The search for a homeland and contradictory consciousness in Maya Angelou’s All God’s Children Need Travelling Shoes

Abstract

Blacks in the Diaspora have continued to exhibit an acute sense of alienation and loss as a result of their chequered history. This has engendered the need to return to their supposed homeland in Africa and assure themselves of appreciable existence devoid of the unending stigmatization and denial of their self-worth and fulfilment in the economic, social, political and psychological fronts. In the novels, Angelou arrives in Ghana with high hopes and expectations stemming from the positive political climate blowing across the continent with Ghana being among its first recipients. Particularly interesting is the feeling of being at a real home, where the populace is also black. This study, therefore, engages this avowed attempt to reconnect with the ancestral land and the attendant realization that the expected result from the enterprise may not be as handsomely rewarding against the backdrop of their anticipated homecoming. This study employs the theoretical framework of Black Feminism and E. E. B. Du Bois’ double consciousness to confront the whole question of the fractured psyche of these individuals and the implications to their persona, which deserves a self-assured and fulfilled life.