Nigeria rose to prominence as a source of literary talent on the continent after gaining independence from Britain in 1960. A Nobel Prize in Literature was given to Soyinka in recognition of his plays, essays, and books. Things Fall Apart and other essays by Achebe analyzing the shortcomings of post-independence politics won him praise. While Nigeria provides as a source of inspiration, many of these emerging writers must relocate abroad or use Western networks to support themselves through their writing. They gain a reputation in Nigeria thanks to the international recognition, and their works can now be published here as well (Eziaku, 2015).

Most of these contemporary Nigerian fiction writers spend the majority of the year in Western nations, although they frequently visit their native country to conduct research and observation. Since their publishers and the majority of their readers are likewise located in the West, according to industry analysts, prominent publishers have recently shown renewed interest in African writing. Meanwhile, domestic fiction publishing has trouble getting off the ground (Ibukun, 2012). 

These displaced writers—like Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Teju Cole, and Chris Abani—offer fresh insights into the reality and myths of Nigeria and Africa in their literary works, tackling the complex issues of race and national identity. We must investigate how these authors add to the rich range of an African Diaspora aesthetic in light of their expanding visibility and success in the literary world.

This idea has been referred to by a number of names, including Nigerian exile literature, Nigerian migrant literature, and Nigerian Diaspora writing, according to Ayodeji (2016). Regardless of the label given to it, it is obvious that this literature is a development of Nigerian literature; it is literature about the borderlands and “the outpost” of the Nigerian national border. Nigerian novelists have produced an amazing amount of work throughout the first two decades of the twenty-first century as a result, this project aims to compare a few emigrant authors who are becoming well-known internationally.

Ben Okri, a poet and novelist from Nigeria, was born in Minna, a city in the Middle Belt of that country, on March 15, 1959. He relocated to England in 1978, and has been writing ever since. Okri is regarded as one of the most significant African writers in the post-modern and post-colonial traditions and has been positively compared to authors like Salman. Okri won the Booker Prize in 1991 with his book The Famished Road. In 1987, he was also awarded the Commonwealth Authors Prize.

Chris Abani is a Nigerian-American author who was born on December 27, 1966. Abani is a Nigerian citizen. His mother was of English ancestry, while his father was Igbo. As a Board of Trustees Professor of English at Northwestern University, he moved to the UK in 1991 before moving to the USA in 1999. Abani has received numerous honors, including the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award, the 2001 Prince Claus Awards, the Lannan Literary Fellowship, the California Book Award, the Hurston-Wright Legacy Award, and the PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award.

Helon Habila is a Nigerian poet and novelist who was born in the north of the nation in November 1967. Numerous honors have been bestowed upon his work, including the Caine Prize in 2001. He worked as a lecturer and journalist in Nigeria prior to migrating to England in 2002, when he was a Chevening Scholar at the University of East Anglia. In Fairfax, Virginia, he is currently a creative writing instructor at George Mason University.

Teju Cole is a Nigerian-American author, photographer, and art historian who was born on June 27, 1975. His writing has “created a new path in African literature,” according to critics who have complimented it. He returned to the United States, where he was born, in 1992. He currently resides in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he has the title of Gore Vidal Professor of the Practice of Creative Writing at Harvard University. His books have been named among Time magazine’s “Best Books of the Year,” and Christine Richter-translation Nilsson’s of Open City into German won the International Literature Award.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a Nigerian author who was born on September 15, 1977, has written novels, short tales, and nonfiction. She was referred to as “the most prominent” of a “procession of critically praised young Anglophone authors” in The Times Literary Supplement. Adichie, who emigrated to the United States from Nigeria at the age of 19, was named one of the Top 100 Most Influential Africans in 2019 by New African magazine. Adichie was also elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in March 2017, making her the second Nigerian to receive this honor after Prof. Wole Soyinka.

Sefi Atta, a Nigerian-American author of novels, short stories, plays, and screenplays, was born in January 1964. She moved to the UK in the 1980s before moving to the USA, where she began writing. Her works have been translated into numerous languages, the BBC has broadcast radio plays of hers, and stage productions of her plays have been seen all over the world. Among the honors she has received are the 2009 Noma Award for Publishing in Africa and the 2006 Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa. She is also a guest writer at the French university Ecole Normale Superieure de Lyon.

Significance of this Project