The African Palimpsest Indigenization of Language in the West African Europhone Novel

269 Pages·2010·1.16 MB·English

Zimbabwean Transitions
Matatu
Journal for African Culture and Society

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EDITORIAL BOARD

Gordon Collier Christine Matzke Frank Schulze–Engler
Geoffrey V. Davis Aderemi Raji–Oyelade Chantal Zabus
†Ezenwa–Ohaeto

TECHNICAL AND CARIBBEAN EDITOR
Gordon Collier

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BOARD OF ADVISORS

Anne V. Adams (Ithaca NY) Jürgen Martini (Magdeburg, Germany)
Eckhard Breitinger (Bayreuth, Germany) Henning Melber (Windhoek, Namibia)
Margaret J. Daymond (Durban, South Africa) Amadou Booker Sadji (Dakar, Senegal)
Anne Fuchs (Nice, France) Reinhard Sander (San Juan, Puerto Rico)
James Gibbs (Bristol, England) John A. Stotesbury (Joensuu, Finland)
Johan U. Jacobs (Durban, South Africa) Peter O. Stummer (Munich, Germany)
Jürgen Jansen (Aachen, Germany) Ahmed Yerima (Lagos, Nigeria)
— Founding Editor: Holger G. Ehling —

(cid:93) (cid:94) Matatu is a journal on African and African diaspora literatures and societies dedicated to
interdisciplinary dialogue between literary and cultural studies, historiography, the social
sciences and cultural anthropology.
(cid:93) (cid:94) Matatu is animated by a lively interest in African culture and literature (including the Afro-
Caribbean) that moves beyond worn-out clichés of ‘cultural authenticity’ and ‘national
liberation’ towards critical exploration of African modernities. The East African public
transport vehicle from which Matatu takes its name is both a component and a symbol of
these modernities: based on ‘Western’ (these days usually Japanese) technology, it is a
vigorously African institution; it is usually regarded with some anxiety by those travelling in
it, but is often enough the only means of transport available; it creates temporary com-
municative communities and provides a transient site for the exchange of news, storytelling,
and political debate.
(cid:93) (cid:94) Matatu is firmly committed to supporting democratic change in Africa, to providing a
forum for interchanges between African and European critical debates, to overcoming
notions of absolute cultural, ethnic or religious alterity, and to promoting transnational
discussion on the future of African societies in a wider world.
Zimbabwean Transitions

(cid:93) (cid:94)

Essays on Zimbabwean Literature
in English, Ndebele and Shona

Edited by

Mbongeni Z. Malaba and Geoffrey V. Davis

Amsterdam - New York, NY 2007
Matatu Number 34

Cover design: Gordon Collier and Pier Post
The paper on which this book is printed meets the requirements of “ISO
9706: 1994, Information and documentation - Paper for documents -
Requirements for permanence”.
Le papier sur lequel le présent ouvrage est imprimé remplit les prescriptions
de ‘ISO 9706: 1994, Information et documentation - Papier pour documents -
Prescriptions pour la permanence’.
ISBN-13: 978-90-420-2376-5
©Editions Rodopi B.V., Amsterdam - New York, NY 2007
Printed in The Netherlands
TABLE OF CONTENTS

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(cid:93) MBONGENI Z. MALABA
Introduction | vii

(cid:93) ANTHONY CHENNELLS
Great Zimbabwe in Rhodesian Fiction | 1
(cid:93) JOHN MCALLISTER
Knowing Native, Going Native:
– Cognitive Borderlines and the Sense of Belonging in Doris Lessing’s
African Laughter and Dan Jacobson’s The Electronic Elephant | 25
(cid:93) BEVELYN DUBE
Representing the Past in the Present:
– The Timelessness of the Ndebele Royal Praises | 39
(cid:93) ALENA RETTOVÁ
Inkos’ uLobengula yasinyamalala:
– The Attitude to Tradition in Ndebele Theoretical Writing | 53
(cid:93) SAMUKELE HADEBE
The Significance of Ndebele Historical Fiction | 77
(cid:93) TOMMY MATSHAKAYILE–NDLOVU
The Changing Roles of Women in siNdebele Literature | 91
(cid:93) MBONGENI Z. MALABA
The Portrayal of Women in Stanley Nyamfukudza’s Works | 107
(cid:93) PATRICIA ALDEN
Coming Unstuck:
– Masculine Identities in Postcolonial Zimbabwean Fiction | 125
(cid:93) OWEN S. SEDA
The Fourth Dimension:
Dambudzo Marechera as a Dramatist – An Analysis of Two Plays | 147
(cid:93) EMMANUEL M. CHIWOME
Modern Shona Literature as a Site of Struggle, 1956–2000 | 159
(cid:93) KENNEDY C. CHINYOWA
From a “Puny Domesticity” to Topical Commitment:
– Trends in the Development of Shona Written Drama Since 1968 | 173
(cid:93) ROSEMARY GRAY
“Spirit of Place”:
– Mungoshi’s Rolling World | 193
(cid:93) VIRGINIA PHIRI
The Zimbabwe International Book Fair (ZIBF) | 205
(cid:93) ANNELIE KLOTHER
“You need to have the idea, the vision, and the passion”:
– An Interview with Irene Staunton | 211
(cid:93) GEOFFREY V. DAVIS
Words of Praise for Yvonne Vera
– On the Occasion of the Award of the LiBeratur Prize For Her Novel
Butterfly Burning in German Translation Under the Title Schmetterling
in Flammen, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 6 October 2002 | 219

Book Reviews by Meg Samuelson and Christine Matzke | 233
Notes on Contributors and Editors | 241
Notes for Contributors | 243
MBONGENI Z. MALABA

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Introduction

T
HIS COLLECTION OF ESSAYS on Zimbabwean literature pro-
vides a valuable addition to the corpus of criticism on Zimbabwean
writing. It brings together studies of both Rhodesian and Zimbab-
wean literature, spanning different languages and genres. The book charts the
at times painful process of the evolution of Rhodesian/Zimbabwean
identities that was shaped by precolonial, colonial and postcolonial realities.
The hybrid nature of the society emerges as different writers endeavour to
make sense of the world they inhabit or visit.
Anthony Chennells’ essay distils the essence of white settlers’ alienation
from the Africa they purport to redeem, or civilize. The Rhodesian settler
novels expended enormous energy on negating, or trying to negate, the histo-
rical achievements of the Africans as revealed by the magnificent structures
found at Great Zimbabwe. The settlers focused on the ruined nature of the
settlements and weaved self-serving myths of white, or Phoenician, origin,
because the acknowledgement of black agency would warrant a reassessment
of the racist treatment routinely meted out to blacks in Rhodesia. The texts he
dissects reveal the delusional fixations of the racist mind-set that permeates
the discourse of the “white man’s burden” in imperial narratives.
John McAllister’s essay develops the discussion of the sense of alienation
found in colonial or settler discourse. The collapse of the white supremacists’
dream when southern African countries gained political independence left

© Zimbabwean Transitions: Essays on Zimbabwean Literature in English, Ndebele and
Shona, ed. Mbongeni Z. Malaba & Geoffrey V. Davis (Matatu 34; Amsterdam & New York
NY: Editions Rodopi, 2007).
viii ZIMBABWEAN TRANSITIONS (cid:93)
many settlers caught up in a profound identity crisis. Hence, “the anti-African
monologue is a way of closing ranks around old colonial certitudes. Thus it is
uniformly negative and closed, purporting to be an ‘objective’ analysis of
Africans and of the consequences of majority rule, but revealing only the
isolation and solipsism of the colonial gaze.” The essay explores the “strange
contradiction” of “colonial discourse [which] presents itself as an inquiry into
the Other, which is why its central tropes are exploration and discovery, but in
reality, it is a discourse of power and fears knowing the Other.”
The complexities attendant on exploring one’s past and feeling one’s way
towards a tolerable future are also revealed in Bevelyn Dube’s contribution on
“Representing the Past in the Present: The Timelessness of the Ndebele Royal
Praises,” which argues that the dynamic nature of praise-poetry can be exem-
plified by a study of the mutations that occurred in Ndebele praise-poetry,
with reference to the two kings – Mzilikazi and Lobengula. It thus extends the
arguments put forward by Leroy Vail and Landeg White, who also fore-
ground the shifts in emphasis that took place as succeeding generations (re-)
evaluated the significance of both monarchs. Dube demonstrates how
Mzilikazi’s flight from Tshaka was celebrated as a tactically astute move by a
ruler who possessed the talent of turning adversity to his advantage. The
initially critical responses to his son were revised with the changing circum-
stances of the Ndebele community, after the British colonial power, sym-
bolized by Cecil John Rhodes’ British South Africa Company, abolished the
Ndebele monarchy. The rehabilitation of Lobengula served a cathartic role in
redefining Ndebele identity.
Samukele Hadebe’s essay focuses on the preponderance of historical
themes in Ndebele literature, particularly those pertaining to the formation of
the Ndebele state, the succession crisis, and the fall of the Ndebele state. He
homes in on the contested nature of Ndebele identity, pointing to the tendency
to classify people in terms of their origin – for example, the “AbeZansi”
group, which consisted of the original adherents who fled from Zululand with
Mzilikazi; the “AbeNhla” group, made up of Sotho people; and the “Abelo-
zwi,” who joined the kingdom once Mzilikazi settled in present-day Zim-
babwe. The tensions were exacerbated by the tendency to appoint as chiefs
only those of Nguni origin, a pattern that was reinforced by colonial govern-
ments. Interestingly, literary texts debate issues that are seldom spoken of.
The appeal of historical themes stems from a widely held belief that the
formal historical accounts have largely been written by outsiders, who, parti-
cularly in the colonial era, distorted the ‘history’, in order to justify the defeat
of the Ndebele in terms of liberating the “lower caste” groups that constituted
the majority of the Ndebele.
(cid:93) Introduction ix
The contested nature of the ‘history’ is reflected in Alena Rettová’s sensi-
tive exploration of the dilemma that lies at the heart of modern Ndebele
identity, as revealed in a study of the attitude towards tradition in Ndebele
theoretical writing. The essay sheds light on the “deep epistemological cleft in
the people’s beliefs. What constituted the cognitive backbone of society in the
past is only a collection of curiosities and superstitions today.” The theoreti-
cians concede that cultural identity is not immutable and seek, not so much to
bring back to life ancient traditions, as to alert the community to the changes
that have occurred over time. The rallying cry is that the intellectuals should
contribute to cultural regeneration and avoid essentialism, which obscures the
real condition and needs of the people.
Tommy Matshakayile–Ndlovu’s contribution on “The Changing Roles of
Women in siNdebele Literature” critiques the fossilized views on gender roles
found in the works of leading Ndebele novelists, both female and male. De-
spite their significant contribution to the growth of Ndebele literature, S.O.
Mlilo, Barbara Makhalisa and Ndabezinhle S. Sigogo insist on limiting wo-
men to domestic space, regardless of the disruption of traditional views that
was a consequence of colonial penetration. The values they advocate are at
odds with the socio-economic reality that pervades both the rural and the
urban areas. Branding as “loose” or “prostitutes” those women who transgress
against the authors’ cherished cultural values negates the important task of
providing suitable role models for people who are caught in the flux of
cultural change.
Mbongeni Malaba’s essay charts the predominantly negative view of wo-
men found in Nyamfukudza’s fiction. Although some portrayals are ambi-
valent, most reflect the negative stereotype of women as sexual objects whose
principal role is to gratify men. The patriarchal nature of the society insists on
submissive, dependent women, and marriage tends to confirm this status.
Happy unions are the exception rather than the norm. The male protagonists’
views are conveyed in the degrading terminology (“bitches,” “tarts”) they use
when referring to women. Despite the fact that many of his stories are nar-
rated by women, the overwhelming impression gained by the reader is one of
misogyny.
Patricia Alden’s article echoes some of the observations made above. It
assesses the destabilization of masculine identities in postcolonial Zimbabwe
and argues that the economic structural adjustment programme that was em-
barked on, after pressure from the IMF and World Bank, challenged the patri-
archal norms of male-headed households. The identity crisis manifested itself
in the rise of stories that depict “men losing control, becoming violent, and
often directing their anger against women or becoming hopelessly paralyzed,