Urban youth unemployment in Zimbabwe: an African-centered literary-based critique of Tsitsi Dangarembga's The Book of Not (2006), Valerie Tagwira's The Uncertainty of Hope (2006) and Petina Gappah's An Elegy for Easterly (2009)

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Title:	Urban youth unemployment in Zimbabwe: an African-centered literary-based critique of Tsitsi Dangarembga's The Book of Not (2006), Valerie Tagwira's The Uncertainty of Hope (2006) and Petina Gappah's An Elegy for Easterly (2009)
Authors:	Magosvongwe, Ruby Nyamende, Abner
Year:	2014
Periodical:	Journal for Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences (ISSN 2026-7215)
Volume:	3
Issue:	1
Pages:	189-212
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Zimbabwe
Subjects:	prose women writers youth unemployment urban youth
Abstract:	This article analyses Zimbabwean post-2000 black female-authored depictions of urban youth unemployment against the backdrop of the socio-economic crises culminating from the post-2000 economic melt-down. In Zimbabwe, urban youths constitute the hardest-hit group in terms of unemployment. The analysis in this paper uses an African-centred approach drawing from trajectories of the youth as represented in Tsitsi Dangarembga's novel The Book of Not (2006), Valerie Tagwira's The Uncertainty of Hope (2006) and Petina Gappah's short story collection, An Elegy for Easterly (2009). These literary narratives form an essential socio-historical record of the experiences constituting the bedrock of urban youth unemployment. The paper concludes that redressing the consequences of exclusion of the youth from both economic and land redistributive programmes requires political will and conscious efforts. Bibliogr., sum. [ASC Leiden abstract]