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Decol10a


Where are the European migrants in Africa [and what are they up to]? I 
Convenors:
Ifeyinwa Okolo (Federal University Lokoja)
Joseph Abel (Federal University Lokoja)
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Format:
Panel
Stream:
Linguistic and visual (de)colonialisms
Location:
Room 1015
Sessions:
Thursday 9 June, -
Time zone: Europe/Berlin

Short Abstract:

The panel seeks contributions that interrogate literary narratives, films, and performances which focus on the movement of migrants from Europe to Africa and not the more popular Africa to Europe move. Where are the European migrants in Africa and what are they up to?

Long Abstract:

When Camara Laye’s The Radiance of the King (1954) was published, some critics argued that the novel was an allegorical representation of an inversion of the migrant African’s experience in Europe. What Laye did was to take the story of “the clueless African lost in unfamiliar Europe”, replace the African with a European and place him in an unfamiliar African setting to see how he survives. Laye’s novel encapsulates the human being, irrespective of race struggle with adjusting to the unfamiliar when uprooted and thrown into a new environment.

Today, the dynamics of migration have become more complex. Depending on who the migrant is and where the destination is, different narratives are appearing in literary works to account for these movements. Cajetan Iheka and Jack Taylor (2018: 5-6) recognise the following as some features of the migration narrative: “the portrayal of the debilitating conditions that propel migrants to leave the continent, the experiences of migrants abroad, their relationship to the homeland, and the negotiation of a possible return, be it physical or psychological”. These, however, seem to account for the Africa to Europe movements but not the Europe to Africa moves since their study did not focus on the latter. This panel investigates if the same features apply to the latter group.

The panel seeks contributions that interrogate literary narratives, films, and performances which focus on the movement of migrants from Europe to Africa and not the more popular Africa to Europe move. Where are the European migrants in Africa?

Accepted papers:

Session 1 Thursday 9 June, 2022, -