THE SIGNIFICANCE OF LAND AND CULTURE IN SELECTED TEXTS BY CHENJERAI HOVE

Abstract

This article explores the significance of land in Chenjerai Hove’s stories. The setting of the stories affects the choices of the protagonists, depending on their status on the land. Hove’s selected novels, Shadows and Ancestors, explore this phenomenon in the context of the Native Purchase lands of the then Rhodesia. The cultural disruption of moving to commercial land as opposed to the land of ancestors has an impact on identity of the characters, both personally and as perceived by others. At times, such perceptions contradict each other, but they also have implications for the characters’ economic and psychological well-being. This article therefore sets out to explore the relationship between land and culture as depicted in Hove’s novels. The main argument is that, while the Native Purchase areas accorded economic status to the Africans involved, it fractured their cultural identity as they had to live by the dictates of the colonial administration. Culture refers to a way of life and includes manner of dress, food, language, social interaction and many other aspects. This in turn adds insight to how the interface of administration of land affects Zimbabwean citizens as literature here holds up a mirror to real life.