JAPA AS AN EXODUS OF POST-INDEPENDENCE NIGERIANS IN CHIKA UNIGWE’S BETTER NEVER THAN LATE

Abstract

The emerging “Centre” from the hitherto “Other” has reconstructed “Otherness” in post-independence African states. Consequently, the disillusioned subjects of the “neo-Other” find escape in japa as exodus to safety and self-actualisation. Extant studies most often concentrate on the experiences of African immigrants abroad, without much attention to the leadership at homeland which sets up the citizenry for a hellish encounter in the host land. Therefore, this study is designed to investigate japa as an escape for the disillusioned Nigerians, with a view to critiquing the homeland as the “neo-Centre”, and examining the social and economic conditions of Nigerian immigrants in Europe as depicted in Unigwe’s Better Never Than Late. Eyoh Etim’s post-postcolonialism, complemented by Homi Bhabha’s strand of postcolonialism, is adopted as framework for this paper. Interpretive research design is applied. The primary text was purposively selected because of its relevant leitmotif. Literary analysis reveals that post-independence Nigerians are forced out of their motherland because of the ineptitude of political leaders, which has wrought unemployment, hardship, insecurity, violence, and terrorism on the people. Moreover, young Nigerians resort to japa as a way of escaping Nigeria’s life-threatening sociopolitical and economic landscape. However, post-japa is traumatic to most Nigerian immigrants as the illusion about the host land is cleared by realities on arrival. Consequently, the unfortunate immigrants suffer losses, humiliation, starvation, disillusionment, and regret after leaving the homeland. Thus, japa as exodus for Nigerians is a complex web of escapism, illusion, reality, disappointment, struggle for survival, and a raffia bag of laughter and tears in the adopted land.