“THERE IS NO night ever so long it does not end with dawn,” repeats the narrator of NoViolet Bulawayo’s sophomore novel, and end with dawn it shall.
Set in the modern-day times of a fictional country called Jidada, "Glory" is told through two seemingly parallel yet ultimately convergent storylines. The first recounts the events leading up to and after the ousting of the country’s first and longest-ruling president, while the second follows Destiny, a recently repatriated Jidadan, as she returns to confront her home country and family. A painful yet optimistic portrait of a struggling people, "Glory" achieves precisely what its author set out to do: show what is possible when a nation acknowledges past trauma and heals from it.
Readers familiar with Zimbabwe’s history will quickly deduce that Jidada is a ciphered representation of the republic. The novel begins at an Independence Day celebration with guest appearances by several politicians. Among them is the Father of the Nation, also known as the Old Horse, both his name and his literal physical form. Bulawayo encodes "Glory" à la “Animal Farm” — a nod to Zimbabwe’s political climate and, perhaps, to long-standing traditions of animal folktales.
After close to 40 years of ruling, the Old Horse is now “so frail it looked like the slightest breath of breeze would send him teetering and crashing unto earth.” His days are numbered. So, the question looming in the air, though no one dares ask it, is: if indeed the Old Horse is mortal, what’s next for the country?
With their eyes set on the Seat of Power, the president’s wife, an old, ostentatious goat, and Vice President Tuvius Delight Shasha each do whatever it takes to beat out the other. Ultimately, after a well-orchestrated coup, the Vice President prevails, setting off a messy battle for legitimacy and the maintenance of authority, no matter the cost.
The caricatural portrayal of the politicians, who move about with a satirical pomposity, mirrors the absurdity of Jidadan politics and rightfully knocks the so-called “leaders” off their pedestals, exposing them for what they truly are: greedy, power-hungry despots with no regard for the people’s needs. It’s an undeniable reclamation of agency.
On the other side of the country, in the vibrant township of Lozikeyi, returnee Destiny searches for her mother and, subconsciously, something deeper. In her quest, hallmarked by meetings with relatives, comfort food, and stories, the formerly estranged daughter of Simiso is reminded that even when you leave home, there’s always “something to anchor you right back.”
Still, she is faced with the harsh reality of the country she has returned to.
When Destiny decides to visit the city of Bulawayo, now “a ghost village”, she is confronted by her country’s demons. Throughout the book, the author poses and answers a difficult question: why do Jidadans love a nation that continuously fails them? There, the protagonist finds her answer. It’s in the indigenous fruit she hoards, in the names of the ancestors repeated to her and in the “baptismal red rain of a thousand fluttering butterflies.” Destiny has returned to the nation that betrayed her because her very soul is deeply embedded in the soil from which the Nehanda trees grow.
Perhaps the most difficult — and most necessary — part of the book is Simiso’s retelling of the horrors she witnessed during the Gukurahundi. In dedicating an entire chapter to how one person experienced the darkest and ugliest part of Jidada’s (Zimbabwe’s) history, Bulawayo makes space for a forgotten people, employing laboured and laden language that sharply contrasts the ebullience of adjacent chapters.
The novel tackles the contemporary just as deftly as it tackles the past. With whole sections devoted to Twitter threads, references to online social justice movements and recurrent mentions of the virtual Other Country, "Glory" is unencumbered in its commentary on the role of new media in the politics of developing nations. In present-day Jidada, the mostly anonymous nature of social media provides a level of protection that empowers the people and fuels a different kind of revolution, one that cannot be halted by death threats, as had been the case in 1983.
With this momentum attained, Jidadans finally channel their exasperation into change. Decades’ worth of anger at false promises and elusive freedom come to a head one momentous night when, congregated in Lozikeyi, Jidadans from all over the country confess to their past sins.
The story culminates in a fast-paced uprising that sees the fall of Tuvius Delight Shasha and the Seat of Power once and for all. “The stubborn dream of a free Jidada” finally becomes a reality. Outside of the confines of the book, this “reality” feels slippery, given the history of the country. The brilliance of "Glory", however, lies in this exact crystallisation of the unimaginable. The author dares to visualise an alternative ending to the story of Jidada, offering up an unthinkable future for Jidadans that even they couldn’t see for themselves.
"Glory" by NoViolet Bulawayo was published in 2022 by Chatto.
