An Introduction

"It seemed almost incidental that he was African. So vast had his inner perceptions grown over the years…"

I feel as though a small introduction to this blog is necessary: I was initially drawn to Abani's GraceLand because of the sensitivity with which the complexities of cultural identities is handled. For a long time, the notion of national identity and, beyond that, identity and the individual in general has been of particular interest. What it means to be an individual is an essential quality of modern literature, and Abani deals with the subject in various ways, but is proved to be most poignant when examining the individual's (in this case, his character Elvis) role in society.


Book I begins with the above Bessie Head quote taken from A Question of Power and seems to set the tone for the ambiguity of identity. To use the word "incidental" is to suggest that, though he (whoever "he" happens to be) is indeed African, it is almost of no consequence. However, the inclusion of the words "seemed" and "almost," juxtaposed with the second sentence of the quote suggest that he is certainly still African, and that being African seems to run counter to clear understanding of oneself. Beginning the book in this manner is clearly presenting the reader the notion of identity, but that notion left very unclear. As this blog progresses, I hope to be able to further tease out these issues of identity presented in GraceLand into a cohesive and coherent understanding.