Ideas for introducing the text and key themes

  • Introduce the book and author. Ask students about the title and blurb: What does the title mean? How might we translate it? Can we call this book a roman/novel? Why/why not?
  • Ask students to discuss their initial impressions of the book, any challenges they found in reading it, what elements they consider significant/interesting and why.
  • Ask students to read the extracts (Resource 1 (to follow)). Ask a couple of students to read extracts B and C aloud, then as a group consider the orality, rhythm, and style of these passages. What effects do they have in spoken and written form?
  • Invite students to contribute ideas as to how the book addresses questions of migration and place. How are senses of motion, trajectory, and local specificity created? What questions about identity in contexts of migration emerge?
  • Consider the book in terms of its position in a wave of texts by young African authors of the 80s and 90s about experiences of migration, known as ‘migritude’.

Secondary sources/additional reading