Americanah: Chapter 29 Summary & Analysis

The Angolans keep raising the price for Obinze to get the green card marriage, and they have Cleotilde’s passport as well so neither can escape the deal. Obinze doesn’t have any more money, so he has to ask Emenike for help. Emenike agrees to meet at a restaurant. He is dressed in cashmere and immediately starts complaining jokingly about his white wife, but in a way that shows he still thinks her to be “inherently superior” to him. Emenike says they just came back from a trip to America, and that Obinze should visit there sometime.

Obinze wishes that Emenike would just give him the money, but Emenike rambles on, telling stories of different adversities he has overcome. Emenike says he misses Nigeria, but his wife wouldn’t survive a visit there. He seems to have made Nigeria into “the jungle” and himself the “interpreter of the jungle.” Finally Emenike gives Obinze the money, which is twice what he had asked for. He asks Obinze to count it, which is very rude in the usual Nigerian way of exchanging money.

Obinze slowly counts the money, feeling humiliated, and he wonders if Emenike hated him all those years at school. Obinze hadn’t made fun of him like the other kids, but he hadn’t defended him either. Emenike takes a call from his wife, Georgina, and says that she wants to meet them for dinner. Georgina arrives and Obinze is surprised at how confident and forceful she seems, unlike the “hapless English rose” Emenike had described.

Obinze watches Emenike and Georgina interact and realizes the way in which Emenike is different now: he is self-satisfied. He has a British wife, a British passport, and a British job, and has finally achieved the life he always longed for. He and Georgina take Obinze to a fancy restaurant, where Emenike does most of the talking, telling exaggerated stories about their school days. Georgina invites Obinze to a party they’re having the next night.

Obinze arrives at their large home the next day and Emenike invites him into his study. Obinze looks around at all the photos of Emenike in famous places, thinking of how Emenike visited those places not because he wanted to but just so he could take these photos. Obinze and Emenike discuss literature briefly, and then Emenike starts talking about antique furniture, which is a totally alien concept in Nigeria.

The guests arrive and Emenike introduces them to Obinze. One of them is a flamboyantly gay man, and Obinze thinks of how once in school Emenike had lured a boy suspected of being gay into the bathroom and helped beat him up. The guests compliment the mismatched plates, and Emenike says they got them in India, “handmade by rural women.” Obinze wonders whether Emenike really thinks such plates are beautiful now, or if he has just learned to pretend.

Emenike discusses his recent trip to America, and in doing so says “us Brits,” confirming to Obinze that he considers himself only British now. The other guests talk about America, particularly the nationalism of its citizens. One remarks that American progressives like to criticize their country, but don’t like it when foreigners do.

One guest, Alexa, says she is working with a charity trying to keep African doctors in Africa, as they have a “responsibility” to help their people. Another guest argues that English doctors should then have a responsibility to work in the poor towns of northern England, not in London where they get paid more. There is an awkward silence and then dinner is served. The conversation turns to immigration, which makes Obinze tense up.

The guests discuss the differences between immigration in America and in England, and seem to conclude that America is more racist. They then ask Emenike about racism in England, with Alexa implying that the English aren’t racist, only prejudiced like all people are prejudiced. Emenike then tells a story of being explicitly denied a cab, but he tells it like an amusing anecdote. Earlier he had told the same story to Obinze, but explained how he was shaking with rage at the time.

Alexa says that England needs to remain open to refugees from wars in other countries, and she asks Obinze for his opinion. He agrees, but feels a shiver of alienation. He realizes that all the guests would understand immigrants fleeing from war or starvation, but not immigrants like him, who are “merely hungry for choice and certainty,” raised to always consider other countries as superior.