Zimbabwean novelist, NoViolet Bulawayo illuminates the foreign re-entry 2023 with her second novel Glory, an allegorical account of the history of Zimbabwe. Original, inventive and funny, this book is a rewrite ofAnimal Farm by Briton George Orwell. In the main roles, a horse, a donkey, a pig and dogs dressed in tunics of all colors.
” Why am I writing? Because writing is my way of participating in the future of the world, my way of acting. You see, human life is so short that not having my say, not participating in ongoing debates, cannot be a viable option for me. »
These words are those of the Zimbabwean NoViolet Bulawayo, whose latest novel, in French translation, is appearing these days, Glory. A simple title, but satirical at will, like the 450 pages of this fable novel. Designed on the model ofAnimal Farm by Briton George Orwell, Glory recounts the turbulent future of contemporary Zimbabwe, through the voices of animals. ” Telling in a fictional mode and in my own words this historic moment that was the fall of Mugabe after 40 years of unchallenged reign, was my way of participating in the collective history of my country. “, confides the novelist reached by telephone.
self reinvention
Glory is NoViolet Bulawayo’s second novel. The novelist had made herself known by publishing, ten years ago, a first quasi-initiatory story, with the title We need new names (Gallimard 2013). Its action is shared between Zimbabwe and the United States, with the central theme of self-reinvention, as announced by the poetic title of the novel. The work of this rising writer, full of talent, is part of the rich Zimbabwean literary tradition, which has produced some of the great names of English-speaking African literature, many of them women. Their names are Tsitsi Dangaremgba, Yvonne Vera, Pettina Gappah, to name but a few.
Born in 1981, almost at the time of Zimbabwe’s independence, NoViolet Bulawayo was not, however, predestined to become the admired writer she has become. Her father, now a retired policeman, would have liked his daughter to embrace a more socially recognized career. NoViolet Bulawayo.
” When I grew up in Zimbabwe, my parents didn’t really encourage us to choose careers as artists or writers, which were of little social use to them. They wanted you to become a doctor, a lawyer or an engineer. It was only when I left home to go to the United States, where there was no longer any pressure from parents to choose this or that career, that I signed up for ‘creative writing’ seminars ‘ and this from the first university cycle. I then realized that writing is what I’ve always wanted to do, but for that I first had to learn to write and perfect myself by familiarizing myself with the workings of the trade. »
The Jidada, fictional country
At 18, like Darling, the heroine of her first book, the future novelist left to join an aunt in the United States, with the aim of pursuing higher education. Nostalgic for her country and Bulawayo, the city of her birth where she will not be able to return for a long time, she began to write, signing her first texts with the pseudonym NoViolet Bulawayo. “Violet” was the name of her mother, whom the author had lost in her early childhood, and “no” means “with” in the Ndebele idiom, the mother tongue of the one who is still known as Elizabeth Zandile. Tsehele for civil status.
It will be understood, the names are capital in the stories of NoViolet Bulawayo. They help to fight against nostalgia and to fill our psychic lacks. They also serve to mock the powerful and the corrupt, as one realizes by browsing the pages of Glory.
We come across “La Vieille Carne”, Mugabe’s nickname, imagined in the guise of an aging horse. His wife is the ambitious marvelous donkey, with the tongue of a viper. The population of Jidada, the fictional country where the action of this novel takes place, is tired of the long reign of the tyrant. He ends up being overthrown by a group of cruel military men. The latter are embodied by ferocious mastiffs, all marshals or generals. They pride themselves on their high-sounding titles and nicknames that make you smile. They are called General Judas Goodness Reza, General Saint Zhou or General Animour, who is ” a serene-faced pit bull renowned for his level-headedness and ability to have the last laugh “, writes the author.
Grandguignolesque comedy
Humor alternates here with horrors. NoViolet Bulawayo’s new novel often makes us laugh, but behind its grand-guignolesque comedy mask, Glory is above all a tragic novel. It traces the tragedy of Zimbabwe and its people who, in forty years of independence, have known only tyranny, corruption, and misery that digs the stomach but also the spirit. On the circumstances that led her to use an animal reading grid to tell the story of the fall and decline of the Jidada ” with a da and again a da », let’s listen to NoViolet Bulawayo:
“I believe it was in January 2019, the day after the popular demonstrations which had just been violently repressed by the soldiers dispatched by the government to the townships. This violence had put me beside myself. I then wondered, I remember, if these men who governed us were human beings or wild animals. That’s why, in this context, when I heard people compare Zimbabwe to an animal farm, it rang true in my ear. I also remembered the tales that my grandmother taught us throughout our childhood, the tales in which animals played leading roles. I believe that the allegorical form that ‘Glory’ took is the product of the mixture of all these influences. »
In the second part of this column devoted to NoViolet Bulawayo, which you will be able to listen to next week, we will talk about the shift in history in Glory and its narration as passionate as it is restrained.
Glory, by NoViolet Bulawayo. Translated from English by Claro. Editions Otherwise, 453 pages, 23.90 euros.