What is it about?
Chris Abani's 2004 novel Grace Land is a significant contribution to recent works of literature that dramatize migration. To understand its importance, it is helpful to define the contrasting diasporic and cosmopolitan frameworks for defining the act of migration, and then to consider how Abani's novel deftly moves its protagonist between these two frameworks to lead him to a cosmopolitan perspective on his journey.
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Why is it important?
Nigeria has produced an impressive assortment of authors of fiction in the past twenty years. What has made Nigerian authors so popular outside of Nigeria, and what do Nigerian authors have to offer an audience of global readers? A close look at Chris Abani's intriguing 2004 novel offers readers a crucial instance of the distinctly Nigerian perspective on post-colonialism and migration.
Perspectives
From my first encounter with Abani's novel, I was fascinated by his elaborate descriptions of day-to-day life in a sprawling African megacity. My close examination of Grace Land helped me gain a better understanding of what he had accomplished and how it might be applicable to readers like me, who inevitably approach it from the perspective of the curious cultural outsider.
Dr John D Schwetman
University of Minnesota Duluth
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Leaving Lagos, Pacific Coast Philology, January 2014, The Pennsylvania State University Press,
DOI: 10.5325/pacicoasphil.49.2.0184.
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