DISILLUSIONMENT AND SURVIVAL IN AFRICAN MIGRATION LITERATURE: A STUDY OF OKEY NDIBE’S FOREIGN GODS, INC. AND UNOMA AZUAH’S EDIBLE BONES.

The phenomenon of human migration, as Marie McAuliffe and Marfin Ruhs (2017) agrees, “stretches back to the earliest periods of human history” (1). Human migration in the modern world has been massively enhanced by the ease of mobility due to the massive advancements in transport technology. People tend to migrate from one part of the globe to another where they hope to achieve better socio-economic life, or where they can be free from persecution and conscription. The compelling phenomenon of migration have found expression in African literature of the past and the present. This thesis analyses the experiences of African migrant characters in Okey Ndibe’s Foreign Gods, Inc. and Unoma Azuah’s Edible Bones. The disillusionment of the migrant characters as well as their strategies of survival forms the main stay of the study. Drawing on the conceptual framework of the new African diaspora, this study focuses on the diasporic experiences of what Ali Mazrui (2001) calls “the diaspora of colonialism”, Africans who voluntarily migrate to the United States of America. The study shows that creative writers do provide important insights into the conditions of African migrants in the West. From the analysis in this study, one realizes that the issues of unemployment, racism and the difficulty of acquiring legal documents to live and work in the United States stand out as part of the major causes of disillusionment among African immigrants. Both writers present return migration as a better option than chasing after an American dream of success which, like a mirage, is endlessly shifting