Americanah

Obinze, the other main protagonist, is Ifemelu’s secondary school boyfriend. Throughout the novel, he goes from a schoolboy to an illegal immigrant in London to a wealthy businessman in Lagos. Once a “hungry and honest boy” (34), he becomes, by the end of the novel, a decidedly more complex character, cheating on his wife and dissolving his family to revive his relationship with Ifemelu.

Raised in a liberal house by a single mother who does not judge his choices, Obinze does as he pleases, not as is expected of him. Though he is pushed towards Ginika, a sweet and attractive girl, he finds Ifemelu’s blunt outspokenness more attractive. “He was not afraid of her” (69) and tells Ifemelu that he isn’t attracted to girls who are “‘too nice’” (73). Obinze has passion in spades, devouring American media and supporting Ifemelu’s extracurricular activities to the point of absurdity.

Later, Obinze moves to London and begins working illegally. Coming from a privileged background in Nigeria, he is shocked and saddened by his feelings of invisibility. Ever the gentlemen, he worries about the feelings of Cleotilde, the woman contracted for his sham marriage. Though his life would be easier if Cleotilde were to develop real feelings for him, Obinze hopes she does not. He dislikes the pretentiousness Emenike develops, finding more in common with his white British coworkers. After he is deported, Obinze comes to see how extraordinarily lucky his life had been before London, as “a boy who had grown up eating corn flakes and reading books” (347).

As a husband and father back in Nigeria, he is dutiful and caring. Kosi’s friends envy “the way he made her breakfast on weekends and stayed home every night” (37). Yet, Ifemelu’s reappearance shifts his focus, and he begins to doubt every aspect of his life—including his choice of wife. Caught between two impossible choices—leave Kosi and destroy his family, or lose Ifemelu, the true love of his life, forever—Obinze waffles. He extends a trip invitation to Ifemelu only to rescind it, claiming he needs space. “Fucking coward” (557) Ifemelu texts back to him, and Obinze comes to agree with her assessment. “[T]here was indeed a cowardliness in his fear of disorder” (562). In the end, Obinze overcomes his fear of the unknown and his cowardice and takes a bold and possibly immoral step. He leaves Kosi, and declares to Ifemelu that once again, he is chasing her. 

Aunty Uju is Ifemelu’s aunt, her father’s sister. When Ifemelu was young, Aunty Uju was constantly “playing her role of the pacifier” (64) between Ifemelu and her parents, smoothing over Ifemelu’s headstrong nature. A doctor by trade, Aunty Uju harbors a dream of opening a private clinic, but wishes to stay in Nigeria. Uju’s relationship with The General, a married government official, creates a distance between her and Ifemelu. During this time, Uju bears The General a child and lives the life of a pampered mistress, her days filled with activity but no substance. After The General dies under mysterious circumstances and his wife’s family threatens Uju, she is forced to leave for America and takes her son, Dike, with her.

By the time Ifemelu comes to America, Uju has changed, she has a new “impatience…new prickliness in her” (131). She has changed the pronunciation of her name to better accommodate English speakers and does not speak to her son in Igbo. Over the next few years, she attaches herself to various men, following one to rural Massachusetts, where her son is the only black child in his class. She becomes beaten down by the racism of her patients, who often assume she is the nurse or demand a different doctor. She eventually leaves Bartholomew, the man she followed to Massachusetts, fed up by the way he insists she work and tend to all his domestic needs. “‘Why should I give him my salary?’” (270), she demands. “‘Did he pay my fees for medical school?’” (270). In the narrative, Aunty Uju represents a life built around men, a life spent catering to their needs and the pain such caretaking brings. For all of Ifemelu’s failed relationships, she does not sacrifice herself for men as Uju does. 

Dike is Ifemelu’s nephew, the son of Aunty Uju and The General. As a baby, he lives the pampered life of a powerful general’s son, but after The General’s suspicious death, he moves to America with Aunty Uju. Thanks to his youth, Dike adapts quickly to American culture, requesting hot dogs for lunch and playing with a Game Boy. Nonetheless, he is often caught between the land of his birth (Nigeria) and the only home he remembers (America). He speaks only English, as Aunty Uju thinks that being bilingual “will confuse him” (134), and only speaks Igbo when she is angry, leading Ifemelu to wonder whether Dike will consider Igbo “the language of strife” (211). As Dike grows older, the strain between his cultures becomes more apparent. He is singled out by counselors and teachers due to his race, and writes an essay about his struggle with identity. “‘How can he say he does not know what he is?’” (269), Aunty Uju complains. As a teenager, Dike is suave and popular, and Ifemelu can see him as “a perfect student guide” (412) for college tours, as everyone is in love with his “relentlessly funny and bright and bouncy” (413) personality. Eventually, Dike’s struggle for identity, combined with clinical depression, culminates in his attempted suicide. He recovers, but his story serves to illuminate both the possibility and limitations of African immigrants’ assimilation into American culture. 

Blaine and Curt are Ifemelu’s two long-term boyfriends during her years in America. They represent two groups that Ifemelu finds she cannot truly join: white Americans and black Americans.

Curt, the cousin of her employer, Kim, is a wealthy, young white man. He falls instantly in love with Ifemelu and they begin dating. He is a vibrant, privileged world traveler whose “boyish enthusiasm” (237) fascinates Ifemelu. Curt tells Ifemelu he has “never been so attracted to a woman before” (240), which buoys Ifemelu and causes her to become “a woman free of knots and cares” (241). She enjoys her life with Curt, but is frequently annoyed by his “infantile” (242) spontaneity and optimism. Though Curt adores her, because he is white, there are parts of her he can never understand, such as her hair. He assists her with getting a job and therefore a green card, but she finds herself feeling conflicted by the unfairness of this situation, and how privileged he is. He and his friends will “never be fully knowable to her” (256) because of their race and nationality, a clear marker of how far Ifemelu’s assimilation can truly go. Ifemelu becomes jealous of Curt’s ill-advised flirtations with a white woman and begins seeing more faults in him. He is “charming” (268), as Ifemelu’s friends say, but Ifemelu grows to dislike his “attention-loving” (268) and wishes he were “quieter and more inward” (268). Eventually, Ifemelu cheats on Curt and they break up.

Blaine is older than Curt, a black American professor at Yale whom Ifemelu first meets on a train. They share an intimate conversation, speaking of race and identity, and Ifemelu notes that Blaine is “a man who looked at himself in the mirror but did not look for too long” (218). Unlike Curt, Ifemelu and Blaine can candidly discuss race in America, as an “‘us,’ which would be both of them” (218). They exchange numbers, but Blaine never returns any of Ifemelu’s calls. Years later, when Ifemelu is a famous blogger, she sees Blaine at a conference. They remember their encounter on the train and soon begin dating. Blaine, a liberal with strong political opinions, teaches Ifemelu to wash the pesticides off vegetables and avoid sugar. “He knew about everything; she was intimidated by this and proud of this and slightly repelled by this” (384). She and Blaine experience Obama’s rise to the presidency together and she discusses race and nationality with his diverse group of friends. At the same time, she comes to realize that she will never fully know Blaine and American-born black people, either. Ifemelu hurts Blaine by skipping his protest of a racist incident on campus, seeking instead the friendship of an African professor whom Blaine dislikes. Though Blaine understands what it is to be black, he will never understand Africa, just as Ifemelu will never understand the particular hardships of black life in America. 

Obinze’s mother, who is never given a first name, is a university professor and single mother; Obinze’s father died early in Obinze’s life. Obinze describes her as “a woman who kept to herself and asked no favors, who would not lie” (290). She is more progressive than Ifemelu’s parents; she approves of her son’s romantic relationship with Ifemelu and counsels them both on the benefits of safe sex. When Ifemelu fears she might be pregnant, it is Obinze’s mother who takes her to the doctor. Despite her scruples, she lies in order to get Obinze a visa to England, hoping that a new country will open doors for him, as she sees her own academic career in Nigeria grow more precarious. 

Kosi is Obinze’s wife, a “beautiful” (26) and “devoted” (36) woman whose primary concern is for her family, especially her and Obinze’s young daughter, Buchi. Obinze describes her as a “wholesomely agreeable person” (34) but sees that she tries too hard to seem humble; her modesty “announced itself” (34). When Obinze first married her as a newly rich man, Kosi was his “touchstone of realness” (565), something solid and stable he could depend on. In subsequent years, however, Kosi becomes jealous of their housemaids and obsessed with Buchi’s schooling, wanting only the most perfect life for herself, Obinze, and their child. Through his affair with Ifemelu, Obinze comes to realize that Kosi was never the right person for him to marry—she refuses to let him cook dinner even though his cooking is better, she apologizes for giving him a daughter, and is “content rather than curious about the world” (566). Kosi shows Obinze that goodness and virtue are not enough to make a marriage last—it needs the chemistry that he and Ifemelu share.  

Emenike is Obinze’s friend from secondary school who later makes it big in London and tries to assist Obinze. Emenike grew up poor and constantly “made up stories of rich parents…so immersed in his need to invent a life that was not his” (79). In secondary school, Obinze remembers, Emenike was often described as “sharp” (305), the kind of boy who knew “which girl had had an abortion, what property the parents of wealthy students owned, which teachers were sleeping together” (305). Eager to make something of himself, young Emenike was obsessed with brand names and ashamed of his poor family (305). Emenike eventually receives a visa and creates a new life in London, complete with a great job, a white British girlfriend, and an “inherently superior” (326) air. He lends Obinze money for his sham wedding and takes him to dinners and parties, but Obinze sees in Emenike the manner of someone “convinced they knew things that other people would never know” (327). Emenike does not visit Obinze when he is arrested in preparation for his deportation, but does contact him once Obinze has become rich and powerful. In Emenike, Obinze sees exactly what good fortune can do to a person, and actively chooses to resist that pretentiousness, once his own fortunes change.