Zimbabwe

The country of Zimbabwe is the overall setting for This Mournable Body. Whereas the prequel, Nervous Conditions, took place before the country’s independence, This Mournable Body is set after the country fought a long and devastating guerrilla war lasting over 15 years between the white Rhodesian army and the native black nationalists. Though this war is never shown explicitly, the reader hears Tambu’s reflections on the war and sees the evidence of its destruction: Tambu’s sister, Netsai, lost a leg; Babamukuru was crippled and put in a wheelchair; Tambu was forced to stay longer than she wished in school; Aunt Lucia’s son was killed, and so on. Every character bears scars, some more visible than others, of the violence and destruction of the Zimbabwean civil war. Thus, the Zimbabwe depicted in This Mournable Body is a country that is both trying to heal and to...