Review of Okey Ndibe’s “Never Look an American in the Eye

The trend among the African literati has been to make claims of lineage to one of the three preeminent writers of post-colonial African literature — Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka or Ngugi Wa Thiong’o. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie famously narrated how she mentioned in passing that she grew up in a house that Chinua Achebe vacated at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka campus, and her American editor insisted in putting it in her biography.

“…It’s the most important thing that you’ve told me about yourself!,” her editor said.