This special issue focuses on literary texts by African writers in which the protagonist returns to his/her "original" or ancestral "home" in Africa from other parts of the world. Ideas of return - intentional and actual - have been a consistent feature of the literature of Africa and the African diaspora: from Equiano's autobiography in 1789 to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's 2013 novel Americanah. African literature has represented returnees in a range of locations and dislocations including having a sense of belonging, being alienated in a country they can no longer recognize, or experiencing a...

Creativity has flourished in Egypt, a historically important and strategically located North African country and a leading nation in the Arab world. The main focus in this volume is to examine Egyptian writers, especially those whose works have enriched African Literature through their depiction of historical, cultural and socio-political forces such as Naguib Mahfouz, Yusuf Idris, Nawal El Saadawi, Ahdaf Soueif, Tawfiq al-Hakim and Alifa Rifaat (Fatimah Rifaat). Writing in both Arabic and the English language, their thematic concerns have been as versatile as they have been controversial....