Childhood and Transculturation in Contemporary African Fiction

This research analyses high socio-cultural identity complexities and traumatic experiences associated with hyphenated children in Diana Evans’ 26a and Onyeka Nwelue’s The Abyssinian Boy. Postcolonialism formed the theoretical framework for the study, with insights drawn from Homi K. Bhabha’s “Cultural Diversity and Cultural Differences” and Nick Lee’s Childhood and Society. The result shows that within the context of contemporary childhood experiences, nothing is absolutely fixed about children’s identity. Similarly, from our description of the texts, the thematic patterns that emerge in the representation of childhood and transculturation are the challenges of dual national citizenships for children, the inherent crisis for children with hybrid beings, gender politics and the psychological dilemma and trauma for children with mixed racial heritage from disparate continents. The study concludes that the enduring strengths of Evans and Nwelue as novelists lie in their ability to signify the unstable identity of culturally hyphenated children.