| dc.description.abstract | In the post-colonial era, Zimbabwe experienced a period of political and
economic upheavals with a political regime whose ideology of
socialism regimented Zimbabweans under an authoritarian state. In
1999, the opposition to President Mugabe and the ZANU-PF
government grew considerably after the mid-1990s in part due to the
worsening economic and human rights conditions brought about by the
seizure of farmlands owned by white farmers and economic sanctions
imposed by the Western countries in response. This economic upheaval
was, and is still the cardinal reason why the citizens of Zimbabwe have
almost not been a priority in the former regime, leading to their
migration to seemingly better-off countries. No Violet Bulawayo is one
such Zimbabwean who has left her motherland and now lives in
America. In her novel, We Need New Names, she beautifully elaborates
how the non-prioritized state of citizens in Zimbabwe is responsible for
the huge number of immigrants who have left Zimbabwe and continue
to leave, with hope as beautiful as a rainbow high up on their minds that
maybe, just maybe, in a land far away from home, life can meaningfully reward their dreams which ironically, their mother country has so painfully failed to help them achieve. | en_US |
