SOURCE:

Faculty: Arts
Department: English Language & Literature

CONTRIBUTORS:

Ozor, N.J;
Okoye, C;

ABSTRACT:

The stories of Africans affirm a lot of economic, social and political changes from pre-colonial time to the present era. African writers have written on the experiences and social dilemma faced by immigrants in foreign lands. Most of these immigrants lost their identities in foreign lands and in trying to acclimatize to the new rules, new ways of life, people, culture and environment, the emigrants find themselves torn between homelessness and alienation. This work however, takes a different approach from the presupposition of other critics to descriptively look at Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah, Ayi Kwei Armah’s Osiris Rising, Isidore Okpewho’s Call Me By My Rightful Name and Teju Cole’s Every Day is for the Thief, in a bid to find out the psychological disposition of the characters both outside their country and at home (Africa).The researcher uses qualitative method of research as her major sources of information which largely depends on library and internet for more recent information. The study interrogates issues that displace immigrants to determine if they actually face diasporic tensions. An appraisal of the literary texts under study disclosed that all the protagonists as a result of their diasporic nature are traumatized, displaced, dispossessed and have identity issues. Postcolonial theory with trauma, identity and psychoanalytical theories as subsumed cognate theories are used in evaluating the protagonists to capture and understand their relationships and actions as immigrants. The findings revealed that the characters have psychological problems both at home and abroad. Critical opinions of some scholars on diaspora were analyzed to make quality judgments. It is concluded that immigrants have to go back to their ancestral home to solve their diasporic tensions.