Unraveling the Thread of Tradition: Between History and Memory in Melatu Okorie's "If George Could Talk"

Abstract

Melatu OkOrie is a NigeriaN-bOrN, Irish-based author who had to endure the harsh reality of the Direct Provision system firsthand as an asylum-seeker in Ireland. In her short story “If George Could Talk,” she presents a female narrator, Jumi, who finds herself doomed to a liminal existence, from her comingof-age ritual in Nigeria to her eventual arrival in Ireland as an asylum-seeker, never actually fitting in. The only thing that remains with her throughout this process is the George, a traditional Nigerian cloth that figuratively reflects her family story as well as the history of a transnational, colonial past, the consequences of which are still very much felt in the present. In the short story, the George becomes a metaphor for Jumi’s inability to ascribe meaning to her own life, a dilemma that reaches its climax when she and her children become asylum-seekers in Ireland. Hence, a constant attempt to understand what the George signifies takes place throughout the story, as the narrator tries to make sense of the different circumstances she has to face. Clothing has a history of being read as a signifier for alienation. Eleonora Chiavetta, in discussing the fiction of female migrant authors, argues that “Clothes are a way to externalize the internalized conflict of the families, and later on . . . express the internalized exile of the character.” Ketu H. Katrak uses the term “internalized exile” to describe a process by which, as a consequence