MIGRATION AND DIASPORA IN CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE’S NOVELS: AMERICANAH AND HALF OF A YELLOW SUN

This thesis explored the dual themes of migration and identity in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah and Half of a Yellow Sun. Using qualitative textual analysis, the research demonstrated how Adichie uses fiction to illuminate both personal and collective transformations that occur as a result of migration, displacement, and socio-political rupture. Across both novels, characters navigate the emotional terrains of belonging, alienation, and self-reinvention. In Americanah, migration is portrayed largely as a transnational journey involving both opportunity and dislocation. Ifemelu’s move to the United States reveals the alienating effects of racial consciousness, cultural adjustment, and emotional fragmentation. Identity is shaped by the intersections of race, class, and gender, with Ifemelu’s blog acting as a self-reflective tool for identity negotiation. Her eventual return to Nigeria signifies both reclamation and conflict, as home itself becomes unfamiliar. In Half of a Yellow Sun, migration is primarily war-induced, characterized by violent displacement and survival. Characters flee from home, lose social status, and suffer both physically and emotionally. Identity is fractured and reconstituted through ethnic nationalism (Biafra), moral crises, and the burden of historical trauma. The war deconstructs fixed notions of self, and forces characters like Ugwu, Olanna, and Odenigbo to redefine who they are amid chaos.