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“Something Radical”: Problematizing the masculine state in Tendai Huchu's The Hairdresser of Harare

Abstract This article examines how Tendai Huchu in The Hairdresser of Harare attempts to deconstruct national discourses of normativity from within. Focusing on the curious and powerful couple of Minister M_ and Mr. M_, I argue that the novel complicates narratives about nationalism and belonging by including narratives of gender and sexuality that have been excluded from the nationalist, heteronormative national script of Zimbabwean identity. Huchu uses an interesting authorial technique in his novelistic discourse to embody complexities that cut across political/ideological position. In my discussion of the novel, I show how Huchu makes it difficult for a reader to occupy a simple either/or position of approval or censure in relation to a range of issues related to gender, sexuality, power, and the nation.