Abstract
This article demonstrates, through Michael Gascoigne’s Tunzi the Faithful Shadow (1988), that literature for children is sometimes employed by the government into the service of propagating dominant state ideologies in Zimbabwean schools. Such texts disseminate issues of inclusion and exclusion that characterise all nation building projects. I argue, through a reading of Tunzi the Faithful Shadow, that texts for children studied in Zimbabwean schools have been shaped by a distinctly Zimbabwean socio-historical context which includes, but is not limited to, the formation of a new national sensibility after the liberation war and the political unrest in the emerging nation.
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Notes
Gukurahundi was the Shona term given to the military offensive, by the North Korean trained fifth brigade, against so-called dissidents in the Matabeleland and Midlands provinces in Zimbabwe during the 1980s. Literally, it refers to the first rains which wash away chaff.
A detailed account of this chapter in the history of Zimbabwe can be found in the CCJP report (1997).
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Cuthbeth Tagwirei is a Lecturer in the Department of English and Communication at the Midlands State University in Zimbabwe. He currently teaches Literature, Language and Media, Theories of Literature and Children’s Literature. He has written articles on Latin American literature and Zimbabwean children’s literature. His research interests include Zimbabwean literature, gender, nationalism and discourse. He is currently working on a Doctoral thesis: “‘Should I Stay or Should I Go’: Zimbabwe’s White Writing, 1980–2011.”
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Tagwirei, C. Fictions, Nation-building and Ideologies of Belonging in Children’s Literature: An Analysis of Tunzi the Faithful Shadow . Child Lit Educ 44, 44–56 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-012-9178-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-012-9178-z