#115 The American Embassy- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

#115 The American Embassy- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

We are waiting in a line at the American Embassy. This line is for Visa applicants. The narrator is a woman, injured and distraught. She hurt herself jumping from her balcony to escape two armed government agents. They came to look for her husband , but not finding him ended up shooting her 4-year old son.

Now , she is waiting in this line to leave her home for good. Her husband is a pro-democracy journalist who feld a few weeks before. He writes for the New Nigeria, a progressive paper, who’s anti-government stance has caused his arrest many times.

“He fights repression with his pen, he gives a voice to the voiceless, he makes the world know.” A recent article about General Abacha’s history of abuse seems to have been the last straw, and the next arrest will likely be a permanent situation.

After burying her son, she is waiting on this line, but she doesn’t want to share her sons death with the American Embassy interviewer, afraid that when she does she will be called a liar. She is not ready to face that harsh rejection, she is not ready to leave the place where her son has died.

Notable Passage: “See how the people are pleading with the soldiers…Our people have become too used to pleading with soldiers.”

Rating: 8-8-8-9 Total= 33