The Old Drift, a burial site of Europeans who aimed to settle in Zambia, is a character but more so a figure, a representation of what was and what is and what could be as each generation has a part to play in its construction and even its demise. And Serpell’s novel satisfied my predilection, taking me from Europe to what was the colonized Northern Rhodesia to present-day Zambia. My interest in The Old Drift came from my own leanings towards multigenerational stories. The women and men in The Old Drift expose the idealism of unification and the reality of floundering to find place. And we conclude in a sort of present-day with “The Children,” including headstrong millennial Nailah whose relationships are as unsteady as her rebellious aims.

The journey begins with the matriarchs, one of which is Matha, a young Afronaut-in-training whose exuberant spirit dissolves due to continuous loss until she becomes known in her village as the woman unable to stop crying. In sections of “The Grandmothers,” “The Mothers,” and “The Children,” Namwali braids together three families’ lineages near the start of the 20th century to a more immediate future in 2023. A mastery of language, a deftness in description, and a dip into surrealist and speculative elements makes The Old Drift a worthwhile study in holding together several storylines through the characterization of those searching for their calling, and the cost of those pursuits. We can now add her debut novel The Old Drift (Hogarth Books) to the list of epic stories spanning continents, decades, and generations. Over the years, Namwali Serpell has received many accolades for her short fiction, including a Rona Jaffe Fellowship and the Caine Prize for African Fiction.

The old drift namwali serpell