RACIAL PREJUDICE, INJUSTICE AND THE SEARCH FOR SELF IN CHIMAMANDA ADICHIE’S AMERICANAH

Itang Ede Egbung

Abstract


The notion of racial superiority gives rise to racial prejudice. Racial prejudice arises from race-based stereotypes. The prejudice of one race against another has resulted in injustices meted out to members of other races. Racism is an ideology that has bedevilled contemporary societies; eating deep into the fabrics of such societies. In Chimamanda Adichie’s Americanah, non-whites who seek freedom and opportunity in Western societies face all kinds of racial prejudice which is an act of injustice against their humanity. The continent that faces the highest form of racial prejudice is the African continent. Africans in the Diaspora are discriminated against because they are considered inferior. Using the post-colonial theoretical approach which undermines Western values and ideas, this paper argues that Adichie recreates African (Nigerian) characters who revolt and resist racial prejudice by embarking on the search for selfhood and the assertion and affirmation of their lost African identity, integrity and personality.

 

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racism, prejudice, injustice, selfhood

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References


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