Identity (Re)construction: Postcolonial Identity and Mimicry in Sefi Atta’s A Bit of Difference

This paper explores the (re)construction of postcolonial identity in Sefi Atta's A Bit of Difference, emphasising how language, imitation, and cultural reality interact to shape Nigerians' identities at home and abroad. Employing a qualitative textual reading of the novel, the study examines how Deola Bello, the main character, and other characters negotiate identity through linguistic performance and accent, which become both a site of internal conflict for the postcolonial subject and a survival strategy. To counter Western acculturation, migrants strategically affirm, challenge, and recreate a dynamic Nigerian identity. The study draws its interpretive framework from postcolonial theory, particularly the ideas of Homi K. Bhabha and Ashcroft et al. A close reading of language, accent, and characters’ identities serves as the study’s analytical method. The study argues that Atta's novel depicts identity as an unstable, constantly renegotiated construct, divided between the homeland and the hostland, rather than as a fixed heritage. The study concludes that A Bit of Difference effectively conveys the complexity of the Nigerian diasporic experience, demonstrating that mimicry functions not merely as assimilation but as a deliberate strategy through which Deola and other characters reconstruct a hybrid identity, and that linguistic accent operates as a marker of this ongoing negotiation, presenting identity and its nuanced features as a constructive site of tension.