Cultural Intersection A Survey of Selected Novels on African Diaspora (original) (raw)

Ikogho: Education, Social Sciences, Humanities & Management Sciences Journal

Abstract

With insight from culture contact theory and a qualitative content-based descriptive and analytical approach, this paper explores seven selected novels on African diaspora. The aim is to account for the representation of culture intersection in a culture contact situation between the African culture and foreign cultures. This study situates such culture intersection within the context of twenty-first century globalisation. This study argues that in a culture contact situation, Africans in foreign lands are faced with pressure to fit into the new culture space they come in contact with, while in home country it breeds a hybrid culture identity. The pressure crystallises as bias, racism, economic exclusion, and hostility as evident in five of the selected novels: Selasi's Ghana Must Go, Habila's Travellers, Ndibe's Foreign Gods, Inc., Unigwe's On Black Sisters' Street, and Gyasi's Homegoing. The foregoing novels highlight the phenomenon and outcomes posed by culture intersection. While in Adichie's Americanah and Bulawayo's We Need New Names, the authors not only portray culture intersection, they also insert in their representation, strategic compromise or the manner by which their characters are able to negotiate their ways through the challenges posed by culture contact and intersection and gain acculturation. This study submits that the problems associated with culture intersection are created by culture politics, while strategic compromise portrayed in Americanah and We Need New

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