The House at Sugar Beach

Corruption and Misconception in the New African Diaspora College

As the world moved through time, the African people have as well. This movement may be categorized into three different sections: Antiquity, the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, and the New Diaspora. Each of these specific pieces are also characterized much differently. These characteristics can be analyzed in the pieces The House at Sugar Beach and Americanah. In these, it is seen how intensely the New Diaspora is characterized by corruption and misconceptions. These include direct government corruption and the misleading thought that the entirety of the African continent is living in squalor. Additionally, both literary works showcase the extent to which American ideology persists across the Atlantic as well as who leaves the country – and why.

In both pieces, government corruption is a common theme – both underlying and not. The two pieces take place in Liberia and Nigeria. Moreover, in both there is a brain drain due to the corruption from these countries into America. This movement of the educated pegs the New Diaspora. In the memoir, The House at Sugar Beach, there is dissonance between the native or “country” people and those who are ancestors of slaves or “Congo” people[1]. From this, the native people organize a coup and...

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