Crossing The Boundary: Transnationality And Interracial Marriage Encounters In Jane Katjavivi’s Undisciplined Heart And Trudie Amulungu’s Taming My Elephant

ABSTRACT

The main focus of the study was to explore the literary presentation of transnational identities and interracial marriage encounters as presented by two Namibian autobiographical texts, Taming my Elephant by Amulungu (2017) and Undisciplined Heart by Katjavivi (2010). It evaluated the strategies employed by the authors to explore the sense of ‘belonging’ as well as the joys and challenges experienced in interracial marriages. Guided and informed by the autobiography theory and the diaspora and transnationalism theory as the theoretical frameworks, this qualitative study revealed the different challenges faced by the couples from different backgrounds. Issues of communication breakdowns, a lack of understanding of the partner’s background, racial differences and indifferences in the communities were elucidated. The couples’ families each hesitated to welcome the spouse into the family. The couples’ relationships and motivations were varied and shifting and their interactions created opportunities for the circulation, promotion, and adaptation of a great range of cultural, political and social influences. Tracing these interactions within and among liberation movements, their hosts, and a wider set of external actors, reveals lasting legacies that have too often been eclipsed by dominant national histories. The couples and their families had challenges adapting to countries of varying traditions and languages. The children became misfits in the new school environments and trying to overcome adversity in strange environments. They felt distanced and alienated from their cultures, which negatively affected their family relationships and performance in school. The study postulates that the authors are pioneers and persistent beings and are portrayed as compassionate, assertive, and enduring persons. Through unity, the strong family bond, the

support of friends, and the community in which these couples lived as presented by Katjavivi and Amulungu, the authors preserved.