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JBSXXX10.1177/0021934717712711Journal of Black StudiesYerima

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Journal of Black Studies
2017, Vol. 48(7) 639­–650
Regimentation or © The Author(s) 2017
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DOI: 10.1177/0021934717712711
https://doi.org/10.1177/0021934717712711
Beauty Practices journals.sagepub.com/home/jbs

by Black Women in
Adichie’s Americanah

Dina Yerima1

Abstract
The postcolonial subject is one whose life is rife with contradictions. These
contradictions result from a torsion of Western and indigenous values and
culture in the individual. The woman as a postcolonial subject seems to deal
with more of these incongruities in almost every sphere as she negotiates
life in the postcolony and other societies that facilitated colonization and still
does in some aspects. Several writers have sought to capture the uniqueness
of the postcolonial female in contemporary times, bringing to the fore issues
that plague her. The phenomenon of “imperial aesthetics” (basically beauty in
the Western sense) is the foremost of these issues and the core of this article.
It is presented as it applies to the Black woman in aspects such as hair, skin
color, and physique. This adoption of imperial notions of beauty is rooted in
self-loathing, argued by postcolonial thinkers to arise from the psychological
effects of colonization. Hence, the explication of this phenomenon will go
a long way in demonstrating the forms of self-expression that the Black
woman chooses and which ultimately make up her identity. Consequently,
this article will focus on Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s presentation of the
subject in her novel, Americanah, using the postcolonial approach.

1University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria

Corresponding Author:
Dina Yerima, Department of English and Literary Studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka,
Nsukka, Enugu State, Nigeria.
Email: sedinadinay@gmail.com
640 Journal of Black Studies 48(7)

Keywords
imperial aesthetics, postcolonialism, coloniality, femininity, beauty.

Introduction
Over the years, studies in postcolonialism have agreed on a number of facts.
One of them is that the postcolonial subject is a conflicted individual. This
individual, be it a man or woman, tries to harmonize the indigenous culture
handed down to him from his forbears through the generations and Western
culture handed down by colonizers. In doing this, an imbalance occurs and
there is no longer a single original culture but a hybrid one that is a blend of
the two. The degree of this fusion depends on the individual involved. For
some, the indigenous culture trumps that of the West while for others, the
case is reversed. According to Mary Holmes (2007), the postcolonial subject
refers to someone who has, at one time or the other, been subject to coloniza-
tion where foreign ideas and values had been and are still being imposed on
him. In this case, the foreign values referred to are occidental as nations like
Britain, France, and Portugal engaged in active colonialism of a larger part of
the world and through globalization still exert a strong influence on other
parts of the world. The postcolonial subject in question here is African even
though Asia, Australia, and parts of the American continent were colonized
as well.

The Postcolonial Woman

The woman is not just a female of the human species but is an individual
with sexual instincts who, according to Simone de Beauvoir, has her gen-
dered role ascribed to her by the society. Like the man, the African woman
throughout history has had roles ascribed to her by society. Both genders
acted as complements to each other with both equally seen as important
although the degree of this importance and whether it was termed to be of
equal value is not certain (Holmes, 2007). The notion of women as inferior
or as less important than male folk has been passed on along generational
lines in several different cultures. Thus, for Ann Dobie (2002), it was also
part of the Western culture that came to reinforce to the postcolonial subjects
the place of the woman. This notion has become so embedded in society,
both postcolonial and Western society, that it has become accepted and is
hardly ever challenged unless under the feminist aegis that gained ground
about two centuries ago and is itself fragmentary. The postcolonial woman
is therefore an individual who struggles with the basic postcolonial issues
Yerima 641

and the constructs placed upon her by this new society as a woman. Gayatri
Spivak, in contemplating the subaltern, posits that the postcolonial woman
is doubly oppressed as first, a postcolonial subject and second, as a woman
(Habib, 2005). On the postcolonial front, the oppression of the woman is on
the basis of race and she is deprived of the same things that her male coun-
terparts are deprived of. On the second front, the oppression that the postco-
lonial woman faces is on the basis of gender. The woman is exploited and
stripped of rights and privileges in certain contexts because of her physical
difference from the man. As a postcolonial subject therefore, the woman is
obliged to carry out a struggle on two interfaces. The process of carrying out
this struggle and its resultant effects and influences on the woman are dem-
onstrated in the lives of the female characters in Americanah, especially as
it relates to those connected to occidental countries. This connection is made
by living outside the postcolony in countries such as the United States,
United Kingdom, and even in postcolonial states that are evolving daily to
become more like the Occident.
The issues that the postcolonial woman grapple with and which in the long
run influence her process of self-expression and consequently identity cre-
ation include notions of beauty and femininity, which are tied to imperial
aesthetics. Self-expression is a term that is ubiquitous with modernist artists
and proponents. “A display of individuality through hairstyle, clothing,
speech, or art forms” (Zimmer, 2016, p. 1), it involves the demonstration of
emotions, ideas, and personality, peculiar to a particular individual. As had
been mentioned earlier, other than behavior, it finds release in art, music, act-
ing, or any such forms. Where self-expression comes into play with relation
to the postcolonial woman is in the contemplation of her life in the modern
world. Andrea Dworkin (1974), in her feminist critique of beauty practices
comments on standards of beauty thus:

Standards of beauty describe in precise terms the relationship that an individual

will have to her own body. They prescribe her mobility, spontaneity, posture,
gait, the uses to which she can put her body. They define precisely the
dimensions of her physical freedom. And of course, the relationship between
physical freedom and psychological development, intellectual possibility, and
creative potential is an umbilical one. (p. 113)

This suggests that beauty practices go a long way in determining who the
woman becomes and what she achieves. Moving back to Spivak’s assertion
of the double suppression of the subaltern, which in this case is the postcolo-
nial woman, this article will examine the female characters in Americanah.
Americanah is, broadly speaking, a novel of race. The issues in the text,
migration, acculturation, and hybridity (which comprise beauty practices
642 Journal of Black Studies 48(7)

such as care of hair, skin, dress, and so forth and social and financial status),
can all be linked to race and racism. Written from the position of a “non-
American black,” the text captures, succinctly, the struggle of immigrants,
mostly Africans in the West. It covers both America and England, accounting
for experiences and situations that affect and determine the self-realization of
the characters in the text who migrate to Western countries for material and
other gains. Thus, it has as major characters, Ifemelu, a female Nigerian who
immigrates to the United States and uses her personal experiences as well as
those garnered from others to tell her story. In the text, two basic classes of
migrants are presented, those who are able to break even and eventually have
a better life after their initial struggle upon arrival in the West and those
whose luck is not so good. People in this second group get repatriated or are
perpetually trying to break out of the cycle of insecurity and lack. Both of
these groups, in spite of their different social status, still suffer the alienation
and acculturation (or lack of it) that come with a new environment and cul-
ture. Hence, they struggle to achieve a sense of self-realization, with aspects
of their culture changing in the process.
In this text, imperial aesthetics have been imposed as an aspect of
Western culture, on the postcolonial woman. Skin color or hue, hair, and
body size, issues that are tied to notions of beauty and femininity, all com-
bine to make up her self-expression. In this case, however, these elements
of beauty are perceived from the Western or Eurocentric perspective. Thus,
the postcolonial woman who is not Western, struggles to conform to these
notions of aesthetics, which results in ambiguity as she contemplates the
earlier indigenous notions of femininity and beauty with which she has
been raised and which are immanent to her indigenous society. This con-
flict, or ambiguity, is handled by the postcolonial woman in two ways.
First, in oscillation as she contemplates the imperial and her own indige-
nous aesthetics and develops fluctuating loyalties where she is swayed
toward one and, after some time, favors the other. A second option is the
supremacy of one aesthetic over the other where the woman is seen to
acknowledge the presence of both but, at the same time, demonstrates pref-
erence for one of these aesthetic more than the other.

Imperial Aesthetics
The modern world is one where the Western perspective of beauty imbri-
cates others. It allows for the sublation of other variants as imperial aesthet-
ics is foregrounded. This involves a preference for nonkinky hair that might
be either straight or wavy, slim physique, and fair complexion as opposed to
bigger, fuller physiques and darker complexions. Related to this conception
Yerima 643

of beauty that affects one’s feeling of confidence and sexuality is the notion
of femininity (Western femininity). Women are expected to act in a certain
way and conform to society’s definition of what it means to be female. The
model is the White woman, not in her real self but as a media construction.
Hence, “the fashion mannequin, the simulacra of the European or American
model; represents an impossible ideal of female beauty” (Hemmings, 2005,
p. 181). Femininity is thus characterized by passivity, unassertiveness, sup-
pressed smartness, and congeniality. Hence, the entire notion of what femi-
ninity means has taken on new meaning for the postcolonial woman.
Feminist thinkers agree that femininity is a gendered characteristic assigned
to the woman. As the society that does the assigning is Western, it follows
that femininity is defined by Western standards. Lack of conformity to this
results in the woman being viewed as unfeminine, unprogressive, and even
uncivilized. In this article, we would refer to aesthetic practices that are
Western oriented as imperial aesthetics because they were introduced first
by colonialism.
The assertion of self involves an acceptance and a certain comfortability,
understanding of one’s sexuality, which is invariably tied to the feeling of
being beautiful as a woman. Sheila Jeffreys (2005) asserts that Women are
often viewed as the more sexual of the species, than men. This sexuality
involves all aspects of the body and include but is not limited to the neck,
breast, thighs, hair, hands, and feet, covering the entire physical appearance
of the woman. However, in this novel, almost all the female characters are, at
one time or the other, dissatisfied with their sexuality. This is as a result of no
deformity or physical ailment. Rather, social constructs and dictates affect
these women’s view of themselves and they no longer like how they appear,
having lost confidence in the beauty and or acceptability of their looks. A
case in point is Ginika, Ifemelu’s childhood friend, who resides in America.
On arrival to America and enrollment in a high school, she loses weight in
order to fit into the beauty model of her new community having been called
“pork” and termed overweight. Hence, fashion for the postcolonial woman is
loaded with the weightier concern of conformity. Consequently, Mary
Holmes (2007) opines that as with Toni Morrison’s central character in The
Bluest Eye, for many Black women, “there is the constant battle to maintain
self-worth within a world that judges them in relation to White notions of
beauty and femininity” (Holmes, 2007, p. 164). This conformity is necessi-
tated by not only the manifestation of mimicry that Homi Bhabha posits to be
a result of colonialism on the indigenous subject, but also the power struggle
that is largely determined by race and continues to manifest itself especially
in Western societies. To own more power and acceptance therefore, one has
to appear more like the powerful race—the White race.
644 Journal of Black Studies 48(7)

In the beginning of the text, the conflict associated with the postcolonial
woman’s conformity or dissonance with imperial aesthetics is demonstrated
in the actions of Ifemelu’s mother. She is known for her beautiful and lengthy
hair, which she keeps permed due to Western influence as her natural kinky
hair will not fall straight on her shoulders. However, she suddenly chops off
her hair. She does this because she is introduced to a Pentecostal branch of
Christianity (also a Western bequest), which teaches her to exert punishments
on herself in order to become acceptable to God. Having done this, she loses
her cheerful disposition and walks around the house with a heavy heart filled
with dread and the fear of slipping out of favor with her demanding God.
“Everyone tiptoed around her . . . who had become a stranger, thin and
knuckly and severe. Ifemelu worried that she would, one day, simply snap
into two and die” (Adichie, 2013, p. 42). Thus, what brings on this attitude
and personality change is her mother’s inability to juggle and fully harmonize
the two cultures of the West and her own beliefs. She only finds peace, a
certain kind of harmony, when she changes her church and moves to a pros-
perity preaching congregation where all members are encouraged to bring in
large donations and offerings irrespective of how they acquire them. It is in
this place that she grows back her hair and recovers her congenial disposition.
It can be surmised at this point that her religious ideals had allowed her come
to peace with a new notion of aesthetics. This new place allowed her to
choose her own aesthetics standard, which she did, blending both the Western
and her own indigenous values.
Ifemelu, on her part, makes no conscious effort to conform to imperial
aesthetics in terms of hair even though, for a while, she changes her speech
pattern to demonstrate the inflection of the American White. She remem-
bers how at an early age, her Aunt Uju used hot combs to comb her hair in
order to make it appear slightly straightened often times leaving her with
burn marks. When Ifemelu goes to America, she encounters race for the
first time and begins to grapple fully with the conflict arising from the
choice of which aesthetics to foreground. It is in America that she realizes
her difference from other people like Ginika who had become as American
as her American friends.

Jessica the Japanese American . . . pale-skinned Teresa, . . . Stephanie, the

Chinese American, her hair a perfect swingy bob that curved inwards at her
chin . . . Hari, coffee skinned and black-haired and wearing a tight t-shirt which
said, “I am Indian, not Indian American . . .” (Adichie, 2013, p. 124)

All these girls know who they are and assert this knowledge in an unapolo-
getic manner that passes across their acceptance and comfortableness with
Yerima 645

their femininity and choice of aesthetics. This choice highlights Western val-
ues while acknowledging their indigenous cultures. Ifemelu, on the other
hand, is seen to suffer from the conflicting pull of both imperial and indige-
nous aesthetics, especially at the beginning of her stay in the United States.
Her loyalties to the two types of aesthetics fluctuate before they become sta-
bilized in her new resolve. When venturing into the corporate world with the
help of Curt her White boyfriend, she perms her hair in order to appear more
conformist and acceptable as her friend had told her, “lose the braids and
straighten your hair. Nobody says this kind of stuff but it matters. We want
you to get the job” (Adichie, 2013, p. 202). It is the adverse effect the relaxer
has on her hair that opens her eyes to the new world of asserting her African
identity through her hair in spite of challenges. Thus, she opts for the second
option of foregrounding her indigenous culture in her expression of aesthet-
ics, over Western culture. She resolves to leave her hair natural and, from
then on, does nothing to change its texture. Conformity to set notions of aes-
thetics is so important that when she quits her job at the company, a coworker
who presumes she has been fired asks, “You think your hair was part of the
problem?” (p. 212). The fact that it occurred to the coworker that hair could
be a reason for the loss of a job, speaks volumes. Imperial aesthetics is not
only encouraged, it is sometimes imposed. Thus, “Notions of . . . womanhood
were imposed on indigenous women and they were cajoled and sometimes
compelled to accept new standards of domestics arrangements, dress and
behavior” (Woollacott, 2006, p. 97).
Aunty Uju, similar to Ranyinudo, Zemaye, Aunty Onenu, and other
Nigerian women in the text, opts for wigs and hair weaves in order to conform
to globalization. This globalization, as argued by Anibal Quijano, involves the
dissemination of Western notions of beauty, power, truth, freedom, and life in
general, which are presented in a way as to promote their perception as univer-
sal ideas (Quijano, 2000). This dissemination is done through the Internet and
other forms of media. Obinze’s cousin who gets him connected to the Chief
also makes use of hair weaves that leave her scalp itchy as she constantly taps
it to relieve the itching. In like manner, Aunty Uju when still a mistress of the
General walks around with a straight hair weave. “Aunty Uju laughed and
patted the silky hair extensions that fell to her shoulders: Chinese weave-on,
the latest version, shiny and straight as straight could be; it never tangled”
(Adichie, 2013, p. 77). The use of this Western-oriented hair pieces reinforced
aunty Uju’s feeling of femininity as it made her feel beautiful. It is Aunty
Uju’s arrival and stay in the United States that cures her of this habit, albeit for
a short while because she is broke and cannot afford to splurge on such things.
When Ifemelu has stayed in America for a while and has Curt as a boyfriend,
Uju queries her for not making her hair and leaving it natural, which she says
646 Journal of Black Studies 48(7)

is like “jute” and looks “scruffy” and “untidy.” This demonstrates the extent to
which she is embroiled in the aesthetics of the West. Such is the importance of
beauty practices that Adichie dwells on hair and spends a larger part of the
story narrating from Mariama’s Hair Braiding saloon, the events of the pre-
ceding part of Ifemelu’s life—both at home and in America. It is hair that
instigates the conversation between Curt and Ifemelu on the type of maga-
zines she reads and her complaint that most magazines do not feature Black
women. It is also hair that creates friction between both of them when a White
woman asks to touch Ifemelu’s hair when they go out. Curt offended, feels she
is being used as a laboratory guinea pig and should not have allowed the
woman touch her hair. It is this same hair that elicits a rude comment from a
Black man at the farmers’ market who asks Ifemelu if she wonders why Curt
likes her looking so “jungle.”
The significance attached to hair results in the woman who is not of
Western descent feeling self-conscious and defensive until she gives in to
relax her hair or wear wigs and hair weaves, which results in the placement
of Western aesthetics at the top in the aspect of hair. Otherwise, she decides
to take a stand and leave her hair natural and ignore people’s opinions the
way Ifemelu does and ends up defending her hair to lot of her acquaintances
who incidentally are Black like herself but have come to see Western hair or
its imitation as the norm. But, even at that, the value and meaning read into
this stance gets to her from time to time. Hence, hair is important as it sparks
up conversations on race, tolerance, acceptance, and coloniality.
Skin complexion, as it relates to perception of beauty, is another question
raised in Americanah, which plagues the postcolonial woman. Skin bleach-
ing, lightening, whitening, or toning is an issue of colossal proportions in
postcolonial societies. Whether it is for the African, Asian, or South American,
the issue of skin bleaching is present. Although, this seems to be more pre-
dominant in Africa, seeing that it is a continent of dark-skinned people who
are mostly different shades of brown and sometimes outright black. It is, in
this case, more noticeable when bleaching transformations take place. Skin-
bleaching creams remove the natural pigmentation of the skin, leaving it
lighter. “The process is one of reduction rather than addition, destroying the
pigmentation present and disrupting the creation of further pigmentation”
(Hemmings, 2005, p. 174).
The idea that only fair skin is beautiful is sold by the media, which design-
edly originates from the Western world where having a fair complexion is
most often the norm. Consequently, postcolonial subjects strive to attain this
quality of beauty. And, because women generally seem to be more conscious
of their appearance, more of them go in for skin toning and whitening, which
has adverse effects such as uneven complexion, dark patches, thinning of the
Yerima 647

skin, and, in severe cases, cancer. In the text, Aunty Uju is the first woman
mentioned who engages in this activity. She does it to appear more sophisti-
cated and groomed for the General who keeps her. Bartholomew, the man who
she moves in with, also bleaches as Ifemelu notes with distaste, “He uses
bleaching creams . . . Couldn’t you see? His face is a funny colour. He must be
using the cheap ones with no sunscreen. What kind of man bleaches his skin,
biko?” (Adichie, 2013, p. 117). This is an uncompromising point for Ifemelu
who throughout the text is opposed to bleaching. It is one aspect of imperial
aesthetics that she finds offensive. Thus, she is able to spot, right on, those
who engage in this practice as soon as she comes in contact with them. Aunty
Onenu, the owner of Zoe magazine, which Ifemelu joins when she returns to
Nigeria, also bleaches as Ifemelu notes on seeing her the first time. “It was
easy to tell she had not been born with her light complexion, its sheen was too
waxy and her knuckles were dark, as though those folds of skin had valiantly
resisted her bleaching cream” (p. 391). The rationale behind this action is tied
to imperial aesthetics that is fed the public. In this vein, Ifemelu and Curt’s
relationship was unacceptable to many people because she was Black. Thus,
Curt’s mother doesn’t care to know who she really is. For her, she was just a
passing fancy of her son, who was to be tolerated until discarded.
The gestures of discrimination based on skin fixes the subject’s identity on
the surface. The fact that Ifemelu is a Black girl is therefore enough for Curt’s
mother. Ifemelu herself notes this when she comments on the stares of pass-
ersby and people who they met at bars, restaurants, and other publics places.

They looked at her with surprise . . . the look of a people confronting a great
tribal loss . . . and it did not help that although she might be a pretty black girl,
she was not the kind of black that they could, with an effort, imagine him with:
she was not light-skinned, she was not biracial. (Adichie, 2013, p. 293)

This is the same reason why Aunty Uju bleaches and gets a feeling of well-
being and happiness as “she avoided the sun and used creams in elegant bot-
tles, so that her complexion, already naturally light, became lighter, brighter
and took on a sheen” (Adichie, 2013, p. 74). Hence, aunty Uju chooses
Western aesthetics over the indigenous as she endeavors to conform to impe-
rial aesthetics in the aspect of hair, skin hue, and even speech, a “nasal, slid-
ing accent.” Unfortunately, permanent damage is associated with bleaching
and to quote Jessica Hemmings (2005), “reversal is not spontaneous, nor is it
flexible.” If stains are the bruises of a fabric, then “the trend of skin bleaching
has brought little in the way of beauty to the ugliness of racism” (p. 184).
Body size and physique are concepts whose value and meaning differ
from one society to another. In the Nigeria of the text where Ifemelu comes
648 Journal of Black Studies 48(7)

from, a woman who is built up and has a curvaceous body is appreciated as

well as the less endowed or slimmer woman. In America, however, that is not
the case as Ginika tells Ifemelu upon her arrival in Princeton “Americans say
‘thin.’ Here ‘thin’ is a good word” (Adichie, 2013, p. 124). Hence, it is a good
thing. Sandra Lee Bartky (1998) elaborates on this when she says, “the cur-
rent body of fashion is taut . . . and of a slimness bordering on emaciation
. . . since ordinary women have normally quite different dimensions, they
must of course diet” (p. 28). Therefore, Ginika starves to the point of being
almost anorexic in order to gain the thin physique that is favored in her new
society. When Ifemelu herself has stayed for a number of years in the country,
she recounts a scene from the supermarket where she was buying some choc-
olate in defiance of her organic and disciplined boyfriend Blaine’s strict diet.
A man behind her on the cash queue tells her that she has no business eating
such junk food because she is so fat. Ifemelu’s observation during her train
journey from Princeton to Trenton, which is a poorer and predominantly
black community, reveals that the people with bigger, fuller, and ultimately
fatter bodies are the Black people. In this vein, the rich, White people who are
“thin” are symbols of the ideal to strive for. On returning to Nigeria, however,
Obinze tells her that the weight she has gained suits her. Ranyinudo who used
to be thin as an adolescent grows up to be a curvy and well-rounded woman
who carries herself with grace and Ifemelu comments on her attractiveness as
does the narrator. Hence, unlike the case in America where the craze is for
rail-thin physiques, Nigerians appreciate different shapes as long as the
owner of such a shape carries herself well. Physique seems to be only one of
the aspects of imperial aesthetic that has not gained ground as rapidly as fair
skin and wavy or straight hair. This might be due to the strain involved in
achieving this and the difference that characterizes African women’s bodies
as opposed those of Caucasian women.
Women who are celebrated in the text are those who embrace and are in
tune with their bodies. These women practice the aesthetic more suited to
their nature. Obinze’s mother with her halo of afro is a role model to Ifemelu
as well as the singer Onyeka Owenu. Kimberly, the White woman for whom
Ifemelu babysits, is another celebrated icon of beauty. She is depicted to be
beautiful in a blonde, willowy way that is associated with Caucasians.
Of the three beauty practices engaged in by the postcolonial woman which
demonstrate imperial aesthetics in this article, none is totally safe and without
health hazards. As regards hair, the damage relaxers can do to the hair is
demonstrated in Ifemelu’s experience. Other than burning her scalp in vari-
ous places, the hair begins to come off in clumps after a while and she eventu-
ally cuts it. Aunty Onenu and Bartholomew have black patches on their
knuckles and other skin folds, which defy the bleaching creams. Even the fair
Yerima 649

complexion that they get through the creams appears ashen and waxily unre-
alistic as compared with naturally fair skin. Aunty Uju has to stay out of the
sun after applying her creams so as to protect her skin, a decision that ham-
pers daily activities and freedom. In an effort to become thinner than she is,
Ginika starves herself almost to the point of anorexia. Ifemelu’s weight gain
and obsession with the thought of losing weight increases her depression
until she comes to terms with it and decides to embrace it.
Maribelle and her girlfriend Joan who are friends of Shan, also demon-
strate imperial aesthetics in the novel. They love “what they are supposed to
love”; vintage dresses, oddly shaped and garishly colored plates, “unpolished
evidence of their polish” (Adichie, 2013, p. 334). This is in an attempt to
conform to the image of the scholarly middle class that the Western society
breeds, further emphasizing the notion of “westernization” and its pull on the
non-White or non-Western individual.

Conclusion
In this article, attempts have been made to demonstrate that the identity of a
postcolonial woman revolves around self-expression. This self-expression is
done when the woman (of color) has been able to accept her sexuality and
come to terms with her own definition of aesthetics that encompasses her
hair, the color of her skin, and her physique. It is also seen to involve a recon-
ciliation of the woman’s conscience with her actions. She expresses herself
through whichever aesthetic she chooses to foreground. And for Ifemelu, as
with the narrator, a blend of both aesthetics, which allows the expression of
indigenous culture over the imperial, seems to be a practical and feasible
approach. Thus, when the postcolonial woman learns to free herself from
“the Eurocentric mirror where (her) image is always, necessarily, distorted. It
is time, finally, to cease being what (she) is not” (Quijano, 2000, p. 42). Once
this is done, as is the case with: Ifemelu during the latter part of her stay in
America and after she returns to Nigeria, Ojiugo who is contented with her
fat body, her life as a full-time housewife, and her role in her husband’s life,
and Ranyinudo who is contented to an extent with her life, an inference can
be drawn. The postcolonial woman can be said to have successfully harmo-
nized the issues that she faces in the modern society. She has successfully
been able to reclaim subjectivity and recoup “the power to define blackness
from white hands” (Holmes, 2007, p. 168).

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research,
authorship, and/or publication of this article.
650 Journal of Black Studies 48(7)

Funding
The author received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publica-
tion of this article.

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Author Biography
Dina Yerima is a doctoral student of the Department of English and Literary Studies,
University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Her areas of interest are African literature, compara-
tive literature, oral art forms and theory.