A Canvas of Trauma: Borderline and Migrants’ Demotivated Choice in Helon Habila’s Travelers

Abstract

In a world where paper identity and its attendant complexities supersedes the supposed fundamental human rights of a people; an environment where documentation takes preeminence, as it helps to objectify these categories of humans or individuals, due to some established principles, there exist an unhealthy gap of subjugation and discrimination towards the targeted. However, 'paper' here, serves as a metaphor and a tool for discrimination against African migrants. Admittedly, the experiences of African migrants in the diaspora have taken a new narrative, as recent studies highlight cases of what may arguably be termed voluntary slavery in the form of care-givers, security service, cleaners and laundry services with barely nothing or little stipend just to keep surviving. Hence, despite their qualification(s) and exposure they are constantly experiencing issues of borderline and subjugation for being blacks in Europe, as they are subjected to jobs that contradict their status. Thus, literary writers seek to examine the experiences of African migrants, within broader contexts of identity, psychology and self-dignity. Helon Habila’s novel, Travellers, interrogates these experiences through certain characters, who at one point or the other navigate their paths, despite the various impediments faced in Germany. Trauma theory is used to explore and investigate the study, it helps to highlight the effects of their living conditions on them in the society, while revealing how these African migrants go through their experiences in the diaspora, where they are constantly discriminated against due to race, class and unexplainable prejudice.