The Thing Around Your Neck

The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was published in 2009. Adichie had previously published two novels, making this text her third book and her first short story anthology. Some of the stories had been published previously in publications like The New Yorker and The Iowa Review. The book received praise, situating Adichie as a rising star of Nigerian literature. These short stories deal with problems of political conflict, immigration, artistic integrity, and family legacy and are set in both Nigeria and the US.

This guide uses the Knopf 2009 edition.

Content Warning: The text includes descriptions of sexual harassment, non-graphic depictions of sexual violence, and misogyny. Political violence and child death are discussed in depth. There are also descriptions of prison brutality.

Plot Summaries

The 12 stories within The Thing Around Your Neck revolve around the lives of Nigerians mainly in the late 1990s and early 2000s. They usually focus on the inner life of one character, delving into their personality and the effect their circumstances have on them.

In “Cell One,” the narrator tells the story of her older brother, Nnamabia, and his development from the spoiled and self-interested son of a professor to a compassionate and righteous man. Nnamabia engages with the vices common to the sons of professors on the Nsukka campus where his father works: stealing and drinking. When Nnamabia begins to attend the university, he is arrested for breaking curfew. In prison, he becomes more somber and compassionate, eventually putting himself in danger to protect an old man who was falsely imprisoned.

“Imitation” is about Nkem, a Nigerian woman living in the US at the behest of her husband, a rich art dealer. He fills the house with imitation pieces of African art but spends all but three months of the year in Nigeria. At the beginning of the story, Nkem has received a phone call from a friend in Lagos, where her husband is, telling her that her husband is cheating on her. She struggles with her feelings of isolation in America and her desire for a proper marriage. Remembering her poor origins and how she has historically caved to her rich husband’s desires, when he returns from Nigeria, she asks him to move her and their children back to Nigeria.

“A Private Experience” tells the story of two women who hide together when a riot breaks out at the marketplace they are in. Coming from the point of view of Chika, one of the two women, it documents the differences between them and how they care for each other despite these differences. The riot occurred because of rising tensions between Igbo Christians—of which Chika is a member—and Hausa Muslims, of which the other woman is a member. When the riot began, Chika was at the market with her sister and the other woman was selling onions in the marketplace. The woman brought Chika with her to protect her. They spend the night in an abandoned store, the woman protecting Chika, while Chika cares for her using her medical knowledge from university. Though they are divided by religion and class, they bond. The text reveals that Chika’s sister went missing in the riot, and Chika reflects on the disparity between the news stories of the violence and her own experience.

In “Ghosts,” a retired professor, James, attempts to collect his pension check when he sees a former colleague of his whom he believed to be dead. Ikenna tells him that he was not killed in the violence when Nsukka campus was overtaken. He instead emigrated to Switzerland. Ikenna is obviously self-conscious and guilty over this. James reflects on the violence he has experienced and the deaths of his first daughter in the conflict and, more recently, of his wife, to false medication scams. Returning to his home, James feels the presence of his wife’s ghost in the house and is at peace with his life as it is.

In “On Monday of Last Week,” a recent Nigerian immigrant, Kamara, works as a nanny for an American family. She develops an obsession with the wife of the family, an African American woman named Tracy. Tracy works as an artist in the basement of the house. When Kamara meets her, she asks her to come pose for her as a model. Kamara fantasizes about their next meeting, only to hear Tracy propose the same thing to her son’s French tutor.

“Jumping Monkey Hill” follows young Nigerian writer, Ujunwa, at an African writers’ workshop in South Africa. The leader of the workshop is a white Englishman named Edward, who sees himself as the arbiter of African literature. He sexually harasses Ujunwa and derides any stories that he feels aren’t about the “real” Africa. When Ujunwa reads her story about a young woman who gets a job at a bank only to quit after being sexually preyed on, he tells her it is unrealistic, leading her to reveal the story is based on her own experience.

“The Thing Around Your Neck” is told from the point of view of a young Nigerian woman, Akunna, who moves to the US after receiving a visa sponsored by her relative. When he tries to sexually assault her, she leaves his house, dropping out of college and getting a job as a waitress. Embarrassed at not being able to provide the luxuries she thought she would be able to send back to her family, she stops writing to them, only sending envelopes of money. At her job, she meets a white American man and the two start dating. Akunna is continually frustrated by how their cultures clash and notices that her boyfriend does not have the same feelings of responsibility or community as she does. Eventually, she writes to her family and finds out that her father died a few months previous. Her boyfriend buys her a plane ticket and asks her to return.

In “The American Embassy,” a woman waits in line outside the American Embassy in Nigeria to attempt to get a visa interview. Her husband was a dissident journalist and has fled the country already. After he left, soldiers came looking for him and shot her four-year-old son. Disillusioned with her husband’s political resistance and the undiscussed selfishness of it, when she goes in for her visa interview, she is unable to bring herself to discuss her son’s murder in detail. Refusing to betray his memory for a visa, she leaves the interview unfinished.

“The Shivering” begins with a Nigerian woman, Ukamaka, who, while attending graduate school in the US, watches news coverage of a plane crash in Nigeria. She fears that her ex-boyfriend was on the plane. Her downstairs neighbor, a fellow Nigerian immigrant named Chinedu, knocks on her door and asks if he can come pray with her. Ukamaka is initially reluctant, as she is not religious, but when they are praying, she feels a ‘shivering.’ She receives a call from her mother telling her that her ex-boyfriend and his sister were supposed to be on the flight but missed the plane. Ukamaka and Chinedu proceed to develop a friendship. Chinedu confides in Ukamaka about his own failed relationship with the son of a rich man in Nigeria and how he fears deportation as his visa is expired. Ukamaka comforts him, assuring they will figure out the visa situation together.

“The Arrangers of Marriage” is told from the point of view of Chinaza, a Nigerian woman who just married a Nigerian immigrant to the US, David, who has brought her back to New York City. Chinaza is surprised by the sparse apartment and David’s insistence on adhering to Americanisms, casting off all traces of Nigerian culture. She struggles with homesickness and frustration with her arranged marriage. When Chinaza asks for her visa papers, she finds out that David married her before his previous divorce was finalized. Upset, she tries to leave him. She realizes, however, that she can’t leave until she has her papers, and she returns.

“Tomorrow is Too Far” follows the story of a woman who, as a child, convinced her older brother to climb an avocado tree during a storm, leading to his death. She was frustrated by the attention the family paid him for being the only son of her grandmother’s only son. Returning to Nigeria for the first time since his death, she is at last struck by despair.

“The Headstrong Historian” focuses on the colonization of Nigeria by the English; it follows Nwambga, a widow of a tribe leader, and her efforts to protect her late husband’s legacy. Her husband was poisoned by jealous cousins, and Nwambga decides to enroll her son in the Catholic missionary school. She realizes that with their powerful guns, the English are taking power, and she wants her son to have a part in it. Her son, however, becomes completely disconnected from their culture, insisting on Catholic practices. Eventually, when he has a daughter, Nwambga realizes she is the true inheritor of her late husband’s legacy. The daughter, whom her father named Grace, grows up to study Nigerian history and eventually legally changes her name to Afamefuna, the name her grandmother chose for her.