Countering cultural deracination : an analytical reading of Adichie's Americanah

Abstract EN

This study investigates Adichie's Americanah (2013) in the light of the various theoretical speculations on cultural deracination that dominates the reality of African immigrants in transnational spaces.

Within such spaces the multicultural dimensions of their African identity is reduced to a one-dimensional entity marked exclusively by the colour of their skin.

It is my contention that Adichie captures a broad spectrum of myriad experiences and voices in an endeavour to reflect on the problematics involved in the immigrants' encounter with Western culture.

On the one hand, vulnerable individuals fail in the combat to maintain their ancestral identities and succumb to deracination, invisibility and negation.

On the other hand, resistant and insuperable African immigrants affirm their commitment to their moorings and thus they emerge triumphant.

In this manner, they reconfigure their African identity and endure the encounter with the threats of deracination, cultural trajectories and ideological options that tend to suppress their cultural heritage and sense of belonging.

Adichie's thorough scrutiny of the African American cultural 'double consciousness, ' 'single story' deconstruction, utilization of identity signifiers such as language, hair and lifestyles, and the manipulation of blogging device encapsulate the compelling weapons to challenge Western deracination.