Poems About Homes

Tiwalade Topia
Mentor: Lia Purpura, English

Colonialism of the global south, specifically the African continent, has led to economic instabilities, civil wars, and job insecurities that result in the mass emigration of African bodies to the “Lands of opportunities” in search of better living standards. From an immigrant perspective, “home” is an ambiguous concept, one that also reaches across the ocean to a native land that may not share in traditional American ideals. Yet, despite being so physically removed, immigrants manage to build a semblance of that “home” by congregating in and nurturing local ethnic communities. This research project will follow two poetic works by African immigrants in the U.S. under the theme of home and the nuances that surround it. I analyze poetic form, content, rhetoric, and context, in search of ways in which west African Immigrants view their exodus from their homeland and their struggles to adapt. I will also be begging the questions: “What are ways in which African immigrants preserve their cultural identity, in a country that heavily favors assimilation, as a way to maintain their connection to their native land?” And “In what ways does home try to hold on to the people it has lost to the west?”