Paper short abstract:

This paper discusses intersectionality as an overlapping framework with triple oppression among Afropolitan-women formerly traumatized by a dystopian space. The scope of analysis embraces fictional gendered narratives of classism, racism and sexism in selected 21st century African novels.

Paper long abstract:

Afropolitanism within the literary space has an intrusion with thwarted sensibility--a form of concept with underlying ideas.. With Taiye Selasi's seminal essay "What is Afropolitanism/ Bye Bye Barber (2005), there has been a perceived reaction from different Afrocentric critics with differing postulations. Specifically, this study explicates Afropolitan-women's strategy for survival in a globalizing context--a mentality with complex dimensions and focus on fictional diasporic adventure within the Nigerian literary discourse. Significantly, the struggle for African identity is wrapped with liberation from three-fold perceptions--classicism, racism and sexism. From the perspective of belonging, one perceives inherent questions of identity (belongings) , accommodation (home) and aloofness (feeling of exile) as emergent issues. The reality is that the feeling of homelessness overwhelms the psyche when trapped with the issues of race and identity. The resultant effect is not merely cloned in a physical displacement, but a fusion of anxiety and disillusionment.

The paper conceptualizes “Afropolitan Kinship”—a radical solidarity of individuals trapped in the culture of mobility, dislocation and despair. This study further conceptualizes ‘Afropolitan Womanhood’ as a universal African tenet traditionally ascribed to womanliness in combating symbolic violence and oppressive mannerisms that threaten Afropolitan-women’s survival and existence in a state of in-betweeness.