Graceland by Chris Abanis - Essay Example

Discuss the interplay between Nigerian, Caribbean and United s popular culture in Graceland. What does this interplay tell us about globalization? ‘Graceland’ is Chris Abani’s second novel that tells the coming of age story of a young boy in 1980’s Nigeria, debuting in 2004, it has gone on to receive several awards and nominations and has been critically acclaimed the world over. Chris Abani, the author of the book, is a Nigerian born writer who has had a long and intimate, often violent, history with the struggles of his homeland with democracy, corruption, globalization and cross-cultural interplays. His personal experience with the struggles of his country came with a high price, earning him a jail sentence twice and even landing him on the death row; it was only with the help of the intervention of his friends that he was able to escape a politically motivated execution. He migrated to the UK where he earned his Master’s in Gender and Culture from Birkbeck College in London and later an MA in English and a PhD in literature and creative writing from the University of Southern California. Abani later went on to become professor for creative writing and the University of California. Chris Abani has been called as one of the so called third generation of Nigerian authors, the ‘children of the post colony’, he is a breed of writers whose works have become integral to the publishing world of today. In this novel Abani leverages his unique perspectives of African and Western cultures in the context of multiculturalism, globalization and neocolonialism. One of the key compelling factors of this novel is its multifaceted approach that challenges and questions western and particularly American cultural, economic and colonial intervention into a globalized Africa. There is a richness in the novel which stems from Abani’s own multicultural perspectives and wealth of experiences from both within and without the power structure that offer a nuanced and complex portrait of modern day globalized Africa. In this regard Graceland shares a niche with such novels as Helen Oyeyemi’s ‘The Icarus Girl’, Sefi Atta’s ‘Everything good will come’, Unoma Azuah’s ‘Sky High’ all of which integrate Western and Nigerian themes in their quest to project a unique perspective of nuanced Nigerian culture in the light of the triple themes of Neocolonialism, multiculturalism and globalization. The resulting product is singularly unique in its depiction of intercultural themes, of an ethno-cultural fusion that represents the new age of integrated globalized hybridity so characteristic of the modern literary era. The novel is set in a Nigeria parallel to one of Abani’s own experiences and traces of it are obvious in the story of the protagonist Elvis Oke. Elvis witnesses the attempts of his father to reach for political office only to be defeated by a wealthier, more powerful opponent, whose victory is in turn rendered null and void by the military coup that follows it. Relocating to the slums of Lagos city a place described as ugly, violent and beautiful at the same time, with the memories of his quiet hometown of Afikpo; the culture of which is condensed for him in the book of his mother’s homemade recipes and Igbo proverbs. The maternal culture of Afikpo merges in a culinary fusion with Lagos buka food and Nigerian juju, and with American culture in the form of his avid love for Western movies. A unique flavor of Nigerian reality is stamped on the story by the harrowing experiences that Elvis’ childhood witnesses, from the abuse at the hands of his uncle to the harsh realities of living in an island of poverty and suffering in a sea of prosperity and luxury, in a ‘web of silence’ woven around the unsavoury parts of life in Lagos. His attempt at relief from this monotonous world of grief and poverty comes in the form of a very American cultural icon, his hero Elvis Presley, whom he impersonates for the amusement of wealthy tourists that occupy the sandy beaches. His subsequent engagement as a dancer for wealthy Indian and Arab customers, Elvis earns a higher amount but is also subject to greater ridicule, the harsh pragmatism of his friend ‘Redemption’ and the constant reminders of the harsh economic climate of 1980’s Nigeria are a near constant theme for his struggles and striving. His transition from English to Nigerian, faux Scottish dialect and cowboy lingo mirrors his movement from the slums to high end night clubs, his readings of Rilke, Ellison, Quran and market pamphlets alike. His life struggles are marked with the harsh realities of such global concerns as poverty, child-prostitution, human trafficking and organ harvesting. The novel set in the conflicting period of the 70’s and the 80’s demonstrates the after effects of colonialism and the intrusive, sometimes destructive invasion of a globalized, faceless, multifaceted, uninvited multiculturalism and all the harsh socio-economic realities thereof. The interplay of global cultures is witnessed in the multiple, complex, cross sectional influences of the Western cultural and economic influence on the cultural and economic sphere of Nigeria as a whole and Lagos in particular. In the bastardization of Nigerian culture and the invasion of traditional African religious practices, in the heinous trade of human organs and the commodification of the human being. The novel finds its footing in the tenous, teetering period between successive corrupt democratic and tyrannical military dictatorships. The complex political and military history of Nigeria, marred with violence and the unwanted influence and meddling of the western world, particularly the US is documented in the effects such actions have on the lives of common Nigerian citizens, citizens like Elvis whose father is driven to a suicidal alcoholic fugue state out of despair, citizens like Redemption who finds a profitable pragmatism in transporting children for organ harvesting and advises Elvis in the grammar of navigating rich clients. Graceland shows how a post-colonial nation forms its identity in response to neocolonial economic globalization and cultural hegemony. The novel shows a life where Igbo druids are just as legitimate a part of everyday life as Elvis songs and Lebanese housewives. This novel presents itself as a lesson against cultural imperialism in the depiction of the mutiliation of the self image that takes place in the creation of new cultural identities and hierarchies. The characters of this novel are both connected and disconnected at the same time from what their culture is and isn’t and what international culture is and isn’t. The aftereffects of western cultural and economic intervention are how the characters of this novel are molded and how their struggles and aspirations are defined and it is the trauma that forms the basis of this plot’s setting. Referrences Abani, Chris Graceland 2004, Macmillan Press Patterson-Stein, Jacob De-Nationalizing American music in the ‘third space’ of Graceland 2009, Atlantic exchange Stefan Sereda Riffing on resistance: Music in Chris Abani’s Graceland 2006, Oxford University Press Bhabha, Homi The location of culture 2004 Routledge Read More