© Johns Hopkins University Press
Ariel, 2025, 56(3-4), 49-78
Johns Hopkins University Press
This article draws on affect studies and the theory of solidarity to examine the emergence of a grassroots revolution in NoViolet Bulawayo's "Glory" (2022). While the novel engages with existing scholarship on the affective politics of solidarity, it also adds a critical dimension to these discussions by exploring the nuanced role of various emotions in fostering coalition-building for resistance in a fictionalised post-2017 Zimbabwe. Contrary to Sally Scholtz's assertion about the primacy of hope in political solidarity, "Glory" suggests that hope alone is insufficient to unify and mobilise the novel's characters. They remain paralysed by their fear of the authorities despite their simultaneous frustration and anger about their sociopolitical circumstances. In this sense, the narrative also challenges the traditional dichotomy of hope and fear as opposing forces, particularly through its depiction of the emotional state Katie Stockdale calls "fearful hope" (25). The novel illustrates how intense feelings of injustice, specifically protagonist Destiny's bitterness, can mobilise a profoundly divided populace into collective defiance, despite the reputation of this emotion for being destructive. The movement towards rebellion, which also encompasses grief and remembrance, forges solidarity across deep social and ethnic divides, thus evoking the traditional Black feminist approach to coalition politics. Ultimately, Glory advances radical love as an essential component of this intersectional solidarity and emphasises love's transformative potential as both a means of embracing difference in the pursuit of liberation and a framework for imagining more just futures. By portraying this emotional evolution, the novel deepens our understanding of the affective and ethical foundations necessary for solidarity and provides innovative insights into the intricate relationships between fear and hope, anger and revolution, and love and solidarity in contemporary postcolonial contexts of oppression.
