Toward the Promised Land: Immigration and Debt in Fatou Diome's The Belly of the Atlantic

In this article, I focus on the representation of the indebted immigrant in The Belly of the Atlantic (2003), a novel by Franco-Senegalese writer Fatou Diome. I analyze, in particular, the superposition of the question of Senegalese national debt and the personal debt of Senegalese immigrants living...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Research in African literatures 2019-03, Vol.50 (1), p.80-94
Main Author: Perisic, Aleksandra
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
African literature
Austerity policy
Debt
Diome, Fatou
Diome, Fatou (1968- )
Drowning
Emancipation of slaves
Emigration and immigration
ESSAYS
Finance
Football
Immigrants
Immigration
National debt
Neocolonialism
Neoliberalism
Nietzsche, Friedrich (1844-1900)
Noncitizens
Novels
Personal finance
Plot (Narrative)
Postcolonialism
Privatization
Referendums
Sankara, Thomas
Senegalese literature
Slavery
Soccer
Social aspects
Social interaction
Sovereign debt
Sports
Teams
Youth
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:In this article, I focus on the representation of the indebted immigrant in The Belly of the Atlantic (2003), a novel by Franco-Senegalese writer Fatou Diome. I analyze, in particular, the superposition of the question of Senegalese national debt and the personal debt of Senegalese immigrants living in France. As they leave countries drowning in national debt, immigrants acquire debts in order to finance their trips. Once they have arrived, they are told that they owe the nation they have settled in for providing opportunity. These dynamics are developed through the character of Moussa, a Senegalese youth who is contracted by a French soccer team. While Moussa and other characters in the novel articulate their relation to the global debt system, their experience is also never fully circumscribed by this system. They thus offer us lines of flight, ways of reimagining social interactions outside the logic of debt.
ISSN:0034-5210
1527-2044
DOI:10.2979/reseafrilite.50.1.05