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21St Century African Fiction in the Age of Globalization Bernard Ayo Oniwe University of South Carolina

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21St Century African Fiction in the Age of Globalization Bernard Ayo Oniwe University of South Carolina University of South Carolina Scholar Commons Theses and Dissertations 2017 Narrating the (Im)Migrant Experience: 21st Century African Fiction in the Age of Globalization Bernard Ayo Oniwe University of South Carolina Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd Part of the Comparative Literature Commons Recommended Citation Oniwe, B. A.(2017). Narrating the (Im)Migrant Experience: 21st Century African Fiction in the Age of Globalization. (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/4524 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you by Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Narrating the (Im)Migrant Experience: 21st Century African Fiction in the Age of Globalization By Bernard Ayo Oniwe Bachelor of Arts Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, 1991 Master of Arts University of South Carolina, 2009 Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Comparative Literature College of Arts and Sciences University of South Carolina 2017 Accepted by: Jeanne Garane, Major Professor Anne Gulick, Committee Member Alexander Beecroft, Committee Member Meili Steele, Committee Member Qiana Whitted, Committee Member Cheryl L. Addy, Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School © Copyright by Bernard Ayo Oniwe, 2017 All Rights Reserved. ii DEDICATION To my late father, Lawrence Ajibade Oniwe, whose library was my first vista into World Literature. To my mother, Veronica Aduke Oniwe, you kept reminding me to get my dissertation done in a timely fashion. To my family, Adetutu, Adekunle, Adeyemi, Ikeade and Abimbola, thanks for not giving up on me. My gratitude to James Oniwe, my supportive uncle. To Chiagoziem “DL” Obiajunwa for spearheading my return to writing-mode in the last couple of months and making sure this project is completed and defended before deadline. My thanks also go to Chioma Odidika and amazing Bernard Dayo Iloanya for being an integral part of my life in Columbia. Also, to all parishioners of St. Thomas More, St. Martin de Porres, St. John Neumann, Our Lady of the Lake, and Our Lady of the Hills-where I was offered a home and friendship. And to my Dominican friars in United States and Nigeria, your words of encouragement and prayers helped a lot. And to others not mentioned by name, this is for you as well. To the living God who cannot fail, glory Alleluia! iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This project wouldn’t have seen the light of day and completed at this time without the support and direction of Dr. Jeanne Garane. She reassured me when I entertained doubt that she had confidence in me. I would like to thank other members of my committee: Dr. Anne Gulick, Dr. Meili Steele, Dr. Alexander Beecroft and Dr. Qiana Whitted for their insightful comments and encouraging smiles during my defense. I would also like to extend thanks to Dr. Kwame Dawes for his support of my research. Thanks as well to Mariam Olorundare who offered support with research on history of African novel. Thank you also to Henning Liese and Paul Hudacko for helping with formatting of the document. iv ABSTRACT st This study examines the fiction of 21 century African writers as a product of engagement with the forces of globalization and the related notions of cosmopolitanism and the fact of South to North migration. Analyzing migrant experiences in the writings of Chris Abani’s Becoming Abigail (2007), Chika Unigwe’s The Black Street Sisters (2009), Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah (2011) and Teju Cole’s Open City (2013), I argue that third-generation African writers, while building on the works of previous generations, take a global turn, and in the process, push the borders of African st literature beyond the continent. 21 century African fiction, I argue, converses with, complicates, and contextualizes complimentary claims that globalization enhances cosmopolitan ideals, promotes racial diversity and preserves human dignity. These mainly migrant literatures written by Africans who transit between the continent and the st West reveal an emerging new face of contemporary 21 century African literature, indicating a transition from a previous preoccupation with parochial and national issues to narrating often dystopian experiences of African migrants to the West, a situation made possible primarily by the forces and processes of globalization. My dissertation focuses on the fiction of Third African Generation writers in order to show the ways in which their works enrich postcolonial theoretical discourse by navigating the complexity that describes African fiction’s imbrication in World Literature through the experiences of migrants. Through the prism of African migrant experiences, global issues like v cosmopolitanism, racism and human trafficking are viewed and analyzed with the aim of illustrating the promises and failures of globalization. I offer an overview of globalization theory, marking out what Simon Gikandi calls “the dystopic version” of globalization as the form that contemporary African diasporic fiction engages with and questions. I conclude that the form of globalization that impacts many African countries still adheres to colonialist North-South hierarchies, ensuring the preservation of neo- colonial center-periphery existences. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Dedication .......................................................................................................................... iii Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ iv Abstract ............................................................................................................................... v Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1: African Women, Global Women: Selling Sex and the Deceit of Transnational Migration in Abani’s Becoming Abigail and Unigwe’s On Black Sisters Street ......... 20 Chapter 2: Globalization and Race Discourse in Adichie’s Americanah ......................... 69 Chapter 3 Cosmopolitan Conversation and Challenge in Teju Cole’s Open City .......... 106 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 143 Works Cited .................................................................................................................... 158 Appendix A: Permission to Reprint ................................................................................ 166 vii INTRODUCTION Fifty-five years after the 1962 African Writers Conference on African literature written in English held at Makerere University College in Kampala, Uganda, African writers and scholars of African literature in the 21st century are still responding to questions raised and debated at the landmark meeting. At that historic gathering of major African writers and critics, the question of what language African literature should be written in was hotly discussed at length within the purview and framework of another significant question, what constitutes African literature? The 1960’s was a period of nationalist agitation and independence from colonialists on the African continent. As a result, pertinence of discussing the language in which works would or should be written was an issue which the participants considered as primary in the promotion of an understanding of the African world and African identity. For some, and Ngugi wa Thiong’o (at the time James Ngugi) in particular, African literature had to be written in African languages1. 1 Ngugi wa Thiong’o expresses his mind on the correlation between language and freedom or subjugation years later in the following words: “The bullet was the means of the physical subjugation. Language was the means of the spiritual subjugation” (Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature. London, Heinemann, 1986), 9. 1 Today, in the 21st century, the question still has relevance for African writers and scholars2. In the 21st century, considered to be the “global age,” what should be considered African literature? What should scholars of African literature consider in creating the canon of African literature? In this regard, Ernest Emenyonu’s questions on the direction and future of African literature in his editorial in African Literature Today (2006) become relevant and very important for the purpose of this dissertation: “What should be the concerns of African literature in the 21st century?’’ and ‘‘What challenges does African literature pose for writers, critics, teachers, publishers and the book industry in the 21st century?” (xii), he asks. Responding to these questions drives this study. Globalization and related notions of migration and cosmopolitanism are major influences on 21st century African literatures. In the era of globalization, African fiction has transcended continental boundaries; it has taken a global turn in all its complexities. Contemporary African fiction is globally contextualized, and its aesthetic and authorial trajectories are marked by the mobility of people in space and time. My dissertation will examine some recent critically celebrated novels of 21st century African writers for their transnational and migratory identities, their global and cosmopolitan thematic concerns, and how their
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