Die Verortung der Inter-Kultur: Autobiographie eines desillusionierten Migranten (Chima Oji)

Abstract

Immigration is still a topical question within German society. As a matter of fact, in their effort to find better living conditions and achieve integration, lots of immigrants have to go through several stages. This paper proposes to address the topic from an analytical perspective. In 1992, a Nigerian medical student having spent over 20 years of his lifetime in Germany wrote a book entitled unter die deutschen gefallen (in English, In the Hands of Germans), that is an autobiographical account of all of his experiences in Germany of the 1960s. Yet, Oji the protagonist warns that exclusion and alterity may occur anywhere in the world. In this narrative construction of identity, the reader faces different situations and has to tackle various questions. Chima Oji seems to be caught in this construction of the self and the others, where “the location of culture”, to borrow Homi K. Bhabha’s book title or let’s say that of inter-cultur, is one of the biggest challenges to face.