Versions of Heterotopia in the Artistic Works of Dambudzo Marechera and Soul Jah Love

Heterotopias are “simultaneously mythic and real contestations of the space in which we live”, situated as spaces that are both part of and outside our existing world (Foucault, Of Other Spaces: Utopias and Heterotopias, Architecture/Mouvement/Continuité. Available from: https://web.mit.edu/allanmc/www/foucault1.pdf . Accessed 12 Feb 2022, 1984: 4). As contrasted to utopias that do not occupy real space, heterotopias are both physical locations and metaphorical constructions. They are counter-spaces that represent certain worlds within worlds. In light of this, it is interesting to understand how Marechera (re)constructs and deals with his own world and experiences within the colonial context in The House of Hunger and how Soul Jah Love does it in his music within the post-2000 Zimbabwean context. Heterotopias describe spaces with supplementary layers of meaning and have certain ways of being known or relating to other places. Marechera’s township life depicted in The House of Hunger and Soul Jah Love’s Mbare and ghetto life illuminate the politics of space. Marechera and Soul Jah Love’s appropriation of the space is not just the transgressive act of writing or performance, particularly for the artists, but also the act of self-representation that demonstrates how heterotopias are sites that are “simultaneously represented, contested, and inverted” (Foucault, Of Other Spaces: Utopias and Heterotopias, Architecture/Mouvement/Continuité. Available from: https://web.mit.edu/allanmc/www/foucault1.pdf . Accessed 12 Feb 2022, 1984: 3). This chapter deploys Foucault’s (1986) theory of heterotopia as enunciated in Of Other Spaces to appreciate how Marechera and Soul Jah Love (re)designed their experiences and environments in a way that enlightens our understanding of their spaces. This chapter finds it critical to look and draw parallels between Soul Jah Love and Marechera because their art has much impact in redefining the artscape of Zimbabwe. These artists capture the politics of space in intriguing ways. Though they are from different epochs and have different experiences, their lives and art have a way of diverging and converging.