I have a suspicion that Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is an obscure name to many Africa Beat readers. But that’s certainly not the case in the world of the literati.

The Nigerian-born novelist is celebrated worldwide for her writing process. Her latest accolade, bestowed a fortnight ago, was from the New York Public Library, which named her this year’s Library Lion. Previous recipients include Madiba, Oprah Winfrey, Margaret Atwood, Martin Scorsese, Zadie Smith, Gloria Steinem and Steve Martin.

I’ve read three of Adichie’s novels: Purple Hibiscus, Half of a Yellow Sun and Americanah. All are literary gems and have won her coveted awards. But if you ask me, Americanah is her best yet. In it, she writes about two young lovers who move to the US and the UK respectively – not to satiate some wanderlust but to flee the mess created by their country’s political overlords.

For the young lady – Ifemelu is her name – America proves to be a place where she really doesn’t belong. She soon traces her steps back to her native land. Her beloved Obinze’s rejection, on the other hand, is not by the ‘Britishness’ of his new host country; he is rejected by British officialdom. Denied an immigration permit, he plays hide and seek with the law, doing odd jobs here and there to keep body and soul together. Eventually, his luck runs out and he is bundled on to the next flight back to Lagos.

But Ifemelus and Obinzes abound. They are from all over Africa, and their destinations are not America and Britain only. The majority, especially those without the wherewithal, move to other African countries. Their common denominator is that they are let down by those elected to run high affairs of State; the men and women who promise them milk and honey during election time. The African Union’s (AU’s) ‘Africa Migration Report’, published in October 2020, confirms this, stating that “migrants move in search of opportunity and sometimes safety”.

Just how big a phenomenon is migration in Africa, both to foreign climes and within the continent? The AU says African countries hosted 26.6-million migrants in 2019, 79% of whom hailed from other African countries.

The AU seems unfazed by increasing migration on the continent. (By the way, the 26.6-million migrants who resided in African countries in 2019 represented a 76% increase on the 2000 tally of 15.1-million.) The continental body writes in its ‘Africa Migration Report’ that migration should be seen as a boon rather than a bane. For one, it states, remittances to migrants’ home countries contribute to those countries’ development. In 2018, African countries received a total of $81-billion, mostly from their citizens in Europe – particularly France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK – as well as North America. The Gulf Cooperation Council region also sends significant volumes to North Africa.

Cognisant of the importance of migrants’ remittances, the AU has crafted a migration policy framework that fosters competition in remittances markets to lower transaction costs, in addition to promoting investment opportunities for the migrants and boosting the security of technologies used for cross- border money transfers.

The AU also acknowledges the importance of leveraging diaspora remittances and savings to fund its Agenda 2063 vision through diaspora remittances securitisation as a new commercial financial intermediation vehicle and the introduction of diaspora bonds.

These are noble objectives, but only if Africa’s youth won’t be made to suffer the rejection experienced by Ifemelu and Obinze in Adichie’s masterpiece.