missionaries too. Effect that the arrival is going to have on the population.

➔ 4th passage:
- Patriarchal society in which again in which the one who have responsibility is the
wife.
- Superstition works, she has the baby that she wants.
- If they suspect the husband is the one with the problem for reproduction then wives
will take lovers, even if they do that the purpose is not to blame their husband and not
to carry the blame themselves. Then the husband can officially marry other women
but the wife cannot in order to guarantee reproduction – patriarchal society.

➔ 5th passage:
- Situation of women that have no children, see themselves in the position of
committing suicide, critic of nativism.
- Pagan society, the earth god.
- Use of poisons.
- We see a society with many internal conflicts.
- The wife is very much aware of the conflicts.

➔ 6th passage:
- The protagonist wants the white men guns to kill the cousins. She wants to have
revenge.
- We clearly see the exploitation, taking the possessions and lands from the natives,
exploitation of properties.
- First references to the schools. How schools are in the hands of colonizers.
- References to slavery.

In exam: Situate the historical moment: the story takes place in post-colonial Nigeria
after the independence (in exam brief reference to the colonial history of the country ex:
British colony from this period to this one.) also identify the main theme of the story and
whether the main theme is affected or not by the colonial experience. Clarify which
information is in the passage and which elsewhere.