Required Reading on Immigration

A few pages from NoViolet Bulawayo's We Need New Names

Tijuana border. Photo from my book, Passport Photos (University of California Press, 2000)

Today in one of my classes we discussed NoViolet Bulawayo’s excellent debut novel, We Need New Names (2013). The novel is narrated by Darling who, when the novel begins, is only ten. Her experiences in a shantytown in an unnamed country that is Zimbabwe are very specific but they are relatable in other contexts—in fact, at the start of class today, I shared a video made recently by BBC Hindi of a girl in Uttar Pradesh rescuing her books from a fire. My students wrote very thoughtful responses about the effectiveness of a child’s viewpoint, how that kind of imperfect knowledge makes the revelations more piercing and poignant. As the novel progresses, Darling grows into her teens and comes to America, to a city that back home the kids had only known as “Destroyedmichigyen.” Her aunt works in a hospital and in a nursing home. Darling herself takes on a job in a supermarket. Although most of the chapters are in her voice, there are a few places in the novel when there is a break and the point of view becomes a collective one. There is one that is really an anthem of exile. We have all read reports of the fear that ICE raids have spread in immigrant communities. This brief section titled “How They Lived” from Bulawayo’s novel is required reading for those spreading this fear.