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Paper short abstract:

My paper contrasts African concepts and Western discourse on mental illness expressed in Akwaeke Emezi‘s „Freshwater“ (Ogbanje vs. Dissociative Identity Disorder). It focuses on the complex connections between illness and stigma, illness and intersectionality, as well as illness and autonomy.

Paper long abstract:

In their autobiographical novel Freshwater (2018), non-binary Nigerian-American writer Akwaeke Emezi portray their main character as a group of personalities who alternately take control of the main character‘s body and mind. While many Western critics read Emezi‘s character as a person diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), African scholars put the Ogbanje concept at the center of their critique, thus associating these personality states with the divine rather than with mental illness. My presentation uses these strands of critique to explore how mental illness is both shaped by cultural contexts and by (academic) discourses. While, in a specific context, unconventional acting or transgression of norms may put a person at risk, in another context the same behaviour may invoke protection.

I will also critically examine the role of Psychiatric Associations: while some interpret DID as a failure to integrate various aspects of identity, memory, and consciousness into a single self, others underline that DID is a powerful strategy of the human mind to cope with severe traumata. My paper thus adresses the complex connections between illness and stigma, illness and intersectionality (gender, race) as well as illness and autonomy. This can also be traced to Emezi themselves, who, as a non-binary, plural, African immigrant writer addressing issues of conflict and trauma might represent the „African sick“. Yet, they have established a strong career, financially as well as intellectually, that contrasts with the vulnerability they express in their writing.