ABSTRACT

In an anecdotal piece published in the New Yorker on 3 September 2007(b), Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie describes the significance of garri, a Nigerian staple food, and her personal regret that she is unable to digest the food that is also known as ‘food’ because of its abundance at the table in her home country. Adichie is aware that her dislike of garri makes her ‘foreign’ – less Igbo, less Nigerian, less African – a concern over cultural identity that is expressed throughout her fictional work but is usually attributed to other factors, such as her residence in the USA and her fame, having written a number of bestselling works of literary fiction. In Nigerian literature and culture, however, food and eating is indicative of belonging; it is a conduit for community and collective identity, and a means of structuring social interactions.