De-Stereotyping African Realities through Social Media in Chimananda Adichie's Americanah and Belkacem Mghzouchene's Sophia in the White City

This study discusses the correlation between social media and the possibilities of positive social change in Africa in the works of Chimamnda Ngozi Adichie and Belkacem Meghzouchene. Both Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah (2013) and Belkacem Meghzouchene’s Sophia in the White City (2010) deploy social media like Facebook, blogs and Skype to cast an alternative narrative of their respective locales: Nigeria and Algeria. Both of these fiction authors seem aware of what social media offers in terms of powerfully subversive mechanisms to orientalist and reductive portrayals
of African realities and aspirations. This study insists on painting a different picture about life and reality in both Nigeria and Algeria through social media. Aware of the possibility of a relapse, the principal characters gain the wealth and status they subsequently enjoy through hard labor and creative passion. As role models, their careers seek to galvanize other members of their respective communities into constructive actions. Once this is massively approached, Africa can begin as an actor in its own fate and start putting an end to the culture of lethargy and self-blame.