A Walk to Europe: A New Historicist Discourse on Irregular Migrant Experiences in E.C. Osondu’s When the Sky is Ready: The Stars Will Appear

Abstract

The physical and psychological trauma associated with illegal migration can best be imagined rather experienced. Illegal/irregular migration is witnessing an alarming surge that has engulfed Africa as a continent. Many have died in the desert while a lot more are tortured and sold into slavery in Libya. Some who are able to escape, are faced with crossing the Mediterranean Sea in fragile open balloon boats. The different media outlets daily report on those that have drowned in the process, yet the few who make it to Europe, the promised haven, are disillusioned as a result of the unreceptive environment. Thus, E.C. Osondu’s When the Sky is Ready: The Stars Will Appear, is a lucid capturing of this grey area of irregular migrant experiences. He investigates the activities involved, while interrogating the causes so as to explore possible solutions to this bedeviling menace brewing in Africa and other third world countries. As a work on historical facts and antecedents, New Historicist literary theory is adopted to aid the analysis of this benumbing discourse in the novel.