Diaspora Identities in Short Fiction by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie & Sefi Atta

Summary

The African short story has come of age in the twenty-first century through the creative artistry of younger generation African women writers such as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Sefi Atta. As leading women writers of both novels and short fiction, their literature chronicles a new reality of social change and modernity that transforms the lives of African women within a global arena. Since the turn of the century, their fiction mirrors the lives of contemporary African women who grapple with challenges of migration and displacement, and the impact of globalization. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's short story collection The Thing Around Your Neck (2009) and News from Home (2010) by Sefi Atta reflect the evolution of the African short story in subject and theme. A noteworthy feature of leading stories in both collections is the emergence of African diaspora identities that are ambiguous and disjointed.

In the postmodern era, African women's identities are changing and they must overcome new social and economic forces in addition to familiar barriers like patriarchy and traditional norms and customs. Globalization has thrust African women beyond the boundaries of the motherland into a world where they must renegotiate their existence in an alien western environment. This essay examines the exploration of diaspora identities of African women in selected short fiction by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Sefi Atta. Diaspora experiences take centre stage through connecting themes of hybridity, clash of cultures and alienation.