Indian Ocean Cosmopolitanism

M.G. Vassanji’s Hybrid Parables of Kenyan Nationalism

Bibliographic Data

ID7748256
AuthorsMelissa Tandiwe Myambo (New York University, corresponding author)
Year2012
Volume16
Issue1-2
Pages159-189
Publication date2012-03-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueDiaspora A Journal of Transnational Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1044-2057 • E-ISSN: 1911-1568
PublisherUniversity of Toronto Press Inc. (UTPress) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.3138/diaspora.16.1-2.159
OpenAlexW4247554451, W1991176465
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited7

This article examines the relationship between cosmopolitanism, nationalism, and hybridity in contemporary theory and the fiction of M.G. Vassanji about the Indian diaspora in east Africa. The interregional space of the Indian Ocean has been posited as a historical site of multicultural hybridity, a precursor to globalization, and a productively theoretical example of contemporary postcolonial cosmopolitanism. Investigating these ideas more closely, I look specifically at the case of modern-day Kenyans of Indian descent and how they fare in the postcolonial nation, particularly in their positioning as “hybrid” middlemen. Engaging with some of the dominant theories regarding the relationship between cosmopolitanism and nationalism—with a particular emphasis on the place of hybridity within these theories, which pivotally divides nationalism from cosmopolitanism—I use Vassanji’s work to interrogate commonly held theoretical assumptions

Aesthetics · Cosmopolitanism · Diaspora · Globalization · Hybridity · Multiculturalism · Nationalism · Political science · Politics · Sociology · African history and culture studies · Anthropology · Gender Studies · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · Law · Philosophy · Postcolonial and Cultural Literary Studies · Socioeconomic Development in Asia

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