Against the Idea of Africa as “Absolute Dystopia”: Pragmatism and Possibility in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah and After the Flare by Deji Bryce Olukotun
This paper examines two works that anticipate Africa-centred futures as positive and possible, without promising utopia. Americanah and After the Flare both embrace contradiction and complexity. Furthermore, their treatment of societies (mis)shaped by historical violence includes acknowledgement of their own imbrication in global structures of capitalist modernity. Against the grim backdrop of rising inequality, resurgent …
