both texts draw inspiration from the historical epoch. United apparently by the
commonality of exile, each text is however distinct in the way it addresses the question of
exile. This explains why I have approached the analysis of Oguibe’s A Gathering Fear
from the perspective of commitment and nationalism, among other things, illustrating
how dictatorial tendencies of the military political elite can short change and refract the
place-based ideas of nationalism and commitment which an artist may foster and
actualize in his process of intervention on the social scene. I have also, in view of the
above demonstrated that in spite of exile and the distance it forges between homeland and
the country of destination, the condition of displacement in itself is capable of animating
the spirit of nationalism in individuals, whereby they are consistently bothered by
developments at home as stakeholders even at the subliminal level of dreams.
On the other hand, I have engaged with Anyidoho’s EarthChild from the angle of the
multiple possibilities that African experience presents as a cumulative reality. In this
case, there has been an attempt to examine the hold of African pastfrom the era of
Atlantic Slave Trade to colonialism- on the present and how the exile that one encounters
in the contemporary time speaks to the other forms of displacement of Africans to the
West. It thus explains why reflections on African Diaspora are as prominent as those on
forms of displacement that directly border on the consequences of military dictatorship in
Ghana. This aspect of the chapter has also endeavoured to relate the concept of exile to
the other possible meanings it appropriates within the context of similar concepts like
cosmopolitanism, nationalism and multiculturalism. While shedding light on the
redemptive/ liberatory values of these concepts within the context of exile, it has also
touched on the limitations of such values. This is because for Anyidoho, especially in this
collection, it has become necessary to transcend the euphoria of certain cosmopolitan
assumptions, which come with some view of exclusive migrancy, in order to engage in a
return from exile for the purpose of enhancing the vision of African development. In this
way, then, cosmopolitanism is also practicable at home.