Americanah: Chapter 49 Summary & Analysis

Finally Ifemelu starts feeling like she is truly home again. She no longer has to ask Ranyinudo for advice in going to the market, and she is used to waking up to the sound of peacocks. She gains some more weight, and vaguely thinks that she wants to lose it before she sees Obinze again. Her work at Zoe, however, becomes stifling. She is always supposed to interview the same rich, vapid women and mingle with advertisers at parties.

At one of these parties Ifemelu thinks she sees Obinze again. Ranyinudo has told her how beautiful Obinze’s wife is, and Ifemelu feels almost betrayed imagining Obinze’s mother meeting this other woman. At the same party Ifemelu sees Don, Ranyinudo’s boyfriend. He makes a halfhearted pass at her, because that is the way things are done: he is a “big man” and she is an attractive single woman.

At Zoe Ifemelu, Doris, and Zemaye all bicker. They have a meeting to discuss their articles with Aunty Onenu. Aunty Onenu doesn’t like it when Ifemelu is snarky or criticizes the people she interviews. During the meeting Ifemelu takes a call from Ranyinudo, as she is eager to get out of the meeting. Ranyinudo says that Don has been complaining that she isn’t a “sweet girl” anymore. Ifemelu knows that “sweet” just means malleable and submissive.

Esther, the receptionist, has typhoid, but doesn’t know what kinds of pills the doctor gave her. Ifemelu suggests writing about this, as the pill bottles are unlabelled and could contain anything. Doris tells her to calm down and stop being such an activist, but this makes Ifemelu imagine starting her own blog about Lagos. Esther is very religious, and has diagnosed the staff with different spiritual ailments. Zemaye apparently has the “spirit of seductiveness.”

Ifemelu keeps complaining about the boring interviews Aunty Onenu publishes, and Doris tells her that those rich women pay Aunty Onenu to write about them. She says that “a lot of things happen in this country like that.” Ifemelu says that she never knows where Doris stands on anything, and Doris suddenly gets angry and calls Ifemelu a “judgmental bitch.” Ifemelu mocks Doris’s appearance and how she sucks up to Aunty Onenu, and then walks out, feeling ashamed of the pettiness of what just happened. She decides to take it as a sign to start her own blog. On her way out, Esther suggests that Ifemelu has the “spirit of husband-repelling.”