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THE SEARCH FOR IDENTITY IN AFRICAN NOVELS: A STUDY OF 

CHIMAMANDA ADICHIE’S AMERICANAH AND ODILI 

UJUBUONU’S PRIDE OF THE SPIDER CLAN 

 

 

Prof. Ifeyinwa J. Ogbazi 

Department of English Language and Literature  

Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka 

Email: ji.ogbazi@unizik.edu.ng 

& 

Sylvanus C. Onyeachulam 

Department of English Language and Literature  

Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka 

Email: sc.onyeachulam@unizik.edu.ng 

 

 

Abstract 

The problem of identify has been one of the major concerns of mankind in every 

society and a major theme in literature. The state of identity crisis is seen as one 

affecting the psychological conditions of a person or group, a situation of 

internal contradictions within the individual which could lead to different forms 

of disequilibrium. This study explores “the search for identity in Chimamanda 

Adichie’s Americanah and Ujubuonu’s Pride of the Spider Clan. The 

theoretical framework for this study is Sigmund Freud’s Psychoanalysis which 

is concerned with the mind in distress. The duality with the nostalgia of the 

main characters obviously for different reasons originates from their contact 

with the different worlds they found themselves in. The ultimate 

disillusionment in exposure of identity crisis is inevitable in every society as 

portrayed in the works under study. It was discovered that the foreign 

environment the characters found themselves and racial problems are the major 

causes of their search for identity. 

 

Keywords:  Identity, Psychoanalysis, African Literature, Diaspora 

 

Introduction 

An issue that often comes up in literature is the search for identity, especially 

among Africans who find themselves in foreign countries with a different 

culture and worldviews. These Africans usually feel lost, humiliated or not fully 

accepted in their foreign environment. In most cases these Africans are trained 

in systems dominated by European culture. But as A.N. Nwachukwu in 

Africans and Identity says; “the African’s concern is not with an inner voyage 

of discovery of a self, his concern is his public role, not his private self. The 

African asks always, not “Who am I?” but, “Who are we?” His problem is not 

his own but his people’s” (69). 



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In a paper presented at the “Travel and Uniting Conference of the University of 

Wolverhampton, W.B. Smith writes that: “People often ask the question of what 

defines someone’s identity. Is it the colour of his skin? His language? His 

birthplace? It could be a combination of all these factors/ (56). He says that 

although the term identity has a long history, deriving from the Latin root 

“idem”, implying sameness and continuity, it was not until the twentieth 

century that the term came into popular usage (57). The psycho-historian Eric 

Erikson in his Construct of Ego Identity says: “identity is a process located in 

the core of the individual; and yet also in the core of his or her communal 

culture, hence making a connection between community and individual” (156). 

He has developed the term “identity crisis” during the Second World War in 

reference to patients who has lost a sense of personal sameness and historical 

continuity (basically confused by the identity they have assumed and the one 

the war was forcing on them) and subsequently generalizes it to a whole stage 

of life (as part of his epigenetic life-stage model of the eight life stages of man). 

Here, Berger in Invitation to Sociology says: “Youth is identified as a universal 

crisis period of potential identity (157). 

 

Basically, the problem of identity always pops up as a result of migration. 

Patrick Henry in Migration and Literary Identity says that “migration may have 

collapsed the barrier between time and space but it has also raised the question 

of who a person really is” (112). Thus, the migrating author in Diaspora, says 

Patrick, has been rejected and alienated by that singular action of migration, 

both at home and abroad. They have been seen as too foreign, not even 

deserving of being called Africans by their home contemporaries while they are 

still seen as foreigners in the land of residence (113). Quoting Dike Omeje, a 

performance poet, Patrick writes: “We have been denied of citizenship and 

identity by our contemporaries at home; the same way we are being denied by 

those abroad’ (115). Hence, most of these writers create characters in the same 

state similar to their own. Further, Patrick says that a progressive examination 

of African literature reveals that after the arrival of the Europeans on African 

shores in the sixteenth century, slave trade boomed and literature became one 

of the ways of retaining whatever identity the slaves may have. As literature is 

still in its oral form, the slaves share their stories as they move from one location 

to the other. A slave’s fear is that he may never return to tell where he was taken 

and the telling of his story to the people he meets on his way is to mark his path 

to the unknown and make his transition to the spirit world safer as orality 

remains the main vehicle to commune with the spirit world (118). 

 

Providing a paradigm of the concern in the slave narratives in Olaudah Equianor 

or Gustavas Vassar (his slave name). In his book, he tells the tale of collusion 

by African chieftains with the white slave traders from his kidnapping in his 

home village to his eventual sale and journey across the ocean. He has every 



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reason to be against his own people but still his book is titled The Narrative of 

Olaudah Equiano or Gustavasvassar, the African. Ending the title of the book 

with “The African”, “Equino asserts his right to belong to a people he has left 

behind long ago but whom he believes he still shares a common heritage with. 

The critic, S.E.Ogude in Towards the Colonisation of African Literature as 

quoted by Chinweizu says that the book is littered with borrowing, both from 

other contemporary African writers such as UkawasawGronniosaw and from 

Daniel Defoe” (75). Ogude claims: “in many respects Equiano is ignorant of 

the African continent as Defoe’s captain Singleton and Robinson Crusoe and 

both Defoe and Equaino build their image of Africa in hearsay, pseudo-history 

and pure fiction” (76). He claims to be an African but wrote like an European. 

He was, therefore, the proverbial “bat” in Igbo folklore. Thus, the encounter 

with migration has moulded characters who are neither Africans nor Europeans 

culturally. 

 

Also noteworthy is colonialism. Ngozi Chuma-Udeh in Trends and Issues in 

Nigerian Literature writes that when the tumult of independence was at its peak, 

the myth about white superiority begins to wane in the mind of the average 

Nigerian citizen. The ex-soldiers who has gone to the world war and has 

returned to educate other Nigerians at home on the fallibility of the white man. 

Hence, Africans begin to travel to Europe for the acquisition of knowledge. 

Thus, these Africans having imbibed without adulteration the western culture 

strive to be like the Europeans. This striving is an unrealistic fantasy and an 

effort in futility basically with their black skin. They have lost grip of the 

cultural values of their people and have become black white men and have also 

found themselves in a most contractor situation (107). So, it is pertinent to note 

that the identity question is only answered by the person concerned, it is an 

assertion of self, the way the respondent perceives himself and not what or how 

he is perceived. Hence, Richard Henikins states in Social identity that “identity 

is our understanding of who we are and of who other people are and reciprocally 

other people’s understanding of themselves and others” (86). 

 

Furthermore, Cornel Ujowundu in “A Guide in Studies in the Novel” opines; 

“The position of the individual in search of his identity within his society may 

be dangerous for him because he may run the risk of being grossly 

misunderstood by the majority who may then see him as an alien and bent on 

dragging the society into his alien world. Due to his position, he becomes 

rejected (47). 

 

He went further to place characters in three categories: 

 those whose identity crisis arose from dual cultural experience 

(Adichie’s characters in Americanah belong here); 

 identity crisis as a result of the reluctance of the individual to live up to 

certain expectations (Ujobuonu’s pride of the Spider Clan belong here); 



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 identity crisis deriving from the individual’s certainty that the way of 

life of his community is wrong, even if the majority accepts it without 

question (47). 

 

The individual in search of identity as can be seen is therefore an outsider, a 

bat, one whose moral and ideological perceptions belong nowhere and out of 

tune with the wishes of the larger society.  

 

The question of identity is important in the lives of people. People in foreign 

countries have the problem of integration based on their background and the 

search for the necessities of life. They are usually discriminated against, 

marginalized and often oppressed because of their nationality. In the works 

under study, Odili Ujubuonu’s Pride of the Spider Clan and Chimamanda 

Adichie’s Americanah, the Africans in Diaspora have problems of identity due 

to the environment they found themselves. So the researcher intends to identify 

the problems they encounter as a result ofthe foreign environment. The study 

also investigates the struggles of these foreign nationals to make ends meet in 

the new environment. 

 

Conceptual Review 
 

Identity:  James Marcia in his research on Identity Statutes of Adolescents 

defines identity as a self-made lively organization of an individual’s beliefs, 

history, drives and abilities (7). 

 

American Psychological Association dictionary of Psychology sees identity as 

an individual’s sense of self, defined by a set of physical and psychological 

characteristics that are not wholly shared with any other person and a range of 

social and interpersonal affiliations. Cambridge advanced Dictionary defines it 

as a state of mind in which someone recognizes his character traits that lead to 

finding out who they are and what you define yourself as being. 

 

Erikson Erik in Identity Crisis in Autobiographic Perspective defines identity 

as a subjective sense as well as an observable quality of personal sameness and 

continuity, paired with some belief in the sameness and continuity of shared 

world image (730). 

 

Identity Crisis:  Erikson in his Stages of Psycho-social Development defines 

identity crises as the failure of the individual to achieve ego-identity during 

adolescence (2). He also defines identity crisis as a state when the inner core of 

an individual changes as a result of failure in his relationship with his 

environment (3). 

 



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Self: Cambridge Advanced Learners Dictionary define self as the set of 

someone’s characteristics such as personality and ability, which are not 

physical and make that person different from other people. Oxford Advanced 

Learners Dictionary on the other hand defines it as a person’s personality or 

character that makes him different from other people. 

 

Search: Cambridge Advanced Learners Dictionary defines search as: to try to 

find the answer to a problem. Oxford advanced Learners Dictionary defines it 

as an attempt to find somebody or something by looking carefully for them/it. 

 

Psychoanalysis 

Psychoanalytic criticism is the application of specific psychological principles 

to the study of literature. This kind of criticism approaches the analysis of 

literary works from the working and psychological dispossession of the human 

minds. The term, psychoanalysis was founded by the Austrian psychologist 

Sigmund Freud in the late nineteenth century. Psychoanalytic theory, offers a 

distinctive way of thinking about the human mind and of responding to 

psychological distress. It looks closely at the unconscious drive that motivates 

people to act in certain ways. In essence, it is worthy to note that psychoanalysis 

begins with the concept of the unconscious. Freud’s idea of the ‘unconscious’ 

on which all his theories are based upon is a major breakthrough towards 

understanding the complex human psyche which was previously ignored by 

other theorists. Freud believed that the unconscious is a part of our biological 

nature and it operates naturally. He also observes that our actions are 

determined by our mental reasoning and behaviour. Freud suggests that most 

behaviour are caused by thoughts, ideas and wishes that are in a person’s brain 

but are not easily accessible by the conscious part of the mind. And when these 

thoughts and ideas are threatened, they are pushed out of consciousness because 

awareness of them produces anxiety. Psychoanalysis is based on the exploration 

of the unconscious mental processes as manifested in dreams and disturbed 

relationship with others. It aims to unearth repressed anxieties and overcome 

the effects of bad experiences in early childhood, typically using the technique 

of free association. The unconscious mind is a reservoir of feelings, thoughts, 

urges and memories that are outside of our conscious awareness. Most of the 

contents of the unconscious are unacceptable or unpleasant, such as feelings of 

pain, anxiety or conflict. The psychoanalytic unconscious acts as the repository 

for experience, thoughts and feelings that are unacceptable and are repressed by 

the conscious mind. 

 

Psychoanalytic theory is the theory of personality organization and the 

dynamics of personality development that guides psychoanalysis. It proposes 

that personality characteristics are mostly, a reflection of the contents of the 

unconscious part of the mind. Freud in his psychosexual theory combines a 

description of personality with sexual development of the individual. He 



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remarkes that personality-traits evolve through a series of stages that occur 

during childhood and adolescence and these stages are called psychosexual 

stage because they focus on mental (psyche) ideas about sex. Freud observes 

that sexual activities that were mostly disapproved of were repressed in to the 

unconscious and therefore were most likely to influence personality. In 

establishing the relationship between unconscious and personality, Freud 

divides the individual personality into three categories: the, id, the ego and the 

supergo, they interact with each other but have their unique characteristics. 

We shall therefore, relate this theory with the psychological status and problems 

of the characters in texts studied in this paper. 

 

The Search for Identity in Odili Ujubuonu’s Pride of the Spider Clan 

Odili Ujubuonu’s re-affirms the Igbo and African culture in his work entitled 

the Pride of the Spider Clan. It is a clear attempt on the issue of seeking to know 

one’s identity and working hard towards fulfilling one’s identity. A trilogy, 

Pride of the Spider Clan concludes the story started in Pregnancy of the Gods 

and continued in Treasure in the Winds. 

 

Pride of the Spider clan starts when Isikamdi, son of Nweke, comes back from 

the bush as a palmwine taper and Eze Kambite calls him to tell him about the 

problem befalling their family and to also tell him that he is the one to assume 

the throne as the king of Ezechukwu compound. Eze Kambite tells him that the 

problem befalling them is as a result of the loss of an “Ofo” that binds the family 

as their ancestors. 

 

The novel is about the identities of Isikamdi and Odidika. Isikamdi, the son of 

Nweke Ezechukwu, an Arochukwu man and Akanji, his mother is prophesied 

to ascend the throne of the Mbaozo people who belong to the Aro stalk. 

However, for that to happen, an “ofo” is to be found and handed over to him by 

Odidika who is to assume the role of priesthood. The ofo is one made of a tree 

in Arochukwu. At the first time when this installation is to be made, an albino 

is to be sacrificed at such a coronation. The albino’s escape from being 

sacrificed brings about the loss of the “ofo”, and it has gone from hand to hand 

as different Aro men try to retrieve it. The family of Ezechukwu has suffered 

greatly because of the role they should be playing in the lives of the people and 

are bordering at the brink of extinction. 

 

It is at this time that Ujubuonu presents us with the two characters; Isikamdi 

and Odidika on whose shoulders the quest will finally be fulfilled. Odidika, who 

is to mediate in handing over the staff of office and Isikamdi, who is to be the 

custodian of the staff now arrives at the scene but are to pass through difficulties 

as they seek to fulfill their calling. Unknown to them and others their paths keep 

crisscrossing and being endangered and somewhat controlled remotely by 

forces unknown to them. 



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The first time Isikamdi is introduced to us, he is being summoned by his uncle 

Eze Kambite, Fate has made it that Kambite is not just an uncle, but more of a 

father as Isikamdi’s biological father died as soon as he was born. They are of 

the Aro people but for some unexplained experiences in the past, the family of 

Ezechukwu has been passing through tragic experiences which are about to 

wipe out the family. So, a solution has to be found to prevent this from 

happening. All those who become aware of the fact that there is a special role 

meant for Isikamdi seem to die off. That is what happened to Ukabia as well as 

Nweke, Isikamdi’s father. Kambite passes this information to Isikamdi as we 

can see in the prologue, helping him to see the depth of what faces them as a 

family and to prepare him for the role he is to play. He begins his discussion 

with Isikamdi by reminding him of the tragedy that has befallen their family 

before his very eyes, such as the fact that he has lost his own father, just like 

Isikamdi has lost his, when he barely knows him. Then, the death of his wives 

except for one and how he tries in vain to beget a son that would continue their 

family name. 

 

Then he comes to the crux of the matter, having prepared Isikamdi’s mind to 

the weight of what is facing him; it is time to give him the full doze of the pill. 

Yet, it is to be Isikamdi’s personal choice to locate himself in the length of time. 

Kambite says to Isikamdi: 

You will die and I shall follow suit. But your wife 

would be pregnant and your child would live….. Your 

name shall be and your honour shall transcend the 

boundaries of Umuaro, Should you accomplish 

successfully what is expected of you, then Ezechukwu 

would attain a different position in Mbaozo. But, 

above all things, you have a choice to either refuse to 

know and let things be the way they are or hear me 

out and participate fully in its change. (22) 

 

Kambite give him time to think over the matter and be personally convinced 

that he wants to do what is required. Though Kambite gives a week, Isikamdi 

returnes to him to be finally commissioned for his role just after two days. His 

comments seem to mean that he is ready to face his own death but he wants to 

get it done with immediately. Kambite helps him adjust his view of the 

situation; to look at it, not as death, but as rebirth, Isikamdi exposes his 

discomfort thus: 

I am troubled because I do not know whether to say 

yes or no? A man does not open his eyes and stick his 

finger into a burning coal. If I choose to climb an iroko 

tree barehanded, I am the author of my fate. Should I 



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decide to enter the bush and catch a leopard? It is also 

my risk. (50) 

 

Eze Kambite insists that he spends the complete four days and a week, before 

they discuss the matter any further. As he leaves the presence of Kambite, he 

seems to be drained of all strength. Odili Ujubuonu now goes into letting us 

into the events that have been the life of the Ezechukwu family since the days 

of Nweke’s brother, who has seen Odidika and is convinced that he is Udo 

Okeke’s child. As he puts two and two together of what he knows about the 

death of Ekemma and her burial, he has no doubt that the young boy is really 

the son of the couple. Ukabia discusses why he is sure that Odidika is the 

prophesied grandchild of Okeke Okike who would return the lost ofo to the 

family. 

 

However, Ukabia still has an aspect of the puzzle not yet clear him. He hears 

much about the lost ofo and the return of it. But does his own family, the 

Ezechukwu family, have any history of a lost ofo?  As the discussion he was 

having with Nweke progresses, his son anounces that some visitors have come 

to visit him. Before the evening when he should have continued the issue with 

Nweke, he dies. Nweke knows he is likely the next to go. So, he makes haste 

to give his own younger brother, Kambite, everything he is aware of. 

 

On his own part, Odidika has lost his father shortly before his birth. Her 

mother, Ekemma, becomes pregnant of him. The people are yet to be aware. 

So, when the pregnancy starts manifesting, people mistakes her for being of 

easy virtue and accuses Adiabuabili, in whom she has taken solace, as being 

the one responsible. The persecution that follows her leads to her death during 

the birth of the child. Adiabuabili has already exiled himself out of anger for 

as a result of the false accusation. He and Mbandu whose wife Egondu is 

Ekemma’s sister, are the only ones there and they bury her inside her house. 

Egondu then takes over the baby and brings him up as their own child. 

Meanwhile, Egondu who is pregnant has lost her child that would have been 

of the same age as Ekemma’s; so it is not easy for people to see Odidika as not 

being hers. 

 

Tragedy follows Odidika’s life. The jealousy of the Isiani has led to the 

attempts on the lives of the parents which finally culminate in the death of Udo 

Okike and then his wife, Ekemma. As for Odidika, he thrives in the house of 

Mbandu and a mysterious leopard dies in his hand which turns out to be a man, 

who would cause problems for him. Mbandu decides to exile him to a place he 

will be safe. Mbandu has gone to a diviner to hear his advice. 

Why are you worried, Mbandu? Am wants the boy 

to return to Mbaozo. He must learn the ways of his 

people and tread the path charged for him…. Have 



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you forgotten that you were told that hiccups shall 

attend his life – challenging hiccups, Mbandu? This 

is just one of them. (45) 

It is very worrisome that of all places, he is exiled to Mbaonu to spend some 

time with Ikedike Obidi, who is married to Odidika’s aunt. Meanwhile, Nweke 

has passed the information which he got from Ikabia to his only brother, 

Kambite, and has encouraged him to see to it that the young boy Isikamdi is 

well taken care of and helped to fulfil the role meant for him. 

 

The novelist tells us that Odidika is placed in the care of Mbandu and his wife 

at the death of his parents. Mbandu is thought to be an osu, an outcast or one 

who is dedicated to a deity and they live in Mbaosu. Hence, Odidika grows to 

think he is an osu also. As he grows, he one day shoots at a leopard that has 

been giving his family worries, not knowing that it is a neighbour who has 

metamorphosed as a wild beast. When he goes close to see the game, he is 

shocked to see the man dying in his own pool of blood. Mbandu acts quickly to 

preserve Odidika’s life by sending him on a self-exile. Meanwhile, Eze Kambite 

gets to know about Odidika and the special role he probably has got to play and 

starts to show special interest in his welfare. Once, he has saved Odidika’s life 

when he was tied up in an evil forest to die because of his interest in young 

maiden in Mbaozo. Kambite seems to possess special powers that make him 

aware of the circumstances of the two young men, Odidika and Isikamdi, so 

that he would be right on time to save them from harm. 

 

When Isikamdi becomes mature enough, Eze Kambite has him initiated into the 

cult of the masquerades. In time, he hands over to him the palace of his father 

so that he could now assume the family’s priesthood as the administrative and 

religious head of the Ezechukwu family. This marks an important step in his 

march towards resolving the issue of his identity and the identity of his people. 

The seriousness of Isikamdi’s search is heightened by the fact that his journey 

is kept confidential even to very important members of his family, including his 

mother and his wife, who is already pregnant. To them, Isikamdi is embarking 

on a very important but long trip to Olu. His mother is very furious about this 

but she could not do anything about this. Isikamdi has by now grown to 

appreciate his uncle’s unselfish interest in him and is ready to do any of his 

bidding. He is prepared for the journey by two traditional medicine men with 

Eze Kambite present under the watchful eyes of the moon. He traverses the 

length and breadth of Igbo land in search of the elusive ofo so as to preserve his 

family line. As he meets with people, he takes note of their difference towards 

him and hopes that his own son would not be subjected to such perennial pity. 

His heart yearned to find his place among his people. Ujubuonu puts it this way 

when he presents us with Isikamdi’s meeting with Akarachi: 

 Isikamdi, once again, watch the familiar reaction of 

people to his paternity. He hoped that after this trip, his 



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own son would never become such an object of perennial 

pity. (256) 

 

Unfortunately, as Isikamdi moves further in his search, the ofo keeps being 

elusive and all those from whom he is to get information are dead or missing. 

Finally, it is to Okeke Okike, a carver from Ukpor, Odidika’s father, that he is 

directed as the husband of one of the women that may has a link to the ofo. 

 

As Isikamdi continues in his tracks in search of the lost ofo, Pride of the Spider 

Clan takes into the early life of Odidika as his foster father reveals his paternity 

to him. Odidika feels very relieved at the information that his excitement is too 

obvious to his wife. Adamma, Ujubuonu uses this to show how one feels when 

he finds answers to troubling questions about oneself. When Adamma asks him, 

“What is the problem, Ijenna’s father?” he answers:  “Something too sudden to 

believe, too credible to doubt and too well-confirmed to ask further questions” 

(269). He emphasizes his point with a proverbial expression, referring to his 

father who has made the revelations: “He cut an iroko tree with his bare hands”. 

 

Odidika does not want to let things rest before making plans to fix himself in 

his place among his people: 

About where we will stay in Akanru…..I have been 

shown my ancestral home. I will begin to make 

arrangements to start building our home. I shall be busy 

from now until we move over…. The earlier I finish, the 

earlier I will give my mother a befitting funeral. (271) 

 

The importance of Isikamdi’s and Odidika’s search is made clear in the fact that 

one is pulled together always by family ties, Odidika’s success and prominence 

pales into insignificance in comparison with his place among his people. He is 

ready to forgo everything and return to his own. It is Isikamdi who voices this 

need out loud when he asked about his father in-law and is told that he has gone 

to settle a dispute back home. Isikamdi then exclaimed: “Family always pulling 

someone” (278). Then his grandmother makes the analogy from where the book 

got its name: 

That is what we are. Threads carefully knitted to hold 

everyone together for peace. Places where the threads 

are in shreds the people suffer pointless pain, 

competition and wickedness (278). 

 

And it is this pointless competition and wickedness that has thrown the 

Ezechukwu family into frantic fight for survival because of the evil of the 

Isiani. It is at this discussion between Egondu and Isikamdi that she reveals 

about how the ofo got into the hands of faces that they could not remember. 

Isikamdi’s search has begun to seem fruitless, like seeking a black goat in a 



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very dark night. All that is now clear to him is that the ofo most likely would 

be in the form of a flute. His search now takes him to Abanta where he meets 

OkaforEkwe and it is at this juncture that the essence of Isikamdi’s search is 

made clear, helping us to see how important it is to the identity of the people 

of Aro. As Ekwe tells him of the movement of the flute cum ofo, how 

Ibinukpabi has had a hand in all that has been happening, Isikamdi asks a 

pointed question: “What is the role of the flute in all this?” (205). In answer, 

Ekwe says; 

I told you that the original flute is not just a musical 

instrument but an ofo. It will be the spiritual source of 

authority for us to rule and make all these dreams 

manifest. But it must get to the rightful owners who are 

the only ones to do so. (205) 

 

Ekwe even goes on to show how determined one can be in seeking to place 

oneself in the stream of time and realize one’s destiny. He says, to Isikamdi, 

when he wonders why the older man feels very satisfied even though he is yet 

to take hold of the ofo. 

The tempest may roar, the sea devils will storm but 

the waters must kiss the shoreline many times daily. 

It is part of nature’s unalterable laws…. We have done 

what men should do. To build we must give and not 

take. We must give our time, our sweat and all that we 

know (206). 

 

The story reverts to Odidika’s travails in his hometown now where he now 

tries very hard to fill his place. He has returned from the Kirike where he has 

built a flourishing gin business with Dukubo, a native, as his partner. There, 

another Aro man has watched him carefully and worked hard to protect him. 

Still, problems would always find him and he soon falls out of favour with the 

spirit maid of the water goddess and has to run for his life. Now, his mother’s 

funeral has been a success and it is about time for his enthronement as the chief 

priest of the people. Still, Isikamdi is still away in his efforts to locate the 

ofoeven though EzeKambite and the others back home have lived through the 

surprises of Odidika’spaternity which also has a bearing on Ijenna’s bearing, 

the wife of Isikamdi. Then, Dukubo, Odidika’s friend and business partner, 

arrive bringing home a wrong flute. This pained Odidika so much for he is now 

seeing the search almost being futile. 

 

As he discusses with Dukubo who volunteers to run back to Fiberesima to 

inform him about the fake flute he has given to them, Odidika insists that he 

waits for his investiture as the Isiani. Meanwhile, Dukubo presents him with a 

spear as a gift from Fiberesima, with instruction that he replaces the tip. This 



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makes Odidika wonder why Fiberesima would give him a gift that is faulty, 

even though it is beautiful.  

 

As he examines the gift with particular attention to the faulty area, the search is 

realized. He pulled out the metal tip, letting something drop from a hollow 

inside the spear straight to the space between his legs. He looked down, quickly 

picking up the item and checking it carefully. “It was the sacred flute”. And he 

screams in joy: “Fiberresima is a wizard” (398). 

 

Search for Identity in ChimamandaAdichie’s Americanah 

Americanah is a new kind of migration story, one that reflects a political shift 

and a literary one. An incredibly rich tapestry of Nigerian and American life 

and the ways a handful of vivid characters try to live in both worlds 

simultaneously. 

 

Kathlyn Schulz speaking on Adichie’s Americanah says in 2013 New York 

Magazine: 

 Adichie has scaled up, Americanah traverses three 

genres (romance, comedy of manners, novel of 

ideas), three nations (Nigeria, Great Britain, the 

united States), and within each, a swath of the social 

spectrum as broad and as difficult to nail as the hand 

spans in a Rachimaninoff concerto. It is about 

identity, nationality, race, difference, loneliness, 

aspiration and love, not as distinct entities but in the 

complex combinational relations they possess in real 

life. 

 

Americanah explores the tainted and struggling situation that African 

emigrants in America are locked in. Adichie in Americanah explores and 

analyses the circumstantial identity search these emigrants are involved in, 

having found themselves in an alien world quite different from the one they 

have always known. As stated earlier, identity crisis in this novel is 

engineered by migration. Migration in effect brings about dual cultural 

experiences by the characters which lead to alienation for most of them. 

 

Adichie presents her characters as people in dilemmatic situation. Should they 

exert their identities as Africans in America or should they keep their 

Africanness aside and imbibe and assimilate the American culture in 

themselves for the spur of the moment and when they reunite with their roots, 

they can pick up their set-aside culture? The former seems impossible because 

Adichie presented an America or, rather, realistically painted an America 

where, in order to survive, you must belong and belonging not as an African 

but an African American. This state of unresolved dilemma results in identity 



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crisis and the pangs of alienation experienced by the characters. Notably, 

these characters are well on their way to becoming Americans. They choose 

instead to become Americans: an identity predicated on experiences rather 

than nationality, trajectory rather than place. Significantly, the peak of 

identity crisis is reached when these emigrants eventually return to where they 

emigrated from. Having become new beings, can their African identities 

begin at this phase but their Americanness will always raise heads. The duel 

between these two cultures and its resultant effects on characters is what 

Adichie presents in Americanah. 

 

The novel opens in Princetown, a town so pristine it actually sounds that way. 

The story begins nearly twenty years earlier, in Nigeria, when the teenager 

Ifemelu and a boy named Obinze fall in love. They are bright, motivated and 

earnest – which is to say, everything the Nigerian state is not. Surrounded by 

corruption and dysfunction, they eventually respond, as many members of 

their real life generation did by leaving. Ifemelu goes to the United States, 

Obinze rejected by America’s post-11 gatekeepers heads to England, on a 

tourist visa. He, of course, overstays. Eventually, he is discovered and sent 

back to Nigeria where he begins an assent that culminates in a fancy house, a 

wife and daughter, and a distant, vicious alienated boredom. Meanwhile in 

America, Ifemelu finds herself surviving through work so humiliating that she 

cuts off all communication with Obinze and effectively with herself. 

Gradually, though her life swings upward as well, she launches a blog about 

race in America, earns readers and speaking fees, buys a condo, and begins 

dating a handsome conscientious Yale professor. Yet, by the time we meet 

her in that salon at the beginning of the novel, she has decided to trade all this 

for a one-way ticket back to Nigeria. Having left Nigeria because of the 

political disillusionment, Ifemelu arrives America. In America, she is 

besieged by racism and denial. She discovers the most potent of all invincible 

strings – the nuclear force of our social physics – race. Adichie’s analysis of 

that force is specific, damming, clarifying and comprehensible. She is 

merciless about white liberal attitudes towards race, with their prevailing mix 

of awkward self-consciousness, contented ignorance, self-satisfaction and 

submerged fear. It is pertinent to quote Jearnnette Macaulay at this point. He 

says: 

Because of racial discrimination, these people within 

the confines of territories which had been allotted to 

them by the government have not been able to lose the 

dominant aspects of their culture which later on, fused 

with the dominantaspects on the foreign culture to form 

a synthesis. This synthesis may be an unconscious 

evolution as comes out in forms of jazz or the calypso. 

(81) 

 



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Some of the observations of racial discriminations are recorded in Ifemelu’s 

blog. A middle-aged man suggested writing about adoption to Ifemelu on her 

blog. He says: “ever write about adoption” Nobody wants black babies in this 

country and I don’t mean biracial, I mean black. Even the black families don’t 

want them” (4).  

Ifemelu was particularly caustic about everyone’s 

anxious racial jostling; black immigrants towards 

African Americans, Caribbean immigrants  towards 

Nigerians, Senegalese towards Nigerians, Nigerians 

who went abroad towards those who stayed behind and 

so on. These acts of racism led to many immigrants to 

sell their African identities to become full bred 

Americans and the “long stay” in America should earn 

them this “Americannese”. while discussing with Aisha 

at the salon, Adichie voiced ifemelu’s thoughts: “to earn 

the prize of been taken serious  among Nigerians in 

America, among Africans in America, indeed among 

immigrants in America, she needed more years, six 

years, she began to say when it was just three and a half. 

Eight years she said when it was five. Now that it was 

thirteen years, lying seemed unnecessary but she lied 

anyway. “fifteen years”, she said. (16) 

 

Just for survival, many Africans discard their names (i.e. their identity) and take 

up new identities, especially Nigerians. Ifemelu notes this in page 8. She has 

once been somebody else. This dialogue ensues between Aunty Uju and 

Ifemelu: 

“I talked to one of my friends, I don’t know if you 

remember her –NgoziOkonkwo” she’s now an American 

citizen and she has gone back to Nigeria for a while, to 

start a business. I begged her and she agreed to let you 

work with her social security card. “How” I’ll use her 

name?” ifemelu asked. “Of course you’ll use her name”.  

(106) 

 

Adichie’s exploration of the conflict of identity crisis is subtle, with the full 

complement of satire and caricature. She realizes this in the form of a drive 

attack on both the Nigerians who are sufficiently enchanted with especially the 

American culture, ethos and mannerisms to the extent of proposing a 

substitution of their own. She does not just lament what America can do to the 

Nigerian in terms of engendering a blatant disregard for things Nigerian. She 

also regrets what Nigerians can do to themselves by way of seeking a cultural 

acceptance by Americans. It is in this respect that the AbiolaIrele, taking a cue 

from Hegal’s dialectics sees alienation as a “willed movement out of the self 



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and a purposive quest for new horizons of life and experience” (601). Back in 

Nigeria before Ifemelu leaves for America, Adichie exposes what America 

could do to some Nigerians. She does this through a discussion of Ifemelu and 

her friends. Ginika plans on traveling to America and this conversation ensues 

in her apartment: “Ginika just make sure you can still talk to us when you come 

back, “Priye said.  

“she’ll come back and be a serious Americanah like 

Bisis,” Ranyinudo said. And at the thought of Bisi, a girl 

in the form below who had come back from a short trip 

to America with old affectations, pretending she no 

longer understood Yoruba, adding a slurry “r” to every 

English word she spoke. (65) 

 

Obinze on his part has spent part of his childhood in America. He seems to have 

developed a phobia for African things and an undying love for American things. 

Adichie says; “He was fluent in the knowledge of foreign things, especially of 

American things. He often said ‘go to Manhattan and see how things are”. (67) 

He even knew details about American presidents from hundred years ago.  

 

Adichie never leaves Obinze’s mother out. Ifemelu observes in her thoughts. 

“what sort of mother in her right mind will ask her son’s girlfriend to visit? It 

was ‘odd’. Even the expression ‘come to lunch’ was something people said in 

books” (68) Adichie’s use of the word “odd” means that it is bizarre seeing such 

from an African woman. It was typically American but it came from an Igbo 

woman. When asked why he is really into America and their ways, Obinze 

responds, ‘I read American books America is the future” (70). Obinze haslost 

hope in Africa. He believes America is the way forward. Ifemelu goes further 

in her observation of Obinze’s mother, being mesmerized by her ways: 

“Obinze’s mother, her beautiful face, her air of sophistication, her wearing a 

white apron in the kitchen was not like any other mother Ifemelu knew” (70). 

The clutch of America on immigrants, especially Nigerians, seems so strong 

because one cannot stop wondering why Ifemelu herself would succumb to this 

clutch and spell of Americanness. She has once said to Obinze. “I go very often 

to the village with my mother, at least five times a year”. (61). While she was 

leaving for America, Ranyinudo said: “the next time we see you; you will be a 

serious Americanah” (100). One would be forced to disgraceRanyinudo 

because of Ifemelu’s strong ties with roots but her actions afterwards would 

make Ranyinudo’s statement unarguable. Just after three years of stay in 

America, Ifemelu makes a call to a talemarketer and the man says. “You sound 

totally American” (175), even after saying she is a Nigerian. Ifemelu’s thoughts 

after she hung up confirm her fears because of her changing nature. Only after 

she hung up that she begins to feel the stain of a burgeoning shame spread all 

over her, for thanking him, for crafting his words “you sound American” into a 

garland that she hung around her own neck why was it a compliment, an 



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accomplishment to sound American (175)? On another occasion, an Ethiopian 

taxi driver tells Ifemelu that she does not look African at all and when Ifemelu 

asks why, he says; “Because your blouse is too tight. I thought you were from 

Trinidad or one of those places. You have to be very careful or America will 

corrupt you” (206). Ifemelu has completely forgotten what Nigeria is like. 

During a call with her mother, Adichie says, “when her mother said there had 

been no light for two weeks, it seemed suddenly foreign to her, and home itself 

a distant place. She could no longer remember what it feels spending an evening 

in candlelight” (159). On another occasion, she forgets that there is a kiosk near 

her house (200). Adichie goes on and on attacking Nigerians who are enchanted 

with American culture and ethos, Ifemelu calls Aunty Uju in America and his 

dialogue ensues:  

“yes, this is Uju, “she pronounced it you-joo instead of oo-joo.  

“is that how you pronounce your name now?” 

“it ‘s what they call me.” 

“well, that isn’t your name”. (104) 

 

Aunty Uju has resorted to calling herself you-joo instead of oo-joo because 

Americans called her that. Her inability to insist on using the right 

pronunciation of her name suggests that American clutch and grip is too strong. 

At a grocery store, aunty tells Dike her son to put something he has picked up. 

Adichie describes it thus: “Dike put it back,’ with the nasal sliding accent, ‘poo-

reet-back. ‘and with the accent emerged a new persona, apologetic and self 

abasing” (108). In the car, aunty Uju reprimands her son better by pulling his 

car. When Dike presses his palm to his ear in pain, Uju said to Ifemelu; “This 

is how children like misbehaving in this country. Jane tells me that her daughter 

threatens to call the police when she beats her. Imagine. I don’t blame the girl, 

she has come to America and learned about calling the police” (109). Jane’s 

daughter would not do that in Nigeria because Africans believe in the cliché, 

“spare the rod and spoil the child,” even the police. Nigerian parents even go 

corporal just to correct a child. Aunty Uju’s reprimanding of Dike in the car 

away from glaring eyes shows that if she had done it in the open, Americans 

around could report her to social services. Even at that, Uju was bent on making 

Dike a complete American. When Ifemelu speaks Igbo to Dike, Aunty Uju’s 

response is, “please don’t speak Igbo to him. Two languages will confuse him” 

(109). Ifemelu responds that they all spoke two languages while growing up 

and Uju replies: “this is America. It’s different” (109). Uju has become 

someone else. Her identity as a Nigerian is in question. Ifemelu gives in and 

concludes that America has subdued her (110). When Ifemelu first arrives 

America, a friend explains to her, “This is America. You are supposed to 

pretend you don’t notice certain things. “This is because of the curious 

behaviour of a cashier in a clothing store who, in asking which of the two sales 

people helped her, attempts to distinguish between the two of them on every 

imaginable basis except the obvious one-skin colour.  



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Worthy of note, Adichie satirically talks about these new identities and its state. 

This new Americanness is half-baked and it is visible in their accents. Nigerians 

try so hard to fit in by copying the accents of the Americans. Bartholomew, a 

man Aunty hopes to settle down with is one of such characters. Ifemelu 

observes: 

 

He spoke with an American accent filled with holes, mangling 

words until they were impossible to understand. She sensed 

from his demeanor a deprived rural upbringing that he tried to 

compensate for with this American affectation, his gonnas and 

wannas (115).  

 

On another occasion, in a restaurant, Ifemelu notes the accents of the waiters 

who were African: “When they speak English to customers, it was broken, 

curious as though they had not quite eased into the language itself, before taking 

in a slangy Americanism. Words come out half complete” (9)  

 

Africans in America are at crossroads in identity. They are not Africans 

anymore and neither are they fully fledged Americans because each is half 

backed in them. They are half Africans which is partly their doing and half 

Americans yearning and trying to be full-fledged but their half Africaness will 

always gnaw and rear heads displaying whom they really are which they have 

kept in denial. They are caught between two cultures and their identities are in 

chaos. In a nutshell, they are bats.  

 

It saddens Ifemelu that her Aunty’s situation has reduced to settling merely for 

what is familiar. Adichie goes on and on taking a clean sweep and exposing 

what immigration to America could do to the identity of Nigerians. She presents 

us with more characters in the state of identity crisis. In London, Emenike, a 

friend of Obinze, has completely turned British. He has married a white woman 

Georgina, not out of love but just to be accepted in the British society. He now 

speaks and acts like the British. Hear him: “But the Americans love ‘us’. Brits, 

they love the accent and the queen and the double-dealer “(272).  

 

The emphasis on “us” implies that Emenike, a Nigerian, considers himself 

British. When Ifemelu starts dating Biane, an American, she tells her parents 

that she is leaving Baltimore to New Haven to live with him, but hear what 

Adichie has to say, “telling her father that she was moving in with a man to 

whom she was not married, was something she could do only because she lived 

in America. Rules had shifted, fallen into the crooks of distance and 

foreignness” (314). Adichie in her artistic grandeur created Dike as a character 

in a pathetic situation began right from birth-an African born in America. He 

knew nothing about Africa, his roots, though nobody would blame him, he is 



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completely American but part of the blame would go to his mother who denied 

him from speaking two languages. Once with Ifemelu, Dike asks her “what are 

you doing that? Eating a banana with peanuts?”  

“that’s what we do in Nigeria. Do you want to try it?”  

“No, I don’t think I like Nigeria coz” (113).  

 

America has made Dike hate his origins. After a meeting with some friends, 

Ifemelu thought of Dike and wonders what he is and what he would be 

considered as: “American African or African American. He would have to 

choose what he was or what he was would be chosen for him” (147).  

 

Dike becomes internally conflicted. He is an American by birth and African by 

roots and origin but how could he reconcile the two identities. He has written 

about his situation in an essay and his mother voiced out her feelings to Ifemelu: 

“How can he say he does not know what he is?  Since when is he conflicted and 

even that his name is difficult”. And Ifemelu responds: “Ithink he wrote that 

because that’s the kind of thing they teach him here. Everybody is conflicted, 

identity this, identity that” (217).  This internal conflict in Dike must have made 

him think of this place and existence on earth, thereby making him to attempt 

suicide. He yearns to end it all because he believes that he does not belong 

anywhere. He has no place in America. His skin colour speaks against him in 

America and on a visit to Africa; he feels his disposition and behaviour are 

against him.  

 

Ifemelu blames Uju for Dike’s attempt on his life and his feeling towards 

himself! “Do you remember when Dike was telling you something and he said, 

we black folks, and you told him you are not black?” I didn’t want him to start 

behaving like those people and thinking that everything that happens to him is 

because he’s black”. “You told him what he wasn’t but you didn’t tell him what 

he was. You never reassured him” (379).  

 

Even on a visit to Nigeria, everything seems strange to Dike. He is surprised to 

see so many black people like himself. When the power goes off after he 

arrived, the buzzing whirling sounds of Ifemelu’s UPS startles him. He says: 

“Oh my God, is that like a fire alarm” (423). He complained about the heat, 

about mosquitoes biting him (425). He knows nothing about his roots 

butAdichie has created in him unquenching regret, a yearning, a hunger to have 

been part of this root. He is like an alien in his own world. He wanted to be a 

part of this world. He says: “I wish I could speak Igbo” (424).  

 

Worthy of note is Adichie’s creation of a Nigerian character that remains 

unchanged. Ginika is such a character. Her long stay in America does not 

change whom she is, an African. Upon Ifemelu’s arrival, Ginika has gone to 

pick her up. Ginika says: “we are entering university and that’s where Wellon 



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Campus is, shay you know?” according to Ifemelu, “Ginika has lapsed into 

Nigerian English, a dated, overcooked version, eager to prove how unchanged 

she was. She has, with a strenuous effort, kept in touch through the years. 

Ifemelu does not have the heart to tell her that nobody said “shay” anymore. 

Adichie’s creating Ginika shows that there are still allegiant Africans in 

America that have refused to give in to the American spell of identity change.  

 

It seems being Obinze’s lover is part of Ifemelu identity. Hence, when she gets 

involved with a tennis coach during her search for a job, she feels she has lost 

the identity. She, thereby, cuts all ties with Obinze. Armah’s reunification motif 

is not an understatement because these Africans yearn to visit home. In a 

discussion with Obinze, Emenikesays, “I miss Naija. It’s been long but I just 

haven’t had the time to travel back home” (265).  

 

Blaine and Ifemelu are perfect together in their relationship but Ifemelu wants 

more. The hunger to return home and back to Obinze cannot go unnoticed.  

 

Adichie noted:  

Nigerian became where she was supposed to be, 

the only place she could sink her roots in 

without constant urge to beg them out and shake 

off the soil and of course there was Obinze. Her 

first love, the only person with whom she had 

never felt the need to explain herself (6).  

 

When Elaine asks her why she is leaving, she simply answers, “I have to” (7). 

Adichie further explains that phrase;  

She had not had a bold epiphany and there 

was no cause. It was simply that layer 

after layer of discontent had settled in her 

and formed a mass that now propelled 

her. She did not tell him because it would 

hurt him to know she had felt that way for 

a while, that her relationship with him 

was like being content in a house but 

always sitting by the window and looking 

out (7).  

 

Ifemelu eventually returns to Nigeria and her identiy crisis begins. Adichie 

describes, “Lagos assaulted her” (365). Everything felt strange to her and her 

thoughts, “she felt the dizzying sensation of falling, falling into the new person 

she had become, falling into the strange familiar. Had it always been like this 

or had it changed so much in her absence” (385). 

 



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Ifemelu no longer remembers anything, even bus stops and the side streets but 

significantly, she drops her accent as Ranyinudo observed. She is completely 

an Americanah. Adichie describes further; “She was no longer sure what she 

was now in Lagos and what was new in herself (387). In Ranyinudo’s house, 

the weather irritated her and she asks; “what sort of humidity is this? I can’t 

breathe” (390). On a visit to aunty Onenu’s house with Ranyinudo, she 

describes the house as ugly but in her thoughts: “she had once found houses like 

that beautiful but here she was now disliking it with the haughty confidence of 

a person who recognized kibsch” (393).  

 

Ifemelu and Doris, another American returnee, find themselves hating and 

criticizing some Nigerian expressions which have been in vogue even before 

they left. Doris tells Ifemelu: “don’t you hate it how people say I’m pressed or 

I want to ease myself when they want to go to the bathroom (405).  

 

Consequently, Ifemelu finds herself possessing two personalities, each 

personality in conflict with the other. She knows her deeds and actions are 

making her become an American. Her personality and psyche love American 

things but she does not want to accept that. She is scared of whom she is 

becoming. She is scared of her fading and diminishing Nigerianness. She fights 

so hard to make the African part of her to win the conflict and that is why she 

tries so hard to drop the American accent. In a meeting of American returnees, 

she finds herself in a pretentious state. While discussing with Fred, a fellow 

returnee, she defends things about Nigeria, even though they are in denial.  

 

Thus when Ranyinudo says, “you are no longer behaving like an Americanah 

(393), she is pleased with herself. Also, in a discussion with Obinze, she uses 

the word asshole (435), an American word. When Obinze says it’s an American 

word, in surprise she replies, “is it?” (435) America has become part of her. 

 

On another perpective, when Ifemelu gets reunited with Obinze, she feels that 

lost identity of hers has been resorted but Obinze finds himself in a dilemma. 

His, is the highest point of identity crisis. Their long period of separation and 

denial overwhelms them. Obinze could not control himself anymore.  

 

Who exactly is he? How could he reconcile these two conflicting situations, 

being Kosi’s husband and Ifemelu’s lover? Who is he exactly or who does he 

want himself to be? The feeling of identity crisis is overwhelming. He describes 

Kosi as “that second skin that had never quite fitted him snugly” (456).  

 

In Obinze’s thoughts as the author describes, “he blamed Ifemelu for making 

him a person who was not entirely in control of what he was feeling” (461). He 

begins to think about divorcing Kosi. He blames himself for marrying Kosi in 

the first place because of Ifemelu’s appearance and like the writer voiced out, 



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“since Ifemelu came back he found himself seeking stores of men who had left 

their marriages and willing the stories to end well. The children more contented 

with separated parents than married unhappy parents” (467). Ifemelu is like part 

of his being and identity and an overwhelming spell which he has long been in 

search of and has eventually found but is in confusion on what to do with this 

newly found identity. When Obinze tells Okwudiba about his intention to leave 

Kosi, Okwudiba feels his behaviour is also foreign. According to him:  

Most of us did not marry the woman we truly loved. 

We married the woman that was around when we 

were ready to marry. So forget this thing. No need of 

this kind of white people’s behavior. We don’t 

behave like that please. (472) 

 

In conclusion, Onyerionwu says this of Adichie; 

Adichie’s engagement of Nigerian Diasporic realities 

and experiences has been privileged by her fairly 

extensive stay in the USA spanning more than one 

decade, one senses a significant biographic link 

between Adichie and the fiction of the Diasporic 

inclination, especially as many as marry of her 

characters are young female characters in their prime, 

for whom emigration to America has meant the 

decisive turning point of their lives. (239) 

 

Conclusion 

This work has examined the notion of search for identity in the novel, with 

reference to Chimamanda Adichie’s Americanah and Odili Ujubuonu’s Pride 

of the Spider Clan. Adichie and Naipaul’s artistic response to the experiences 

of the migrated individuals has benefited from their own considerable 

experiences. Adichie being an immigrant in the United States explains her 

narrative passion, physical and psychological proximity with the characters and 

what happens to them. Adichie’s investigation of many aspects of the diasporic 

experience provides different perspectives and images of America ranging from 

the depressingly negative to the endearingly positive. But her crucial pan-

African advice for any immigrant is that he or she should take as much of the 

positive offerings and opportunities that America so generously presents. But, 

in doing that, he or she should give back to it as little as possible, especially 

where it concerns his or her cultural dignity. 

 

As feminist writers continue to search critically into the quality of women’s 

lives in view of the human rights enshrined in the United Nations Agenda, and 

raise questions about the shortcomings of entrenched negative social values, 

their works are compelling and appropriate, especially at this time when the 

needs and experiences of women have become a global concern. 



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In Americanah, the author portrays the life of a Nigerian who had been overseas 

and tried to imbibe the western culture more than the white man. She exposes 

how self-conceited such ones become in their attempt to even speak like the 

white man, dress like the white man, even acculturate themselves in the white 

man’s lifestyle. 

 

They become what the Igbo man would call usu, the bat, which, according to 

folktale, does not belong to terrestrial animals or to birds. Odili Ujubuonu on 

his part in Pride of the Spider Clan depicts the Aro people as having lost their 

pride of place and have to pass through many difficulties, including deaths, as 

they must have to find the symbol of authority which would place them in their 

rightful position. The search for their identity narrows down to two persons, 

Isikamdi and Odidika, who spared no efforts in fulfilling their responsibilities. 

Ujubuonu uses the various Aro men by whom the two principal actors come 

across to show how determined one can be in search for one’s identity and pride 

of place. 

 

 

 

 

 

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