Although remaining a pivotal text, Americanah feels more acceptable to Western audiences, taking place largely in the United States and possibly over-simplifying American race relations. Adichie’s novels Purple Hibiscus and Half a Yellow Sun on the other hand, often feel farther away to American readers, being set fully in Nigeria in the 1990’s and then during the Biafran war. I was still curious as to where I went wrong in responding Americanah. It only took five minutes of that session to see the ignorance in my answer-it was the classic American student’s response. I had not truly understood the extent to which this initial conversation with Makumbi mattered until I attended a session the following day on Chimmamanda Ngozi Adichie.

Quickly, Makumbi offered me other novels to read-Noviolet Bulawayo’s We Need New Names was the first on her list of texts I needed to read. To Makumbi, Adichie was unable to effectively harness and work through the anger of the blog posts which fill the novel. Makumbi explained that her disenchantment with Americanah was, in large part, due to what she described as Adichie’s brilliance as a writer, but lack of strength as a blogger. She asked me over lunch which of Chimamanda’s works was my favorite. The first real conversation I had with Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi was about Adichie. Clara Molot, who will be attending Yale in the fall, wrote the following essay after attending the African Literature Association’s 2017 Annual Conference hosted by Yale University June 14-17.

Kintu jennifer makumbi