Mobility in Contemporary Zimbabwean Literature in English: Crossing Border, Transcending Boundaries by Magdalena Pfalzgraf (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Mobility in Contemporary Zimbabwean Literature in English: Crossing Border, Transcending Boundaries by Magdalena Pfalzgraf Nhlanhla Dube Mobility in Contemporary Zimbabwean Literature in English: Crossing Border, Transcending Boundaries BY MAGDALENA PFALZGRAF Routledge, 2022. 260 pp. ISBN 9780367637811 cloth. Zimbabwean literary criticism is effectively in the doldrums. This is not to say that creative writers are not producing exceptional content. Rather, the Zimbabwean academy is failing to diligently appraise and survey relevant and topical fields in the canon. The many nonplussed scholarly attempts that lack critical insight and bonhomie have only made the situation worse. Magdalena Pfalzgraf’s book Mobility in Contemporary Zimbabwean Literature is a breath of fresh air. Pfalzgraf’s monograph makes an astute contribution to literary scholarship focused on Zimbabwean literature. Pfalzgraf expatiates migration as the number one issue that has beleaguered both the nation and its literature since the early 2000s to date. [End Page 175] Pfalzgraf has characterized this period as being a state of “large scale out-migration” (5). The Zimbabwean crisis of the early 2000s led to a spike in migration as people made their way overseas to attempt to find clean running water, consistent electricity, and food. “Labor migration to South Africa was so pervasive that it became an engrained part of Zimbabwean life, and it also formed a collective imaginary which persists in contemporary representations of migration to South Africa” (25). Pfalzgraf explores how these struggles have been explored in creative fiction, and she honestly deliberates on their effects. Pfalzgraf starts off by pointing to the circuitous nature of migration and movement. “In the primary texts analysed here, we will come across numerous instances where being ‘on the move’ does not mean moving on, where movement is not necessarily mobilizing and where city dynamism is not always indicative of development. This contradictory dynamic is a central concern of this study” (2). Movement is thus anfractuous, and it does not result in liberation. The greener pastures sought by itinerants remain a dream deferred. This sometimes eventually results in migrants returning home in what has come to be called “diasporic return.” Zimbabwean literature thus becomes international in dimension. Writers also went abroad along with their compatriots. “The diasporic literary community is large and scattered across the globe: Chikwava and Huchu live in Britain, Bulawayo lives in the US and Lang in Australia, Mlalazi is based in Mexico” (9). Pfalzgraf points to the fact that we are beginning to see an internationalization of Zimbabwean literature. It is no longer enough to think of the canon of Zimbabwean literature as that which is only produced within its national geographical borders. And in turn, Zimbabweans do shape their new homes abroad and this can be seen in the “Hararization of London” (208) Brian Chikwava’s novel, Harare North, so masterfully depicts. Pfalzgraf’s monograph is exceptional because of the way in which it tackles the little studied concept of intra-urban migration. There is a fascination with the more spectacular aspects of movement depicted in Zimbabwean literature. Examples are border jumpers being eaten by crocodiles while crossing the Limpopo River or riches to rags narratives of qualified former white-collar workers forced into menial labor in the UK. Pfalzgraf turns our attention to the hidden complexities and dimensions of “a dystopian image of Zimbabwe’s urbanities in the post-2000 period” (49). Pfalzgraf analyzes Valerie Tagwira’s The Uncertainty of Hope (2006). The protagonist, Onai, is often trapped within the grim urban setting of Mbare. Mbare is a run-down and filthy urban eyesore that sucks joy and life from its inhabitants. Onai uses movement to reclaim her right to the urban space by moving and walking from Mbare to the city center. In the novel, Onai’s “walk to Africa Unity Square thus becomes an attempt to cross into the geographical centre of the capital and also into a symbolic centre of power” (67). Pfalzgraf shows that movement and migration is not the exclusive remit of passport holders and border jumpers. It can also happen in the cities left behind. Zimbabwean literature has not omitted the stories about movement, told by those fictional characters left behind. Pflazgraf highlights the importance of walking in the rural...