The Afropolitan Identity as a Rhizome

Authors

Okwudiri Anasiudu University of Port Harcourt

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.34050/elsjish.v4i3.13701

Keywords:

Afropolitanism, Afropolitan Identity, Rhizomatic Identity, Heterogeneity, multiplicity

Abstract

Working within the tenets of Selasi and Mbembe’s notion of Afropolitanism and Guatarri and Deleuze (1987) concept of a rhizome, this paper interrogates and contextualises the Afropolitan identity as a rhizome. The aim is to deepen the conversation and debate on Afropolitanism as a new way of mapping the African cultural identity in synch with the world at large, while offering a new descriptive vocabulary for it. The examples interrogated in this study are drawn from selected African novels which evince the Afropolitan sensibilities. This is portrayed through rhizomatic characterisation. This study is also in conversation with Ede’s notion of "rhizomatic existence". This paper stresses that the rhizomatic features of the Afropolitan identity portrays the Afropolitan as an individual with transnational affiliations whose identity cannot be pinned in absolute sense to a single cultural geography. Importantly, the prefix “Afro”, in Afropolitanism suggests that Afropolitanism privileges Africanness while the cultural fusion which cosmopolitanism engendered in Africa’s metropole and beyond is the fulcrum upon which the idea of Afropolitanism is drawn from.

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