Violence and the postcolonial state: an analysis of Christopher Mlalazi’s Running with mother, They are coming and Noviolet Bulawayo’s We need new names

Abstract

This research discusses violence as it manifests in postcolonial Zimbabwe, with particular reference to Christopher Mlalazi’s Running with Mother (2012), They are Coming (2012) and Noviolet Bulawayo’s We Need New Names (2013).Drawing insights from Fanon and Zizek, it considers the several ways through which violence enters and disrupts the lives of individuals and communities. It notes the forms which violence takes, direct, structural and symbolic, for instance, and demonstrates that violence pervades postcolonial states. In Zimbabwe such violence appears in the forms of political violence, ethnic violence and poverty. The novels studied clearly grapple with questions of culpability, victimhood and survival in Zimbabwean violent contexts.