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We Need New Names
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"We Need New Names" Quotes

A young girl from Zimbabwe navigates the complexities of immigration and identity in America.

Quotes

We left our countries and our languages and our religions and our cultures and ourselves behind. We left our mothers behind, saying goodbye but not knowing what the word meant.

NoViolet Bulawayo

immigrationidentity

I don't even know how to explain this thing that happened inside me when I saw the plane go. It was as if I was going with it, as if it was going without me, as if I was already gone, as if I was still here.

NoViolet Bulawayo

emigrationconfusion

The only way not to be afraid is to be the one scaring, not the one scared.

NoViolet Bulawayo

fearcourage

We are on our way to destroy America, which has destroyed us.

NoViolet Bulawayo

immigrationsociety

It's a country of mad people, but we are the maddest, because we have to destroy it, the country we love and hate in equal measure.

NoViolet Bulawayo

societyconflict

We played in the dust, and fought over nothing, and laughed and laughed.

NoViolet Bulawayo

childhoodhappiness

You have to have a new name because sometimes you need to start a new life, to get away from the old one.

NoViolet Bulawayo

changeidentity

We need new names for the things we have become.

NoViolet Bulawayo

identitychange

We were all broken; we were all changed; we were all strangers.

NoViolet Bulawayo

transformationunity

We made up for everything we had lost. We learned to look out for ourselves, to take care of ourselves, to say no, to fight, to steal if we had to, to fend for ourselves.

NoViolet Bulawayo

survivalself-reliance