African Dreamers’ Redefinition of Home and the Shame of Return in Imbolu Mbue’s Behold the Dreamers

Khanfri, Abdelmounaim; Saadoune, Farida

النص
Volume 8, Numéro 2, Pages 683-701
2022-12-30

African Dreamers’ Redefinition Of Home And The Shame Of Return In Imbolu Mbue’s Behold The Dreamers

Authors : Khanfri Abdelmounaim . Saadoune Farida .

Abstract

This article investigates questions related to African immigrants’ displacement, home and diaspora and their impact on identity construction and distortion of Nigerian immigrants though the examination of Imbolo Mbue’s novel Behold the Dreamers (2016). In her novel, Mbue investigated the destructive effects of immigration on Wanderers across borders and the impact this movement has on their perception and that of natives of home and identity which are going through a perpetual redefinition. African authors took on their shoulders the responsibility of tackling such vague and slippery topics such as identity, defining home and the shame of return to one’s origins. Mbue’s novel can be considered as a mirror of the African society in the general and the Nigerian one in particular which is chosen in this article to explore the cultural outcomes of immigration on immigrants and the hurdles they have to surmount to quench their thirst for the American Dream. They all looked beyond the borders of Africa toward the over there and the elsewhere in a quest for a cultural identity for black people. This paper examines the Double Consciousness Nigerian immigrants suffer from which transform them into scattered souls between two Homes. In order to thoroughly analyze the novel, New Historicism literary approach is used in order to provide an eclectic and holistic perspective of immigration, search for home and identity. Post-colonial theory was also used in order to highlight alterity and subordination of the African subject in his quest for identification with the white men’s cultural values. At the end of this paper, we realize the renunciations African Dreamers have to deal with in their pursuit of happiness and it also shows that home is ubiquitous and nowhere at the same time.