Not Naming as Resistance: Yvonne Veraâs Without a Name (1994)

Tanaka Chidora

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Chapter 5 Not Naming as Resistance: Yvonne Veraâs Without a Name (1994)

In: Subversion, Resistance and Contestations

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Tanaka Chidora

Tanaka Chidora
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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 83â101

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004744493_006

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Abstract

In this chapter, I propose a reading of Yvonne Veraâs Without a Name (1994) that views not naming as resistance. Because of the thin line between nation and narration in Zimbabwe, the majority of literary texts written in English by Zimbabweans grapple with issues that are national in scope like colonialism and a disillusioning independence. One of the reasons for disillusionment with independence is the erstwhile liberator becoming a new tyrant, while claiming to be the progenitor of a peaceful, progressive independence. The chapter particularly seeks to cast attention on how the liberation violence that gave birth to Zimbabwe was also inward-looking, influencing Vera to create a traumatised character who rejects both the liberator and the land that was ostensibly liberated. Thus, questions of Zimbabweâs inward-looking liberatory violence and the nature of its independence are at the fore of the chapterâs analysis. The intention is for us to go back to the most told story of Zimbabweâs ruling party, a story of fathers who ostensibly planted the seed of independence, but a story which must now be questioned in a critical process that is akin to not naming. I argue that the reason for going about without a name lies in Veraâs attempt to move out of a confining and oppressive representational space of a (named) land-based nationalism that ârapesâ the supposed beneficiaries. This is where one locates the resistance in Veraâs Without a Name.

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Subversion, Resistance and Contestations

The Politics of Names and Naming in Zimbabwe

Series:Â African Social Studies Series, Volume: 50

Cover Subversion, Resistance and Contestations

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004744493

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 26 Nov 2025

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Chapter 5 Not Naming as Resistance: Yvonne Veraâs Without a Name (1994)

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Subversion, Resistance and Contestations

The Politics of Names and Naming in Zimbabwe

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Chapter 5 Not Naming as Resistance: Yvonne Veraâs Without a Name (1994)