- Ifemelu – The protagonist. She is born in Lagos, Nigeria, and studies in America.
- Obinze – Raised in Nsukka, Nigeria. His mother, a professor, taught him how to cook and fostered his love of books.
- Obinze's Mother – Professor at Nsukka University and a widow. She struggles with outdated Nigerian attitudes towards women.
- Ifemelu's Mother and Father – Ifemelu's mother is a devout evangelical Christian who fasts dangerously in order to drive the devil out of her family's life. Ifemelu's father is powerless to stop her. He unexpectedly loses his job at a federal agency and is unable to support his family.
- Aunty Uju – Ifemelu's father's cousin. She acts as Ifemelu's older sister. She starts a relationship with the General, and gives birth to a son, Dike. After the General dies, Uju moves to America, where she struggles to continue the medical training she began in Nigeria.
- Dike – The son of Aunty Uju and the General. Born in the United States, he is named after Uju's father, and given her surname. After his birth, Dike and Uju return to Nigeria where his first birthday is spent; soon after, his father dies in a plane crash. Dike and Uju flee Nigeria to escape the poverty that would result from his father's relatives confiscating their resources. He lives first in New York, then Massachusetts. At his mother's insistence, he attends a school where he is the only individual who is not white. His suicide attempt devastates his family and underlines the difficulty immigrant families face when trying to integrate into American society.
- The General – Aunty Uju's lover and father of Dike.
- Curt – Ifemelu's first American boyfriend, white.
- Blaine – Ifemelu's second American boyfriend, a black assistant professor at Yale who writes a blog about race and popular culture. Ifemelu moves to New Haven to live with him.
- Shan – Blaine's sister, a writer who is often critical of others.
- Kosi – Obinze's wife and the mother of his child.
- Buchi – Obinze and Kosi's daughter.
- Ginika – Ifemelu's friend, whom she knew when she met Obinze.
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