‘STUCK BETWEEN TWO WORLDS’: TRANSNATIONAL MIGRATION AND MOBILITY IN DINAW MENGESTU’S THE BEAUTIFUL THINGS THAT HEAVEN BEARS

Abstract

The contemporary African fiction is awash with the theme of migration and the myriad of factors suchas unemployment, socio-economic dislocation, war, political oppression and many other factors thatcontinue to fuel migratory tendency among many Africans. Many of these novels do not only grapplewith the notion of African migrants fleeing to the West but also capture their experiences as they tryto settle in the new society far away from their home country in Africa. DinawMengestu’sTheBeautiful Things That Heaven Bears is one such novel that offers insight into the factors pushingAfricans to the West. The paper explores some of the reasons why many African migrants are movingto what they consider more habitable environments in Europe and the United States. Mengestu’snovel equally highlights the realities of life for African migrants in the United States. The paperfocuses on how postcolonial issues such as otherness, marginality and liminality constitute a barrier orlimit the ability of the migrant in realizing his or her aspirations in the United State and other Westerncountries. The paper employs postcolonial theory and Sigmund Freud’s concept of melancholia toexamine Mengestu’s novel. This paper concludes that based on the experiences of the characters inMengestu’s novel, migration to the West is not necessarily a way out of poverty for African migrants.