Afropolitanism: The other side of the coin

Abstract In this research paper, I explore the constructions of African identities in African fiction, with a special focus on Afropolitanism as a form of articulating identities in some twenty-first century African novels. My argument is that some Afropolitan novels repeat Western discourse, which I will demonstrate by illustrating that as a discourse on African identities, Afropolitanism enables privileges dialog with the West over that with other African or non-Western cultures. I will show that this dominant rendering of Afropolitanism maintains imperialist discourse through the repetition of binarism in which center is Western modernity and periphery – Africa and the rest of the world – follows the Western model of modernity. Accordingly, I consider that this account of African identities fits into the Western narrative of modernization.