Religious Charlatanisms and the Vulgarity of power: A Postcolonial Reading of Bulawayo’s We Need New Names

The end of British rule in Zimbabwe which happened through a protracted liberation struggle against the white regime was celebrated by many across Africa and beyond. The ascendancy of the late president Robert Gabriel Mugabe to the helm of power brought hope for the economic, religious, linguistic, and socio-political freedoms. The attainment of independence was indeed a moment of celebration after several decades of colonial suppression and brutalities against the indigenous black Zimbabweans. What is most troubling is that the euphoria that was triggered by the attainment of independence in 1980 gradually died as the realities of economic, religious, linguistic and socio-political problems resurfaced. This study seeks to interpret NoViolet Bulawayo’s depiction and thematisation of religion and politics in her debut novel We Need New Names. The study mainly focuses on how Bulawayo fictionalises and captures the sordid realities of the religious and socio-political problems that haunt the postcolonial subjects in Zimbabwe under Mugabe’s leadership. Postcolonial thoughts from Spivak and Achille Mbembe inform the readings of the text. The fictive landscape that is captured in the selected novel shows the hollowness of flag independenceattained in Zimbabwe. The postcolonial period during the reign of Mugabe inscribes conditions of subjectivity and subalternity. The studied text also problematises religion and uncovers charlatanisms of the prophets and traditional healers who are portrayed as the biblical wolves in sheep’s cloth exploiting those in distress.