Interview on NPR’s Fresh Air from June, 2013
Author’s website
Unofficial, but informative, website
LitLovers
Brief interview on the BBC from January 2016
==================
About Nigeria:
British influence and control over what would become Nigeria and Africa's most populous country grew through the 19th century. A series of constitutions after World War II granted Nigeria greater autonomy. After independence in 1960, politics were marked by coups and mostly military rule, until the death of a military head of state in 1998 allowed for a political transition. In 1999, a new constitution was adopted and a peaceful transition to civilian government was completed. The government continues to face the daunting task of institutionalizing democracy and reforming a petroleum-based economy, whose revenues have been squandered through corruption and mismanagement. In addition, Nigeria continues to experience longstanding ethnic and religious tensions. Although both the 2003 and 2007 presidential elections were marred by significant irregularities and violence, Nigeria is currently experiencing its longest period of civilian rule since independence. The general elections of April 2007 marked the first civilian-to-civilian transfer of power in the country's history and the elections of 2011 were generally regarded as credible. The 2015 election is considered the most well run in Nigeria since the return to civilian rule, with the umbrella opposition party, the All Progressives Congress, defeating the long-ruling Peoples Democratic Party that had governed since 1999.
total: 923,768 sq km
land: 910,768 sq km
water: 13,000 sq km
country comparison to the world: 32
Area - comparative:
about six times the size of Georgia; slightly more than twice the size of California
Ethnic groups:
Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, is composed of more than 250 ethnic groups; the most populous and politically influential are: Hausa and the Fulani 29%, Yoruba 21%, Igbo (Ibo) 18%, Ijaw 10%, Kanuri 4%, Ibibio 3.5%, Tiv 2.5%
Languages:
English (official), Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo (Ibo), Fulani, over 500 additional indigenous languages
Religions:
Muslim 50%, Christian 40%, indigenous beliefs 10%
Population:
181,562,056
note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality, higher death rates, lower population growth rates, and changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July 2015 est.)
country comparison to the world: 8
Citizenship:
citizenship by birth: no
citizenship by descent only: at least one parent must be a citizen of Nigeria
dual citizenship recognized: yes
residency requirement for naturalization: 15 years
Suffrage:
18 years of age; universal
Executive branch:
chief of state: President Maj. Gen. (ret.) Muhammadu BUHARI (since 29 May 2015); Vice President Oluyemi "Yemi" OSINBAJO (since 29 May 2015); note - the president is both chief of state and head of government
head of government: President Maj.Gen. (ret.) Muhammadu BUHARI (since 29 May 2015); Vice President Oluyemi "Yemi" OSINBAJO (since 29 May 2015)
cabinet: Federal Executive Council appointed by the president
elections/appointments: president directly elected by 'qualified' majority popular vote and at least 25% of the votes cast in 24 of Nigeria's 36 states; president elected for a 4-year term (eligible for a second term); election last held on 28-29 March 2015 (next to be held in February 2019)
election results: Muhammadu BUHARI elected president; percent of vote - Muhammadu BUHARI (CPC) 53%, Goodluck JONATHAN (PDP) 46%
Legislative branch:
description: bicameral National Assembly consists of the Senate (109 seats - 3 each for the 36 states and 1 for Abuja; members directly elected in single-seat constituencies by simple majority vote to serve 4-year terms) and the House of Representatives (360 seats; members directly elected in single-seat constituencies by simple majority vote to serve 4-year terms)
elections: Senate - last held on 28-29 March 2015 (next to be held in February 2019); House of Representatives - last held on 28-29 March 2015 (next to be held in 2019)
election results: Senate - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - APC 60, PDP 49; House of Representatives - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - APC 225, PDP 125, other 10
Political parties and leaders:
Accord Party or ACC [Mohammad Lawal MALADO]
All Progressives Congress or APC [John Odigie OYEGUN]
All Progressives Grand Alliance or APGA [Victor C. UMEH]
Democratic Peoples Party or DPP [Biodun OGUNBIYI]
Labor Party or LP [Alhai Abdulkadir ABDULSALAM]
Peoples Democratic Party or PDP [Uche SECONDUS, acting]
================================
Africa’s First City:
Almost anywhere else in the developing world, such a sentiment would seem pitiably delusional. In Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial center, “Be Very Rich” has all but become the city’s motto. The country recently recalculated its gross domestic product to take into account sectors of the economy that barely existed two decades ago. As a result, Nigeria determined that its GDP surpassed South Africa’s in 2012 to become the continent’s largest economy. About 15,700 millionaires and a handful of billionaires live in Nigeria, more than 60 percent of them in Lagos.
As with other African metropolises, oil-enriched Lagos has long nurtured an elite class only marginally inconvenienced by the squalor enveloping the city as a whole. Now the upper class is expanding, and despite persistent income inequality, so is the middle class. The growth of the latter in Nigeria, according to a 2013 survey by Ciuci Consulting, a strategy and marketing firm in Lagos, is driven by the expanding banking, telecommunications, and services sectors, particularly in Lagos. Nigeria’s middle class grew from 480,000 in 1990 to 4.1 million in 2014, or 11 percent of households. Seemingly overnight, Lagos has transformed itself into a city of Davids clamoring to become Goliaths.
This is a great African success story. And how lovely it would be to tell this bright, uplifting tale while ignoring altogether the dark and demoralizing saga of Nigeria’s grotesque terrorists, which has blocked the boomtown narrative from the world’s consciousness like a lunar eclipse. But Lagos does not exist in a parallel universe, any more than the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram does. Both are indigenous to Nigeria, a vast West African nation teeming with industrious strivers like Adeoti but also with poverty, despair, and violence. If anything, the miracle of Lagos is that its economy gallops onward even when fettered by the same federal incompetence that allows terrorism to go unchecked. A lesser city would be crippled. Then again, in a sense so is Lagos.
Here is the story, in brief. Following centuries of tribal rule by territorial kings and emperors and 99 years of British colonial rule, Nigeria achieved independence in 1960 and was intermittently ruled by military heads of state until 1999, when it at last achieved a rickety state of democracy. Among its 36 states, Lagos—which includes the sprawling port city of the same name—was ever the country’s center of power, even when the federal capital was relocated in 1991 to Abuja, a 450-mile drive away. Still, Lagos deteriorated under decades of military rule. Its schools, roads, and hospitals went to seed. Western investors kept their distance. When Karim returned from England to his birthplace in 1996 to build on the family cocoa business, there were very few of his kind, “because,” he told me, “it wasn’t an open economy, and financial services were few. Back then the total capital of a bank was maybe two million dollars. Imagine you want to do business in Lagos. How much can a bank like that possibly lend you? Fast-forward to today—they’ll lend you up to $500 million!”
What happened to Lagos stemmed from a convergence of two phenomena. First, after knowing only political incompetence, the newly democratized Lagosians elected a pair of remarkably consequential state governors: former accountant Bola Tinubu in 1999, and in 2007 his handpicked successor, Babatunde Fashola, who has been credited with helping quash an Ebola outbreak in Lagos. The two executives restored some fiscal sanity to Lagos while investing in bridges and expressways. Meanwhile a reverse diaspora transpired as native Nigerians began to return home. When the worldwide recession foreclosed opportunity in Europe and America, Lagos offered itself as a new frontier for ambitious entrepreneurs. One of them, Lanre Akinlagun, told me, “Back in the U.K., all of my friends started moving back to Lagos. When they’d return to visit, we’d meet in a bar, and they’d buy a round of shots. But then later they’d come back and order up bottles of the most expensive stuff. I told myself, OK, something’s going on here.”
On the Atlantic coast and consisting of a slab of mainland around a lagoon and several islands, Lagos today is an ad hoc ecosystem thrashing with wealth seekers. Tourism is largely absent here—one comes to Lagos strictly to do business—and yet at the same time it is a strangely inviting place, a city of optimists.
That is not to suggest that life in Lagos is a smooth ride. As with all boomtowns, the city is at pains to keep up with itself. Lagos’s population is growing so fast and is so transient that it’s impossible to estimate the number of inhabitants more precisely than between 13 million and 18 million. The hubs of commerce are the two small islands of Lagos and Victoria, and only the very wealthy can afford to live there.
=====================
Read-alikes for Americanah
Find more read-alikes in NoveList.
Americanah
By: Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi
A young woman from Nigeria leaves behind her home and her first love to start a new life in America, only to find her dreams are not all she expected.
Read-alikes
1.
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A man of the people
Achebe, Chinua
Reason: Americanah and A Man of the People depict issues that were important to Nigerians decades ago and are still significant today. Each stylistically sophisticated, psychologically complex novel examines the effects of cultural differences, political corruption, and prejudice on the characters. -- Katherine Johnson
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2.
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All our names
Mengestu, Dinaw, 1978-
Reason: These haunting, elegantly written novels focus on the struggles of African immigrants seeking refuge from their home countries and facing difficulties assimilating to new cultures. Both books offer touching personal stories enriched by incisive sociopolitical commentary. -- Derek Keyser
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3.
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Mambo in Chinatown
Kwok, Jean
Reason: Though Mambo in Chinatown centers on a young Asian American in Manhattan's Chinatown, and Americanah a Nigerian immigrant to America, both women are torn between two cultures, unsure of where they belong. Americanah is more stylistically complex, Mambo more straightforward. -- Shauna Griffin
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4.
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We need new names
Bulawayo, NoViolet
Reason: Though the African characters' countries of origin are different (Nigeria in Americanah; Zimbabwe in We Need New Names), each of these novels vividly portrays the cultural, social, and economic differences between the characters' homes and First World countries. -- Katherine Johnson
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5.
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Foreign Gods, Inc.
Ndibe, Okey, 1960-
Reason: Unlike Americanah, Foreign Gods involves illicit (even illegal) money-making schemes, but both novels portray the challenges and dilemmas of Nigerians living in other countries. -- Katherine Johnson
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6.
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The Master Butchers Singing Club
Erdrich, Louise
Reason: These books are Moving, Stylistically complex, and Character-driven, and they share: the genres 'Love stories' and 'Literary fiction' and the subject 'Immigrants'. Characters are: Authentic and Complex.
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7.
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Under the udala trees
Okparanta, Chinelo
Reason: These books are Moving and Stylistically complex, and they share: the genres 'Political fiction' and 'Literary fiction' and the subjects 'Nigeria' and 'Refugees'.
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8.
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Stork mountain
Penkov, Miroslav
Reason: These books are Moving, and they share: the genres 'Political fiction' and 'Literary fiction' and the subject 'Immigrants'. Characters are: Complex.
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9.
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How to read the air
Mengestu, Dinaw, 1978-
Reason: These books are Moving and Stylistically complex, and they share: the genres 'Political fiction' and 'Literary fiction' and the subject 'Immigrants'.
|
==============
Read-alikes for Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi
Find more read-alikes in NoveList.
Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie writes character-driven novels and short stories about life in Nigeria and America. Her prose is luxuriant and highly evocative; you'll feel as though you're in the thick of the jungle or the middle of a shabby apartment in New York City. Adichie's characters are equally as compelling. They will continue to resonate within you long after you've finished reading. Violence, injustice, and despair stand shoulder to shoulder with compassion, bravery, and love in her fiction. Adichie shows that family and friends are the foundations upon which are our lives are built. Start with: Purple Hibiscus.
Read-alikes
1.
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Lahiri, Jhumpa
Reason: Jhumpa Lahiri and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie conjure evocative literary fiction about the fraught relationships between first-generation immigrants and their home cultures. They tell of the quest to both assimilate and to establish an individual identity in lyrical, complex prose. -- Mike Nilsson
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2.
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Matthiessen, Peter
Reason: Peter Matthiessen and Chimamanda Adichie write fiction that focuses on outsiders -- exiled Florida frontiersmen for Matthiessen and expatriate Nigerians for Chimamanda. Their character-driven work is as bleak as it is lyrical; both feature evocative atmospheres and moving story lines. -- Mike Nilsson
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3.
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Tan, Amy
Reason: These authors' works are Moving, Lyrical, and Character-driven, and they share: the genres 'Literary fiction' and 'Historical fiction' and the subject 'Immigrants'.
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4.
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Chabon, Michael
Reason: These authors' works are Moving, Romantic, and Stylistically complex, and they share: the genres 'Literary fiction' and 'Historical fiction' and the subjects 'Immigrants', 'Men/women relations', and 'Murder'.
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5.
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Bloom, Amy, 1953-
Reason: These authors' works are Moving, Stylistically complex, and Lyrical, and they share: the genres 'Literary fiction' and 'Historical fiction' and the subject 'Immigrants'.
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6.
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Donoghue, Emma, 1969-
Reason: These authors' works are Moving and Character-driven, and they share: the genres 'Literary fiction' and 'Historical fiction' and the subject 'Immigrants'.
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7.
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Doctorow, E. L., 1931-
Reason: These authors' works are Moving, Stylistically complex, and Lyrical, and they share: the genres 'Literary fiction' and 'Historical fiction' and the subject 'Refugees'.
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8.
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Cather, Willa, 1873-1947
Reason: These authors' works are Moving and Character-driven, and they share: the genres 'Literary fiction' and 'Historical fiction' and the subject 'Immigrants'.
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9.
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Selvadurai, Shyam, 1965-
Reason: These authors' works are Moving and Character-driven, and they share: the genres 'Literary fiction' and 'Historical fiction' and the subject 'Immigrants'.
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