Close reading: Americanah

Is reading really a solitary activity?

This series proves the contrary. During these close reading sessions, the moderator will read a selection of literary extracts out loud. The participants will then be invited to react, if they wish to, to the content, the stories, the style. The moderator will animate the discussion and share her perspective on the questions raised.

And because current events once more show how our lack of knowledge about the other and their story inevitably leads to tragedy, we have asked our different partners to introduce us to their libraries, to take us off the beaten path. The selected texts and authors will turn the spotlight on stories and narratives that can help us to interpret the mechanisms of power and in so doing to fight them.

Americanah

On 23 July we will dive (back) into Americanah, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s powerful novel. A feminist icon, the Nigerian writer moved a great many souls with this romantic love story between Ifemelu and Obinze. But is that the real subject of the book? Americanah is also, and perhaps especially, a hard-hitting indictment of systemic racism in the United States. ‘I feel like I got off the plane in Lagos and stopped being Black’, writes the narrator.