Sonic Sensibility: Reading the Soundscape in Zimbabwean Diasporic Literary Works

ABSTRACTRepresentations of Zimbabwean migrants to South Africa, in scholarship as well as the media, have tended to focus on the often spectacular violence experienced by these migrants. Southern African literary criticism, too, has often privileged the visual, the ocular, and the spectacle. In this article, I focus on a different sensory dimension: the literary representation of sound. I show how sound and soundscapes, as represented in selected literary works, can illuminate everyday aspects of migratory experiences. I focus on aurality, arguing that listening provides a new methodology for reading and interpreting migrant fiction about the lived experiences of Black Zimbabwean migrants in South Africa. Building on theories of the soundscape, I examine how literary representations of migrant listening practices are deployed to comment on lived experiences, and how migrant literary characters’ encounters with other migrants illuminate the layered dimensions of forced migration. I argue that a sound-focused analysis of literary works, rather than a focus on the representation of visual spectacle and description, can give readers access to the sense of rootlessness experienced by migrants. Such an aural approach demonstrates that literary and creative works are useful archives of subverted and denied claims of belonging premised on ancestry and geography.Abstract in isiNdebeleIndlela abantu abamnyama belizwe leZimbabwe abatshengiswa ngayo ezincwadini zemfundo lasezindabeni eSouth Africa, zitshengisa icele elilodwa elikhuluma ngokuhlukunyezwa lokubulawa okungajwayelekanga okuqondiswe kubo njenge zizalwane zokuza. Imibhalo yase Southern Africa ithanda ukuqakathekisa okubonakalayo lokumangalisayo. Kulo umbhalo ngikhethe ukuthi ngigxile kokuhlukileyo emibhalweni njenga mazwi lemisindo. Ngitshengisa ukuthi imisindo lakho konke okuhambisana lemisindo ngendlela okubekwa ngayo emibhalweni yezifundo kungancenda ukukhanyisa ukubana izizwalane zaseZimbabwe zihlezi njani ngemihla njengabantu bokuza. Ngigxila kakhulu ekusebenziseni ukuzwa. Impikiso yami ithi ukulalela kungeyinye indlela engasetshenziswa ekufundeni lokutolika imibhalo ngabantu abamnyama beZimbabwe abangabahlali bokuza eSouth Africa. Ngisebenzisa imibono eyaziwayo ngemisindo, ngihlolisisa ukuthi imibhalo ngabantu bokuza isebenzisa njani izindlela zokulalela zabantu bokuza. Ngiyahlolisisa njalo ukuthi ezincwadini ukufanekiswa kwempilo zabantu bokuza uma behlangana labanye babo, kuyabonisa yini ubuhlungu bokuthuthela eSouth Africa bengazikhethelanga ukusuka eZimbabwe lapho abazalwa khona. Umbono wami uma ngokuthi ukucubungulula imibhalo sisebenzisa imisindo kungcono kulokugxila ngokusebenzisa izibonakaliso lemimangaliso ngoba kuvumela abafundi ukuthi babe lombono ongcono ngokuzwisisa ukuthi abantu bokuza bakuzwa njani ukuswelakala kwempande yemvelaphi yabo. Lokhu kutshengisa ukuthi imisebenzi yemibhalo leminye enje ngokubumba, ukudweba, elandisa imbali zabantu zindlela eziqakathekileyo zokuwondla izinto ezifihlakeleyo lezingavumelekanga ezivalela abantu ngenxa yenzalo lemvelaphi yabo.KEYWORDS: Zimbabwean literaturediasporamigrationsoundscapesidentityethnicityraceAmabala aqakathekileyo: imibhalo yaseZimbabweinhlalo emazweniokuhambisana lemisindo Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).