News recently broke that Oscar winning actress Lupita Nyong’o will produce and star in Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s most recent novel Americanah. Brad Pitt, who also produced the movie that brought Nyong’o to fame and critical acclaim, will produce the movie alongside her.
The novel, which tells the story of love across the continents, was both commercially and critically successful. It won the 2013 US National Critics Award and was selected as one of the top ten books of 2013 by the New York Times Book Review.
The book’s two main characters, lovers Ifemelu and Obinze both experience the successes and disappointments of moving from Nigeria to the west, specifically America and the UK. Adichie’s novel explores a variety of themes including race, hair and the many faces of love, with the familiar wit and warmth that Adichie’s readers have come to expect from and love about her work.
Speaking on her upcoming part in the adaptation Nyong’o said:
It is such an honour to have the opportunity to bring Ms Adichie’s brilliant book to the screen. Page after page, I was struck by Ifemelu and Obinze’s stories, whose experiences as African immigrants are so specific and also so imminently relatable. It is a thrilling challenge to tell a truly international story so full of love, humour and heart.”
Americanah will be the second of Adichie’s award winning novels to be adapted for the big screen, following in the footsteps of her second novel Half of a Yellow Sun which depicts the horrific Nigeria-Biafra war. The film which was released world wide was banned in Nigeria as the government feared it would ignite ethnic violence.
