THE ASIANS OF AFRICA, ‘THE LAND OF NOT-YET’

AN ENIGMA OF M.G. VASSANJI’S THE IN-BETWEEN WORLD OF VIKRAM LALL

Abstract

… We Asians were special: we were brown, we were few and frightened and caricatured, and we could be threatened with deportation as aliens even if we had been in the country since the time of Vasco da Gama and before some of the African people had even arrived in the land. (303) - Vassanji

"A state of perpetual wandering is Diaspora". The first Diaspora is associated with the perpetual wandering of Jews and the mere adaptability and adoptability of themselves in their host countries. The scientific term of this process is termed as 'transplantation' - a transplanted tree among the native shrubs. Now diasporic cross over is possible without being able to break down away from the old identity and inventing a new culture. There are three different categories in diasporic cross over. In the first category, the migrants are never a part of that culture and are always at odds with it. The second category is the divided self, who is neither here nor there - a sort of „Trishangu". The third is the immigrant. Of course, the perfect immigrant is actually an imperfect immigrant. All these enthusiastic immigrants show various discontents within the immigrant experiences.