A Critical Exploration of Political Violence in Selected Literary Works: A Case of Tagwiras The Uncertainty of Hope And Owuors Dust

ABSTRACT

Even though there are several studies in the field of literature that looked at violence, most researches did not necessarily concern political violence which cast across any human being. Political and electoral violence are pernicious vices that continue to afflict most African states, with Kenya and Zimbabwe, included. It is a truism that these two are mother and baby, with political violence being the umbrella under which electoral violence shoots itself. The motivation behind these two categories of violence is eminently political; which is the unfair acquisition of political advantage by one individual or group or individuals over another. This study critically explored how Tagwira and Owour present political violence in their fictional writing which is The uncertainty of hope and Dust. The study critically analysed the causes, manifestation and effects of political violence as reflected in the novels written in the post independent states. This study presented an argument of what happened during pre colonial and post colonial era in Zimbabwe and Kenya as presented in the literary works. This study further analysed how different sections of the society are depicted as victims and perpetrators of political violence. The purpose of this study was to explore and analyse if the political violence which The African states fought against the colonial rule completely disappeared after the gain of independence which is the backbone of this study. This study was a qualitative desktop research. This study through the analysis of the literary fictional workrevealed that political violence that existed before independence never disappeared as the post political leaders inherited the ruling system of the pre political leaders.. The research is informed by trauma and post-colonial theories and both theories are employed in the interpretation of data. Post-colonial theory which shows the end of colonialism and what happens after colonialism. Therefore trauma theory describes how the victims got traumatised due to political violence in the post independent states. This study adds to the body of literature as it informs on why political violence is still prevalent in some of the African independent African states and some preventative measures that could be taken ii just to minimise political violence. Based on the findings of this study, it can be concluded that political violence is still prevalent in some of the post independent states as presented in the literary texts analysed due to political leaders who still want to hold on to power, discrimination among ethnic groups (favouring their own tribes) and dissatisfaction on government’s ruling system. Finally the exploitation and abuse of human rights of citizen as revealed in the analysis of the literary texts for this study