Americanah

Cultural attitudes on depression and mental illness are discussed in this section. After Dike’s suicide attempt, Ifemelu is left reeling and attempts to blame his mental state on cultural confusion, accusing Aunty Uju of not telling him “‘what he was’” (470). Uju, a doctor, tells her that depression is common among teenagers, but Ifemelu cannot accept this. She then blames herself, “her own guilt spreading and sullying her” (471). When she writes to Obinze about Dike’s suicide attempt, she mentions that Uju thinks Ifemelu is also suffering from depression. “You know America has a way of turning everything into an illness that needs medicine” (461), she says, discounting this diagnosis. Obinze has also arguably suffered from depression, but never names it as such. Nigerian culture has no space for mood disorders or depression, so Obinze, Ifemelu, and even Dike have grown up without the language to describe their struggles. Only Uju, because of her medical training, can look past cultural attitudes to name the nature of their suffering.

Our perspective switches back to Obinze in Chapter 42. Obinze, eager for more information about Ifemelu and awaiting her email, looks for her Facebook profile. He is “unenchanted” (458) with Facebook, “appalled by the air of unreality, the careful manipulation of images to create a parallel life” (458). And yet, this is precisely how one—even Obinze himself—might describe his marriage to Kosi. She is overly concerned with the façade of their marriage, color-coordinating outfits, obsessing over their daughter’s education, and refusing to let him cook for fear of how that might reflect on her. He knows that Kosi is not his emotional or intellectual partner, and yet likes the way she reflects upon him, with her earnest air.