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1-Page Summary of Americanah
A girl named Ifemelu is preparing to return to Nigeria. She has broken up with her boyfriend, closed her blog about race, and moved out of the house she shared with Blaine. When she thinks of returning to Nigeria, she can’t help but think about Obinze, who lives in Lagos now with his wife and daughter. He received an email from Ifemelu asking him if he remembers their old music and how they used to make love while listening to it.
The novel flashes back to Ifemelu’s youth. She meets Obinze at a party where he is interested in another girl, Ginika. They hit it off and date throughout high school and college. However, the university lecturer strikes keep closing down the universities, so Aunty Uju encourages Ifemelu to apply for schools overseas in America. Ifemelu gets accepted but her visa doesn’t allow her to work there because she can only be a student without any other source of income like stipends or scholarships. Therefore, she applies for jobs using someone else’s social security number but doesn’t get them because they have already been filled by Americans who don’t need visas or are willing to work illegally with forged documents. Desperate for money, she agrees to work as a “relaxation assistant” which means allowing Mr Olusola (the tennis coach) touch her sexually after every meeting with him on weekends when he pays more than during their weekday meetings where he still touches her inappropriately even though no one is watching them from afar. After one session, she stops replying to messages from Obinze and does not return his calls. Out of shame and self-loathing, she never tells anyone about what happened except that things between herself and Obinze end up being strained until years later when they reconnect online.
Ifemelu’s life changes when she meets Ginika, who introduces her to Kimberly. The babysitting job offers Ifemelu the chance to focus on school and work toward getting a green card. She starts dating Curt, who helps her get a job that will sponsor her green card. To get the job, she needs to have her hair relaxed so it looks professional according to American standards; however, this burns off some of her scalp hair and makes it look ugly in its natural state. Her friend Wambui tells Ifemelu that she should wear her hair natural from now on since it is more beautiful than how Americans like their black women’s hair styled—relaxed or straightened. At first, Ifemelu thinks that wearing natural is wrong because all of America likes relaxed or straightened black women’s hairstyles; however, after some time passes and talking with other friends about what happened during college between herself and Obinze (an ex-boyfriend), she decides that wearing natural will no longer be seen as an act against Obinze but rather as something for herself alone to do.
Meanwhile, Obinze lives illegally in London. He was denied a visa because of anti-terror panic after the September 11, 2001 attacks. His mother offers to bring him on a trip to get him into Britain as a research assistant. Someone links up with another Nigerian who is willing to let Obinze use his national insurance card in exchange for part of his earned income if he helps set it up. After some time, the man asks for more money and Obinze refuses. The next day someone reports that he’s an illegal immigrant working there so his boss fires him and tells everyone else at work that he’s an illegal immigrant too so they can’t tell anyone else or they’ll be fired too and deported back home as well since they’re all also illegals now. Desperate to stay in England because otherwise maybe no one will ever take care of his family back home again, Obinze decides to find someone who will arrange a fake marriage for green card purposes but when the day comes at court only police await both parties involved on account of being reported by the fake wife from before about her husband trying to marry another woman just days after their own wedding ceremony while still married legally according to official records already filed etcetera which may have been slightly suspicious even without context but unfortunately once she told everything during questioning her story checked out considering how detailed she was able anyway so although not really necessary this extra precaution led directly leading up till here now thanks very much officers enjoy having fun now arresting you later bye ciao!
