Beyond Borders: Racial Lachrymosity And Psychic Trauma In Adichie’s Americanah

Abstract

This paper interrogates racial construct and its traumatic effects in Adichie’s Americanah. Chimamanda Adichie’s Americanah ranks very highly among the prodigious stories that have emerged from the African continent. A powerful and thought provoking tale that cut across three continents, Americanah is a testament on the ever present and prevalent hydra-headed racial monster in America, Europe and other countries on the ‘other privileged’ side of the planet. Through primary data obtained from the novel and other sources, the paper weighs Adichie’s standpoint regarding racism most especially in Europe and America. The paper discovers that racism, a crime against humanity, has defiled the long-wedged war and continues to escalate in new forms and guises as clearly seen Adichie in Americanah. Again, that more than other climes, the racial curve in America remains unabating and continues to rob the blacks their certain inalienable rights as humans. The paper concludes that racism is not devoid of severe psychological and traumatic effects capable of depressing individuals and largely contributes to an unhealthy society and that America and the rest of the world, should in reality, live up to the ideology that that all men are born equal and with equal opportunity to survive devoid of colour and race.