Space Nostalgia in The Old Drift: Memorializing Matha Mwamba, the Afronaut

Abstract

In the two former Cold War superpowers, the USA and the Soviet Union, memorializations of the space race serve as sites of nostalgia, fueling feelings of national pride. This paper investigates this in a Zambian context by analyzing how the history of Zambia’s participation in the space race is fictionalized in Namwali Serpell's novel The Old Drift. The novel creates a fictionalized account of the childhood and adolescence of Zambia's first female Afronaut, Matha Mwamba, filling the silence in the archives regarding the life of this marginalized historical figure. Significantly, Serpell uses the form of the Bildungsroman when reimaging Matha's private history, framing Zambia's period of transition from British colony to independent nation state as one of upheaval and transformation. In mourning the lost future of Zambia's failed space program, the narrative engages in reflective nostalgia as defined by Svetlana Boym. Any narratives of progress are merged with tales of personal hardship. A critically nostalgic approach allows Serpell to illustrate how past visions of the future can serve as inspirations for the present.