TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE…………………………………………………………………………………………………………. I
DECLARATION……………………………………………………………………………………………………. II
CERTIFICATION………………………………………………………………………………………………….. III
DEDICATION………………………………………………………………………………………………………… IV
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT……………………………………………………………………………………….. V
TABLE OF CONTENTS…………………………………………………………………………………………. VI
ABSTRACT…………………………………………………………………………………………………………… VIII
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………………………. 1
- Background of the Study……………………………………………………………………………………………..1
- Research Objectives………………………………………………………………………………………………… 12
- Justification for the Study………………………………………………………………………………………. 19
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW……………………………………………………………. 20
CHAPTER THREE: MIGRANT DISILLUSIONMENT AND SURVIVAL IN UNOMA
AZUAH’S EDIBLE BONES……………………………………………………………………………………… 35
- Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 35
- Strategies of Migrant Survival in the Host Country……………………………………………………….. 56
- Marriage as a Strategy for Migrant Survival…………………………………………………………………. 57
- Taking up Double Jobs as a Strategy for Migrant Survival………………………………………… 58
- Strategies of Migrant Survival in the Host Country……………………………………………………….. 56
CHAPTER FOUR: MIGRANT DISILLUSIONMEENT AND SURVIVAL IN OKEY
NDIBE’S FOREIGN GODS, INC………………………………………………………………………….. 61
- Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 61
- American Dream or Death: Strategies of African Migrant Survival in the Host Country …75
CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS……. 89
- Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 89
- Recommendations…………………………………………………………………………………………………… 104
WORKS CITED……………………………………………………………………………………………………… 105
ABSTRACT
The phenomenon of human migration, as Marie McAuliffe and Marfin Ruhs (2017) agrees, “stretches back to the earliest periods of human history” (1). Human migration in the modern world has been massively enhanced by the ease of mobility due to the massive advancements in transport technology. People tend to migrate from one part of the globe to another where they hope to achieve better socio-economic life, or where they can be free from persecution and conscription. The compelling phenomenon of migration have found expression in African literature of the past and the present. This thesis analyses the experiences of African migrant characters in Okey Ndibe’s Foreign Gods, Inc. and Unoma Azuah’s Edible Bones. The disillusionment of the migrant characters as well as their strategies of survival forms the main stay of the study. Drawing on the conceptual framework of the new African diaspora, this study focuses on the diasporic experiences of what Ali Mazrui (2001) calls “the diaspora of colonialism”, Africans who voluntarily migrate to the United States of America. The study shows that creative writers do provide important insights into the conditions of African migrants in the West. From the analysis in this study, one realizes that the issues of unemployment, racism and the difficulty of acquiring legal documents to live and work in the United States stand out as part of the major causes of disillusionment among African immigrants. Both writers present return migration as a better option than chasing after an American dream of success which, like a mirage, is endlessly shifting
CHAPTER ONE
- INTRODUCTION
- BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
The phenomenon of human migration, as Marie McAuliffe and Marfin Ruhs (2017) agree, “stretches back to the earliest periods of human history” (1). Life in the modern world is characterized by rapid mobility due to the massive advancements in transport technology. People tend to migrate from one part of the globe to another where they hope to achieve better socio- economic life, or where they can be free from persecution and conscription. According to the World Migration Report (2018), 3.3% of the world’s population were migrants in 2015. As stated in the report, the two hundred and forty four (244) million migrants around the world are mostly found in Europe, North America and Asia. Stephen Castles and Mark J. Miller (1993) posit that it “seems fitting to predict that the closing years of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first will be an age of age of migration” (3).
This, indeed, is evident in the prominence the subject of migration receives in world affairs; news, politics, the economy and literature. The mass movement of people from Syria and Africa towards Europe via the Mediterranean Sea, and the movement of people from South American nations towards prosperous North American nations such as the United States of America and Canada has led to politically-charged debates about the building of walls to keep irregular migrants out of the United States and Europe. On the African scene, the issue of migration is a present and prominent matter. This is because, African people; mostly young ones from Sub-Saharan Africa, are on their way out of the continent. While some persist at their attempt to travel through the regular routes, others seek to go to Europe and sometimes Israel by going across the Mediterranean Sea and the
Sinai Peninsula, respectively. Most of these African migrants embark on their journey with the hope of fleeing conscription and economic hardships. In October, 2013, the world was shocked by the death of three hundred and sixty-six (366) African migrants close to the Italian Island of Lampedusa. Only a few African migrants survived this tragedy.
Speaking to the BBC on 5th May, 2019, the Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, Cardinal John Onayeikan expressed his utter disgust about the migration situation in Nigeria. According to him, Nigeria has virtually become “uninhabitable” by young people. He points to the extreme levels of poverty and unemployment as the main factors that are driving the youth to go all lengths to migrate through whatever means possible. He expresses his absolute embarrassment when he tells the BBC reporter, “To tell you bluntly I’m ashamed, I’m ashamed – big cardinal from Abuja, I’m moving through the streets of Rome, Milan, Naples and I see my daughters on the street on sale”. Selling their bodies to any man who has the money is what some female African migrants find themselves doing in Italy. One could describe Cardinal Onayeikan as an African leader who is awakened to the pressing problem of irregular migration to the West. His advocacy for the improvement of living conditions for young people in Nigeria shows that he is very well aware of the contexts of young people’s mass departure from the African continent, that is, misrule and socio-economic hardships.
In November, 2017, an exclusive CNN investigative effort revealed the auctioning of African migrants in Libya causing shock and anger across the world. Former US President, Barack Obama, French President, Emmanuel Macron amongst other world leaders spoke against this modern-day slave trade, with the then African Union Chairman, Alpha Conde calling it a “despicable trade of migrants” and a “practice of another age”. Large crowds of Africans protested in front of the Libyan Embassy in Paris because all the migrants who were sold in Libya were Africans from
Sub-Saharan countries. They were sold into slavery because they could not find money to pay their captors for their freedom. They were therefore sold to the highest-bidding Libyans who used them as slaves. The selling of these migrants in Libya into slavery is another phase of the disillusionment of African migrants on their way to Europe aside the perilous journey across the Sahara and the Mediterranean. Even though several efforts have been made to repatriate African migrants in Libya to their countries of origin, many more continue to go. This is because of the bleak situation they encounter back home on a daily basis.
The compelling issue of migration has for a long time found expression in African literature. African literary writings have shown ample interest both in the voluntary migration of Africans to the West and the forced migrations through the transatlantic slave trade. After the end of the slave trade in the late nineteenth century, voluntary migration of Africans began mainly for the purposes of education. Casely-Hayford’s, Ethiopia Unbound (1912), Kobina Sekyi’s The Anglo-Fante (1918), Achebe’s No Longer at Ease (1960), Emecheta’s Second Class Citizen (1974) and Aidoo’s Our Sister Killjoy (1977) touch on voluntary African travels to the West. In Ethiopia Unbound, Kwamankra travels to Europe to acquire education with the hope of building a nation of people who have total trust in their cultural dignity and self-worth. In No Longer at Ease, Second Class Citizen and Our Sister Killjoy, some migrant characters seek for education in different fields in other to build their lives and return to build their various countries. Each of the migrants experience different forms of success and disappointments. For instance, while in No Longer at Ease, Obi Okonkwo enjoys a successful education and returns to join the civil service of the new country, in Second Class Citizen, Francis, Pa Noble and Babalola fail in their various fields of academic pursuits and therefore find it hard to return to Nigeria.
While some African novelists write about their experiences as migrants outside their home countries, others produce a fictional presentation of the phenomenon of migration by creating characters who migrate mostly to Europe and North America. Migration literature has its roots in the “guest worker literature” of Germany in the 1970s. According to Mirjam Gebauer and Pia Schwarz Lausten (2010), the term “migrant” or “immigrant literature” was introduced in Europe to distinguish the writings of immigrants from “émigré literature” which was used to describe the works of writers like Vladimir Nabokov and Czeslaw Milosz. Today, the term “migration literature” is a more widely accepted term (4). For Gebauer and Lausten (2010), a literary work can be described as “migration literature” “based on textual criteria such as themes and linguistic phenomena rather than the author’s biography and may include emigrants as well as immigrants” (4). According to Gebauer and Lausten (2010), “…migration literature presents far too many examples of tragic destinies, among which stories of illegal immigrants underline their harsh social, economic and constitutional conditions of life” (5).
In the works of writers who Pius Adesanmi and Chris Dunton (2005) categorize as “first and second generation of African writers”, there is a presentation of the disillusionment of Africans who migrate to the West to acquire education in order to help in the building of the post- independence African nation-states. Such characters are portrayed as people who see migration to the West as a temporary endeavour which ultimately leads to a return to Africa. Such African migrants sought to fill up vacant positions in the civil and other essential services of their new nation-states. The disillusionment of these African migrants largely bordered on the lack of social support systems for the migrants and their children and also the prevailing racial discrimination against them which made it difficult for them to get decent housing and jobs. Discriminated against, the African migrants were forced to go deep into themselves to discover the strength to
survive the period of their education and eventually return home, poised to help in the building of their various nation-states.
The works of writers who Adesanmi and Dunton (2005) describe “third generation” Africans writers, such as, Lela Abouleila’s Minaret, Chimamanda Adichie’s Americanah, Unoma Azuah’s Edible Bones and Okey Ndibe’s Foreign Gods, Inc. focus on different experiences of African migrants who are faced with varied circumstances in the host country. For instance, while Najwa, the protagonist of Abouleila’s Minaret migrates to Scotland in an attempt to escape brutalization and persecution, in Adichie’s Americanah, Ifemelu, Aunt Uju and Obinze move to America for educational and socio-economic reasons. The selected texts for this study have been chosen as specimen to analyse the diasporic experiences of Africans in the West. It looks into the varying disillusionments of African migrants and the strength and determination for survival that these characters exhibit.
In the selected texts for this study; Okey Ndibe’s Foreign Gods, Inc. and Unoma Azuah’s Edible Bones, migration to the West is done largely for economic purposes. Acquiring an education then becomes a kind of detour to arrive at the goal; attaining economic and financial successes. Nonetheless, the pre-migration view of economic and material attainments by characters in the selected texts falls metamorphoses into a mirage. The persistent chasing after this mirage puts the African migrant characters through uncomfortable situations which call for rigorous and determined strategies of survival. Overwhelmed by their disillusioned states, African migrants usually resort to return migration. The fictional presentation of the African migrants in Okey Ndibe’s Foreign Gods, Inc. and Unoma Azuah’s Edible Bones reflect pertinent issues in the migration of Africans to the West.
CONCEPTUALIZING THE “NEW” AFRICAN DIASPORA.
The African diaspora is a term originally used in reference to African people who moved to different parts of the world through the cruel compulsion of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries. The term encapsulates all dispersed people across the world who are of African descent. “Diaspora”, etymologically coming from the two Greek words; “dia” which translates into “across” and “sperien” which means to “to sow or disperse seeds” is a term which is originally used in connection with the Jewish dispersion across the world. George Shepperson (1982) is emphatic when he observes that “the only people who really have the right to use the word diaspora without a qualifying adjective are the Jews” (51). However, as Shepperson further agrees, the word lends itself to be used “metaphorically” leading to expressions such as the African diaspora, Chinese diaspora, Indian diaspora amongst others.
Even though the essence of the concept of African diaspora is ancient, the direct use of the term became popular in the mid-twentieth century. The concept of the African diaspora features strongly in the writings of Edward Blyden, Marcus Garvey, W. E. B. Du Bois and George Padmore. The First International Congress of Negro Writers and Artists organized by Presence Africaine in Paris in 1956 and the International Congress of African Historians held in Dar es Salaam in 1965 helped to popularize the use of the term.
It is worthy of note that the very concept of the African diaspora emerged as a response to the various attempts by white scholars to discredit the contribution of Africans to world civilization and to dehumanize the African and his culture as savage and garbage. The crass bigotry and ignorance of some white scholars and exploiters about the Africans and their culture is seen in Henry Morton Stanley’s Through the Dark Continent, published in 1878, and also in the bigoted writings of Richard Burton, Hugh Trevor-Roper, G. W. F. Hegel amongst others. The literature of
the African diaspora sought and continues to seek to tell the stories of the lives of the Africans scattered all over the world; the pain of their subjugation, the unflinching resilience they show in their adversity and the beauty of their history and culture.
The African diaspora has been variously classified into; “historical and continental diaspora” (Ambassador Erieka Bennett, African Diaspora Ambassador to Ghana, 2020), “old” and “new African diaspora” (Okwepho (2001), Cajetan Iheka and Jack Taylor (2018)), and “diaspora of enslavement” and “diaspora of colonialism” (Mazrui 2001). Even though the two classifications of the African diaspora have migration in common, the old diaspora moved across the Atlantic forcibly while the new embarked, and continues to do so, voluntarily. Moved by the need to acquire education, get a job or safety, Africans on the continent began to voluntarily migrate from Africa to other parts of the world, especially America and other metropolitan centres of colonialism. Louis Chude-Sokei (2014) calls the group of continental Africans who willingly emigrated and lived in America “the newly black Americans.” After the passing of the Civil Rights Act in 1964, the Hart- Cellar Act of 1965 began to open the United States up to non-white immigrants. This led to what Chude-Sokei refers to as, “not only a redefinition of ‘white’ America, but also of ‘black’ America” (59). In other words, the Hart-Cellar Act, 1965, paved the way for a new group of black America to be formed. Up until this day, many Africans look to North America as a viable place for education, economic empowerment, asylum etc. This new group of Africans encounter the United States of America quite differently due to their difference of background from the historical African Americans. For instance, these African migrants in the diaspora have families back in Africa who depend on them for remittances which helps to sustain them. Again, events in Africa, political or economic are keenly followed by these Africans because they impact their lives in one way or the other. A good example is what Khalid Khoser (2003) notes in New African Diasporas:
An Introduction” concerning Ghanaian immigrants to Canada. According to Khoser, “Ghanaians in Toronto closely monitor the price of cement in Ghana, in order to build houses at home as cheaply as possible” (1).
John A. Arthur (2012) identifies “three waves of African migration to North America” (2). The first wave happened between the1950s and 1970s. This first wave of African migrants were made of students “who were sponsored by their respective countries to pursue advanced degrees in the arts and sciences.” (2) Many of these Africans had further studies in Law, Accounting, Medicine and several other fields of academic discipline in order to build a force of enlightened individuals ready to take up the reins of power and governance once the European colonial authorities leave. This was the result of the newly independent countries’ desire for a good take-off. The need to cut the reliance on universities in the colonial centres, for the training of their own professionals, for instance, made it imperative for indigenous people to be prepared to take up the task of nation- building.
The second wave of African migrations to North America, Arthur observes, began in the mid- 1970s “as country after country in the region were roiled in political and economic conflicts” (3). This stage signals the despondency surrounding the independence project. The new nation-states of Africa began to be hit by military coups and counter-coups motivated by the supposed desire to fight the prevalence of corruption in the governance of the country. The greed and parochial interests of such coup and counter-coup leaders became evident a few years into their tenure of office when they get swallowed up by corruption and mismanagement. The frequent deposition of the constitution and the arbitrariness of military rule also saw the postcolonial exodus of many Africans to North America. Many Africans in this wave of migration went to Canada and the United States of America as asylum seekers because they felt unsafe in their countries of origin.
