The Afropolitan Flâneur: Literary Representations of the City and Contemporary Urban Identities in Selected African and Transnational Texts A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of Rhodes University by Carol Leff March 2019 Supervisor: Prof Sam Naidu Abstract When an individual walks the urban landscape there is a unique symbiosis between self and city. It is through walking the cityscape and observing the crowd and the surrounding environment that the archetypal literary figure of the European flâneur acts as a mirror of a particular time and space. But how might such a flâneur walk and observe the city in contemporary African and transnational literary texts? I argue that there is a literary re- imagining and repurposing of the flâneur figure which has hitherto not been acknowledged and explored: an Afropolitan flâneur. ‘Afropolitan’ is a term popularised by Taiye Selasi in a 2005 essay to refer to a ‘scattered tribe’ of ‘Africans of the world’ (n. pag.). In this dissertation, the entanglement of the Afropolitan subject and the European flâneur brings together past and present, Africa and the West. I first provide a historical and theoretical framework to illustrate how the flâneur figure ‘migrated’ from Europe to Africa, and how this figure is to be understood as a literary construct, in relation to current considerations of Afropolitanism. I go on to discuss a wide range of texts that engage with Afropolitan flâneurs who traverse cities in Africa (such as Johannesburg, Cape Town and Lagos), or global north cities (New York, Paris and London). While some of the Afropolitan flâneurs depicted in these texts are migrants or homeless individuals who struggle to adapt easily to a new environment, others, despite being more privileged, also sometimes experience uncomfortable assimilation in their new or strange city space. There are also those who seem to feel equally at home wherever they find themselves. As these Afropolitan flâneurs walk their way through the urban landscape in the texts under examination, they reflect different ways of being in the city. By problematising the binaries of local/global, national/transnational, black/white, slum/paradise, this dissertation seeks to address issues of belonging or not belonging and gestures towards new ways of understanding what it means to be an African in the world. i Notes Style and Orthography The referencing format used throughout this thesis is based on Rhodes University’s Department of Literary Studies in English Style Sheet for Writers of MA and PhD Theses1 which follows that of the Modern Language Association (MLA). This thesis conforms in particular to the seventh edition of the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. While standard UK English spelling has been used throughout, sometimes the orthography that appears in quotations will depart from this, in keeping with the spelling and punctuation used in the original source. Gender and Race Since language shapes the world we see, I have used unbiased language as much as possible. Gender-inclusive language is employed in this thesis, but in cases where specific terms have both masculine and feminine forms (such as flâneur and flâneuse), the gender specific word is used when discussing a particular character. For instance, in Chapter 3 the word flâneuse is used since the narrator of Skyline is a female flâneur. Similarly, while the term sapeur also has a feminine form (sapeuse), the feminine form of the term is not used as the sapeur analysed in Chapter 5 is a male character. Throughout this thesis, I avoid the use of inverted commas or capitalisation of initial letters for the terms “black”, “white” or “coloured”, as I do not wish to reify apartheid race classification which affected the lives of millions of people in horrifically unjust ways. Over the last few decades, such usage has been a controversial issue among scholars as the terms were historically constructed labels for racial categories.2 While mixed race South Africans are generally referred to as “coloured”, according to contemporary South African usage, the term “black” also includes the coloured community as well as the Indian and Asian population groups. 1 The Style Sheet is available online at <https://www.ru.ac.za/english/coursematerials/>. 2 In Not White Enough, Not Black Enough, Mohamed Adhikari notes that during the apartheid period and beyond, certain scholars “refused to capitalize the first letter of the term Coloured in order to indicate both opposition to the enforced classification of people into racial and ethnic categories and distaste for ethnocentric values” (xv). More recently, adds Adhikari, such capitalisation was again in use, partly as “a response to the gradual normalization of South African society in the postapartheid period” and partly “in recognition of a growing grass-roots sentiment neatly expressed by journalist Paul Stober: ‘As a distinct ethnic group with over three million members, we deserve a capital letter’” (Adhikari xv). ii Acknowledgements My own journey as a flâneuse began more than three years ago when I had little idea what a massive undertaking this project would prove to be. While the path has been filled with ups and downs, with detours and intersections, the view along the way has afforded me the opportunity to stretch my eyes. It is largely as a result of emotional, financial and intellectual support that this research was made possible, and I am most grateful to a number of organisations and individuals. Foremost, I am indebted to the National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa for funding which enabled me to take six months off work from a full-time administrative post to complete this PhD. I gratefully acknowledge supplementary financial support from Rhodes University in the form of a grant from the DVC: Research & Development’s Office, a Humanities Discretionary Grant, and funding from the Institute for the Study of English of Africa (ISEA) while I was on unpaid leave. My heartfelt gratitude goes to my supervisor, Sam Naidu, co-ordinator of the Intersecting Diasporas Group (IDG) at Rhodes University, for her intellectual guidance, encouragement and support over the past few years. For the many hours Sam spent reading and commenting in detail on each of my chapters, even when her own scholarly workload was enormous, I am most grateful. To my colleagues in the IDG, thanks go in particular to Sean Bosman, Niki Botes and Andrea Thorpe, whose companionship and constructive feedback at our regular meetings filled an otherwise lonely journey with words of encouragement as each chapter unfolded. Thank you also to a number of individuals in the Department of Literary Studies in English: Siphokazi Khanyile and Tammy Youthed, for their behind-the-scenes administrative efficiency; Aretha Phiri, Lynda Gichanda Spencer, and Dan Wylie, whose suggestions over the years have proven to be invaluable; Yolisa Kenqu, whose smile and sisterly solidarity is valued; Sue and Mike Marais, for their hospitality and friendship and for long walks on Kleinemonde beach before my weekends disappeared entirely. Thank you to Monica Hendricks, Director of the ISEA, for supporting my long leave request and motivating for extended time off work in order for me to complete my dissertation. I am most grateful for Monica’s ongoing encouragement and for allowing me a chance to pursue my research interests despite the confines of a full-time administrative job. To my colleagues at the ISEA, thank you for keeping things running smoothly, and in iii particular Nomangesi Kelemi, whose calm presence in the office is always a blessing: enkosi kakhulu. To Laurence Wright, who inspired me, and convinced me that it was indeed possible to return to academia decades after completing my undergrad degree, I am deeply grateful. My gratitude also extends to Albert Awolaja, for gifting me with a beautiful book of images and essays, Lagos – A City at Work, which I continue to treasure. Thank you to the staff at Rhodes University Library, especially Linda Cartwright, Jabulile Nene and Rina Goosen, for going out of their way to acquire books and other reading materials which were not always easily available. I am equally grateful to the staff at the National English Literary Museum (NELM) over many years, in particular Marike Beyers, Thomas Jeffery, Andrew Martin, Petro Nhlapo and Crystal Warren, who magically produced reading lists, found obscure reading matter, and provided the space and quiet for me to read and write. I am indebted to Sheila Hicks for her expert proofreading which was carried out in a small window of time between dog walking and the busyness of life. I am also beholden to anonymous peer reviewers for their critical feedback provided on an article that arose out of sections of Chapter 1, as well as feedback on a potential journal article currently under review which arose from a portion of Chapter 5. I would furthermore like to acknowledge the valuable feedback received over the years from audience members, peers and colleagues where sections of this dissertation were presented at seminars or conferences. I would like to thank my daughters, Amy, Nathalia, and Verena, for all their love, support, and understanding, even from a distance and across oceans, and for their relentless optimism that kept me going during difficult times. I remain deeply thankful to my parents, for their unwavering love and support throughout my life, and especially my mother, who is the wisest woman I know. To my husband Paul Mason, for being there when I was not, and for his creativity in the kitchen when preparing meals, I am eternally grateful. Thank you for listening to my voice ramble on when I tried to put thoughts into words, and for helping me find words when I spoke only gibberish.