African hybrids: exploring Afropolitan identity formation in Taiye Selasi's 'Ghana must go' and Chimamanda Adichie's 'Americanah'

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Periodical article

Title:	African hybrids: exploring Afropolitan identity formation in Taiye Selasi's 'Ghana must go' and Chimamanda Adichie's 'Americanah'
Authors:	Ucham, Emelda Kangira, Jairos
Year:	2015
Periodical:	Journal for Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences (ISSN 2026-7215)
Volume:	4
Issue:	1
Pages:	42-50
Language:	English
Geographic terms:	Ghana Nigeria
Subjects:	novels women writers diasporas African identity
About persons:	Taiye Selasi (1979-) Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (1977-)
Abstract:	This article discusses the representation of Afropolitan identity formation in Taiye Selasi's debut novel 'Ghana must go' (2013), and Chimamanda Adichie's novel 'Americanah' (2013). Selasi and Chimamanda are women writers from Ghana and Nigeria, now living abroad. The aim of the article is to discuss Afropolitan identity formation as presented in the two novels using Selasi's (2005) essay 'Who is an Afropolitan?' as a benchmark. In this essay Selasi defines Afropolitanism as 'not being citizens but Africans of the world.' The analysis concludes that not only do Afropolitans need to craft an identity on three levels according to Selasi (2005, para. 9) 'national, racial, cultural - with tensions in between', but the experience can be traumatic and painful, both emotionally and physically. Bibliogr., sum. [Journal abstract, edited]