Migration, Identities and Human Rights Representation in African Literature: Re –Reading Adichie’s Americanah

Abstract

Adichie’s Americanah is one of the African novels whose characters and settings traverse cultures. The author herself is a product of trans-cultural education and uses this medium to draw global attention to the difficulty faced by migrants. Most of the African diaspora characters work hard to gain visibility in a culture that obliterates the personality of migrants irrespective of gender and academic achievements. Adichie’s representation of the characters captures much of the realities told by migrants navigating and negotiating life outside their countries of origin. Through personal will to get a better life outside their home countries, the characters engage in some self-effacing work to acquire permanent residency so that they can return home for acclaim. The author uses local colour and synaesthesia to remind the characters of their roots and the rhetorics of scatology to portray the hostility of the receiving country.