Title:
Footprints in The Mists of Time
Author:
Spiwe N Mahachi- Harper
Publisher: abba press (December
1, 2012) ISBN-13: 978-1908690128
Reviewed by
Memory Chirere
Spiwe
Mahachi-Harpers’s new novel, Footprints in The Mists of Time, boasting of a
whopping 181 008 words, is now the longest novel by a Zimbabwean! It is a show
of sheer immense narrative tenacity and talent. This outruns Wellington
Kusena’s novel of 2011; Dzimbabwedande,
which is the longest Shona novel at 108 264 words.
Footprints is a 419 broad paged historical novel based on
the life and times of generations of migrant African labourers who settled in
Southern Rhodesia; before it became Rhodesia and subsequently Zimbabwe.
This is a welcome alternative to dry history that tends to work with facts,
maps, figures and diagrams.
This book
traces about four generations of workers of Malawian origin, beginning with
Bhaureni Nyirenda’s journey from Nuhono village in the Nkotakhota District of
then Nyasaland in 1899 to settle at Southern Rhodesia’s Patchway Valley Mine in
Gatooma District. You move from Bhaureni to his son Masauso, through to
grandson Chakumanda and great grandson, Mavhuto (in the present day) and their wives, children and
neighbours who are variably from Northern Rhodesia and Mocambique.
Their
voices talk about the treacherous journey from Nyasaland to Southern Rhodesia
on foot, drifting slowly in different droves and waves of various sizes. This is
a story about the oppression of people and their consistent dehumanisation on
the farms and mines, leaving the conscious reader with a suggestion that Africans
have travelled a very long road of suffering.
This is a
story about the anxieties of people brutally isolated and trapped in localities
far away from their original homes. This is a story about moving on and even
drifting without finding an anchor and with no ability to return to the source.
This is a story that defines the nature of colonial exploitation in Southern
Africa.
This book
reminds me most of Alex Huley’s Roots, that well known saga of an African family in
American slavery, in demonstrating that all people displaced by capitalism
become chattels and not humans. And the process of being turned to an animal
begins when your tormentor make you doubt the humanity within yourself.
Pushed
out of his village by the desire to work and be able to return and pay taxes,
Bhaureni Nyirenda realises while in Southern Rhodesia that: “ I was nothing and
nobody but just a lifeless limb detached from the rest of the body. There in
the village (Nyasaland) I also left behind my soul, without which I felt empty
and hopeless, like a piece of dead wood cast adrift in a river and left at the
mercy of the forces of nature, to sink or float.”
He leaves behind a wife and children and is
never able to return to them even when he thinks he might return soon and very
soon. The Southern Rhodesian mine system sucks him, never giving him enough to survive and retrace
his steps. The return journey would be as tragic as the first journey because
one does not want to return with nothing to show. And as shown in this story the release of the 'aPhiri Anabwera' song does not help matters.
On the other hand, the
migrant labourer is reminded by the indigenous Shona people and ironically, the
white man, of not belonging to Southern Rhodesia. They are mabhurandaya or
mabwidi who come from the compound and no sane person should befriend or
marry them. All they do is get marooned here and shed tears when homesick. They sweat in the mines and
suffer to death from the dreaded respiratory diseases from the dusty underground. Their destiny is the mine cemetery which is just a junk-heap.
This
novel reminds me of Edward Kamau Brathwaite’s poetry in The Arrivants and
Mother, in demonstrating that all displaced people survive on memory stored in
both the mind and the genes. The migrant community re-enacts home through language
and culture. Their stock names are meaningful: Ganisani, Chimwemwe, Mavhuto,
Masauso, Mpinganjira, Chakumanda and others. Knowledge is handed down from
father to son and the mine compound becomes encyclopaedic.
Towards
the end of the four generations, there is a search for roots. A dying grandfather
says to a grandson: “The urge to journey back to Malawi is much stronger now
than when I was younger…You, Mavhuto, can retrace the footprints of your great
grandfather back to the warm heart of Africa (Malawi)… only animals fail to
trace the trail of their births through the ages. Do not misunderstand me and
imagine that I wish you to go and bury yourself in some remote rural village in
Nkhotakhota. Far from it. I just wish
you to go and reconnect with the land of your fathers and lay to rest the souls
of the dear departed who mourned everyday for their loved one until they too
died in despair. After that you can go and settle anywhere you wish beyond the
horizon”
And then
he makes an even bigger argument: “I am very proud to be of Malawian origin but
I think those of my people who have been here for close to four generations
should no longer be regarded as foreigners as if they are expected to pack
their belongings…they have been here…going round and round in circles…”
This massive book asks you to read slowly; forward and backwards
to cross check on a name and to clarify a date or a relationship. It is going to be an important novel for
Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mozambique and Malawi. Zimbabwean fiction itself rarely puts the
immigrant and his off springs at the centre of the narrative. Because their general
impoverished condition stems from the days of colonial conquest, these people
have participated in many liberation movements in the region. Their names were
found within the ranks of Zanla, Zipra, ANC and other such organisations. Their
role in the politics, sports and arts of the region is very difficult to
ignore. Now, here is a novel written solely from their point of view.
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