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African Dreams of America: Diaspora Experience in the Writing of Aidoo, Adichie and Cole Gbenga Olorunsiwa

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African Dreams of America: Diaspora Experience in the Writing of Aidoo, Adichie and Cole Gbenga Olorunsiwa University of New Mexico UNM Digital Repository American Studies ETDs Electronic Theses and Dissertations Fall 12-17-2016 African Dreams of America: Diaspora experience in the Writing of Aidoo, Adichie and Cole Gbenga Olorunsiwa Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/amst_etds Part of the American Studies Commons Recommended Citation Olorunsiwa, Gbenga. "African Dreams of America: Diaspora experience in the Writing of Aidoo, Adichie and Cole." (2016). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/amst_etds/51 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Electronic Theses and Dissertations at UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in American Studies ETDs by an authorized administrator of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. GBENGA FREDERICK OLORUNSIWA Candidate AMERICAN STUDIES Department This dissertation is approved, and it is acceptable in quantity and form for publication: Approved by the Dissertation Committee: Dr. Michael Trujillo, _______ Chairperson Dr. Alex Lubin_________________________________ Dr. Stephen Bishop______________________________ Dr. Irene Vasquez_______________________________ i AFRICAN DREAMS OF AMERICA: DIASPORA EXPERIENCE IN THE WRITINGS OF AIDOO, ADICHIE AND COLE BY GBENGA FREDERICK OLORUNSIWA B.A., English Language and Literature, Obafemi Awolowo University, 2004 M.A., Afro American Studies, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 2007 DISSERTATION Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy American Studies The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico December, 2016 ii AFRICAN DREAMS OF AMERICA: DIASPORA EXPERIENCE IN THE WRITINGS OF AIDOO, ADICHIE AND COLE BY GBENGA FREDERICK OLORUNSIWA B.A., ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE, OBAFEMI AWOLOWO UNIVERSITY, 2004 M.A., AFRO-AMERICAN STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN, MADISON, 2007 PH.D., AMERICAN STUDIES, UNIVERISTY OF NEW MEXICO, 2016 ABSTRACT This study explores four African diasporic texts against a backdrop of the African dream of America, diasporic experience, post-colonialism and racism in the U.S. as portrayed in the writings of Ama Ata Aidoo’s The Dilemma of a Ghost (1971), Chimamanda Adichie’s Americanah (2014), and Teju Cole’s Open City (2012) and Every Day Is for the Thief (2014). I argue that the African dream of America is different but also exemplary of the American experience and therefore a privileged lens for understanding “America.” During the course of this research project, I found that while the writings of Adichie and Aidoo are primarily about diaspora experience, the writings of Cole focus more on the global experience of modernity and capitalism, and their disappointing realities not only for African diaspora communities but other racial groups in the U.S. and globally. That is, the emphasis of this study is on post-colonialism and African diaspora experience in Aidoo and Adichie's works. To illustrate, while the characters in Aidoo and Adichie’s writings, in particular Eulalie and Ifemelu, are migrating from America iii to Ghana and Nigeria to America respectively, in search of the American and African dreams, and to reconnect to their African homelands, characters in Cole’s writings are being alienated, dehumanized and silenced by the devastating reality of global modernity and capitalism, exemplified by America but not exclusive to it. I unmask the construction of diaspora experience in these diaspora African fictional narrative and their ramifications for African diaspora communities. The study is informed by the theories and methods of race studies, African studies, colonial and post-colonial studies. Employing a post-colonial literary criticism, this study offers new ways of thinking about the relationship between African dreams of America, diaspora experience, race, post-colonialism and “modernity.” I analyze the depiction of the African dream of America and the diaspora experience in fiction produced by African diaspora writers, exploring fictions’ ability to do justice to diasporic Ghana and Nigerian experience. The literature I consider in this project addresses the historical specificity of the African diaspora experience but of equal importance it critically engages and exemplifies the American experience and global modernity. iv TABLE OF CONTENT Introduction ……………………………………………………………………….1 Chapter 1: Unmasking Diaspora Experience: Post-African diaspora and modernity Discourses in the Dilemma of a Ghost…….………………………………………………….39 Chapter 2: Complicating Diaspora Experience Racism: The U.S. Reality in Americanah ….…........................................................................................................................89 Chapter 3: Chapter 3: Diaspora Experience and the (Broken) Promises of American Dreams in Americanah ……………………………………………………………………………………128 Chapter 4: Diaspora Experience and other Culprits: Open City and Every Day Is for the Thief…...................................................................................................................175 Chapter 5: Losing Selfness: Diaspora Experience and Failure of American Dreams in Open City..........................................................................................................................219 Conclusion: African American Critique and Diaspora Experience.…………268 Works Cited……………………………………………………………………..278 Notes………………………………………………………………………….…..285 v Introduction: My African Dreams of America, Diaspora and Postcolonial Experience This dissertation is not the one I intended to write. I planned to elaborate the uniqueness of the transnational U.S. immigrant literature written by people of African origin writing in English. I found this literature to be unlike the work of other immigrants that came to the United States and to be unique in its African diaspora and modernity perspective. Instead, my encounter with the writings of Ama Ata Aidoo, Chimamanda Adichie, and especially Teju Cole brought about a fundamental shift in my understanding of African diaspora experience, and especially their African dreams of America, and what I came to recognize as American deceptions. The turning point was a conversation with the author Teju Cole that I had in March of 2016 in Santa Fe New Mexico and my following re-readings of his books Open City and Every Day Is for the Thief. The key texts explored in this study are Cole’s Open City and Every Day Is for the Thief, Chimamanda Adichie’s Americanah and Ama Ata Aidoo’s The Dilemma of a Ghost. Cole came to New Mexico to read from his most recent book Every Day Is for the Thief at the Lensic in Santa Fe. He was delighted to meet me—a man of the same country, the same tribal group, and speaker of the same language, Yoruba—in the meet and greet line following his event. He invited me for coffee and we have corresponded ever since. In that conversation and the correspondence that followed I came to understand that Cole’s writing, and those of other African authors use African dreams of America as a lens to understand the complexity of the diaspora experience, and address both the historical specificity of the African trans-national American immigrant experience but also of equal importance it critically engages and exemplifies the American experience and global modernity. Furthermore, the writings of these diaspora authors demonstrate that the African dream of America is different but also exemplary of the American experience and therefore a privileged lens for understanding “America.” 1 In order words, this dissertation explores African diaspora experience as articulated in the writings of Aidoo, Adichie and Cole. The dissertation engages the complexities and dynamics of diaspora experience of the characters portrayed these texts. It engages diaspora discourses such as the notion of a return to one's homeland, race and racism, assimilation, culture and gendered violence. Furthermore, the portrayal of these characters reveal that they are diaspora subjects, marginalized, dehumanized and disenfranchised by systemic and racial subjugation. The study reveals the ways in which the characters in these novels respond to their situations, survive and negotiate their diaspora experience. For example, how are characters like Eulalie and Ifemelu able to resist and challenge racial, cultural and gendered violence and oppression they are subjected to in Africa and the U.S. respectively? How are they able to empower themselves in the face of patriarchy, institutional racism and oppression and hegemonic structure of power? What are the factors working against these diaspora subjects and what are the infrastructures that have helped to sustained systemic oppression and hegemonic structure of power in the diaspora? How are these factors sustained and what are the institutions that help to sustain them? How can they be dismantled so diaspora subjects like Eulalie and Ifemelu can regain their freedom, equality, and self- empowerment? I should mention that post-colonialism is also central to the dissertation. However, my use of post-colonialism is in service of African diaspora experience as represented in these texts. Whether it is Eulalie seeking freedom, equality, empowerment and desiring to reconnect with her ancestral homeland in Ghana, or Ifemelu seeking the African dreams of America, the African diaspora is about the movements of these characters and their resettlement in these places. The writings of Aidoo and Adichie engage, articulate and complicate the challenges,
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