Adichie’s Americanah and the Discourse of Stereotypes in the New African Diaspora

Americanah (2013) interrogates the discourse of stereotypes in the new African diasporan experience in the United States. It does this because stereotypes produce fixed statements of reality that conceal underlying politics. Thus, the narrator leads us through the multiple encounters of Ifemelu with both white and African American characters. The objective of this level of stereotyping is to denote the migrant and to construe her as different. We witness African migrants in the United States that engage in stereotyping behavior towards fellow Africans. By adopting the theory of colonial discourse enunciated by Homi Bhabha especially his explanation on the discourse of stereotypes, we show how this pervasiveness does not only pave the way for tragic situations as in the attempted suicide of Dike, but also inflames lack of self-esteem in the African American personality and characters in the novel. Although scholars’ accounts on the novel reveal Adichie’s commitment to experiences in the new African diaspora stereotype undermines and perpetuates what Biodun Jeyifo has described as “the colonization … of the body and that of the psyche”. Americanah, therefore, equips us to describe our discourses and conception of colonialism and its relationship to modernity.