Border renegotiation and the quest for safe space in Helon Habila’s Travelers and Uzodinma Iweala’s Speak no evil

Abstract

The status of border from the late twentieth century looks beyond border as a physical line, but as a social factor which conditions how individuals live in a society. Here, borders become increasingly invisible, socially-oriented and affect the identity of individuals living even in the same territorial zone. The symbolic nature of border significantly makes negotiation and renegotiation (im)possible at the border frontiers. Using border theorizations, this paper interrogates the social borders in Helon Habila’s Travelers and Iweala’s Speak No Evil as offshoots of physical
Okorie, Okolie and Egwu Preorcjah Vol. 10, 2025
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crossings. The paper investigates the individual character’s awareness of these social borders and how this awareness inspires a renegotiation, geared towards adjusting the border formations for accommodations and safe space.