Caine Prize winning author NoViolet Bulawayo launched her debut novel, We Need New Names, amid fanfare and rave reviews at the British Council yesterday.
We Need New Names is in the run for the Man-Booker Prize to be announced in October, having become the first Zimbabwean novelist to be long-listed for the prestigious award.
The book has also been nominated for the Guardian First Book Prize, a feat achieved by Dambudzo Marechera’s House of Hunger alone locally.
Speaking at the launch of the book, Bulawayo said: “I am proud to add to the rich tradition of Zimbabwean literature. However, I am not sure why we are celebrated as individuals because we do not come alone, stories come from the communities.”
We Need New Names is an extension of the short story Hitting Budapest which earned Bulawayo a first as the only Zimbabwean short story to win the Caine Prize for Fiction.
The protagonist is a young girl who reminisces about home from abroad. Bulawayo says she grapples with the challenges faced by Zimbabweans outside the country.
“Reading about xenophobia from abroad, you come to grips with the challenges people brave outside their homeland. People are leaving home in anticipation of greener pastures but it’s not all rosy out there,” Bulawayo said.
“My literature is a love letter to my people. I write from a point of disconnect which is hard because as an artist you need to smell and touch and be there. However technology comes in handy in keeping pace with the developments at home,” she said.
Bulawayo told delegates that the condition of being African is at the centre of her work.
“It is not possible for me to separate from who I am because I write from the bone, from the perspective of lived experience before crossing over to imagination.”
“Being in the U.S, in a nation of immigrants the story is not particular to me but I relate to the real life experiences of those around me.”
“Young writers may want to reimagine their identities and be part of the global tradition. The African story has been told by others as we have been deemed incapable but my own work draws from oral tradition and my themes come back to the sources, so even if I deny that I am an African writer my work will scream out.
“There is something about being confined to the corner of a bookshelf, being pigeon-holed, but it’s just a small inconvenience compared to the condition of being African.
We Need New Names has received glowing reviews from media echo chambers including The Guardian and New York Times. Bulawayo insists that her work is social narrative from the lenses of a homesick artist.
Bulawayo encouraged budding writers to stay put in the face of rejection: “I had my share of rejection slips from those who were kind enough to tell me I was not yet ready to break into print. When I was ready, it was a matter of days before my book was picked for publication.
Bulawayo joins a long list of authors who found a voice in alienation including Yvonne Vera, Dambudzo Marechera, Stanley Nyamufukudza and Tsitsi Dangarembga.