My question is about politics in the novel, We Need New Names?

Politics is constantly hinted at in We Need New Names, all through Darling's childish lens. When she and her friends are younger and living in Paradise, they help hang up political posters that promise change, watch as the adults leave to cast their votes in an election, and come back proud and hopeful, dancing and singing long into the night. They also witness this change not take place, and the way people are buried after being killed for their involvement in such political matters. Furthermore, the children love to play imaginative political games having to do with global domination and the worldwide search for Osama bin Laden. These hints at politics through Darling's eyes and the children's games and discussions means that the focus of the book stays on emotions and relationships, the ways that politics affect real people in Zimbabwe.

Once Darling gets to America, she is more aware of the political sphere, and early on she witnesses the election of Barack Obama, which makes her family very happy. Darling also witnesses a speech made by the Zimbabwean president which makes her uncle very happy but her aunt unhappy, something she still doesn't totally understand, as it has to do with complex lines of trade and interaction between Zimbabwe and the West. For the rest of the book, this is the way Darling interacts with Zimbabwean politics; she watches it on TV and tries to understand how it affects Paradise, her friends, and her family.