Overcomers: a historical sketch

Primorac, Ranka (2023) Overcomers: a historical sketch. In, Lavery, Charne and Nuttall, Sarah (eds.) Reading from the South: African print cultures and oceanic turns in Isabel Hofmeyr's work. Johannesburg. Wits University Press, pp. 89-96.

Record type: Book Section

Abstract

The Zambian author and public intellectual Norah Mumba uses the startling, memorable noun ‘overcomer’ to describe Luweme, the protagonist of her upcoming novel Knitted in Silence, in a late chapter titled ‘New Beginnings’. At that stage in the plot, Luweme has come a long way. She has grown from a silent, traumatised child into an empowered and articulate young woman. Her very presence inspires resolve, resilience and hope in those who know her. But the notion of an ‘overcomer’ – one who moves past obstacles and triumphs in the face of difficulties and dangers - does more than provide an abbreviated reference to the novel’s fast-moving, cumulative plot. It is also an index to how Mumba imagines the emergence of a modern Zambian subjectivity, and how this imagination fits in with her country’s literary history. This history would not be legible to us today without Isabel Hofmeyr’s *The Portable Bunyan*.

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05_Ch_5 Primorac ed ms_RP - Accepted Manuscript

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