Identity and the Language in NoViolet Bulawayo’s We Need New Names

Abstract

Humans have been migrating for centuries. This paper tries to delineate the formation of hybrid identities using the transnational theory of migration in a postcolonial context. Throughout the colonial and the postcolonial history, the voices of migrant experiences have been overlooked. They had accepted their position as silent spectators to their own stories without a voice, without opinion and without choice. Their Silence was being read as a form of acceptance and approval without delving much into the social, political and economic milieu of the era. This paper aims at understanding the dynamics of language and the choice of the migrant community to rise above their status as silenced subjects and oppressed people and share their experiences. It intends to explore the language differences and the search for an identity in NoViolet Bulawayo’s We Need New Names which tells the story of a diasporic African teenager who tries to grapple with the host country culture while still holding to the memories of her homeland and a yearning to go back home. The paper tries to understand the search and development of a hybrid and transnational identity of the migrant.