‘A lucid stream of everywhereness’ in Ben Okri's Wild (2012): A postmodern perspective

Abstract

The argument begins by claiming that the phrase, ‘a clear lucid stream of everywhereness,’ taken from Ben Okri's The landscapes within, at once encapsulates the postmodern theories of complexity and relativity and evokes a cosmic dimension and a striving for Dasein [authentic human existence] that inform his poetic vision in his latest collection of poetry, Wild (2012). It proceeds to argue for the complexity inherent in the notion ‘postmodernism’; then discusses selected poems in terms of modernity's curious dilemma of ‘just now’ negating the preceding ‘just now’, that the French philosopher Jean-François Leotard talks of, treating recurring motifs of change, transformation and continuing presence. This includes a discussion of the two poems, dedicated to the memory of Okri's late mother and father respectively, that bookend the anthology, contextualising them within postmodernity. The article concludes by re-invoking its own abstract title in ‘Towards the Sublime’ in terms of Leotard's definition, before briefly assessing the import of Okri's latest collection of poems.     

OF FIRE AND REJUVENATION: IN SEARCH OF THE ‘POST-’ IN ‘POST- APARTHEID’

ABSTRACT

In the novels, Scatter the ashes and go (Ravan 2002) and Rumours (Jacana Media 2013), Mongane Wally Serote depicts post-apartheid through a leitmotif central to which the soldier of the African National Congress military wing, ‘Umkhonto We Sizwe’ (MK), is ostensibly caught in an interrupted odyssey. In Scatter the Ashes and go, this soldier has returned from exile in various Southern African countries to a South Africa that is on the threshold of the post-apartheid era. By contrast, in Rumours, the soldier, having arrived from exile in 1990, then goes away to Mali in search of a solution for his post-traumatic stress disorder. The article imputes these disruptions on to the failure to ‘properly’ mourn the victims of apartheid's extra-judicial killing squads, and goes on to note that, as a result of Serote's attention to the subsequent angst, post-apartheid appears as a continuum of trauma. The discussion then proceeds to posit that the resolutions to these diversions are hinted at in these novels’ elaborate motifs of fire, and proposes that the depictions of this pattern recall how Batswana suture the spiritual, psychological and social fractures consequent upon death – especially the death that occurs unnaturally, and upon the breadwinner's return home from a long absence. The bulk of the exploration pays attention to the nuances of this symbol of fire, recognising it as an integral component of a social rite populated by a dynamic interplay between poetry and music.     

Analysing the new Taliban Code of Conduct (Layeha): an assessment of changing perspectives and strategies of the Afghan Taliban

Periodically, Afghanistan's Taliban leadership formally issues Layeha or ‘codes of conduct’ for their fighters and supporters. Layeha offer important insights into the Afghan Taliban's objectives, strategies and the psyche/perspective of Taliban leadership. This article presents an analysis of the Taliban's code of conduct and examines what Layeha tell us about Taliban objectives, strategy and organization. Such information would seem particularly important as the United States as well as its coalition allies assess their Afghan operational strategy as well as exit strategy from Afghanistan. This analysis of the Layeha suggests that the Taliban remain most concerned with: chain of command principles preventing the fragmentation of the various Taliban networks; obtaining and maintaining public support by winning ‘hearts and minds’ of local residents; ensuring enough fighters remain engaged in combat; and galvanizing the perception that the Taliban represent a capable, desirable and fair alternative to the current Afghan political establishment.     

The United Arab Emirates: economic vibrancy and US interests

Based in Tucson, Arizona, Dr J. E. Peterson is a historian and political scientist specializing in the Arabian Peninsula and Gulf. He received his PhD from the Johns Hopkins University and has taught at several academic institutions in the USA and worked for the US government and various research institutes. Until 1999, he served as the Historian of the Sultan's Armed Forces in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister for Security and Defence in Muscat, Sultanate of Oman, and he spent 2000–2001 at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. His books include The Arab Gulf States: Steps Toward Political Participation (Praeger, for the Center for Strategic and International Studies, 1988), Historical Dictionary of Saudi Arabia (Scarecrow Press, 1993; 2^nd ed. Scarecrow Press, 2003) and Defending Oman: A History of the Sultan's Armed Forces (forthcoming). He has written an Adelphi Paper, Saudi Arabia and the Illusion of Security (2002). His articles on ‘Saudi-American Relations after September 11’ and ‘Bahrain's First Steps Towards Reform Under Amir Hamad’ appeared in recent issues of Asian Affairs. Dr Peterson's website is www.JEPeterson.net     

The 2011 Egyptian revolution chants: a romantic-Muʿtazilī moral order

While most literature on the 2011 Egyptian Revolution chants highlights the revolutionary role of poetry, little attention has been paid to the role that theology plays within this domain. This article argues that reading Abu al-Qassim al-Shabbi’s poem, ‘Life’s Will’ (1933), which inspired the chant for the fall of the regime, through the lens of Charles Taylor’s A Secular Age (2007) sheds light on the political relevance of the theological theme within this poem. The essay re-reads al-Shabbi’s investment in the Islamic mu?tāzilī doctrine of free will in terms of the creative role that Taylor gives to romantic poetry in creating a community’s ‘moral order’. Such an analysis brings to light the contribution that a comparative theological-literary framework can have to the political deliberation on the Arab Spring revolutions, especially the 2011 Egyptian Revolution.     

Elite interests and political participation in Botswana, 1966–2014

ABSTRACT

Botswana’s tiny economy is overwhelmingly government-driven and political participation, particularly on the side of the ruling party, is critical for one’s economic survival and prosperity. This has led to enduring intrigue and conflict among the country’s political power elite. Opposition party activists traditionally have embraced leftist policies and claimed to be representing the country’s poor and downtrodden while castigating the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (in power since 1966) of being pro-rich and politically connected business. Ironically, some members of the opposition elite also engage in business ventures with their ruling party counterparts. The scramble for economic opportunities has fuelled debilitating factionalism within both the ruling and opposition parties over the years. In some instances tribalism was mobilised in intra- and inter-party elections for positions of influence even though voters are more interested in service delivery than traditional ethnic issues. Our paper considers the question: ‘Whose interests do Botswana’s politicians represent?’     

Like Mother,Like Daughters? Campaigns for Tribal Peoples’ Rights in the Commonwealth

Abstract

Intent on stealing land and plundering resources, the British Empire labelled its tribal subjects as ‘backward’ and used the excuse of bringing them ‘civilisation’ to appropriate their land and resources. This study examines the development of campaigns for tribal peoples’ rights in various Commonwealth countries since independence. It shows how methods of campaigning have been largely consistent since the birth of the indigenous rights movements, involving the public in letter-writing, demonstrations and vigils, and using publications and the press to raise awareness of rights violations and abuses. It illustrates how many Commonwealth governments today, like the former imperial rulers, believe in the ‘backwardness’ of their tribal citizens, but today it is ‘development’ not ‘civilisation’ that lies behind the theft of their lands and resources.     

Works on Islam in Russian

Islam v politichyeskoy dzhizni stran Sovryemyennogo Blidzhnyego i Sryednyego Vostoka, Islam in the Political Life of the Countries of the Contemporary Near and Middle East (Erevan: Academy of Sciences of Soviet Armenia, 1986; 230 pp.)

N. Oganyesyan's ‘Islamic Activism’ (pp.7–47)

Ye. A. Abgaryan's ‘The Religious and Political Organization of the Muslim Brethren in Egypt’ (pp.48–133)

P.A. Saradzhyan's ‘Activity of the Muslim Brethren in Syria, 1979–82’ (pp. 134–76)

R.P. Kondakchyan's ‘The Strengthening of the Islamic Factor and the Policy of the Military Authorities in Turkey in Religious Affairs After the 1980 Coup d'Etat’ (pp.177–209)

G.M. Yeganyan's ‘Mutual Relations Between Shah and Clergy, 1950–1960’ (pp.210–28).

Yu.M. Kobishchanov's Istoriya rasprostranyeniya Islama v Afrikye, The Spread of Islam in Africa (Moscow: Nauka Press, 1987; 220 pp.)

N.I. Voronchanina's Islam v obshchyestvyenno‐politichyeskoy dzhizni Tunisa, Islam in the Socio‐Political Life of Tunisia (Moscow: Nauka Press, 1986; 192 pp.).

L.V. Val'kova, is entitled Saudovskaya Araviya: nyeft’, islam, politika, Saudi Arabia: Oil, Islam, Politics (Moscow, Nauka Press, 1987; 256 pp.).

S.A. Kirillina's Islam v obshchyestvyennoy dzhizni Yegipta (vtoraya polovina XIX‐nachalo XX v.), Islam in Egypt's Social Life, Second Half of the 19th Century to the Beginning of the 20^th (Moscow: Nauka Press, 1989; 204 pp.).

A.V. Kudryavtsyev's Islamskiy mir i Palyestinskaya problyema, The Islamic World and the Palestinian Problem (Moscow: Nauka Press, 1990; 134 pp.)

V.N. Spol'nikov's Afganistan: Islamskaya oppozitsiya. Istoki i tsyeli, Afghanistan's Islamic Opposition: Sources and Objectives (Moscow: Nauka Press, 1990; 189 pp.)     

The Woman Victim in a Country in Crisis: A Reading of Tagwira's The Uncertainty of Hope

The article is based on my reading of Valerie Tagwira’s The Uncertainty of Hope as a feminist text that portrays female victimhood in the context of a failing postcolonial state. Tagwira writes about the experiences of a woman against the background of Murambatsvina, officially termed ‘‘Operation Clean Up.’’ The Zimbabwean Operation Clean Up of 2005 was condemned worldwide; and in her novel, Tagwira gives an often-ignored dimension of a woman’s experience of it, in the general context of a country facing serious political, economic and social challenges. For Tagwira, the challenges faced by Onai, as well as those around her, do not have links to their racial identities. Thus, Tagwira redefines the enemyvictim trope of the Third Chimurenga by subverting the state’s interpretation of the struggle discourse of the Third Chimurenga. In the state’s discourse, the victim trope is racial, the state enemy is the former colonial master (in support of the opposition political party) and the victim is the previously colonised black. In my analysis, I have used Susan Wendell’s theory on oppression and victimisation as contained in her article Oppression and Victimization: Choice and Responsibility (1990).     

Imagining a dialectical African modernity: Achebe's ontological hopes,Sembene's machines,Mda's epistemological redness

In Chinua Achebe's book of essays Hopes and Impediments, he asserts that Nigeria's failure to ‘develop’ and ‘modernise’ like Japan is because of a ‘failure of imagination’. Yet for many Africans, modernity is a tainted ‘gift’ because it was introduced into the African continent along with European colonial capitalism which simultaneously caused an ontological crisis of self. Although many Africans want to ‘catch up’ with the West, how is it possible when Western technological superiority was equated with white racial superiority? Achebe declares that, as Africans ‘begin their journey into the strange, revolutionary world of modernization’, literature should function as guide. Hence, I examine Ousmane Sembene's novel God's Bits of Wood which depicts Africans laying claim to ‘race-less’, ‘language-less’ ‘machines’. But does (Western) technology change culture? Can African culture appropriate technology to form a dialectical African modernity? If so, what role does ‘tradition’ play? In Zakes Mda's The Heart of Redness, we witness the emergence of a traditional modernity made possible by a dialectical epistemology.     

A portrait of the Israeli woman as the beloved: the woman‐soldier in the poetry of Mahmüd Darwish after the 1967 war

Understandably, the treatment of the Israeli as an individual in contemporary Arabic literature has been quite limited. A significant attempt to portray an Israeli woman has been made by the Palestinian poet, Mahmüd Darwish. Over the course of three poems, written at different points in the poet's career, Darwish introduces and develops the character Rita, capturing in each poem a different facet of the personal, human tragedy inherent in the love between an Israeli woman and a Palestinian man. The conflicts of love, national suffering, and the inconstancy of human behaviour work against any hope for a lasting relationship between Rita and the poet. Beyond the narrative of this ‘Rita trilogy’, a number of points merit critical evaluation: the novelty of a compassionate portrayal of an Israeli woman in Arabic literature, and the question of whether Rita is in fact an individual or a symbol of something greater. Texts of the poems treated are provided as appendices in both English and Arabic.     

Shifting the debate on land reform,poverty and inequality in Zimbabwe,an engagement with Zimbabwe's Land Reform: Myths and Realities 1

Zimbabwe's land reform: myths and realities 2 2. Zimbabwe's Land Reform: Myths and Realities by Ian Scoones, Nelson Marongwe, Blasio Mavedzenge, Jacob Mahenehene, Felix Murimbarimba and Crispen Sukume, Woodbridge, Suffolk, James Currey, 2010, 304 pp., ISBN 9781847010247. purports to overturn the western media and academy's ‘myths’ of agrarian failure and cronyism in Zimbabwe's fast-track land reform with a study rooted in the ‘reality’ of its outcomes in the Masvingo area. Yet the positivist picture painted by Scoones, Marongwe, Mavedzenge, Mahenehene, Murimbarimba, and Sukume is another position in portrayals of a complex process entangling many local material struggles–including those seen as successful examples of the yeomanry admired by the authors–with the equally important processes of authoritarian nationalism they side-line. ‘Myth making’ is not counter to ‘reality’, but positions particular claims within it. By concentrating on the ‘local’ and celebrating what they see as non-technocratic successes, the authors ignore the context and politics of the state–which they later invoke to develop adequate supportive policy and stability for the new farmers. Their reality ignores as much as the myths they try to challenge, and thus fails to assist to develop the policies they would like.     

Encounters with panaceas: reading flyers and posters on ‘traditional’ healing – a reply to Kadenge and Ndlovu (2012)

Kadenge and Ndlovu [2012. “Encounters with Panaceas: Reading Flyers and Posters on ‘Traditional’ Healing in and Around Johannesburg's Central Business District.” Journal of Contemporary African Studies 30 (3): 461–482] evaluated flyers and posters that advertise traditional and alternative healing methods which they regard as viable alternatives to biomedicine that may well transmit potent knowledge and facilitate new ways of thinking. They furthermore view these flyers and posters as a demonstration of the advertisers’ ‘adaptability’ and ‘sensitivity’ towards their customers (480–481). This article is a rebuttal of the aforementioned position towards, and judgement of these advertisers. Reading these flyers and posters from a misleading advertising and Kantian perspective reveals not a demonstration of adaptability, but rather dishonesty and exploitation; rather than transmitting ancient knowledge, they reinforce superstition and fear. These advertisements, often misleadingly clad as African, do not facilitate new ways of thinking, but merely facilitate deception.     

Bemerkungen zur reform des Reichsjustizwesens in der Zweiten Hälfte des 16. Jahrhunderts

Summary

Voltaire and the ‘Glorious Revolution’ of 1688

From the start of his career Voltaire was pro‐English. Britain was for him the country of a ‘sage liberté’ which was the beneficial result of the civil wars. His contacts with the British community in Paris and the exiled Lord Bolingbroke help explain why he sought refuge in London after his imprisonment and his subsequent passion for English institutions. Voltaire's view of institutions was not always very accurate; he only saw the positive side and, intentionally or not, concealed a great deal. The religious foundation of the English character escaped him, as did the agrarian problems. For him the regime of 1689 constituted a constitutional ideal; the balance it achieved was a perfection to whose defects he was blind.

Voltaire had always been split between his admiration for the English system and his respect for the ‘enlightened’ work of Frederick the Great and Catherine Il. He inclined, especially towards the end of his life, towards England. He was one of the originators of a current, still very much alive in France, of an anglophilia of the left’. But the undeniable weakness in Voltaire's thought was his failure ever to ask how far the representative government he so admired was capable of being practised by the French.     

How to build a better future? Kyrgyzstani development workers and the ‘knowledge transfer’ strategy

The development industry has moved from concepts of aid and technical assistance to the idea that closing ‘gaps’ in people's knowledge is the most effective way of alleviating poverty and injustice. My data show the means through which this ‘knowledge transfer’ is actually supposed to happen. I examine the micro-politics of development: the role and agency of development workers, who are so frequently employed to conduct ‘training’ on a wide range of topics affecting citizens' well-being, such as conflict prevention or sustainable agricultural practices. This paper draws on ethnographic research between 2010 and 2012 with Kyrgyzstani NGO workers to analyse the ‘side-effects’ of development, such as the creation of a new social class and softening age hierarchies. I examine the widespread conviction among trainers that education can solve most social ills, and their concepts of how knowledge, sometimes in the guise of ideologiya, shapes people. I argue that this faith in knowledge reflects both the life course of NGO workers themselves and what they can offer from within the ‘knowledge transfer’ paradigm. An understanding of the friction between different expectations of knowledge content, teaching relationships and aims in creating well-being is not only essential to a critical reflection on these development efforts but also illuminates wider political and social processes and relationships, such as expectations of the state and international community.     

The Struggle over Turkish Village Coffeehouses (1923–45)

D.I. Soyfyer, in his Krakh Sionistskikh tyeoriy, The Bankruptcy of the Zionist Theories (Dniyepropyetrovsk: Promin's Press, 1980; 192 pp.)

A.B. Doyev's Sovryemyenniy Iudaizm i Sionizm, Contemporary Judaism and Zionism (Frunze: Kirgizstan Press, 1983; 68 pp.)

Myedzhdunarodniy Sionizm: istoriya i politika (sbornik statyey), International Zionism – History and Politics: A Collection of Articles (Moscow: Nauka Press for the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union, 1977; 176 pp.)

Zionism: Enemy of Peace and Social Progress. Volume 2 of this work (1983)

I. Zvyagelskaya (authoress of a book in Russian on the Israeli military élite in politics), entitled ‘Who Is Obstructing the Settlement of the Middle East Conflict’ (pp. 137–68).

Ye. Dmitriyev (a prolific writer on the Arab‐Israel conflict), entitled ‘Zionist Ideas as Reflected in Israeli Government Policy on A Middle East Settlement in the Early 1980s’ (pp. 205–19).

Felitsia Langer is an Israeli Jewish lawyer, close to the leaders of the Israel Communist Party, who specializes in defending Arabs suspected of terrorism before the Israeli Courts. Her Oni moi brat'ya, They Are My Brethren (Moscow: Progress Press, 1979; 192 pp.)

Gorst’ rodnoy zyemli: Sovryemyennaya Palyestinskaya novyella, A Handful of the Fatherland Earth: Contemporary Palestinian Stories (Moscow: Progress Press, 1981; 312 pp.),

This Leitmotif is set by the title of the first story, ‘Return to Haifa’ (pp. 21–64) by Ghassan Kanafani (1936–73),

Ghassan Kanafani and entitled Lyudi pod solntsyem, People under the Sun (Moscow: Raduga Press, 1984; 343 pp.)

Put’ k miru na Blidzhnyem Vostokye, The Road to Peace in the Near East (Moscow: Myedzhdunarodniye Otnoshyeniya Press, 1974; 248 pp.)

Ye. Dmitriyev and V. Ladyeykin includes a chapter on ‘The Arab People of Palestine’ (pp. 55–74).

A.P. Barishyev, entitled Blidzhniy Vostok: problemi mira na rubyedzhye 80‐kh godov, The Near East: Problems of Peace at the Threshold of the 80s (Moscow: Znaniye Press, 1979; 64 pp.).

L.L. Vol'nov, Livanskiy dnyevnik, Lebanese Diary (Moscow: Political Literature Press, 1980; 96 pp.).

U vrat Vostoka: Ochyerki o Livanye, At the Gate of the East: Essays on Lebanon (Moscow: Misl’ Press, 1982; 112 pp.),

Liban: ekho agressii, Lebanon: Echo of the Aggression (Moscow: Political Literature Press, 1984; 112 pp.).

M. Ye. Hazanov's OON i Blidzniyevostochniy krizis, The United Nations Organisation and the Near‐Eastern Crisis (Moscow: Myedzhdunarodniye Otnoshyeniya Press, 1983; 176 pp.),

Hazanov's book is Palyestinskaya problyema: Dokumyenti OON, myedzhdunarodnikh organizatsiy i konfyeryentsiy, The Palestinian Problem: Documents of the UN, International Organisations and Conferences (Moscow: Progryess Press, 1984; 240 pp.).

D. Sokolov, entitled ‘Palyestinskaya tragyediya i istoki Palyestinskogo dvidzyeniya soprotivlyeniya (1917–1949 gg.)’,

‘The Palestinian Tragedy and the Origins of the Palestinian Resistance Movement, 1917–1949’ (Palyestinskiy Sbornik, Vol. 26 (89), 1978, pp. 3–21).

(Palyestinskiy Sbornik, Vol. 27 (90), 1981, pp. 3–22.)

Ye. Dmitriyev, is entitled Palyestinskiy uzyel: k voprosu ob uryegulirovanii Palyestinskoy problyemi, The Palestinian Knot: Towards the Question of Settlement of the Palestinian Problem (Moscow: Myedzhdunarodniye Otnoshyeniya Press, 1978; 304 pp.).

al‐Qadiyya al‐Filastiniyya: al‐'Udwan wa‐'l‐muqawama wa‐subul al‐taswiya, The Palestinian Problem: Aggression, Resistance, Means of Resolution (Moscow: 1983; 230 pp. Oriental Studies in the USSR, 3).

The Palestine Problem: Aggression, Resistance, Ways of Settlement (Moscow: ‘Social Sciences Today’ Editorial Board, 1984; 277 pp. Oriental Studies in the USSR, 9).     

Domesticating Ivoirité: Equating xenophobic nationalism and women’s marginalisation in Tanella Boni’s Matins de couvre-feu (2005)

Abstract

Tanella Boni, an author engaged with African women’s emancipation, has written cautionary essays since the 1990s decrying the xenophobic nature of government-sanctioned ivoirité in the Ivory Coast. Forced into exile owing to the subsequent strife (2000-2010), she wrote Matins de couvre-feu (2005), an allegorical novel in which the woman’s status as a second-class citizen is equated with that of a foreigner in a xenophobic state. This representation plays on the domestic / public space dichotomy, considered by feminist discourse to be a social barrier to women’s equal citizenship. Drawing on Boni’s own ‘feminist’ monograph, Que vivent les femmes d’Afrique? (2008), this article explores the internalisation of national politics (the public sphere) through the ‘domestication’ of an anonymous female narrator who is placed under house arrest. Thereafter an analysis of Kanga Ba, a character who is a victim of xenophobic nationalism, is used to substantiate the equation of the woman’s social and political marginalisation as being that of the foreigner. The argument concludes that Boni’s representational framework ultimately subverts the very notion of a public / domestic dichotomy through narrative strategies that illustrate the porous nature of both spaces, thus eliding the separation between private and national experiences.     

A historical review of the critical judgement of Il Gattopardo (1958) on the Risorgimento

The Leopard (Italian: Il Gattopardo) is a novel by Prince Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa that chronicles the end of the Bourbons' kingdom and the beginning of the Savoy dynasty, the first sovereigns of the new Kingdom of Italy (1861). Published posthumously in 1958, it became the top-selling novel in Italian history and it is considered one of the most important novels in modern Italian literature. In 2012 The Observer named it as one of the ‘10 best historical novels’. The purpose of this article is to refute the negative image of the Risorgimento as presented in this novel. The Leopard, with its broad resonance, has strongly contributed towards distorting the historical judgement on the foundations of the Italian nation, above all by failing to do justice to Prime Minister Cavour's courageous and judicious political strategy in the choice of the leadership class – also Sicilian – in the newly created Kingdom of Italy (1860–61).     

Ruth First: political journalist,researcher and teacher

This article begins with Ruth's teaching at Durham and Dar es Salaam and teaching and research at the Centro de Estudos Africanos in Maputo. It discusses Ruth's research on how white farmers and mining houses in South Africa addressed their common problem of finding labour that was ‘abundant and … cheap’. She wrote about migrant workers to the South African mines from the South African end in ‘The gold of migrant labour’ and from the Mozambican end in Black Gold: the Mozambican miner. The address examines her analysis of the ‘power elite’ in Barrel of a Gun. It concludes with the threat that new legislation makes to investigative journalism in South Africa.     

RETHINKING AFRICAN SEXUALITIES IN THE CONTEXT OF HIV AND AIDS: THE LIFE AND DEATH DISCOURSE OF ‘MODERNISED POLYGAMY’ IN SUE NYATHI'S THE POLYGAMIST

ABSTRACT

This article is a study of Sue Nyathi's novel The Polygamist as a cultural production dealing with African modern polygamy1 in the context of HIV and AIDS. What is termed ‘modern polygamy’ in this article is a practice where men have several ‘wives’ but not in the African traditional sense, especially within the Shona culture, but in the sense of what is popularised as a ‘small house’ phenomenon. Nyathi's novel is discussed within the following frameworks corresponding to the three distinct parts of the article. In the first part of the discussion, the dichotomy between economic/ social status and ‘modern polygamy’ is explored. The second part of the discussion is a gendered perspective of ‘modern’ polygamy and particularly highlights gender constructions in Nyathi's representation of ‘modern’ polygamy. In the last section, multiple sexual relations and HIV and AIDS are discussed. Significantly, the article demonstrates that imaginative literature is a cultural site that can help us understand human behaviour and HIV and AIDS; particularly in what in religious terms would be referred to as ‘old testament’ polygamy that poses a danger to health and the social fabric in its new form in modern Zimbabwean society.