A Girl Named Disaster

The magazine cover Nhamo carries with her is a motif, which symbolizes belonging. Nhamo discovers the image in a pile of old magazines that the villagers are planning to burn. As soon as she sees it, “her heart beat[s] so fast it hurt[s]” (8). The image depicts “a beautiful woman” (8) cutting a piece of bread and spreading margarine on it for a little girl. Nhamo immediately decides that the woman is her mother and the little girl is her. She doesn’t remember what her mother looked like, because she died when Nhamo was only three years old. However, Nhamo is convinced the woman in the advertisement is Mother because of “the way her spirit leaped when she saw” it (9). Therefore, the image offers Nhamo the maternal comfort she has craved throughout her childhood.

The magazine cover recurs throughout the novel, gaining symbolic significance as the narrative progresses. The image is one of the only personal items Nhamo brings with her when she leaves her village. To Nhamo, carrying the cover feels like carrying her mother with her. When she feels alone or afraid, she extracts the image and speaks to it.