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Abstract
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There exist many post-colonial studies on the migration literature in Africa. A majority of these studies have vividly elaborated on the endeavors of the immigrants to negotiate their way at the heart of discrimination and oppression to form their own identity as individuals. Some characters decide to choose the path of fixity by adhering to their own culture while others choose the path of hybridity by mimicking the oppressor to negotiate and destroy the hegemonic prejudice. Literary scholars have carried out studies on the African immigrant characters under racist repressions overseas; however, there exists sparse critical attention in postcolonial migration on the Somali, Muslim immigrants from the East Africa in the Western cities. This is so, despite the fact that millions of Somalis, Muslim immigrants, who strive to survive against discrimination in the Christian and secular majority in the Western cities. Whereas focus on Somali authors often stops with Nuruddin Farah, other authors have recently flourished, such as Nadifa Mohamed, Safi Abdi, Waris Diriye, Abdirazack Yusuf Osman among others. It is the contention of the current study that criticism on other authors from Somalia, like Safi Abdi, is significant. Her two novels have not been subjected to any known study, yet they are beneficial in postcolonial migration and strategies of resistance. Bhabha’s and Hall’s concept of hybridity is significant, because it views the role of hybridity in textualizing migrant identity formation and as a strategy of textual resistance. Hall’s contemporary model is based on hybridity. It rejects binary opposition or hegemonizing identity proposed by cultural fixity. By emphasizing the changing or rather fluidity and heterogeneity of diasporic identity, and denigration or return to original homeland, Hall is advocating integration of diaspora in the host community through hybridity. Bhabha’s hybridity and the third space have considerable implications for re-inventing of at
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