By
Hanafi Monsur Alabere
Issa Aishat
Ibrahim Balikis
Department of English and Communication, Institute of General
Studies, Kwara State Polytecnic, Ilorin.
Corresponding author’s email and Phone No: alaberet@gmail.com, 08060093814
Abstract
Literature
does not exist in a vacuum as it projects the socio-political and economic
issues in human society. Diaspora literature as a sub-genre of literature beams
its search light on either forceful enslavement of individuals from their
homeland or voluntary migration from homeland to another world in search of
greener pastures. The crux of this paper is to showcase the complexity of
diasporic experiences ranging from identity crisis and /or double
consciousness. In order to foreground this, Samuel Selvon’s Lonely Londoners
(1956) and Buchi Emecheta’s Second Class Citizen (1974) are employed as
it explicates the complexity of identity crises. The texts also serve as
renaissance to the on-going influx of blacks and West Indians to the Western
World. The study adopts Postcolonialism as theoretical basis for assessment in
depicting how the characters in the selected texts grapple with issues of
identity, race, alienation and nostalgic feelings in the new homeland.The study
observes the authors come from different climate yet same
setting, present valuable insights into racial complexity struggle in
multicultural societies as individual migrant navigate through this conflict by
hybridity and social cohesion.
Key
Words: Diaspora, Diapora Literature, Migration, Postcolonialism, Hybridity,
Mimicry
Introduction
It is
not spurious to say that literature is one of the fundamental fields of human
endeavour that is close to the society and this is because it is in itself a
society in imitation of all sorts, be it social, political, economics,
historical or cultural wise. According to Dada, Oyatoye and Fashiku, literature
is “an avenue through which members of a society strives to understand not only
themselves but also their environment better” (7). However, there are different
strands of literature among which is diaspora literature.
The
word “Diaspora” as a term or concept in postcolonial discourse has its origin
in slavery and colonialism and the word is closely linked with immigration or
forceful migration of persons to another world. In Post-colonial Studies:
The key Concepts, Bill Aschroft, Gareths Griffiths and Hellens Tiffin
assert that the word Diaspora originates from Greek word, “meaning to
disperse…Diaspora is the voluntary or forcible movement of
peoples from their homelands into new regions, it is a central historical fact
of colonization” (61). This reinforces the concept of trans-Atlantic slave
trade as Africans and other people in the world were displaced by the Western
European powers under the guise of colonialism. Ashcroft et al. maintain that:
Colonialism
itself was a radically diasporic movement, invoking the temporary or
permanently dispersion and settlement of millions of Europeans over the entire sworld.
The widespread effects of these migrations (such as that which has been termed
ecological imperialism) continue on a global scale…the practices of slavery and
indenture thus resulted in world-wide colonial diasporas” (61).
In the
wake of globalization, sociology among other prominent fields of human
endeavour picture migration as the influx of people from one place to another,
transcending geographical borders and boundaries, thereby resulting to the
third important factors causing population change. Considering the term
migration, Eisenstadt, sees it as “a physical dislocation of a person or a
community but on the contrary, Zelinsky pictures it “as the discernible and
concurrent shift in both “spatial and social locus”. It then means that
migration goes beyond physical movement to a new land but also psychologically
imparted on the migrant in question.
Diaspora
is a complex term that has series of offspring and images under its umbrella
such as living in a strange land different from one’s cultural background;
dissecting the cumulative loss and profits, reminiscing the mythology, memories
and riches of the past left behind and fashioning a novel identity in the new
socio-cultural surroundings” (Richa Sharma et al. 39).
A
wide range of writers have established themselves in this regard and have been
tagged diasporic writers. These writers have in one way or the other, been
displaced historically through slavery and colonialism and this bring about the
quest for identity and root through physical and psychological journeys.
Internationally, writers like Naipal, Said, Homi Bhabha, Salman Rushdie, Frantz
Fanon, Samuel Selvon etc.. Nigerian diasporic writers include Chinamaranda
Ngozi Adiche, Helen Oyeyemi, Nnedi Okorafor, Buchi Emecheta; contemporarily are
also Damilare Kuku, Ikema Okeh, Michael Chukwudera among others.
The
writings of these authors project the experiences of individuals and
communities that have migrated or been displaced from their homeland. They
reflect the complexities of cultural identities, belonging and the quest for a
sense of honour. “This genre is characterized by its rich tapestry of themes,
narrations and cultural influences and its impact on literature and society”
(Adama, 107).
Diasporic literature is created by authors
who have migrated from their homeland to another country or region, often
exploring themes of cultural identity, displacement and the experiences of
living in a foreign land. It offers a unique perception on the complexities of
migration and cultural integration, offering valuable insights into the human
experiences and fostering empathy and understanding across cultures
(Adama,107). The points raised here are not far-fetched from the texts in
question, Selvon’s Lonely Londoners and Emecheta’s Second Class
Citizen as the characters try their possible best to integrate in a society
that keeps rejecting them.
The
crux of this paper it to show that millions of blacks have migrated and are
still migrating to other parts of the world, most especially western world.
Early writings on diasporic literature focused on uprootment of blacks from
their homes as slaves to the Western world. This is pictured in the first
autobiographical narrative written by a black slave, Olauda Equaino (1978)
among other writings.
On the
contrary, the paper pictures voluntary movement of blacks in prose narrative as
example can be seen in the works of Samuel Selvon and Buchi Emecheta. The paper
also explores the adaptability problems of the blacks in diaspora in terms of
dislocation and transformation; as there is also the problem of identity,
racism, nostalgic feelings, and depression among others.
Theoretical
Framework
The
discourse on postcolonialism and its challenges cannot be discussed without
making recourse to colonialism as a discursive field. Postcolonial critics such
as V.S. Naipal, Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths, Hellen Tiffins, Chinua Achebe,
Ngugi Wa’ Thiongo, Derek Walcot, Kamau Braithwaite, Edward Said, Frantz Fanon,
Homi Bhabha, Jan Mohammed, Gayatri Spivak among others have theorized and
established themselves in this regard.
Some
posit that Postcolonial discourse was produced by Émigré postcolonial writers
and intellectuals based in the West but whatever it is, Simon Gikandi points
that “rather than see postcolonial discourse as the continuation of the
discourse of colonialism, we need to examine it as a radical break with the
tradition” (617). One of the forerunners of postcolonial critics and theorists,
Edward Said posits in Culture and Imperialism that “the movements and
migration of people from their home lands is a central historical fact of
colonization” (402). Migration is occasioned by slavery and voluntary migration
of the colonized.
Arif
Dirlik explicates in “The Postcolonial Aura: Third World Criticism in the Age
of Global Capitalism” that the term can be viewed from three perspectives; as a
“literal description of conditions in the formerly colonial societies”, “as a
description of a global condition after the period of colonialism” and “ as a
discourse on the above named conditions that is informed by the epistemological
and cyclic orientations that are products of those conditions” (332). In
general sense. The term is used to denote literatures produced from the
formerly colonized countries by Europe thereby reflecting the impact of
colonialism in the region. In the Empire Writers Back, Bill Ashcroft et al. use the term “to cover all the
cultures affected by the imperial process from the moment of colonization to
the present day” (2).
It
should be noted that some of the agents of this process are globalization and
cultural hegemony of the West. Thus, “the
term is a discussion of migration, slavery, suppression, resistance
representation, difference, race, gender, place and responses to the
influential master discourses of imperial Europe…and the fundamental
experiences of speaking and writing by which all these come into being”
(Bill Ashcroft et al., 2). All the issues raised above, most
especially as regards to migration, cultural hegemony and cultural identity are
crucial to the crux of this paper because, according to Lois Tyson in Critical
Theory Today, “a good deal of post-colonial criticism addresses the problem
of cultural identity” (419). In this regard, a central theme in most
post-colonial literature is identity. Race, in John McLeod’s opinion, may be a
major force that dissociates the migrants from being recognized as a part of
the community in the homeland. This disqualifies them from claiming their new
land as their home (Cited in Sofia, 4).
No
wonder then Fanon’s critical works have been channeled
towards addressing the front burners of postcolonial discourse as he recognises
the power of postcolonial discourse as a “demystifying force and as the
launching-pad for a new oppositional stance which would aim at the freeing of
the colonized from this disabling position” (Fanon,125).
The chief significance of Said’s Orientalism is that although colonialism is
ostensibly over, systems of thinking, talking, and representing which form the
premise of colonial power relations persist” (Richa Sharma et. al.,40). The
colonial power relation continues to raise its ugly head through cultural
hegemony and the concept of globalization via visa migration, technological
innovations, International Monetary Fund and policies and the World Bank which are
aimed at camping the former colonies of Europe under their armpits.
Another
important landmark to the study of post-colonial discourse is Homi Bhabha’s
“Hybridity” and third space. He rejects Fanon and Said’s Manichean discourse.
Bhabha maintains that hybridity is the formation of two cultures into one and
this is one of the dilemmas experienced by migrants that relocate abroad. It is
the formation of two opposing cultures into an entity. To Bhabha, it is
essential for the migrants to form a hybrid identity despite the problematic
nature of migrants’ experiences dealing with un-homeliness and cultural
clashes. He describes hybrid identity as an interaction between the migrant’s
culture of the host country. He explains it to be a way to re-create one’s
identity to better fit in the new environment (Cited in Backhund, 6). It is
very necessary steps or a process migrant must undergo in order to fit in the
new environment. It is a painful process considering the innate and adaptive
culture of the migrants and often may not be fruitful.
According
to Bhabha, it is a theory that “when a new situation, a new alliance formulated
itself, it may demand that you should translate your principles, rethink them,
extend them” (216). In essence, it is a process that thoroughly and duly has
its way just like a tree grows where it is not expected thereby disregarding
the migrant’s initial cultural postures or principles.
Closely
related to hybridity is the concept of third space. Bhabha posits that it is
liminal and in-between space where cultural identities are formed. It is the
point of cultural war and subsequent formation between the culture of the host
country and that of the migrant thereby challenging binary oppositions and destabilizing
fixed notions of identity. “It is a fluid space where a migrant can move in and
out and within. According to Bhabha, the concept “third space” indicates the
place where identity is constructed and reconstructed” (Csited
in Backhund,6). The picture of this can be seen in personalities of the major
characters such as Moses, Galahad and Adah in the selected texts.
Another
concept that is of importance to this paper is “Mimicry”. According to Bhabha,
it is through “ mimic” that the migrant hybridize into the host people’s
culture. It is a way of learning host country’s cultural norms and traditions.
This also shall be considered in relation to the textual analysis. Mimicry in
Ashcraft et al. is the process by which the colonised subject is reproduced as
“almost of the same but not quite”(125). This means the migrants strive to
behave like the citizens in all ramifications but it cannot be same.
Racial Subjugation and Displacement in Lonely
Londoner
According
to Edward Said in Culture and Imperialism, “the movement and migration
of people from their homelands is a central historical fact of colonisation”
(402). The implication of this statement is that mostly, diaspora literature is
occasioned by colonialism or post-colonialism experiences of the migrants.
While stressing this, Bah explicates diaspora literature as a literature that
“refers to works produced by authors displaced from their homeland or whose
ancestors have been forcibly relocated. It reflects these individuals’
cultural, social, and emotional theme” (108). These are all the problems and
issues the characters in the novel Lonely Londoners have to grapple
with.
Since
writers and their writings are product of the society, Samuel Selvon as a
Trinidadian whose origin is East Indian ancestry, is a writer in diaspora. He
moved to London in 1950 and worked as journalist, poet and short-story writer.
Thus, the story is about “the black Caribbean migrants who arrived in Britain
after decolonization period, depicted in detail the realism in the novel Lonely
Londoners (Dulta, 123-143). It pictures the life experiences of West
Indians who came to Britain in 50s in search of greener pasture. The
expectations of the people were very high, anticipating to escape colonial
oppression in favour of better life in new homeland.
However,
racism which is like a dreaded disease is one of the first militating factors
that debar blacks from their dreams. Moses constantly sensitizes the new
immigrants most especially Galahad as he constantly echoes the phrase, “Streets
paved with gold” while warning Galahad about his expectations from the British
public in hunting for jobs. To them “you will be just another one of them black
Jamaicans who coming to London thinking that the streets are paved with gold.”
(41) Again, that the writing of “J-A” on one’s file means “you from Jamaica and
you are black.” (46).
Racism
debars the black immigrants job opportunity or good job. Galahad as one of the
major characters in the text manages to get factory job compares to others who
will search endlessly but he eventually loses the job due to racism. In spite
of all this, Galahad still appear relaxed in own skin as he tries to hybridize
and imitate the typical British dressing style and maintains an easy approach
to life. However, at a point, he flares up while analysing and blaming the
colour of his skin in a monologue style: “ colour, is you that causing all
this, you know. Why the hell you can’t be blue or red or green, if you can’t be
white, you know is you that cause a lot of misery in the world. Is not me, you
know, is you! (88). This reveals the traumatic experience of racism in the
Western world.
Some
of the characters like Moses and Big City are used to racism and sometimes
tries to resist it just like Adah in Second Class Citizen. Moses knows
that the challenges his people experience are coldness, discrimination and
racism when what they yearn for is just a decent social life. He sees London as
“a miserable lonely city” (130). The new converts unlike Moses are devastated
by the prejudice and racism aimed at them. Moses has long come out of “an evil
mood” (89) and that are why Said corroborates that in “exile’s life, these are
no more than efforts meant to overcome the crippling sorrow of estrangement
(49). Moses resists racism and tries to gain his self-worth when he refuses to
pose for a British newspaper photographer when he is dismissed from railway job
because his co-workers do not like his skin colour. Not only this, but he also
refuses to be captured and enjoining other black migrants not to grant
interview and have their pictures taken by the reporters. More importantly to
resistance, the other immigrants ask why Moses is “Still holding on in Brit’n?”
(40) and he replies thus, “We have more right more than any people from the
damn continent to live and work in this country, enjoy what this country has
because is we who bleed to make this country prosperous” (40). In other words,
Moses refers to the time when larger numbers of West Indian served Britain in
the cause of war and die in the process. He believes they could have equal
citizenship.
Big
City is yet another character who would not succumb to racial discrimination as
he protests the discriminatory comments always made by white people; “keep the
water white” (89). He Invented his own version with a provocative slogan as;
“keep the water coloured, No Rooms for Whites” (97). This pictures
anti-colonial vision of the character.
In
the face of racism, the black Caribbeans in London try to navigate their ways
through hybridity and mimicry but the more their efforts, the more they are
rejected. According to Bah (2024) “the core of cultural hybridity in diasporic
literature is the idea of cultural identity as a fluid and shifting construct
rather than a fixed and stable entity.” (109) In another sense, the immigrants
need to shift ground in term of their native culture and adapt to the new
culture of their new environment in order to enjoy social integration.
Thus,
language is one of the means of hybridization in the novel, a means of
assimilation into the diaspora communities. “Language in diasporic literature
often serves as means of resistance against dominant cultural norms and values,
challenging discrimination and prejudice based on ethnicity, religion, or
cultural background (Bah, 2024: 113). Samuel Selvon through his characters
especially Moses achieves this. Moses uses both Creole English and standard
English; Creole English is the language of self-identity, used for cultural
integration of Blacks to assert their identity. Moses, through language use,
distinguishes himself from the new immigrants as he sometimes uses Colloquial
expressions to depict local places in London. A case in point is when he refers
to Bays Water area as “waters” to showcase his awareness of London topography
and talking like the Londoners. He makes it known to the new immigrants that
one bruit has been in England for “at least two years” (35). Sometimes too, he
speaks close to standard English and this can be illustrated in the part of the
novel when he contemplates about writing “a book that everyone would buy”
(139).
This
same impulse of language and ambivalence can be seen in Galahad’s conversation
with his girlfriend Daisy, which sometimes cause confusion: “what did you say?
You know it will take me sometimes to understand everything you say. The way
you West Indian speak!” (83). Galahad response indicates he is aware of his
cultural hybridity while also negotiating his identity” what wrong with it?
Galahad asks, “Is English we speaking” (82).
Some
of the black male characters like Galahad feels a sense of ease and belonging
by dating white women; they feel accepted by the white community through this.
Galahad thinks thus;
That
evening people in the turbe station must bawl to see Black man so familiar with
white girl… Galahad feeling grid with this piece skin walking with him.’ … By
loving (the white women) proves that a ma worthy of white love. I am loved like
a white man I am a white man. He love takes me onto noble road that leads to
total realization. I marry white culture, white beauty, white whiteness.
(20-31)
The
citation above depicts how black people takes solace in marrying white women to
boost their ego. This situation reveals how the black people have been
conditioned psychologically on the basis of their colour which is tagged to be
inferior to the white. This corroborates with Fanon thoughts as a psychiatrist
where in Wretched of the Earth (1964), he explains the concept of
“Manichean World” (31) in relation to the binary division axes of
Colonizer/Colonized, good /evil, white/black, civil/selvage etc. The
colonialists did not see their new discovery world as different but as the
opposite, in terms of humanity and civility, and therefore paint “the native as
a sort of quintessence of evil (32). This is why the blacks face rejection in
all ramifications. The British working-class exercise hatred toward the
Caribbean in the text. They see immigrants’ influx into England, eroding the
insufficient opportunities they have:
You are
unwanted. You are here because some higher order officials
Let you
stay, not because I want you… you only create problems.
You
want to live in my home, you want to use my school, my hospital,
my
stores (181).
The
citation further reflects some of the genesis of black man’s problems in the
Diaspora even contemporarily. This indicates diaspora issues are ever evolving,
and literature will continually evolve through it as well.
The
various dehumanizing incidents of racism and the inability to be fully
integrated into the whole society brings about the feelings of loneliness and
nostalgia. The blacks in the novel sometimes come together to share their
collective experiences; “early every Sunday morning, as if they are going to
church, the boys lining in Moses room, coming together for Old Talk “ (138) .
The conversation always revolved around the challenges each and every one faces
like search for job, food and pleasures of “Coasting lime”. Sometimes they
contemplate leaving England, but they never leave.
Racism, Hybridity and Social Cohesion in Second
Class Citizen
The
question of migration has been associated with lots of issues among which is
the search for greener pasture in a relation to voluntary migration. This is in
pursuance of one’s long life dreams and opportunities. “This translocation is
not a mere movement of individuals from one place to another. Instead, it is a
process of restructuring the entire functionality of the social-cultural
existence of a person” (Sharma, 39). The migration of the migrants transcends
physical movement but one that also invokes socio-cultural and psychological
transformation in the new home. All these are explicated in Second Class
Citizen.
Second
Class Citizen pictures everyday struggle and encounters of a group
of black migrants in London in 1950s as it exhibits double tragedies of the
main character, Adah, the female protagonist in the novel. She faces rejection
due to patriarchal system in Nigeria and continues to experience this through
her husband and also, being a second class person in the Western World.
The
protagonists in the texts face constant estrangement and displacement and these
set in the feeling of nostalgia and they find themselves in the state of
dilemma and the uncertainty between their previous life and contemporary one in
London. In Lonely Londoners, each time Moses and Galahad feel displaced,
they try to reconcile their Jamaican cultural identity with their existence in
London. Adah also constantly experiences this but her supposed husband,
Francis, would not bother. Besides, there is this widespread notion in Western
World that all people of African descent are inherently evil and this
contribute significantly to the incessant racism in the Western World.
In
the 40s, 50s, and even 60s, many black countries had just attained independence
and the men saw prospective future in the years to come. Same applies to the
West Indies in the Lonely Londoners who troop into London, thinking of
better opportunities. For instance, Lewis and his family. As such, many sold
their belongings and even collected loans to further their education in the
Western world for brighter future. This is portrayed in Second Class Citizen
as the major characters, both husband and wife (Francis and Adah) alongside
others like Mr. Noble and Mr. Babalola becomes blacks in diaspora in England.
These
group of men calculated that with independence, would come prosperity; the
opportunity for self-rule, poshy vacant jobs and more money, plenty of it. One
had to be eligible for these jobs, though, thought these men. The only place to
secure this eligibility, this passport to prosperity, was England. They must
come to England, get a quick degree in Law and go back to rule their own
country…some of them actually made it … most of those men who sought the
kingdom of eligible’s did not make it… if they remembered their original dream,
the dream of reading law and becoming an elite in their newly independent
country, they buried it deep in their bitter hearts. It was such a
disappointment; too bitter to put into words. When these men fell so
disastrously, their dreams were crushed with. The dream of becoming an
aristocracy become a reality of being black, a nobody, a second-class citizen (87-89).
Many
blacks were disillusioned while in diasporas as they discovered racism as the
major factor militating against their nurtured dreams. For instance, Mr. Nobel
who is glued to England due to his unrealized dreams as a result of racial
discrimination the same way Galahad, Moses, Captain and all others could not
realise their dreams in London. The white according to Fanon has always seen
the Negro as an animal; “the negro is bad, the negro is mean and ugly” (113).
Unlike Ada’s previous thought of the Whites, Francis having been in England
before Adah, lectures Adah about black identity in London in view of
accommodation as he complains thus:
Well. I
know you will not like it, but this is the best I can do. You see,
accommodation is very short in London, especially for black people with
children. Everybody is coming to London. The West Indians, Pakistanis, and even
the Indians, so that African student are usually group together with them. We
are all blacks, all coloured, and the only houses we can get are horrors like
these. (41)
Still
schooling Adah about the realities of her new home, Francis makes it known that
regardless of her position in Nigeria as an educated elite earning good pay in
Nigeria but that means nothing because:
The day
you landed in England, you are a second class citizen.
So you
can’t discriminate against your own people, because we
are all second class. (43)
This is
also what is obtainable in Lonely Londoners as Moses warns Galahad of London
Streets not “paved with gold”. It is discrimination that makes it tug of war
for blacks to secure accommodation. The moment they (whites) realise
one is black, they shut the door of accommodation as this is one of the
dramatic experiences the blacks face. Francis and Adah together with their
children sleep in a room apartment they are lucky to get from a black landlord.
The condition of the house they live previously is also bad that the neighbours
pressurize Adah to send her children back to Nigeria like others do. Even
though the landlord has been threatening because of the children, “the housing
conditions were so bad that for days, she did not see Francis at all. As soon
as she arrived home from work, he would disappear for fresh air. The children
had no amusement and their parents would not let them out for fear they would
break their necks on the step stairs (52)”.
They
pack themselves together like sardine in a room apartment. Laxmiprasad
asserts that “in migrating from one nation to another, the migrant guest for
setting up home in a new land. But they are unable to identify the new place as
their home instead they find their home elsewhere, back across the boundary and
they always wish to come back” (100). This is the picture Adah and other blacks
face while trying to settle down in London. While in search of new
accommodation, she often comes across a painted sign saying “sorry, no colored”
(80) on the notices. This is the most inhuman treatment to Adah as she begins
to understand she needs to be ashamed of her colour: “she was beginning to
learn that her colour was something she was supposed to be ashamed of, she was
never aware of this at home in Nigeria, even when in the midst of whites” (76).
Accommodation is also a tug of war in Lonely Londoners as most migrant
like Galahad have their heads under a roof at the mercy of Moses. It should be
noted also that even though the authors belong to different terrain while
having the same setting of London, their characters virtually have similar
experiences. Galahad at the height of racial trauma begins to curse his skin
colour as it debars him good opportunities.
Fanon
(1967) in Black Skin,White Masks argues, “in the white world the man of
color encounters difficulties in the development of his bodily schema.
Consciousness of the body is solely a negating activity. It is a third-person
consciousness”(10). In essence, black people’s difficulty in securing jobs,
food, and shelter, but they have no plans to leave the hostile world. This same
impulse is seen in the text as Francis speaks about the odd jobs blacks are
exposed to even if they have one:
Well,
my darling, in England the middle-class black is the one that is lucky enough
to get the post of bus conductor, so you better start respecting them (43).
It
should however be noted that some blacks like Adah with little educational
background can work as a clerk and that is why Adah works in Finchley Library
among other ones.
Emecheta’s
Central character, Adah suffers dual “otherness”. First, as a woman who has
been relegated to the background in a patriarchal society she comes from and,
coming to London again, she is faced with another identity of second-class
citizen. The blacks are seen as the “other” in the Manichean world of the
white, making them to be described as savage and inferior people. According to
Said (1994) , “The Western discourses of colonialism have historically and
ideologically stereotyped and constructed non-Western people as other, relegating
them to a position of displacement and marginalization” (226). The racial issue
has so much deluded into the psyche of Emecheta’s protagonist that she begins
to be suspicious of everything in London even to the point of healthcare
service. The name of the hospital her son, Vicky is taken to (Royal Free
Hospital) sounds ironical. With all sorts of social injustices the blacks
endure, she imagines how a treatment can be “royal” yet “free” and also thinks
may be it is meant for blacks alone.
Was it
a hospital for their people for second-class people? Why did they put the word
“free” in it? Fear started to shroud her then. Were
they sending her Vicky to a second-class hospital, a free one, just because
they were blacks? (60).
In
spite of the socio-injustices the blacks experience in their new home
occasioned by racism, they try to adapt and internalise the new societal values
by ways of mimicry and hybridization. Most times, the more they try, the more
they face rejection from their White society. Bhabha posits in this regard that
it is essential for the migrant to form a hybrid identity despite the
problematic nature (33). This is why Francis would want his children to speak
English always even though they are not good at it. He wants them to fit into
the Western system quickly. Titi, the daughter of Francis would always keep
quiet as noticed by Adah who then ask what the problem is as she is supposed to
be playing with her friend who came to visit. Adah challenges her and she
replies:
Don’t
talk to me, my dad will cane me with the belt if I speak in Yoruba, and I don’t
know much English, Don’t talk to me…(59).
Not
only this, while in search of new accommodation, house to house, Adah in one of
the places she finds, discovers it is owned by a white landlord and she tries
to mimic the white voice in order to gain the accommodation. This she does in a
bid to resist white racism and circumvent all the limits placed upon her by her
skin colour such as changing her accent in order to gain the vacant room in
Hawley Street. The narrators speaks:
She had
worked and talked for almost six month in London, So she was beginning to
distinguish the accent she knew that any white could recognize the voice of an
African woman on the phone, so to eradicate that ,she pressed her wide,
tunnel-like nostrils together as if to keep out a nasty smell. She practiced
her voice in the low and was satisfied with the result. (80)
With
this, Adah tries to construct a new identity for herself in order to transgress
the boundaries of her black identity which is stumbling blocks for social
acceptability. In the end all her efforts go down the drain when the white
landlady had physical encounter with her, “that voice was telling them now that
she was very sorry, the rooms had just gone. Yes both rooms” (84).
The
whole socio-injustices and hostilities sometimes boil down to nostalgic feeling
on the migrants. Sharma explicates that “the émigrés rarely happen to confide
in anyone as they are stricken with a sense of betrayal. Their hearts palpate
for their native place, their cultural string, supported by their homely
instinct,” (41).
The
hearts of the blacks in the diaspora aches in the midst of racism and
dehumanizing experiences. Emecheta captures the complexities of the diasporic
experience, where feelings of longing for the familiar co-exist with the
challenges of adapting to a new environment. Adah as the central protagonist
experiences this, a lot, both at the level of patriarchy exercise by her
husband and the second-class notion in her new environment.
One
beautiful morning in July, Adah wakes up very tired. She starts to lose faith
in herself. Had a dream of coming to the United Kingdom been right after all,
or way she simply an empty dreamer? But Francis had agreed to it in the first
place: where had she gone wrong (60).
While
Adah is having a rethink of coming to England, Francis has given up on the
situation and accepted his failure to achieve his dream: “What worried her most
was the description “Second-class”. Francis had become so conditioned by this
phrase that he was not only living to it but enjoying it too.” (44). The
feeling of nostalgia not only props up in the face of racism but also in social
life. Adah’s experience of Christmas celebration in England is like a dead
night camp.
In
England, it was silent night, holy night, in Nigeria it was noisy night, holy
maybe, but fireworks night, the night of loud rejoicing, the night of palm-wine
drinking on the street…. (147).
The
citation above explores the conflicting feelings of nostalgia and ambivalence
towards the homeland as Adah also harbours complex feeling of resentment,
anger, or betrayal towards her husband; the betrayal of love and sense of
husband. Adah feels betrayed as Francis exhibits his patriarchal ego thereby
regretting her marriage to Francis:
A woman
was a second-class human, to be slept with at any time, even during the day,
and, if she refused to have sense beaten into her until she gave in, to be
ordered out of bed after he had done with her, to make sure she washed his
clothes and got his meal ready at the right time (181).
Mike
and Richard corroborate on the hegemonic masculinity of men in diaspora in
their essay titled “Men, migration and Hegemonic Masculinity”; thus, the strong
pressure on migrant men to be seen as the bread winner puts them in a difficult
situation. They often must deal with a range of personal, social, educational
and institutional barriers that hinder their ability to settle and meet these
expectations” (213). All these have psychological effect on Francis and further
exhibit the devil in him has he often beats his wife and also destroys Adah’s
First brain-child. He reminds Adah:
You
keep forgetting that you are a woman and that you are black. The white man can
barely tolerate us men, to say nothing of brainless females like you who could
think of nothing except how to breast-feed her baby” (184)
Francis
constantly brutalizes, deliberately tries to inject a feeling of inferiority
and when all that fails, he tries to deprive her of what she values most; her
brain-child and her potential to become a writer. All these lead to the
collapse of the marriage of people in diaspora. In the court;
Francis
said they never been married. He then asked Adah if she could produce the
marriage certificate. Adah could not. She could not even produce her passport
and the children’s birth certificates. Francis had burnt them all. To him, Adah
and the kids ceased to exist Francis told her this in court in low tones in
their language. (191)
In
spite of Adah’s maltreatment and subjugation both at the level of patriarchal
and racism, she is still determined to forge ahead and keep her dreams and
agitation alive.
In a
nutshell, Emecheta with all her commitment as a sociological writer gives a
broad view of the challenges people in the Diaspora have to grapple with
through Second Class Citizen. The black migrants against all odds would
have to dance to the tune of what their new home brings to in view of cultural
alienation, struggle for class identity, racism as well as cultural hegemony of
the Western world they live in. The initial thoughts before leaving their
native land are false realities they must grapple with in London.
Conclusion
Both
novels, The Lonely Londoner and Second Class Citizen depict,
thematic parallel even though they are distinct in manner and setting in
relation to times and places. Racism is a common phenomenon in both novels as
the characters have to grapple with harsh realities of racism. Both Moses and
Galahad in The Lonely Londoner and Adah and Francis in Second Class
Citizen developed signs of depression. All the characters mentioned except
Adah would not resign to hopelessness over her situation even though they all
blame the colour of their skin to be their problem as pointed out by Galahad.
Second
Class Citizen on the other hand also explores third person
omniscient and stream of consciousness with some autobiographical elements. The
essence of this is to add authenticity to the novels as the story draws from
the author’s personal experiences. This is also observable in The Lonely
Londoners. Said (1993) corroborates with this point thus; “ Many of the
most interesting post-colonial writers bears their past with them as scars of
humiliating wounds” (31). Both authors display scars of their past in their
novels respectively.
Lastly,
Buchi seems to be saying one’s level of education also determines the kind of
job opportunities one eventually gets because her protagonist, Adah, in the
face racism, still manoeuvres to secure herself librarian job due to her
educational background and this places her above other Blacks like Moses,
Galahad, Francis, Mr. Noble among others in the two texts.
The
diasporic field of study is one that is vast and wide, encompassing issues of
all sorts like racism, marginalization, culture, politics, economics, and
gender studies among others. It thus remains one of the front-burner fields of
literary studies. It is the vastness of it that also serves as propelling force
to have shaped and still shaping the writing skills of the various authors in
the field. For instance, the authors are from different climate yet, achieved
thematic parallel in their texts.
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Selvon,
Samuel. The Lonely Londoners. Penguin Classics.1956
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This article is published in ALQALAM: A Journal of Language and Literary Studies, FUGUS, Volume 1, Issue 2 - June 2026
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