“Look At Them Leaving In Droves, Arm In Arm With Loss And Lost.” Book Review: We Need New Names By Noviolet Bulawayo

As humans, our existence is plagued by journeys of self discovery, connection and acceptance, leading us to search for new identities. Identity is an important aspect of human life - it is what defines us. Consider a child who grows up under the shed of their parents, sulking under their mother's arms as a baby and listening to their father’s advice as a boy. As he grows older, he matures into a man who makes decisions by himself and for himself, thereby changing his identity. Picture this: a lady grows up in an African country, listening to African songs, eating African foods and playing with African friends. She travels abroad for whatever reasons, to a foreign land where she encounters new people, new food and makes new friends. Her former identity clashes with her new one. These conflicts are what we call the complexities of displaced identity.

Over the years, literary writers of the three genres- prose, poetry and drama have taken to their writings to share their experiences with displaced identity. In my last post in this community, I reviewed At Night All Blood Is Black by David Diop. The book explores the issue of displaced identity from a war point of view. Currently, I'm working on a project that revolves around this theme, and with my findings, I have gotten to know that the issue of displaced identity cuts across various areas. Not only war, but also religion, gender and other areas. In this post, I'll review We Need New Names by Noviolet Bulawayo, another book that explores the complexities of displaced identity.

ABOUT THE BOOK

We Need New Names was written by Noviolet Bulawayo whose real name is Elizabeth Zandile Tshele, a Zimbabwean writer. We Need New Names is Noviolet Bulawayo’s first novel and it was published in 2013. This book that has earned her many national and international awards. The book takes readers on a profound exploration of migration and a search for identity.

Plot Summary

The novel centers around Darling, a young girl living with her friends in Zimbabwe. Before the political war (against Europeans and the black people), Darling and her family lived peacefully in a house. A standard house with all the amenities. However, during the political war, their house and that of many others were bulldozed. In the course of this destruction, a baby died in one of the buildings. This forced many people to move out of the town and form a new town called Paradise. Bulawayo uses this as an Irony. One would expect Paradise to be a place filled with big and colorful buildings, but the reverse is the case. Many homes in Paradise are built with tins and the beds are made of feathers and cartons. This is the harsh environment Darling and her friends grew up in.

Often times, Darling and her friends- Bastard, Chipo, Godknows, Sbho and Stina would sneak out of Paradise to Budapest to steal guavas. Unlike Paradise, Budapest is inhabited by the whites and one would expect, the homes they're are big and colorful, a stark contrast to the ones in Paradise. Darling and her friends all want to live in big houses like those in paradise. Darling in particular, would always brag about how her aunt, Aunt Fostalina, who lives in Americah would come to pick her up in a place where she would live a better life and in a better house. From time to time, the NGOs would come to paradise to give them clothes, toys, shoes and other useful things. Darling always imagined herself with Aunt Fostalina in America. She always imagined the things she’d do in a great country like America.

As the narrative progresses, the author introduces us to another character, Prophet Revelations Bitchington Mborro. A man of God whose actions clearly screams “religious hypocrisy.” Surprisingly, people go to him for help and he demands material and things in return. For instance, when Darling’s father returns from South Africa with Aids, Prophet Revelations Bitchington Mborro demands material things like goat and money. Noviolet Bulawayo used his character to reveal the religious hypocrisy in African countries.

Out of the blue, Aunt Fostalina comes to take Darling to America, a place where she has always wanted to go. To her greatest surprise, Amerca isn't what she imagined it to be. For explae, she couldn't go out to have fun like she'd always do in paradise, because of the snow. She struggles to adapt to the American Culture. She struggles to eat with spoons and forks. Another instance of conflict with her old identity and new one occurs when Darling hits someone else’s child for behaving inappropriate at a wedding. Back in Paradise, it is a totally normal thing to reprimand a child by hitting them, but in America, Darling realized it was a taboo as all eyes were on her when she did it. Eventually, she gets swallowed by her new environment. She starts to talk like the Americans, going on rides with her friend parent’s car, and even indulging in watching porn with her friends. Darling turns it into a norm and she’d always watch porn every day after school.

The resolution ignites with Darling missing her home and former identity. She calls her mum and Chipo, one of her friends tells her that most of her friends are no longer in Paradise. Godknows is in Dubai and Bastard is in South Africa. The novel ends with Chipo accusing Darling of abandoning her country.

One important theme to take note of in this book is the theme of shattered dreams. Darling, Bastard, Chipo, Godknows, Sbho and Stina are all kids who grew up with nig dreams in their hands. Sbho loves cars and often dreams of having one. Stina, Darling, and Godknows’ dream is to live in big houses. Bastard’s dream is to become rich. Richer than a president. Sadly, their dreams get crushed by the harsh realities of life.

This book is a masterpieces. It gets a solid 4 out of 5 and I recommend it to every book lover.

Thanks for reading.