Redressing the "Narrative Balance": Subjection and Subjectivity in Chika Unigwe's On Black Sisters' Street

This article examines On Black Sisters’ Street (2009), the second novel by Nigerian-Belgian writer Chika Unigwe. After briefly outlining the pioneering role played by Unigwe’s “Afro-European” fiction in Belgium, the essay argues that the author’s latest book presents its heroines, four African prostitutes working in Antwerp, as individuals caught between two forces: on the one hand, the social and economic pressures that lead to their subjection and, on the other, their wish to satisfy their own aspirations, which relates to the expression of their subjectivity.
The article attempts to demonstrate that Unigwe’s novel explores the tension between these poles in at least four different ways: first of all, by using cultural stereotypes in an original manner; secondly, by developing the themes of renaming, slavery and objectification to point to the characters’ exploitation; thirdly, by hinting at the potential role of storytelling in the restoration of the prostitutes’ identity; and finally, by suggesting that the women’s very quest for subjectivity sometimes inadvertently induces their subjection.
The essay concludes that Unigwe’s subtle treatment of these issues emphasises the complexity both of the novel’s protagonists and of their relationship with each other.