Modernist Aesthetics as Anathema to National Patriotic Culture: The Case of Nyamfukudza's The Non-Believer's Journey

Abstract

The paper critically analyses the depiction and significance of national patriotic culture in Stanley Nyamfukudza's The Non-Believer's Journey (1980). The writer's depiction of national patriotic culture is examined in the context of Africa's struggles for political and economic emancipation both past and present. The research examines whether or not the writer's portrayal and understanding of national patriotic culture helps in Africa's political and economic liberation. In that regard, the paper assesses the extent to which the writer's vision of national patriotic culture is progressive and liberatory. The paper contends that Nyamfukudza's The Non-Believer's Journey draws people's attention to some of the contradictions inherent in the Zimbabwean liberation struggle. Nyamfukudza seems to centralise these weaknesses than to generate ideas that help Zimbabweans in their struggles against a hostile environment and a hostile people.