states are no exclusive design of western imperialism, the chapter also conducts forays
into the internal socio-political dynamics of the Nigerian nation state of the late 1980 and
90s as contributory to the exacerbation of the migration from Lagos and Niger Delta
cities to the West. The above providing the basis for migration, the chapter further
engages with how the machinery of western transnational capitalism accelerates the
migration of Africans to the West as a response to capital flight as well as the deceptive
effects of media hype about the attractions that the West holds for prospective exiles from
the South. The chapter therefore comments on the demystification of the global cities of
London and America in the collections through their exposure of the shocking realities
behind the smokescreen of tantalizing attractions associated with Euro-American cities.
For this reason, the chapter explores the extent to which postcolonial nomadism,
migrancy and cosmopolitan articulations can be taken seriously in view of the constraints
that are evident in their practices. It also examines the limits of nationalism and the
justification for the rise of sub-nationalism as in the case of the Niger Delta where a
multi-layered conspiracy of the ruling class, local elite and western transnational
corporations has turned the cityscapes of a resource-rich region into a nightmare.
Chapter Five seeks to undertake a study of the South African dispersal odyssey peculiar
to her history of liberation struggle against apartheid. This will be done using Serote’s
Freedom Lament and Song as textual memorabilia of the struggle that terminated with
the institution of democracy in 1994. It will further explore in History is the Home
Address the poet’s alertness to the nation’s continual susceptibility to dispersal in the
post-apartheid era. For this, it will comment on his poetic subscription to the condition of
exile in the post- apartheid era. In addition, the chapter will comment on Serote’s clear
instruction to Africans involved in such to see how the necessity of taking their individual
and collective narrative and memory seriously as a cultural and political weapon needed
in their relation with the outside world especially the West. This is more so in view of the
broad spectrum of identity negotiation in a world that is increasingly vulnerable to
migrancy. It is also on account of this that the chapter deploys the concept of “trans-
nation” as popularized by Bill Ashcroft in the explication of the issues History is the
Home Address engages with both in terms of homeland and the prospective post-