Mobility and Afropolitan feminism in Sefi Atta’s <i>A Bit of Difference</i>

This article examines how contemporary African women writers revisit African feminism in the context of mobility and cultural integration that seals off racial and class dichotomies. Informed by Postcolonial Theory, particularly Taiye Selasi’s concept of ‘Afropolitanism,’ and African Feminism, this article reads how Sefi Atta’s female characters in A Bit of Difference navigate their Afropolitan identities through their mobile activities. Specifically, the paper explores how the novel challenges the existing African feminism theory by suggesting what can be regarded as ‘Afropolitan feminism’, a mobility-attuned feminist typology that leans on the interaction between women and their spatial mobility. The central argument of the article is that Atta’s narrative plays a pivotal role in illuminating the facets of Afropolitan feminism in the face of mobility and cultural hybridity where the binaries of centre versus peripheral have become inadequate in defining cultural flows.

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Publication Details

Journal
Global South Literary Studies
Published
2026-07-22
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1080/30684781.2026.2705582
Primary Topic
Postcolonial and Cultural Literary Studies
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00
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article

Mobility and Afropolitan feminism in Sefi Atta’s A Bit of Difference

Yunusy Castory Ng’umbi
Global South Literary Studies
Postcolonial and Cultural Literary Studies
article

Mobility and Afropolitan feminism in Sefi Atta’s A Bit of Difference

Yunusy Castory Ng’umbi
article en

Abstract

This article examines how contemporary African women writers revisit African feminism in the context of mobility and cultural integration that seals off racial and class dichotomies. Informed by Postcolonial Theory, particularly Taiye Selasi’s concept of ‘Afropolitanism,’ and African Feminism, this article reads how Sefi Atta’s female characters in A Bit of Difference navigate their Afropolitan identities through their mobile activities. Specifically, the paper explores how the novel challenges the existing African feminism theory by suggesting what can be regarded as ‘Afropolitan feminism’, a mobility-attuned feminist typology that leans on the interaction between women and their spatial mobility. The central argument of the article is that Atta’s narrative plays a pivotal role in illuminating the facets of Afropolitan feminism in the face of mobility and cultural hybridity where the binaries of centre versus peripheral have become inadequate in defining cultural flows.

Global South Literary Studies
University of Dar es Salaam (TZ)
Gender equality
Openalex Percentile: Top 2%
Postcolonial and Cultural Literary Studies
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