Afropolitan Mobility and the Ethics of Global Belonging in Contemporary Nigerian Fiction

This paper examines the figuration of Afropolitan mobility as an ethical problem in selected works of recent Nigerian and Nigerian-inflected fiction. It focuses on What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky (2017), Stay with Me (2017), An Orchestra of Minorities (2019), and Notes on Grief (2021).
Drawing on the theoretical insights of Achille Mbembe, Simon Gikandi, Sara Ahmed, and Lauren Berlant, the study argues that these texts collectively perform a post-Afropolitan critique of global mobility. It highlights how celebratory narratives of cosmopolitan movement often obscure deeper structural conditions of immobility and constraint.
Through close textual analysis, the paper demonstrates that the ethical concerns raised in these works are inseparable from their formal innovations. The narratives interrogate the emotional, social, and political costs of mobility, revealing tensions between aspiration and limitation within globalized contexts.
The study proposes a postcolonial cosmopolitics of accountability that responds to these contradictions, emphasizing the need for ethical frameworks that acknowledge both the privileges and constraints embedded in contemporary forms of transnational movement.