Exploring Racial Hierarchy in Nigerian Women’s Writings with Special Reference to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Novel Americanah
Abstract
The present research paper intended to highlight the very dehumanising notion of racial discrimination. Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie, a Nigerian author, implies to explore her personal experiences of racism in America where she studied as a research scholar throughout her notable novels like Purple Hibiscus, Half of a Yellow Sun and Americanah. The novel Americanah deals with the racial conflict of the non- American black people in America.Adichie has depicted an iconic love story of Ifemelu who is the protagonist of the novel and Obinze, her lover. Ifemelu left Nigeria and went to America to pursue her education but she suffers a lot because of her race was Nigerian black one. In America, she would go to Trinton city to braid her hair, but there she wondered by there was no place where she could braid her hair. At every place, she came across many difficulties recognizing the racial prejudices of the native American white people towards the non- American black one. After facing this bitter experience is of racism, she wrote a lifestyle blog titled, “Recenteenth or Various Observations About American Blacks by a Non-American Black”. In the train, she meets a dread- locked white man who told her that race was totally overhyped those days. Black people needed to get over themselves, it was all about class then, the haves and haves not. The protagonist of the novel Ifemelu posted on her blog entitled, " Not all Dread Locked White American Guys are Down." Adichie highlighted the uncultured ethos of the Native American White People's perspective of social dogma towards the non- American black people. In fact, the dehumanizing ‘Race' factor is considered as dangerous as 'Caste' system in India. A racial hierarchy is based on the social stratification in which some racial groups are considered as superior or inferior to other racial groups. In America, racism is one of the powerful dehumanizing factors in the path humanism. Black people are considered as inferior to the whites in United States. As a result of this, the protagonist of this novel Ifemelu has become the victim of the so-called racial bias in America. She faces various difficulties as being a black Nigerian woman. Thus, racial hierarchy has been explored throughout the narrative of this novel in order to highlight the hidden reality of the darkness of human world.
Keywords
Gender, Race, Patriarchy, Religion and Love
Citations
IRE Journals:
Santosh Dhurpat Gawali "Exploring Racial Hierarchy in Nigerian Women’s Writings with Special Reference to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Novel Americanah" Iconic Research And Engineering Journals Volume 9 Issue 5 2025 Page 1146-1147 https://doi.org/10.64388/IREV9I5-1712113
IEEE:
Santosh Dhurpat Gawali
"Exploring Racial Hierarchy in Nigerian Women’s Writings with Special Reference to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Novel Americanah" Iconic Research And Engineering Journals, 9(5) https://doi.org/10.64388/IREV9I5-1712113
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