An Ecofeminist Reading of NoViolet Bulawayo's We Need New Names

Abstract

This paper explores the parallels between the degradation of the environment and the oppression of women in NoViolet Bulawayo's novel We Need New Names. Using the ecofeminist lens, this study investigates the interconnections between environmental deterioration and the oppression of black women in Zimbabwe where Darling, a young black girl leading a miserable existence, has to endure marginalization and humiliation. The novel is simply Darling's fragmented memoir of the violence exercised by the patriarchal authorities in her society over both the environment and women. Darling's story reveals how women bear unbearable burdens in family sustenance that becomes even more difficult with environmental degradation. In the light of these premises, this article offers an ecofeminist reading of Bulawayo's novel with an emphasis on the interconnection between the degradation of the environment and the subordination of black women in the novel.