... NoViolet Bulawayo in Newsweek: The city: Bulawayo

Bulawayo starts in the sky, a solid shade so alive they had to nickname the city “Bluez.” It’s at the very end of the ’90s and the decade is packing its bags. Does Bulawayo know? That not too many years from now, when we vote for change and it refuses to come, when things fall apart and scatter and we’re singing the blues—does it know that its people will dream of this time?

The city center is a tight fist; it’s easy to walk and be done with before you know it. When you enter the city through Third Avenue, your combi taxi will spit you ategodini, the taxi rank where people arrive and leave from western townships with names like Luveve, Lobengula, Gwabalanda, Nguboyenja, Magwegwe; names that speak of the Ndebele king’s offspring—this is consolation, the weight of heritage.

If it happens to be on a weekend and the city’s most popular football team, the Highlanders, has won a match, then egodini and this part of the city center are a beautiful bedlam. Hooting cars clog the streets, young men shout and whistle and wave their shirts in the air, supporters clad in black and white (the team’s colors) celebrate, and music blares from car stereos.

When you get out of your combi, you will follow the spine of Lobengula Street upward, to the right. During the day the city is all bodies and bustling. On this street are shops like (read the rest in Newsweek).