“No One Leaves Home Unless Home Is the Mouth of a Shark”: Dwelling and the Complexities of Return in Warsan Shire’s Poetry

Uchenna Frances Obi,Raphael Chukwuemeka Onyejizu

doi:10.46809/jcsll.v2i6.88

Uchenna Frances Obi, Raphael Chukwuemeka Onyejizu

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.46809/jcsll.v2i6.88

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Abstract

Africa’s bitter historical experience of slavery and racial discrimination influences diasporic literary writers in their representation of home and its exigencies. This is due to the sordid effect of racial conflicts culminating in disillusionment of writers, who engage in the nostalgic longing for their country of origin, notwithstanding the influences of the host country on African migrants. By exploring Warsan Shire’s poetry, this study, through the lens of modernity and globalization, examines the concept of home while x-raying locations of the African immigrant in diaspora. The research utilised the Postcolonial theory and the qualitative method of analysis to examine how diasporic immigrants, particularly female subalterns struggle to grapple with the intricacies of dwelling in a hostile clime which situates the “Us” and “Them” binary opposition on their lived conditions. It analysed Shire’s poems as a product of the transcultural identity formation of the poet, illustrating her migratory experiences through the notion of “unhomely” (in her home country) and “Homeliness” (in her host country) as dilemmas that bisect her quest for return home because of war. The study, thus, submits that globalization alternates the idea of situating home as a place of origin.

Highlights

The twenty-first century is characterized by ever-increasing migratory activities, which has made issues of mobility, migration and border crossing challenging in today’s society
Maximillian (2019) notes that what distinguishes the new African diaspora is the possibility of return which is in contrast to other diasporic formations, where the old homeland is usually an unfamiliar but mytholized place impossible to return (p.16)
From the foregoing it could be seen that various scholars and critics have examined Warsan Shire’s poetry through the lens of Trauma, transoceanic trajectories, the fate of refugees without focus on the issues of home, dwelling and return in her poetry

Summary

Introduction

The twenty-first century is characterized by ever-increasing migratory activities, which has made issues of mobility, migration and border crossing challenging in today’s society. Corroborating Abuku and Nietlong (2017), both scholars submit that home can only make meaning once one experiences a level of displacement from it (p.309) On this premise, this study with particular focus on Warsan Shire’s Poetry explores how female Somalian refugees grapple with the complexities of dwelling and belonging in diaspora after being displaced by the Somalia civil war. This study with particular focus on Warsan Shire’s Poetry explores how female Somalian refugees grapple with the complexities of dwelling and belonging in diaspora after being displaced by the Somalia civil war Through her poetry, Shire illustrates the challenges immigrants in diaspora face that results in the quest for a return to home, despite the absurdities still prevalent in the homeland. By the use poetic language, symbols and imageries of female Somalian refugees in the deportation center, Shire depicts the worrisome state of the Somalian immigrant who was forced into exile because of the turbulent war situation in Somalia

Complexities of Home

Literature Review

The Discourse of Postcolonialism

Conclusion