Tinashe Mushakavanhu's Reviews > We Need New Names

I have always wanted to read myself in contemporary Zimbabwean
literature. We Need New Names does just that for me and more. It
evokes songs of my childhood, games we played and other familiar
memories such as falling off a neighbour's guava tree. And nobody who
has ever lived in a township forgets - the buzzy streets, the jostling
humanity, the smells and sounds, the vivacity and the infinite
variety.

NoViolet Bulawayo harnesses all her creative energy and formidable
command of craft to produce a debut novel full of rhythm and much
hope.

Of late, the Zimbabwean novel has been suffering a protracted growth.
But in NoViolet Bulawayo we witness the imaginative maturity of the
born-free generation, Zimbabwe's post-colonial offspring. This is a
generation whose maturation is evidently coming to light (Lawrence
Hoba, Novuyo Rosa Tshuma, and Phillip Chidavaenzi). Their sensibility
and world outlook is shaped by different historical forces that shaped
early Zimbabwean writing.

At some point the political crisis paralysed the Zimbabwean
imagination. We began to believe and recycle the stock images of
ourselves that the world created for us. New Zimbabwean literature
needs deeper exploration of the human psyche and stripping away all
those easy attitudes we have been fed for so long like
black-versus-white, reactionary-versus-progressive, Zanu PF versus
MDC, dragging literature into that shallow battlefield. We need to
explore those reasons that affect our day-to-day dreams, longings and
needs.

NoViolet Bulawayo steps up at the right time to produce a novel
written with so much intimacy and care. The characters that people the
book are not mere cardboard cut outs strutting lifelessly through the
pages, but “real” people who though sometimes weighed down by the
neglect and insult of the world, proclaim insistently their
determination to survive, to step out of the shadows and be counted.

Every character evolves as the book progresses, turning into someone
the reader had not quite expected - for instance, the actions of these
ordinary children, Darling and her small gang, are spontaneous and
impulsive, mere reactions to internal and external forces.

And there are reminiscences of Yvonne Vera in the young writer’s
confidence and technique. It is easy to forget this is a first book
because of the accomplished skills she exhibits that are so hauntingly
assured. This specifically Zimbabwean story will surely have a lot of
resonance for many African readers. Though evoking a specific time and
place vivid in its particulars, NoViolet Bulawayo draws universal
lessons for all.


Indeed, We Need New Names is a disarmingly playful, devastatingly
candid novel that is at once classic and utterly original, with a
power all on its own. The narrative is witty, multi-layered,
intricately constructed, deeply informed, elegantly written. We Need
New Names is a GREAT beginning to NoViolet Bulawayo's literary career
and a significant contribution to Zimbabwean literature.