KEYNOTE ADDRESS

Migration, Diaspora Dialogues and Literary Discourses

Abstract

This paper is hinged on the premise that migration and its attendant outcomes of diaspora are features of human societies over time even though these have been so accentuated within the current global dispensation that the period has come to be known as the age of migration (see Castles et al 2013). It seeks to show that as a product of human society, literature, in general, and African literature in particular, has thematized the phenomenon, laying bare its provenance, routes and reaches. The paper argues that given that Africa has been in globalization since the 15^th century, written African literature, which is a product of history, has foregrounded migration and the ensuing complex and varied diaspora dialogues emanating from the phenomenon. Through a textual reading of a range of literary texts, the paper shows how postcolonial theory can be a convenient tool in interrogating the ways in which migration intersects the African cultural imaginary.