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Quote by NoViolet Bulawayo

“If these walls could talk, the buildings would stutter, wouldn't remember their names.”

Book:We Need New Names

Work

We Need New Names

Browse quotes and source details for this work. more

Author

NoViolet Bulawayo

NoViolet Bulawayo, born on December 10, 1981, is a prominent author from Zimbabwe. Her works are set against the backdrop of Zimbabwe's social reality, profoundly addressing issues such as poverty, racial discrimination, and the plight of children. more

“What I wanted was to get away. But the moon was too far beyond, and there were white bits under me, where the flesh was shredded off and the bone gleamed that famed ivory, and those below cowered and, if they were not quick enough, were spattered in blood. Then came the jolt, as of a fall, and I saw the leg was caught in an ungainly way in the smaller branches of a mutamba tree, the foot hooked, long like that infamous fruit.”

Violence Trauma Civil War Zimbabwe Rhodesia Land Mine

Book:The Book of Not

Source: The Book of Not

“The doctor in Murare is old - old for anybody. He is especially old for a doctor and especially old for an African. But he doesn´t have the luxury of retirement to look forward to. There aren´t enough doctors in Africa. Those who choose to become doctors here don´t do it for the money or because thy want to do good. They do it because they have to heal, the way most people need to breath or eat or love. They can´t stop. As long as they are alive, they will never not be a doctor. They can be old, or alcoholic or burnt-out, but they will always be a doctor.”

Calling Heal Africa Doctor Zimbabwe Rhodesia

Author:Alexandra Fuller

“Now when the men talk, their voices burn in the air, making smoke all over the place. We hear about change, about new country, about democracy, about elections and what-what. They talk and talk, the men, lick their lips and look at the dead watches on their wrists and shake their hands and slap each other and laugh like they have swallowed thunder.”

Literary Fiction Literary Zimbabwe African Authors African Literature

Book:We Need New Names

Source: We Need New Names

“You know, Tsitsi, you are so quick to point out that you are not a prostitute. I just want to laugh because you are just falling into rank. You all should spare us your ‘morality’ that lauds ‘women’ over the supposedly lesser ‘whores’ and ‘girls’. That’s how society sees us. That’s how you see us. You want it to be that we are like coal, only to be loved in the dark and tossed like ashes come morning.”