Forms of resistance against the African postcolony in Brian Chikwava's Harare North

Abstract

The article analyzes the novel Harare North by Zimbabwean diasporic writer Brian Chikwava in the context of African writing of post-independence disillusionment and the Cameroonian thinker's Achille Mbembe's analysis of the African postcolony. Mbembe argues that the inhabitants of the postcolony are alienated not only from the state, but also from their own selves, since the postcolony forces them to adapt to permanent change by creating unstable, fragmented identities. Taking its cue from Mbembe, the study explores the forms of political resistance after the break-down of the subject, in whom the identities of victim and oppressor fluidly co-exist. The study concludes by relating Chikwava's representation of the postcolonial subject to Homi Bhabha's unhomeliness.