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Never Look an American in the Eye: A Memoir of Flying Turtles, Colonial Ghosts, and the Making of a Nigerian American

Review

Never Look an American in the Eye: A Memoir of Flying Turtles, Colonial Ghosts, and the Making of a Nigerian American

After being warned against violent, gun-toting Americans, Nigerian writer Okey Ndibe risked all to travel to the US. Although every situation seemed to highlight his difference from the people he met, he decided to make this confusing country his home.

Full of amusingly described incidents pointing up the many oddities of American culture, Ndibe’s story contains one element always good for a laugh: the misconceptions about his name, pronounced “okay.” This provides endless occasions for comedy, as when others introduce him by saying that “He’s okay.” Ndibe, who believed what he had been told back home about the warlike American nature, had his terror seemingly justified when, after only a few days in his new home, still mired in jet-lag and culture shock, he was accosted by a policeman who suspected him of robbery. Ndibe’s impeccable manners and his fear of reprisals if he resisted in any way probably saved him from incarceration. He gradually came to realize that much of the Nigerian trepidation about murderous Americans stemmed from exposure to vintage “oater” films depicting the mores of the Wild West.

"Readers of NEVER LOOK AN AMERICAN IN THE EYE...will learn a lot about Nigerians and themselves. Thanks to Okey Ndibe’s engaging style and tactful but accurate observations, they will laugh in the process."

Ndibe settled in Amherst, Massachusetts, drafted by iconic author Chinua Achebe to edit a new American magazine, African Commentary, a venture that garnered positive attention but failed after three years of financial wobbles. This setback, though, opened the door for Ndibe to get an MFA at UMass, an experience he calls “a banquet.” It also forced him to write a novel, as this was the expectation among his literate colleagues and instructors. Although he had never planned to do so, he composed the very successful ARROWS OF RAIN. Citizenship was another happy outcome, along with marriage to the right woman.

Navigating the thoroughly perplexing questions provoked by his missteps with his American acquaintances --- who pays for dinner, what this thing is called “personal space,” and why we treat our pets like people --- Ndibe makes us chuckle…and think. What shapes our impressions of Nigerians and other Africans? Why, indeed, are most Americans so hopelessly un- or misinformed about a country like Nigeria, home to millions of people and correspondingly few lions and elephants?

Readers of NEVER LOOK AN AMERICAN IN THE EYE, even those who are better informed, will learn a lot about Nigerians and themselves. Thanks to Okey Ndibe’s engaging style and tactful but accurate observations, they will laugh in the process.

Reviewed by Barbara Bamberger Scott on October 21, 2016

Never Look an American in the Eye: A Memoir of Flying Turtles, Colonial Ghosts, and the Making of a Nigerian American
by Okey Ndibe

  • Publication Date: September 12, 2017
  • Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction
  • Paperback: 224 pages
  • Publisher: Soho Press
  • ISBN-10: 1616958634
  • ISBN-13: 9781616958633