Book contents
- African Literature in Transition
- African Literature in Transition
- African Literature in Transition
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Notes on Contributors
- Introduction
- Part I Sources
- Part II Memories
- Part III Maps
- Chapter 16 Valleys of Strife
- Chapter 17 Remembering the City
- Chapter 18 Migrant City
- Chapter 19 Algiers as a “Realm” of Memory in Contemporary Algerian Postcolonial Literature of French Expression
- Chapter 20 Nairobi as an Archive of Literary Imagination
- Index
- References
Chapter 17 - Remembering the City
Lagos and National Time
from Part III - Maps
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 October 2025
Book contents
- African Literature in Transition
- African Literature in Transition
- African Literature in Transition
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Notes on Contributors
- Introduction
- Part I Sources
- Part II Memories
- Part III Maps
- Chapter 16 Valleys of Strife
- Chapter 17 Remembering the City
- Chapter 18 Migrant City
- Chapter 19 Algiers as a “Realm” of Memory in Contemporary Algerian Postcolonial Literature of French Expression
- Chapter 20 Nairobi as an Archive of Literary Imagination
- Index
- References
Summary
This chapter explores the significance of Lagos as a repository of memory for Nigerian writers. It brings works of contemporary writers such as Sefi Atta and Teju Cole in conversation with older representations of Lagos. While the more recent novels destabilize earlier binaries, they institute other dualities through their relationship to time. The chapter pays attention to how versions of Lagos – past and present – are contrasted to make the cityscape a template for measuring temporal effects. Crucially, the nation-state is the point of reference and the ultimate objective of progress. Lagos is no longer measured against the village but situated in transnational competition with European and American cities where Nigerians commute in person or imaginatively. Through a comparative and diachronic reading, the chapter offers an archive of Lagos representation while arguing that the authorial emphasis on national time as homogeneous often rests on a corresponding de-emphasis of the subaltern times signaled by narrative polyphony.
Information
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- African Literature in TransitionThe Archive of African Literature, 1800–2000, pp. 266 - 279Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025
References
Works Cited
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Peverga, S. and Shija, T. (2022). Lagos Landscapes and the Shifting Discourses of Aesthetics in Sefi Attah’s Swallow. Veritas Journal of Humanities 4 (1 & 2), 178–92.Google Scholar
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