Transnational Mobilities in Search of Refuge

Abstract

Geographical considerations continue to manifest in and influence the narratives surrounding non-heteronormative sexualities. Within this context, borders become central to the politics of inclusion-exclusion. In this study, we engage Jude Dibia’s Walking with Shadows, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s “The Shivering,” and Uzondinma Iweala’s Speak No Evil in view of their engagement of the tripodal issues of homosexuality, home and migration. We interrogate the depictions and counterbalances evoked by the juxtaposition of the artistic motifs of ‘home’ versus migration; and argue that this dichotomy is wielded firstly as a form of escape from a judgmental ‘home’ and then as a means of providing a contrastive engagement of the perception of homosexuality within different territorial borders. Such transnational enactments of mobilities, we believe, also constitute platforms though which these authors channel energies and support on the way to soliciting acknowledgement and acceptance for people of alternative sexualities.