摘要
Arguably, Africa comparatively remains a huge account for narratives within the context of repository of misery and violence in the 21 st-century, an attempt to political development has posed an irresistible challenge and a disturbing necessity for Mia Couto in Voices Made Night （1990） and Bessie Head in Tales of Tenderness and Power （1989）. The position of Couto as a white Mozambican writer and Head as an exiled coloured South African writer, living in her adopted country of Botswana, provides them with privileged neutrality from which to view the effect of the admixture of grinding poverty and violence as they ravage the landscapes of these countries. While Couto does not fail to incorporate the significance of power struggle between FRELIMO （Front for the Liberation of Mozambique） and RENAMO （Mozambique National Resistance） in the ~＇oices Made Night, Head＇s articulation of the complex manipulation of power becomes a resource for constructing a discourse of nationalism in Tales of Tenderness and Power. The paper intends to focus on the correlation between power and economic development in these anthologies. The paper will further examine how political power impacts on the socio-economic well being of the local folks in the Couto＇s Mozambique and Head＇s South Africa.
