preview

Among Strangers

Better Essays

In life there is a constant feeling to want to fit in with everyone else in society, so much that it can cause one to feel like what they have to offer is not good enough. Outside forces often try to mold us to become what they believe is socially and morally correct, and it can make us feel like strangers to these outside forces and even ourselves. This can be said as a result of colonialism in Nigeria where England pushed their culture onto the less powerful nation. It caused a conflict as to who the people believed they should be, educated like the English or like their tribal ancestors. This can prove true for the Nigerian writer, Jude Dibia who demonstrates how he faced the battle between cultures in his story 'Among Strangers'; he felt torn between his fathers Igbo culture, his mothers Igala culture and his own unidentifiable personal culture. It was difficult for him to find a place where he felt comfortable in his own skin, and even into adulthood Dibia was torn, but he eventually found his place and no longer felt like a stranger to the world around him. Jude Dibia is an example of how post colonialism can have an effect on the culture of a land that once existed and he helped to prove it is important to follow one's …show more content…

He realized it was the content of one's character that should be the deciding factor of if someone was shameful or not. When his father passed away Dibia's stepmother called him shameful because he did not know his father's Igbo language and then spat on him. However Dibia realized it was his stepmother and his father who were shameful for shutting Dibia out and forcing his real mother to raise him alone. Dibia had finally been able to cut the ties with his father and his culture for good, and was able to create his own identity in which he called himself, a Black man, an African man and a Nigerian

Get Access