Abstract
The moment of returning to Nigeria is a significant motif in the literature of the Nigerian diaspora. This chapter examines the diverging attitudes towards Nigeria in Teju Cole’s Every Day Is for the Thief (2007) and Sefi Atta’s Everything Good Will Come (2005). While Atta’s novel evinces an attitude of nation building and of trying to improve the country, Cole’s book presents a detached visitor and observer who highlights the more negative aspects of the Nigerian imaginary. As he is confronted with Nigeria’s rampant problems and social ills, the novel introduces three sets of problems that are saliently depicted in Nigerian diaspora literature, namely the lack of consistent provision of electricity, the ubiquitous corruption, and the proliferation of internet fraud.
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Notes
- 1.
An outsider’s perspective on 419 can be found in the Canadian travel writer Will Ferguson’s novel about Nigeria, 419 (2012). In this novel, a North American woman travels to Nigeria to confront a young Nigerian whose fraudulent activities have driven her father into suicide.
- 2.
These letters or e-mails typically look something like the following: “In my department, we discovered an abandoned sum of $25.5 million […]. [We decided] to make this business proposal to you and release the money to you as the next of kin […]. We agree that 30% of the money will be for you as a foreign partner, in respect to the provision of a foreign account, 10% will be set aside for expenses incurred during the business, and 60% will be for my colleagues and I. […] You must apply first to the bank as next of kin of the deceased, indicating your bank name, bank account number, your private telephone and fax number for easy and effective communication” (Atta 2010a, 222–223).
- 3.
This she shares with the protagonist of Helon Habila’s Bildungsroman, Measuring Time (2007), who, growing up in post-independence Nigeria, becomes a historian and chronicler of his country’s history.
- 4.
Her position in society is narratively illustrated by her friendship with her neighbour Sheri. As children, they do not only live in differently sized houses and familial structures, but Sheri is different in other respects as well; she is Moslem and described as half-caste and a street child. Their friendship is hidden because Enitan is forbidden to interact with Sheri, but Sheri expands her world considerably, opening up what she has previously only known from her strict and religious mother.
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Feldner, M. (2019). Returning to Nigeria: Teju Cole’s Every Day Is for the Thief (2007) and Sefi Atta’s Everything Good Will Come (2005). In: Narrating the New African Diaspora. African Histories and Modernities. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05743-5_9
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