Migration, Diasporic Realities and the Quest for Home in Chika Unigwe’s On Black Sisters’ Street and Yaa Gyasi’s Transcendent Kingdom

Abstract

This paper preoccupies itself with a close analysis of the concept of migration, diasporic realities and the quest for home in Unigwe’s On Black Sisters’ Street and Gyasi’s Transcendent Kingdom. Migration is a recurrent issue in the world today. Due to one reason or the other, people leave from one geographical location for the other—usually to Europe and America for greener pastures. The study investigates the socio-economic experiences of these African characters in the diaspora and the despair encountered resulting from dreams deferred. In this regard, this paper examines the disillusionment and frustration that characterize Unigwe and Gyasi’s fictional characters in the selected works as they grapple with their expectations and the actual realities in the New World. The work operates on the premise that characters in the texts are induced and motivated by dreams of a better life to immigrate to Europe and America where they end up being trapped in hardship, culture shock and identity crisis. Guided by the Postcolonial theory, this study revealed that, one’s perception of place in which he/she finds himself or herself is determined by the socio-cultural background of place/local; and that success is linked to mentality and personality. The study also found out that characters end up in disillusionment when their expectations are not realized, and this puts them in a melancholic state, hence, their decision to return home.