The novel’s engagement with Nigerian languages and American cultural references bridges the gap of difference between non-Nigerian readers and the novel itself. Given the author’s positionality as a child of Nigerian-born parents who was raised in the United States, the novel’s accessibility to an outside readership emerges from her own lived experience in Lagos as both a cultural insider and outsider. Further exploration into the complex paratexts in Lagoon reveals that although the novel was written to Lagos, it was written for an outside audience-a Western audience, and perhaps particularly an American audience. And yet there is a glossary at the end of Nigerian words and phrases, as well as a section titled “Further insight into Lagoon.” As locals, Nigerian readers would not require this assistance. From the onset, Okorafor makes clear that this novel is dedicated to Lagos, Nigeria, with the book’s title inspired by it: “the city takes its name from the Portuguese word for ‘lagoon.’” The novel is set in Lagos, Nigeria, and focuses on African people and animal subjectivities, and thus the novel is apparently dedicated to Nigeria, which makes it perhaps what we consider an African novel. These are the opening words of Nnedi Okorafor’s Lagoon (2014) and the dedication of the novel. TO THE DIVERSE AND DYNAMIC PEOPLE OF LAGOS, NIGERIA-ANIMALS, PLANT, AND SPIRIT
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