Adichie's Americanah

Nigerians and Socialism: A Marxist Reading of Adichie’s Americanah In Adichie’s Americanah, we get a good look at how society and cultural changes can affect people’s lives. Our two main characters, Ifemelu and Obinze, are both raised in Nigeria but then later leave to immigrant to Anglo-Saxon nations. With this immersion into new cultures comes changes for our main characters, and with these changes comes a lot to analyze. Given that these characters face obstacles relating to a myriad of social structures from race to class to national identity crises, this essay will focus most heavily on the economic and cultural side of the story, analyzing the story from a Marxist perspective to address the socioeconomic messages Adichie may be trying to convene. In order to better analyze these characters and story, we’ll need to unpack

While he may be wealthy in Nigeria, during his time in London he was significantly less fortunate. Due to a variety of problems, he winds up illegally in London working to clean toilets. In London, he would be considered working class or, more accurately, one of the working poor. This is the lowest class in a capitalist society (excluding the homeless/ unemployed who many would consider outside of the class system altogether) and makes him open to exploitation. In fact, Obinze was largely exploited as a worker. It wasn’t until he found a toilet seat covered in human feces that he quit his job. This could be an example of how anyone who works hard enough can make it in a capitalist society, however, that would be a very un-Marxist thing to say. Rather, it should be noted that even someone well-educated and capable like Obinze had a hard time making it in a society as capitalistic as England at the time. There are certainly other elements holding him back as well, such as racism or xenophobia, but those are theoretical perspectives and theories for another day and another