Reconciling Love and Heritage Through Cultural Polyamory in Ties that Tether

Abstract

This article examines how romance fiction can engage with interracial tensions and intercultural negotiations in Jane Igharo’s Ties That Tether (2020). It portrays Azere's identity struggles, a Nigerian-Canadian woman torn between familial expectations and personal desires when she falls in love with Rafael Castellano, a Spanish-Canadian man. Engaging with a metaphorical use of polyamory, I propose the concept of “cultural polyamory” to explore Azere’s diasporic identity. This notion envisions love for multiple cultures coexisting without hierarchies.  Initially, Azere’s “monogamous” allegiance to her Nigerian identity, symbolised by a promise to her late father, limits her capacity to embrace hybridity at a romantic level. Yet, her relationship with Rafael becomes the catalyst for challenging familial and cultural conditioning, leading towards reconciliation with her twofold identity. Ties That Tether presents cultural polyamory as a transformative model to achieve romantic fulfilment and self-acceptance, illustrating how love operates as a space for diasporic intercultural negotiation.