Paper short abstract:

A new generation of African born writers is finding a special place in the literary world. In Spain and Portugal, these authors claim for a new identity, between home, exile and the need for a mutual understanding across countries and continents.

Paper long abstract:

A new generation of writers, officially considered as members of the African Diaspora, create their works according to their own personal experience.

Authors from the Spanish speaking Equatorial Guinea, such as Trifonia Melibea Obono and Guillermina Mekuy Mba-Obono , as well as from the Portuguese speaking Cape Verde and Angola, such as Joaquim Arena and Kalaf Epalanga, born and raised in the African continent, while living in Europe tend to recreate their own homelands in their writings, in a cathartic attempt to find their own selves.

Identity (Black, Queer, Catholic, etc.) turns into a major concern for those who embrace new homes in Lisbon, Madrid or Salamanca, but feel a strong and inevitable nostalgia for their native lands.

Rage, curiosity, fear, humour, confusion and, most of all, self consciousness, emerge from these narratives written in Spanish and Portuguese and meant to be read in Europe, rather than in Africa. But, despite the publishing houses' location, they are tantalizing both audiences, crossing mental and cultural borders through a common language.

Is Literature itself a new place of belonging for the Young African Diaspora?