MIGRATION, MOMENTARY HAPPINESS AND DESPAIR IN ADICHIE’S AMERICANAH AND UNIGWE’S ON BLACK SISTERS’ STREET

Abstract

This study interrogates the experiences of some African migrant
characters that left their home countries to pursue their dreams and
visions in seemingly utopian host countries in Europe and America,
amidst unanticipated realities which they have to grapple with. It
explores the themes of migration and the momentary happiness
migrants get by their anticipation that abroad will help them
actualize their dreams and the sudden despair that follows, in the
face of their non-achievement of their dreams and visions by their
non-inclusion in the scheme of things in their host countries.
Applying postcolonial theory which sees migration as fallout of
colonialism, the paper examines Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s
Americanah (2013) and Chika Unigwe’s On Black Sisters’ Street (2010)
as fictional texts that revolve around the journey motif, especially as
it borders on the vicissitudes of surviving in a foreign country. The
study reiterates that the aspirations of most Africans before and
during migration end in illusion, even as the migrants’ inability to
achieve the rosy life envisioned of Europe and America causes them
disillusionment. It concludes that the authors seem to be ‘speaking
in one voice’ through their well-crafted novels, to their readers, that
notwithstanding the socio-economic challenges at their home
countries, there is no place like home.