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One familiar phenomenon that is often found in diasporic identities is the preconceived idealization of their host lands prior to their displacement. Once disillusioned from this fantasy, the realities of their inhospitable surroundings set in, and a grave sense of displacement and nostalgia for their homelands continue to materialize. Such people often seek for a sense of home and communal consciousness connected to their homelands. In the case of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah (2013), this connection manifests, and is explored by the protagonist, principally through hair. Americanah (2013) guides us through the discovery of, and inquiry into, the intricacies of race, gender, and identity by Ifemelu with her venture into a host country whose social and political history has put in front of her an unfamiliar identity to adopt. This paper attempts to trace the protagonist’s experiences of displacement and existence in relation to the dominant community in her host country, as well as her discovery of a symbolic community where she adopts a new form of communal consciousness. Through a narrative that takes us back and forth different continents, showing us the difference between what it is like to be black in Nigeria and in America, Adichie shows us the impossibility to successfully encapsulate heterogeneous identities into an all-encompassing category of race. This paper explores the dynamics of differences as projected through the issue of identity with an emphasis on the subject of hair politics in Americanah (2013).

Hair in Exile: Manifestations of Displacement, Difference, and Belongingness through Hair in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah