A WHIRLING WEB OF RACISM, DISCRIMINATION AND PREJUDICE IN ADICHIE’S AMERICANAH

Abstract

Literature updates us with what is happening in the society. It brings out the ills and the strengths of the society and writers crave for improvement in all aspects of life where necessary. With the introduction of organized slavery or slave trade by the Americans and Europeans in the late 15th century, racism was born. Slavery brought about massive migration and of course the results of migration are racism, discrimination, prejudice, xenophobia, to mention these few. As such, writers over centuries have preoccupied themselves with discrimination, racism and prejudice as their major themes. Racism and discrimination manifest when particular races believe that they are superior to the other race. These problems have been examined by other writers but this work with psychoanalytical as the theoretical framework looks at the above mentioned problems using Americanah by Ngozi Chimamanda Adichie. It examines the situations, events, and the psychological effects on the characters in the text. This paper after exploring the implications of racism, discrimination and prejudice observes that they are the cankerworms eating up different sectors in our societies all over the world and they are still prevalent in the most alarming way affecting people psychologically and socially. It is obvious that this persistent racial inequality is so serious that it is deeply destroying the world and can be solved by constant exposure of many writers who try to expose the ugly monsters.