Not a stupid pen, not a stupid book, not a miserable education certificate, not any high-sounding queer theories, none of it but the gun, and only the gun, and just the gun, and always the gun, and forever the gun, yessir, the gun, gun, gun, gun, gun. Tholukuthi the gun.
-- Narrator (chapter 1)

Importance: Early in the novel, Bulawayo explores the central method of oppression and state terror in Jidada. As citizens watch the Old Horse arrive at a rally, they consider the relative ineffectiveness of the “pen,” “education” and “high-sounding queer theories.” Political power does not come from these sources; instead, power depends entirely on the brutal efficacy of “the gun.” The repetition of “the gun” then gestures, in a formal sense, to the overwhelming importance of violence as a method of subjugation for the corrupt Jidadan government.

But it was still a complicated joy—tholukuthi we’d be ululating one moment, then...
-- Narrator (chapter 5)