Why Don't You Carve Other Animals?

This place is Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) which was dominated by Caucas in the 1970s, exiled Africans are in their own land. Young men and women ran away from their villages to join freedom fighters in the forest. These stories were decided during the armed struggle era, telling stories of another struggle, the survival of those who stayed. From the perspective of women who are lyrical but unaffected prose, these stories reproduce the dark atmosphere of those moons filled with fear and hope.

In a short story about why Yvonne Vera does not carve other animals, I saw the concept of using wisdom. There is a painter and a sculptor in this story. The environment is outside the "Africa only" hospital in South Africa. The sculptor merely carved an elephant and a giraffe from memory, and there was no emotion in his sculpture. In contrast to the sculptor, the painter's picture has become very emotional. The paintings of Victoria Falls painter (derived from memory) include representing his bright and gorgeous colors. There are many hidden meanings in short stories. At that time the elephant and giraffe represented South African racial discrimination. Filling an elephant red indicates how people pay attention to the outside and color, not how to pay attention to the inside (or people) of objects. Since Africa was colonized by Europeans from 1870 to around 1900, Africa dramatically changed to integrate European culture.

"Why do not you carve other animals?" This story is full of images and figurines. Two men, one is a sculptor, and the other is a painter, sitting in front of the "African" hospital. The sculptor carved a giraffe and an elephant. "The elephant carved by him, and Kirin, a strange torticoll, a sculptor carried the jungle to the city." (P.71) The city is barren, lacking in spirit and history. The sculptor created incomplete animals to illuminate in a foreign place where he was forced to live. He will not carve anything but giraffes and elephants. What do these animals represent? Perhaps it is a local person or a colonialist? Is this the method of organizing co-colony? "The struggle between elephants and giraffes eats the top leaves in the forest" (page 72) Perhaps Vera is trying to symbolize the tension and struggle between the two groups to rule. Culture "His sculpture is his dream" (p.73)