Subjectivity and Belonging in the Poetry of Bart Wolffe

In his work Bart Wolffe, the exiled white Zimbabwean writer, talks of his explorations of the mountains, hills and forests of Zimbabwe and his experiences with nature (especially as a child). The works, especially the ones he has written while in exile, show that his longing and nostalgia for the lost paradisiacal world of his childhood has more to do with his disconnection or displacement from the Zimbabwean world of nature than any other form of loss. The argument in this paper is that Wolffe's description of the Zimbabwean landscape and his attachment to the land and its animals in his poetry is an act of self-inscription onto the landscape to claim a white Zimbabwean and, by extension, a white African identity.