Juliet Pasi | Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST) (original) (raw)
Papers by Juliet Pasi
Social settings are what characterise each society hence they vary from one society to the other.... more Social settings are what characterise each society hence they vary from one society to the other. If these social settings are disturbed by any force internally or externally, chaos becomes inexorable. Between 1904-1908 at the dawning of the 20th century, a genocide happened where Herero and Nama people of the then German South West Africa (present day Namibia) were nearly completely exterminated by German soldiers. Through the selected narratives of genocide: Parts Unknown (2018) by Zirk Van Den Burg, The Lie of the Land (2017) by David Jasper Utley, The Weeping Graves of Our Ancestors (2017) by Rukee Tjingaete, The Scattering (2016) Lauri Kubuitsile, and Mama Namibia (2013) by Mari Serebrov, this paper explores the disruption of social settings as represented in the selected texts. Founded within the disruption of social settings of the Herero and Nama people are three key issues namely: interference with family set ups; discounting religion, culture and tradition; and violation o...
Forum for Modern Language Studies, 2020
In her debut novel, Zebra Crossing, Meg Vandermerwe privileges the voice of Chipo Nyamubaya, an a... more In her debut novel, Zebra Crossing, Meg Vandermerwe privileges the voice of Chipo Nyamubaya, an albino girl from Zimbabwe, to capture the gripping and tragic experiences of African immigrants in South Africa. This article problematizes the notion of minor transnational identities by interrogating the relationships between South Africans and those they refer to as outsiders, and the relationship between the African immigrants themselves vis-à-vis culturally held beliefs about albinos and LGBTs. In the process, we demonstrate the patterns of the idea of Otherness brought about by racism, xenophobia, homophobic prejudice and insensitive discrimination. The article reveals how Othering debunks the ideology of African connectedness by bringing out the apparent contradictions in the values of Ubuntu.
Journal of Literary Studies, 2016
Summary This article will examine the connectedness between black women and the different types o... more Summary This article will examine the connectedness between black women and the different types of gardens in Tsitsi Dangarembga’s The Book of Not. It also argues that an analysis of Maiguru’s garden, the Harare gardens, the Sacred Heart gardens and the gardens of domesticity from an ecofeminist perspective, allows nuanced observations of the interconnectivity between black women in the narrative, the racial colonial setting and nature. By linking feminist and environmental ideas, this article is part of the surging debate concerning the connection between literary works and natural resources in literature written by black female authors in Africa. It draws on Dangarembga’s narrative in order to open debates about the connections between the oppression of women and nature. This gives an opportunity to discuss the overlooked relationship between women, war violence and environmental degradation in The Book of Not. Premised on this argument, I will utilise the garden landscapes metaphorically to understand and explore the connections of women and nature and to deconstruct the nature/culture dichotomy. It is also premised on the notion that continuity of social, religious and economic aspects of life can be sustained by living in harmony with the environment itself. Thus it draws upon sources from environmentalist criticism and literary studies to investigate the ways in which The Book of Not characterises the natural world and the relationship between women and nature, and how this relationship might influence readers’ attitudes toward the environment.
Nawa Journal of Language and Communication, Jun 1, 2013
From the American Revolution to the present, African American female writers have not only articu... more From the American Revolution to the present, African American female writers have not only articulated the physical horrors of the female slave, but have also celebrated the black American women's lives through their works. For Walker, African American women have suffered a triple oppression of gender, race and class. Thus, using the selected texts, this paper will show Walker's preoccupation with the black American woman, especially the way she is marginalised and subjugated by both the colonial and slave system and her black male counterpart. As an African-American woman, Walker also celebrates the lives of the American black women by giving a voice to the oppressed and voiceless. In her narratives, she criticises both racist and sexist hegemony. This article will show how the women in the selected texts have played a myriad of roles in their search for self-definition and spiritual redemption. In The colour purple, The third life o f Grange Copeland, and also in Walker's essays, In search o f our mother's gardens, she argues that the black women have been notable for standing against oppression and have made significant contributions in the making of the American nation. Hence, this article intends to show that despite being oppressed, African-American women have never succumbed to victimhood. It seeks to examine how Alice Walker celebrates the black-American women's search for identity and fulfilment through a harmonious co existence with their men-folk. The article will conclude that Walker transcends binary oppositions to explore the oppressions, the insanities, the loyalties and triumphs of black women'. Through self-expression, her women characters undergo some form of transformation and hence celebrate a sense of wholeness embedded in a viable past.
Kana tagumburwa, toramba kuita hwezongororo Kuzvikunga kuita hata yavanogona kusenga Kana kuzvida... more Kana tagumburwa, toramba kuita hwezongororo Kuzvikunga kuita hata yavanogona kusenga Kana kuzvidambura gumbo segurwe Kuti masvosve agotimomotera Rogo ngatiise mudonje kwete kunwa Parafini tiise muzvibani tivheneke Tiwone nzira, kwete kuzvipisa, kuzviita vivi (p.68).
Humanities and social sciences, 2015
In its exploration of childhood, this article navigates the contours of the notion “girl-child” a... more In its exploration of childhood, this article navigates the contours of the notion “girl-child” as the “sulbatern” or the “other” in Mahachi-Har per’s narrative, Echoes in the shadows. Also, in its articulation of the complexities of “childhood” in African Literature, the article endeavours to address broader issues such as the use and abuse of cultural practi ces in “knowledge legitimation” (Nnaemeka, 1997, p. 1) in Mahachi-Har per’s narrative. Premised on the feminist theory, the article shows how issues in feminism such as visibility, marginality, victimhood, silence, agency and subjectivity are problematised in the narrative. More importantly, the article argues that the “experience of childhood as a time of innocence, security, self-worth, and contribution to family and community” (Kurth-Schai, 1997, p. 193) is a distant fantasy for most children as shown by Vaida in Mahachi-Harper’s Echoes in the shadows. Even so, the writer is aware of the dangers of universalising the child’...
Western perceptions of the African continent as a forest or ‘site of death’ can be traced to as f... more Western perceptions of the African continent as a forest or ‘site of death’ can be traced to as far back as Joseph Conrad’s Heart of darkness. Post-colonial readings of this text exude a literary paradigm shift that has seen African writers attempt to valourise the African forest as a possible site of development. This ecological oriented criticism (ecocriticism) has emerged as one of the fresh ways of celebrating the environment as the fi gurative site upon which human regeneration is likely to occur. The environment becomes a response to the urgent mundane socio-economic issues and provokes readers to interrogate them. In discussing Kangira’s The bundle of fi rewood, this paper will analyse how these texts use the environment as a narratology to deconstruct the rigid divisions that typify girlhood stereotypes; seeing these not as monolithic, but as permeable and interchangeable. Thus, celebrating the environment is a way of shifting the centre; of giving agency to silent issues an...
Autobiographical writing is the narration of one’s own life. This simple act which entails the re... more Autobiographical writing is the narration of one’s own life. This simple act which entails the retrospective narrative in prose has become one of the most contested issues in written discourses. Using Jane Katjavivi’s memoir Undisciplined Heart, this paper explores dying and death and the ways culture impacts care for the dying, the overall experience of dying and how the dead are remembered. In the memoir, life writing is often entwined with stories of death and bereavement. As such, the paper argues that thanatographical and autothanatographical narration are approaches used for therapy purposes. It also posits that life writing is not about resurrecting the dead through language or burying them in a mass of words; rather, it seeks to interpret the myriad of interrelations and interactions that exist between death and culture. Thus, culture operates as a vehicle and medium through which the meaning of death is communicated and understood. This paper concludes that thanatographical...
Decolonisation of Materialities or Materialisation of (Re-)Colonisation
Journal of African Languages and Literary Studies
What could be discursively more engaging in rhetorical investigation than people writing about wh... more What could be discursively more engaging in rhetorical investigation than people writing about what they know best, their life histories? Apparently, rhetorical analysis involving the retrospective narrative in prose is herein perceived as one of the most contested issues in written discourses as it revolves around an often highly emotive terrain - "rhetorical situation" (Bitzer, 1968 in Hauser & Kjeldsen n.d., p.100) wherein the rhetorical agency's (author) utterance (literary genesis) is nothing more than a manifestation of a unique sitz-in-leben (situation in life) - the human condition involving the author. Using Tendayi Westerhof's semi-autobiographical novel, Unlucky in Love, this paper argues that HIV and AIDS is more than just a disease. It is further noted that so much logos is wasted defending and protecting conventional knowledge and moribund cultural practices. Westerhof's text collapses these cultural boundaries when she writes and universalises th...
Journal of African Languages and Literary Studies
At the beginning of the 20th century (1904-1908), a genocide took place where Herero and Nama peo... more At the beginning of the 20th century (1904-1908), a genocide took place where Herero and Nama people of the then German South West Africa (present day Namibia) were nearly completely decimated by German soldiers. Through the selected factional novels, Parts Unknown (2018) by Zirk Van Den Burg, The Lie of the Land (2017) David Jasper Utley, The Weeping Graves of Our Ancestors (2017) by Rukee Tjingaete, The Scattering (2016) by Lauri Kubuitsile, and Mama Namibia (2013) by Mari Serebrov, this article explores the literary reconstruction of this Herero Nama conflict of 1904 to 1908 with German as the aggressor. The paper considers the pragmatic disposition of the Herero Nama conflict with the Germans as presented from a fictional perspective (faction) and how it is relevant to the reconstruction of the Herero Nama history. Additionally, there are various art forms that specify new modes of expression for the reconstruction of the same historical event and this paper pays attention to so...
Children's Literature in Education, 2007
... The culture of denial, so prevalent in Zimbabwe, is subtly captured in this conversation. It ... more ... The culture of denial, so prevalent in Zimbabwe, is subtly captured in this conversation. It was said Mr. Tembo had died of pneumonia without mentioning the primary HIV infection. ... Eventually, with Anti-retroviral treatment she is a victor. ...
Social settings are what characterise each society hence they vary from one society to the other.... more Social settings are what characterise each society hence they vary from one society to the other. If these social settings are disturbed by any force internally or externally, chaos becomes inexorable. Between 1904-1908 at the dawning of the 20th century, a genocide happened where Herero and Nama people of the then German South West Africa (present day Namibia) were nearly completely exterminated by German soldiers. Through the selected narratives of genocide: Parts Unknown (2018) by Zirk Van Den Burg, The Lie of the Land (2017) by David Jasper Utley, The Weeping Graves of Our Ancestors (2017) by Rukee Tjingaete, The Scattering (2016) Lauri Kubuitsile, and Mama Namibia (2013) by Mari Serebrov, this paper explores the disruption of social settings as represented in the selected texts. Founded within the disruption of social settings of the Herero and Nama people are three key issues namely: interference with family set ups; discounting religion, culture and tradition; and violation o...
Forum for Modern Language Studies, 2020
In her debut novel, Zebra Crossing, Meg Vandermerwe privileges the voice of Chipo Nyamubaya, an a... more In her debut novel, Zebra Crossing, Meg Vandermerwe privileges the voice of Chipo Nyamubaya, an albino girl from Zimbabwe, to capture the gripping and tragic experiences of African immigrants in South Africa. This article problematizes the notion of minor transnational identities by interrogating the relationships between South Africans and those they refer to as outsiders, and the relationship between the African immigrants themselves vis-à-vis culturally held beliefs about albinos and LGBTs. In the process, we demonstrate the patterns of the idea of Otherness brought about by racism, xenophobia, homophobic prejudice and insensitive discrimination. The article reveals how Othering debunks the ideology of African connectedness by bringing out the apparent contradictions in the values of Ubuntu.
Journal of Literary Studies, 2016
Summary This article will examine the connectedness between black women and the different types o... more Summary This article will examine the connectedness between black women and the different types of gardens in Tsitsi Dangarembga’s The Book of Not. It also argues that an analysis of Maiguru’s garden, the Harare gardens, the Sacred Heart gardens and the gardens of domesticity from an ecofeminist perspective, allows nuanced observations of the interconnectivity between black women in the narrative, the racial colonial setting and nature. By linking feminist and environmental ideas, this article is part of the surging debate concerning the connection between literary works and natural resources in literature written by black female authors in Africa. It draws on Dangarembga’s narrative in order to open debates about the connections between the oppression of women and nature. This gives an opportunity to discuss the overlooked relationship between women, war violence and environmental degradation in The Book of Not. Premised on this argument, I will utilise the garden landscapes metaphorically to understand and explore the connections of women and nature and to deconstruct the nature/culture dichotomy. It is also premised on the notion that continuity of social, religious and economic aspects of life can be sustained by living in harmony with the environment itself. Thus it draws upon sources from environmentalist criticism and literary studies to investigate the ways in which The Book of Not characterises the natural world and the relationship between women and nature, and how this relationship might influence readers’ attitudes toward the environment.
Nawa Journal of Language and Communication, Jun 1, 2013
From the American Revolution to the present, African American female writers have not only articu... more From the American Revolution to the present, African American female writers have not only articulated the physical horrors of the female slave, but have also celebrated the black American women's lives through their works. For Walker, African American women have suffered a triple oppression of gender, race and class. Thus, using the selected texts, this paper will show Walker's preoccupation with the black American woman, especially the way she is marginalised and subjugated by both the colonial and slave system and her black male counterpart. As an African-American woman, Walker also celebrates the lives of the American black women by giving a voice to the oppressed and voiceless. In her narratives, she criticises both racist and sexist hegemony. This article will show how the women in the selected texts have played a myriad of roles in their search for self-definition and spiritual redemption. In The colour purple, The third life o f Grange Copeland, and also in Walker's essays, In search o f our mother's gardens, she argues that the black women have been notable for standing against oppression and have made significant contributions in the making of the American nation. Hence, this article intends to show that despite being oppressed, African-American women have never succumbed to victimhood. It seeks to examine how Alice Walker celebrates the black-American women's search for identity and fulfilment through a harmonious co existence with their men-folk. The article will conclude that Walker transcends binary oppositions to explore the oppressions, the insanities, the loyalties and triumphs of black women'. Through self-expression, her women characters undergo some form of transformation and hence celebrate a sense of wholeness embedded in a viable past.
Kana tagumburwa, toramba kuita hwezongororo Kuzvikunga kuita hata yavanogona kusenga Kana kuzvida... more Kana tagumburwa, toramba kuita hwezongororo Kuzvikunga kuita hata yavanogona kusenga Kana kuzvidambura gumbo segurwe Kuti masvosve agotimomotera Rogo ngatiise mudonje kwete kunwa Parafini tiise muzvibani tivheneke Tiwone nzira, kwete kuzvipisa, kuzviita vivi (p.68).
Humanities and social sciences, 2015
In its exploration of childhood, this article navigates the contours of the notion “girl-child” a... more In its exploration of childhood, this article navigates the contours of the notion “girl-child” as the “sulbatern” or the “other” in Mahachi-Har per’s narrative, Echoes in the shadows. Also, in its articulation of the complexities of “childhood” in African Literature, the article endeavours to address broader issues such as the use and abuse of cultural practi ces in “knowledge legitimation” (Nnaemeka, 1997, p. 1) in Mahachi-Har per’s narrative. Premised on the feminist theory, the article shows how issues in feminism such as visibility, marginality, victimhood, silence, agency and subjectivity are problematised in the narrative. More importantly, the article argues that the “experience of childhood as a time of innocence, security, self-worth, and contribution to family and community” (Kurth-Schai, 1997, p. 193) is a distant fantasy for most children as shown by Vaida in Mahachi-Harper’s Echoes in the shadows. Even so, the writer is aware of the dangers of universalising the child’...
Western perceptions of the African continent as a forest or ‘site of death’ can be traced to as f... more Western perceptions of the African continent as a forest or ‘site of death’ can be traced to as far back as Joseph Conrad’s Heart of darkness. Post-colonial readings of this text exude a literary paradigm shift that has seen African writers attempt to valourise the African forest as a possible site of development. This ecological oriented criticism (ecocriticism) has emerged as one of the fresh ways of celebrating the environment as the fi gurative site upon which human regeneration is likely to occur. The environment becomes a response to the urgent mundane socio-economic issues and provokes readers to interrogate them. In discussing Kangira’s The bundle of fi rewood, this paper will analyse how these texts use the environment as a narratology to deconstruct the rigid divisions that typify girlhood stereotypes; seeing these not as monolithic, but as permeable and interchangeable. Thus, celebrating the environment is a way of shifting the centre; of giving agency to silent issues an...
Autobiographical writing is the narration of one’s own life. This simple act which entails the re... more Autobiographical writing is the narration of one’s own life. This simple act which entails the retrospective narrative in prose has become one of the most contested issues in written discourses. Using Jane Katjavivi’s memoir Undisciplined Heart, this paper explores dying and death and the ways culture impacts care for the dying, the overall experience of dying and how the dead are remembered. In the memoir, life writing is often entwined with stories of death and bereavement. As such, the paper argues that thanatographical and autothanatographical narration are approaches used for therapy purposes. It also posits that life writing is not about resurrecting the dead through language or burying them in a mass of words; rather, it seeks to interpret the myriad of interrelations and interactions that exist between death and culture. Thus, culture operates as a vehicle and medium through which the meaning of death is communicated and understood. This paper concludes that thanatographical...
Decolonisation of Materialities or Materialisation of (Re-)Colonisation
Journal of African Languages and Literary Studies
What could be discursively more engaging in rhetorical investigation than people writing about wh... more What could be discursively more engaging in rhetorical investigation than people writing about what they know best, their life histories? Apparently, rhetorical analysis involving the retrospective narrative in prose is herein perceived as one of the most contested issues in written discourses as it revolves around an often highly emotive terrain - "rhetorical situation" (Bitzer, 1968 in Hauser & Kjeldsen n.d., p.100) wherein the rhetorical agency's (author) utterance (literary genesis) is nothing more than a manifestation of a unique sitz-in-leben (situation in life) - the human condition involving the author. Using Tendayi Westerhof's semi-autobiographical novel, Unlucky in Love, this paper argues that HIV and AIDS is more than just a disease. It is further noted that so much logos is wasted defending and protecting conventional knowledge and moribund cultural practices. Westerhof's text collapses these cultural boundaries when she writes and universalises th...
Journal of African Languages and Literary Studies
At the beginning of the 20th century (1904-1908), a genocide took place where Herero and Nama peo... more At the beginning of the 20th century (1904-1908), a genocide took place where Herero and Nama people of the then German South West Africa (present day Namibia) were nearly completely decimated by German soldiers. Through the selected factional novels, Parts Unknown (2018) by Zirk Van Den Burg, The Lie of the Land (2017) David Jasper Utley, The Weeping Graves of Our Ancestors (2017) by Rukee Tjingaete, The Scattering (2016) by Lauri Kubuitsile, and Mama Namibia (2013) by Mari Serebrov, this article explores the literary reconstruction of this Herero Nama conflict of 1904 to 1908 with German as the aggressor. The paper considers the pragmatic disposition of the Herero Nama conflict with the Germans as presented from a fictional perspective (faction) and how it is relevant to the reconstruction of the Herero Nama history. Additionally, there are various art forms that specify new modes of expression for the reconstruction of the same historical event and this paper pays attention to so...
Children's Literature in Education, 2007
... The culture of denial, so prevalent in Zimbabwe, is subtly captured in this conversation. It ... more ... The culture of denial, so prevalent in Zimbabwe, is subtly captured in this conversation. It was said Mr. Tembo had died of pneumonia without mentioning the primary HIV infection. ... Eventually, with Anti-retroviral treatment she is a victor. ...