Writing in and about Prison, Childhood Albinism and Human Temporality in The Book of Memory

Abstract

In its depiction of childhood albinism in a Zimbabwean township in the early 1990s and the imprisonment of females during the height of Zimbabwe’s political paralysis and economic collapse of the early 21st century, Petina Gappah's The Book of Memory (2015) makes one imagine ways in which human time is constructed and perceived. As a child, Memory, the protagonist, suffers social exclusion because she has albinism, and as a young adult she is falsely accused of murder and is sentenced to death. These circumstances influence Memory's perception of human temporality as she resorts to the internal resources of memory of the past and future triggered by imprisonment to reflect on the abuse and indignities that she has suffered. The nonlinearity of Gappah's novel is an attempt to escape or at least disrupt the main characters' feelings of being bound within the contingencies of linear human time. The remembering of the past captured in the novel's title and the novel's presentation of the present are all future oriented, although the future of the protagonist is largely presented as bleak.

Opsomming

Danksy Petina Gappah se uitbeelding van kinderjare-albinisme in 'n Zimbabwiese township in die vroeë 1990's en die gevangenskap van vroue gedurende die toppunt van Zimbabwe se politieke verlamming en ekonomiese ondergang vroeg in die 21ste eeu in The Book of Memory (2015), kan mens jou maniere verbeel waarop menslike tyd gekonstrueer en waargeneem word. As kind ervaar Memory, die protagonis, sosiale uitsluiting omdat sy albinisme het, en as jong volwassene word sy valslik van moord beskuldig en die doodstraf opgelê. Hierdie omstandighede beïnvloed Memory se persepsie van menslike temporalieë wanneer sy haar wend tot die interne hulpbronne van herinneringe van die verlede en die toekoms, wat aangevuur word deur gevangenskap om te reflekteer oor die mishandeling en onwaardigheid wat sy moes verduur. Die nielineariteit van Gappah se roman is 'n poging om die hoofkarakters se gevoelens van gebondenheid aan die gebeurlikhede van lineêre menslike tyd, vry te spring of ten minste te ontwrig. Die onthou van die verlede wat in die roman se titel opgesluit is, en die roman se voorstelling van die hede, is alles toekoms georiënteerd, hoewel die toekoms van die protagonis grootliks as droewig voorgestel word.