New voices from Nigeria

  What's the difference between an African-American and an American-African? From such a distinction springs a deep-seated discussion of race in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's third novel, Americanah. Adichie, born in Nigeria but now living both in her homeland and in the United States, is an extraordinarily self-aware thinker and writer, possessing the ability to lambaste society without sneering or patronizing or polemicizing. For her, it seems no great fear to balance high-literary intentions with broad social critique. Americanah examines blackness in America, Nigeria and Britain, but it's also a steady-handed dissection of the universal human experience – a platitude made fresh by the accuracy of Adichie's observations.

  So an African-American is a black person with long generational lines in the United States, most likely with slave ancestors. She might write poetry about “Mother Africa,” but she's pleased to be from a country that gives international aid rather than from one that receives it. An American-African is an African newly emigrated to the United States. In her native country, she didn't realize she was black – she fit that description only after she landed in America. In college, the African-American joins the Black Student Union, while the American-African signs up with the African Students Association.