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They would not understand why people like him, who were raised well fed and watered but mired in dissatisfaction, conditioned from birth to look towards somewhere else, eternally convinced that real lives happened in that somewhere else, were now resolved to do dangerous things . . . none of them starving . . . but merely hungry for choice and certainty.
Obinze makes this observation at Georgina and Emenike’s dinner party in Chapter 29. As the dinner guests passionately talk about the importance of Britain remaining open to refugees, Obinze realizes that their image of an African illegal immigrant is someone fleeing desperate circumstances, someone who requires their benevolence. As the son of a university professor, Obinze has not been desperate until he immigrated to London, where his status as an illegal immigrant takes an emotional toll on him and makes it extremely difficult to earn money. He has scrubbed toilets and committed fraud based on a seemingly false promise of a better life. The contradiction between how white British people imagine illegal African immigrants and Obinze’s reality demonstrates how the image of a war-torn Africa allows the party guests to feel good about themselves as saviors. In light of this, Obinze believes that the people at the dinner party would not react well to his story because his suffering does not allow them to be heroes, but instead makes them complicit in the myth that the West is the only land of opportunity.
