Reversions and revisions: displacement, heritage and history in Chenjerai Hove's ancestors

Abstract

Ancestors narrates the story of the deaf and the dumb. It stands, at once, as story and history, as allegory and epic, as journey and departure. It is panoply interrogating matriarchy and patriarchy, domination and emergence from the abyss of history. It is a narrative that presents to its readers the joys of motherhood and the pains of a desecrated motherhood. It is, therefore, both a narrative of struggle and assertion, a process of (un)naming and giving voice to those who have always been the underdogs of African society: the women.