History, migration and identity in contemporary Zimbabwean biography as reflected in Peter Orner and Annie Holmes’ (2010) Hope Deferred: Narratives of Zimbabwean Lives

Abstract

This article endeavours to establish the relationship between history, migration and identity in contemporary Zimbabwean biography as reflected in Peter Orner and Annie Holmes’ Hope Deferred: Narratives of Zimbabwean Lives. History is conceptualised as a heterogeneous discourse constitutive of conflictual and competing personal and public histories that contest for hegemony in defining individual and national identities. Through the power of narration, the various characters explored do not just engage in storytelling but are (un) consciously reworking their life trajectories and deliberately redefining and reconstructing their identities, especially their political identities. This reconfiguration is attributed to the political landscape of Zimbabwe that has largely been shaped by Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front’s political leadership and ideological hegemony since 1980. However, this dominance is being challenged and undermined by the personal histories of individuals who engage in (forced) migration and thus are able to author and construct counter/alternative narratives and identities.