AFROPOLITAN HORIZONS: REFLECTING ON CULTURAL HYBRIDIZATION AND DIASPORIC CONSCIOUNESS IN ADICHIE’S AMERICANAH

Abstract

This research examines Adichie’s Americanah (2013) to determine how narrative of self-actualization in global perspective wins over the single story associated with victimhood and depersonalization. For this purpose, the researcher re-frames African Diaspora in the context of Afropolitan rubric that is distinctly a 21st-century cultural phenomenon. In wake of rapidly growing upward mobility from Africa to the promised lands,  African identity by is re-imagined building over cultural hybridization and Diasporic consciousness as key factors. It is a constructive notion of self-empowerment that disrupts an essentialized and territorialized monolithic Pan-African identity. Given that, this study negotiates the transcendental nature of cultural barriers and complexities of plural identity and cultural fluidity that creates a new diaspora _a community of educated middle class, more comfortably aligned with the worldwide progressive sociocultural influences but still rooted in Africa. They are Afropolitans distinguished from Cosmopolitans for their local affinities and global reach. Using Dagnino’s concept of global mobility and Epstein’s ideas of cultural continuum and middle class, the study encompasses Afropolitan horizons by amalgamating these concepts with transcultural idea of a fluid identity and return motif. Final word, this study captures the inspirational stories of Afropolitans who are quintessentially decentered, plural and hybrid, and aspire to promote a  rising Africa, conventionally stereotyped  as a fallen continent.