African Migration Narratives: Politics, Race, and Space

Description

This essay collection examines the representations of migration in African literature, film, and other visual media. Inspired by the proliferation of texts focused on this theme and the ongoing migration crises, essays in the volume probe the ways in which African cultural productions shape and are shaped by the migration debates, the contributions these productions make to an understanding of globalization, and the stylistic features of the works. The texts analyzed here include important recent writings and films that have yet to receive considerable scholarly attention, by artists such as Chimamanda Adichie, Teju Cole, Leila Aboulela, Noo Saro-Wiwa, and Marzek Allouache. Current scholarship on migration largely focuses on the journey from Third World spaces to the First World, thereby radically limiting our understanding of migratory flows. This project works against this lopsided analysis of migration and considers narratives of return as central to migratory flows. The book also invests in underanalyzed and underrepresented diasporas on the continent including the Lusophone and Indian diasporas. Unlike much scholarship on migration in African cultural studies, which tends to focus primarily on a genre (literature), a region, or a specific language, the current book emphasizes Africa's geographical and linguistic diversity by being attentive to Anglophone, Francophone, and Lusophone areas, as well as an array of texts encompassing various genres. CAJETAN IHEKA is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Alabama. JACK TAYLOR is Associate Professor of English at the University of Hawaii-Manoa. Table of Contents Introduction: A Paradigm Shift: The Migration Turn in African Cultural Productions Harragas, Global Subjects, and Failed Deterritorializations: The Tragedies of Illegal Mediterranean Crossings in Maghrebi Cinema Nollywood Comedies and Visa Lotteries: Welfare States, Borders, and Migration as Random Invitation Accented Cinema: Chineze Anyaene's Ije: The Journey Migrations and Representations: The Cinema by the Griot Dani Kouyaté Mamiwata, Migrations, and Miscegenation: Transculturalism in Mia Couto, José Agualusa, and Germano Almeida Poor Migrant: Poverty and Striving in Nadine Gordimer's July's People and The Pickup (Re-)imaging Blackness : The Visual Landscapes of El Carmen, a Peruvian District Reading Space, Subjectivity, and Form in the Twenty-First Century Narrative of Return Looking for Transwonderland: Noo Saro-Wiwa's Migration of the Heart The Literary Circulation of Teju Cole's Every Day Is for the Thief Speculative Migration and the Project of Futurity in Sylvestre Amoussou's Africa Paradis Monkeys from Hell, Toubabs in Africa Mapping (Sacred) Space in Leila Aboulela's Fiction Voice of the Cosmopolitan Nomad Esiaba Irobi: Poetry at the Margins Bibliography Contents Acknowledgments Introduction Part One. African Migration on the Screen: Films of Migration 1 Harragas, Global Subjects, and Failed Deterritorializations 2 Nollywood Comedies and Visa Lotteries 3 Accented Cinema 4 Migrations and Re presentations Part Two. Forgotten Diasporas: 5 Mami Wata, Migra tions, and Miscegenation 6 Poor Migrant 7 Reimaging Blacknes s in a Hybridized and Racialized Space Part Three. Migration against the Grain: Narratives of Return 8 Reading Space, Sub jectivity, and Form in the Twenty-First-Century Narrative of Return 9 Looking for Transw onderland 10 The Literary Circ ulation of Teju Cole’s Every Day Is for the Thief 11 Speculative Migration and the Project of Futurity in Sylvestre Amoussou’s Africa Paradis Part Four. Migration and Difference 12 Monkeys from Hell , Toubabs in Africa 13 Mapping “Sacred” Space in Leila Aboulela’s The Translator and Minaret 14 Waris Dirie, FGM, and the Authentic Voice 15 Esiaba Irobi: Poe try at the Margins Bibliography Contributors Index