Sefi Atta, the Nigerian niac – Liberation

If the French title of the new novel by Sefi Atta,, Made in Nigeriais not terrible, we quickly understand that it is more sensible than it seems. The narrator, Lukmon Karim, has just arrived in New York with his wife and their two children, Taslim, almost 17 years old, and Bashira, 14. We are going to accompany them until the fall of 2001. We are in 1999. They first settled with a cousin, a painful type that continues to disparage their country and attack black, « Feignables by nature » – No need to point out to him that he is black. One evening that he challenged them to quote a single product that Nigeria is able to provide, Lukmon, who never responds, thinks when going to bed. Did the cousin want an example? Well, « It was enough for him to look around his table. My family was one, with the undeserved respect that we show him and our extreme ability to tolerance. We were the products of our country, conceived by tradition, conditioned by adversity and obliterated by military regimes. ”

The original title, The Bad Immigrantwould have agreed as well. For the cousin, the bad immigrant is the one who is unable to seize his luck. Lukmon Karim thinks otherwise. The day Bashir