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This study is a comparative Afrocentric explication of the reflection on victimhood in Chiwome´s Masango Mavi (1998) and Charles Mungoshi´s Walking Still (1997). It is an interrogation of the two literary creators representation of the human condition through the lenses of victimhood. The argument pursued in this study is that the writers perceive reality through the lenses of victimhood. The study observes that by perceiving reality through the lenses of victimhood, the two writers project victimhood as the modus operandi and sine qua non of ontological existence. Furthermore the problematics of victimhood as a critical modality are discussed. In actual fact, the study argues that canonizing victimhood as the only way of life is a parochial perception of reality. The study also unravels the causes of victimhood as they find expression in the two literary works.

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Charles Tembo is a lecturer in the Department of African Languages and Culture at Midlands State University, Zimbabwe. He is currently studying for a PhD with the University of South Africa in which he is pursuing the quest and struggle for total liberation in post independence Shona poetry.

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