Tinashe Muchuri reads Ignatius Mabasa's new novel

Bhuku: Imbwa yemunhu

Rakatisikiswa neBhabhu Books mugore ra2013

Munyori: Ignatius Tirivangani Mabasa

Vhenyenguro: naTinashe Muchuri

Kutenga/to buy: +263772278171

Sezvo zvichinzi murume haadonhi netsvimbo imwe, Ignatius Mabasa adzoka netsvimbo yake yetatu kuzoruka tswanda yamazano kune vane nzeve dzinonzwa dzichiturira pfungwa dzichichengeta.

Nekumwe kutaura zvinonzi potsi kana piri haarwirwi, asi tatu. Akapotswa netsvimbo yekutanga yainzi Mapenzi neyepiri yainzi Ndafa Here, neiyi yetatu inobuda nemumharidzo yake iyo yakaumba nganonyorwa inonzi, ‘Imbwa yemunhu’ haangapotswi zvakare nedama rakanaka.  Munyaya Imbwa Yemunhu mune murume anonzi Musavhaya, kana kungoti Musa muchidimbu, uyo anoti ane kusasimba pamberi pedoro nezvipondamwoyo izvo zvinosakisa kuti ade kuroora mudzimai wemuridzi anonzi, Juli. Murume waJuli anonzi Richard anoita zvemadhiri achisiya imba yake ichidhirika. Nyaya inotenderera zvakanyanya pavaviri ava vanoti, Musa naJuli kunyange zvayo ichizopota ichipinda muhupenyu hwavamwewo vanhu, vehukama, vekukereke pamwe neavo vaisanganikwa navo munzvimbo dzokutandarira dzakaita sedzekumwira nedzimwewo dzakangadaro.

Imbwa Yemunhu, ibhuku rinoburitsa pachena umhizha hwaMabasa hwekuda kuyanika pachena matambudziko anowanikwa navanhu zuva nezuva mukuedza kuraramira nyika nezviri mairi. Izvi zvinojekeswa pachena neapo Musa anobatsirwa namai vake pamwe nemukoma wake kuroora Hazvi, asi iye asina rudo kana hanya naHazvi. Anogozviitira kufadza hama dzake nenyika inomuseka. Richardwo anozviita apo anoroora Juli kuti angova chishongo chepamba pake kwete mudzimai wake. Izvi zvinoratidza kuti vanhu vanoramba vakabatirira pazvinhu zvinoodza mwoyo yavo vachitya kuti vanhu vanozotii. Kukungura ndiyo hwaro hwebhuku raMabasa idzva iri.

Chiiwo chinobuda mukukungura? Juli anokungura kuti dai akawana zvake murume anenge Musa asi iye atova pamusha paRichard, Hazvi anokungura kuti dai asina zvake kugara aziva baba vake, Richardwo anokungura kuti dai akagara asina kubvuma kutengeserwa nhamo dzenyika achinyeperwa achinzi ndirwo rugare, mudzimai wemutungamiri wenyika anokungura kuti dai murume wake akabvuma kupinza vaRungu basa rekumuchengetedza ingadai asina kusangana naMusa kugehena, Simon Chimbetu anokungura kuti kudai mazuva ayo aive panyika akawanawo mukana wekuudza vanhu nezvekukosha kwaMwari, mukoma waMusa, Hamu anokungura kuti kudai asina kumbobvira aroorera Musa, Hazvi, zvinova izvo zvakaita kuti azonyara Musa atiza muchato. Chinombove chii chiri kuita kuti vanhu vose ava vakungure kukungugra nokukungugra?

Imbwa Yemunhu ine nyaya dzekukundikana, kushaya simba rekurwisa zvinorema kana zvimwe zvinhu vanhu zvavakazvisarudzira voga. Musa ane nhamo nekurega doro. Ukamubvunza kuti wakamanikidzwa here kunwa doro unonzwa achiti haana. Musi waatanga kurinwa rakamuvavira asi haana kumborirega zvake. Akaramba achishingirira kusvika zvino ava chikorwa chedoro, asisagoni kurisiya. Nhamo yekuzvitsvagira! Mune zvakare rudo rwekunyepera, rudo rwechokwadi. Mune kurambana kabisira. Mune umbwa, kusuwa, kuchema, kurwadziwa, huroyi, hudhakwa, hupfambi, uye nzara yehupenyu huzere nemufaro.

Mabasa akagona kuruka rungano urwu kuti muverengi aone kufunga kunoita munhu muhupenyu hwake. Kufunga kuya kusiri kwekunyepera asi kuya kwekuti uchiverenga bhuku unosvika naMusa pane dzimwe nzvimbo dzaakasvika nokuti wakambodzisvika, kana kuti uchiri kutotandarirako. Unochema naye nokuti zvinomurwadza zvakambokurwadzawo. Unobva wafungawo nhamo inowanikwa navana vanomanikidzwa kuroorwa navarume vavasingadi nokuti mumhuri mapinda nhamo. Unoona nhamo inowanikwa navanasikana yekubatwa chibharo navabereki vavo. Unowana nhamo inowira madzimai kana asina kuroorwa apo vanenge vongozvipotsera kuti chero vangoitawo murume, kwete nokuti vanomuda asi kungoti vangovewo nemunhu anonzi murume wavo nyika isavaseka. Zvose zvichiitwa mukuda kufadza nyika, seapo Hazvi anodemba achiti dai Musa angobvuma hake kuti ave murume wake. Zvakare unoona kushata kwenyaya yekubhinywa apo Hazvi anoshaya kuti otaura kuti chii kana asangana naMusa semukomana nemusikana vanodanana. Kuti tingati Hazvi aiona Musa sababa vake avo vakamubhinya?

Imbwa Yemunhu rinofumura zviito zvehama dzepedyo zviya kana mumusha maita ngarara. Vanoisiya yakadaro sekusiiwa kwakaita baba vaHazvi apo vainge vabhinya mai vake. Mai vake vakatya rufu rwekutyisidzirwa izvo zvakaita kuti zvakare mwana wavo azosangana nedambudziko seravo. Kudai mai vaHazvi vainge vadura bhinya iri ingadai neimwe nguva Hazvi asina kuzosangana netsaona yaakasangana nayo, kukungura.

Chinonakidza mubhuku iri iro rinova renyaya yaMusa nokutsvaka kwake Mwari, harina kuita sedzimwe mharidzo dzatinoti kana waiona woti, munyori anopenga, sei achida kuti nditevere kereke yaanopinda? Iri bhuku rakanyorwa nenzira yokuti wese munhu anotsvaka Mwari atsvake nokuwana Mwari ari mukereke chero ipi zvayo yaanopinda. Juli aipinda Roma, asi Musa anomukurudzira kuti awane Jesu Kristu ari mukereke yeRoma iyoyo. Iyewo hake Musa ainge awana Mwari pacrusade yakaitwa nekereke yeAFM asi haasi kuti munhu wese amutevere ikoko. Izvi zvinoita kuti bhuku iri rinakidze kune vose vanotsvaka humambo kwekudenga muhondo yavo yekurwisana nemadhimoni akavamonera.

Muno buda zvakare hondo ine munhu apo anenge achirarama panyika. Hondo nemweya yakaipa iyo inoburitswa samadhimoni kana vanhu vachienda kukereke dzechiKristu asi zvichivawo mweya yetsvina kuchinamato chechivanhu. Izvinodura pachena kuti hapana munhu ari murugare. Munhu wese panyika ari muhondo. Hondo yekuda kusiiwa neizvo zviri kumumonera. Izvo zvacho zvinoita kuti mudhara Bhobho acheme kana achinzwa rumbo runoti, ‘Shauri yako.’ Nokuda kwehondo dzatinadzo muhupenyu uye kugona kurukwa kwakaitwa rungano urwu iri ibhuku rinogona kuverengwa nemunhu wese zvake zvisinei kuti unoenda kukereke kana kuti hauendi. Nhamo dziri mubhuku iri dzinobata munhu wese uye mibvunzo inobvunzwa naMusa mibvunzo inobvunzwa nemunhu wese mupenyu kana yasvika nguva yekutaura nezvemweya.

Uchibata bhuku iri unotambirwa nemufananidzo uri pabutiro wembwa yakasuwa, ine kumeso kunenge kwemunhu. Imbwa ine chiso chinenge chemunhu? Zvinoreva kuti kana munhu akachengeta imbwa pamba pake inogona kupedzesera yava savatenzi vayo kana kuti munhu ndiye anopedzisira ava sembwa yake. Zvinogona kuva sakiso Musa achizorota ari mukati meimbwa zhinji mubhawa kwaChikwanha, agokwira mukombi inembwa, agoona mutambo wembwa, imbwa dzavaporofita dzinorwerwera rute imbwa dzechikadzi, apo anozoti, ‘Humbwa nehumbwa pamusoro pehumbwa.’

Chidobi chinoshandiswa naMabasa chekurota pamwe nehupenzi chinoita kuti asazvisungirira pamanyorere nemafungiro ake. Chidobi chinomupa kodzero dzekupinda munzvimbo dzinonzi pavi dzisingagonekwe kusvikwa neruzhinji rwavanhu kana rusiri kurota kana kupenga. Nzvimbo dziya dzinonzi kumazivandadzoka apoteyo manhenda akadzoka, asi iye anosvika achidzoka asina kana kavanga zvako. Chidobi ichi chinoburitsa kunaka kwekurota uye kupenga. Hakuna anorambidzwa kurota uye hapana anogona kuzvirambidza kurota ari pane dzimwe nzvimbo dzaasingagoni kusvika masikati kwakachena. Kurota kunopa munyori kutambanuka mundangariro dzake achinobata pavi. Ndizvowoka chakatendera Musa kunosvika kugehena uyewo neuko anozopiwa mwoyo waMwari uzere nerudo nehunyoro, kanawo apo ano batana maoko nemudzimai wemutungamiri wenyika vasina kupfeka. Kurota kana hupenzi hazvina matyira. Kunokufananidzwa nehutungamiri hwegwara regutsaruzhinji, iya inonzi dhemokirasi pachiRungu. Hakuna muganho. Kunopa munyori gonero yekutaura twese twaanoda mukutsiura pamwe nekuyambira. Ndiroka basa remunyori.

Chimwe chinobuda murungano urwu kunyora nemutauro uyo asingaiti makwikwi nawo, achishandisa kutaura kuriko mazuva ano, kwakaita sekuti, ‘ndeipi yako,’ nemamwe akadaro. Izvi zvinoita kuti uwone humhizha hwemunyori. Zvakare ruzivo rwakashandiswa kusanganisira mashoko ana nyanduri, vaimbi nezvemubhaibheri zvinobva zvabudisa pachena matauriro anoita vanhu vechiShona apo vanenge vachitaurirana nyaya. Ndiyani angazorega kutevera rungano runopa kudyidzana kwemunhu nenharaunda yake, tsika yake pamwe nehupenyu hwake hwezuva nezuva uhwo anenge achiedza kusiyana nahwo kuti atwasuke? Kushandisa ruzivo runowanikwa munharaunda yeZimbabwe senziyo dzavaimbi vakaita sanaJames Chimombe, Simon Chimbetu, navamwe vakadaro uyewo mazita avamwe vanhu vanorarama muhupenyu hwedu akaita sanaOliver Mutukudzi, Memory Chirere, nevamwe vakadaro, zvinokurudzira kuparadzirwa kweruzivo rwevamuZimbabwe kupasi rose. Chinova chidovi chakanaka kudyidzana nepfungwa dzavamwe mukuumba uvaranomwe.

Murungano umu Mabasa anotokonya pfungwa dzomuverengi kuti azvitarire aone uye agozvibvunza kuti handina kufanana naMusa kana vamwe vatambi vari mubhuku iri here? Handisi imbwa yemunhu here? Ndirikutandanisa mufaro here kana kuti nhamo? Ndiri kutevera chokwadi chichandipa mufaro here kana kuti ndiri kutevera kusuwa? Upenyu chii? Imbwa yakatsamwa here kana luti yakapfava asi ichizotsenga matovo? Zvinongoda kuti munhu azviverengere ega agozvionera ega kutapira kwerungano urwu.

Bhuku iri rinosimbaradzwa nemitsara iri apo Musa naSekuru veMabvuku vanoona mumwe mupostori achiteremuka achisvetukasvetuka kubva mugomo ndokusvikomira pavari achiti kuna Musa, ‘Muchinda ndine nyaya yako.’ Musa obva ati, ‘Taurai henyu.’ Sekuru vanozoti asi newe wave kupenga here muzukuru?’Chiregai ndizorore ndisati ndava imbwa yemunhu.

+ Tinashe Muchuri is a Zimbabwean author, journalist and storyteller.

Reserve Bank Deputy Govenor, Kupukile Mlambo reads Footprints in the Mists of Time

When I received the request to write a foreword to Footprints in the Mists of Time, a tour de force novel recently written by Spiwe Mahachi-Harper, I hesitated, wishing to disqualify myself from such a mammoth undertaking.

Beyond being just a consumer of literature, what could I, an economist and a banker, have to say on any literary work, especially this particular one, I wondered. I had been privy to earlier drafts and had seen the manuscript transform into a novel that one Zimbabwean writer and critic, Memory Chirere, has dubbed Zimbabwe's longest novel to date in any language. To write a foreword to the novel was, however, an entirely different matter, yet I was also conscious of the great honour bestowed upon me.

The novel, which is essentially about labour migrations in Southern Africa can be read through multiple lenses. There is an extended debate, often couched in broader economic, political and social terms, on the causes and effects of migration on the receiving and sending countries.

Spiwe Mahachi-Harper contributes to this debate in novel form and tells the story of the lives and experiences of migrant workers at a mine in Southern Rhodesia. It is a story told through the voices of four generations of migrants from Nyasaland. For Spiwe, herself a Zimbabwean living in Great Britain, the story of migration is more than economics and politics. It is above all a human story. Migrants are people with dreams, desires, hopes and plans. Their struggle is a common human struggle, but one that is lived and experienced in foreign lands, with all the attendant challenges of alienation, loss of culture and crisis of identity. Migrants lead exilic lives suspended between home and away, always mentally projecting the geography of another space separate from the one they physically inhabit.

Nobel laureate, V.S. Naipaul has written about this sense of exile, isolation and loss of identity in A House for Mr. Biswas, a story about a descendant of East Indian migrants who were brought by the British to Trinidad as indentured labour. Mr. Biswas exists on the margins of society, and is in a constant search for identity, acceptance and independence, and the house represents all these; a yearning for a place called home.

Similarly, Spiwe's characters endure lives carved out of marginalisation, alienation and disdain. In their new adopted homes, they are looked down upon by their white employers and never really accepted by the locals. When Dhairesi, the free-spirited grand-daughter of Bhaureni the patriarch immigrant, falls in love with a local Shona boy, Tatenda, she has hopes of marrying him one day. She is soon disabused of any such ideas by her own community, and even more brutally by Tatenda's aunt, Amai Moyo, who makes it clear to her that Tatenda's family would never accept a daughter-in-law "who has neither a totem nor acceptable roots."

Running through Footprints in the Mists of Time is the theme of culture and identity. The migrants at Patchway Valley Mine live at the cross-road of cultures. They hail from different countries, tribes and clans. They also have to contend with the dominant local Shona culture. While the older generation of immigrants resist assimilation and do all they can to retain cultural purity, the younger generation yearns to conform into dominant as well as trending cultural idioms. The result is cross-cultural and intergenerational conflicts.

Spiwe captures the complexity these cultural conflicts and identity crises in the life of Dhairesi, the spirited grand-daughter of the patriarch immigrant. All Dhairesi yearns for is to emulate local Shona girls, have a Shona name -- and Fadzai is the Shona name she adopts for herself--, fall in love with a local Shona boy, and not have to practice the dated rituals of her people, such as initiation into womanhood or being forced to shave off her hair in honour of the dead. She wants to follow a culture that she and her young friends call "isimanje-manje" or modernisation. The result is all too familiar.

In the end Dhairesi cuts a tragic figure, accepted by none and rejected by all. Her Shona friends refuse to call her by her adopted name, her community treats her as a freak, lumping her together with the disabled and the mentally unstable, and her wish for marriage to Tatenda ends in rejection and disappointment. She yearns for acceptance, independence and identity but finds none.

The novel is not only about hardships, conflicts and shattered dreams, it also about hope, determination and the future.

Spiwe closes the novel with the voice of Mavhuto, the great grandson of the patriarch immigrant, who left his Nuhono village in Nyasaland and travelled many months to the mines of Southern Rhodesia. Mavhuto demonstrates that same spirit, a determination to break with the past, and for him it is a determination that transcends everything. It is a spirit born out of a realisation that this adopted land that they inhabit, the new Zimbabwe, is also their own. Mavhuto does not need to go back to Malawi to trace the histories of his people because this piece of earth beneath him is his own patch as well and from it, he will trace the footprints of his people through the mists of time. From this patch of earth that he has claimed as his own, he will make other destinies for himself and his progeny, his own footprints in the mists of time.

Spiwe is a talented story teller. Zimbabweans will be familiar with her other works, such as Echoes in the Shadows or Trials and Tribulation, all told in lucid language and in gripping tones. In Footprints in the Mists of Time, she gives an honest voice to migrants, allowing them to narrate their hopes, their pain, their despair and their dreams. It is also our story, a human story in this era of globalisation and human movements.

Kupukile Mlambo, Ph.D. (Econ)

Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe

Harare, Zimbabwe, 4 September, 2013

ZIBF 2013 Press statement: 3 September 2013

ZIBF PRESS STATEMENT

3 SEPTEMBER 2013
ZIBF OFFICES, HARARE GARDENS.

Chair of The Zimbabwe International Book Fair, Members of ZIBF General Council and Executive Board, representatives of our funding partners here present namely, CULTURE FUND IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE EUROPEAN UNION, BRITISH COUNCIL and HIVOS IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE NORWEGIAN EMBASSY, members of print and electronic media, ladies and gentlemen.

I would like to welcome you all to this occasion where we now confirm our state of preparedness to hold the main edition of our 2013 Zimbabwe International Book Fair and inform you what the nation and the international community of publishers and writers may expect to experience between the days of 30^th September and 5^th October.

Back in December 2012 we had scheduled our Book Fair to take place from 29^th July to 3^rd August 2013.  Unfortunately, none of us could have been prophetic enough to foresee these dates clashing with the period of our national plebiscite.  Given that we all experience an unusual concentration of energies, some positive, others negative, prior to, during and after the elections, we found it prudent to push our dates further back, however inconvenient it seemed at the time. 

Of course, the last straw that broke our back was the announcement to close schools four days before our planned dates.  We all know that schools are the biggest clientele of our book sector and that young scholars provide the majority of visitors to the Book Fair.  As well, we have several programmes targeting the youths including Young Persons Indaba, Live Literature Centre, Children’s Reading Tent and The Digital Zone, without which the Fair would be practically soulless.  I provide all this information to help you put into context the rather viral and gratuitous speculation on the social networks wildly suggesting that we stopped running the Book Fair for fear of the impending violence and chaos of our elections.

For those who may not be informed, this year we commemorate 30 years of our existence as the closest thing to Africa’s prime Book Fair.  In this spirit, we have chosen a Theme that sums up our focus all these years: ZIBF@30: ENABLING CREATIVITY, WRITING, PUBLISHING AND READING FOR AFRICA’S GROWTH.  So far, we have already run The Bulawayo Book Fair (March) and launched for the first time The Masvingo Book Fair. 

Our thrust is driven by a vision to spread the exhibitions and love of books as far and wide across the nation as possible and strive to be relevant to our stakeholders at all times, and so far we have received enormous encouragement and support from the two Book Fairs to suggest that we are going in the right direction.  

In both these book fairs we have introduced a new event called “The Literary Evening” where selected writers are invited to perform, read or discuss their works before fellow authors and interested members of the general public.  The enthusiasm of these evenings provided us with an inspiring trial run for the Main Book Fair in Harare and The Mutare Book Fair in October.  The idea is to bring back the buzz and ambience or atmosphere for which The Book Fair was famous at its height.  So we have plans for “The ZIBF Harare Literary Evenings”.  About this, more information will be provided as we draw nearer to the occasion. 

And, as with last year, we are also dedicated to running a digital sub-theme through The Indaba, The Young Person’s Indaba, The Writers’ Workshop and the Exhibitions.  We are especially grateful to the Office of the President for a generous donation of computers to ZIBF for the purpose of fulfilling this very objective.

By now, you will also be aware that we ran a two-day All-Stakeholders Anti-Piracy Workshop in May where representatives of the primary, key and secondary stakeholders of the book industry met to discuss the extent of piracy, its causes and characteristics in Zimbabwe as well as identifying possible solutions.  A Focus Group was created to draw up an action plan and present a preliminary report during the coming Indaba.  Everyone is anxious to discover the contents of this report and what hope there is to rid the country of this economic curse.

So, the 2013 Main Book Fair is upon us now, bar an unforeseen crisis.  We had an overwhelming response to our Call for Abstracts for our Indaba and can confirm that we had to disappoint not a few prospective presenters.  Our sessions cover a variety of topics, some of which fall under the following Sessions: “Indigenous Languages and Knowledge Systems”, “Digitization”, “Dialogue and Tolerance in African Communities” and “Health and Environment”, to name but a few.  We also plan an Evening to Commemorate 30 Years of The Zimbabwe International Book Fair. Yet again, more information will be availed closer to the event.  For The Writers Workshop, we have decided to run on the Theme: “Writing for Children Now”.  As you may agree, it is very crucial for our literary and book sector to revisit this theme in the light of our changing society and technological revolutions that demand adjustment in order to remain relevant to our children and future citizens.

Ladies and gentlemen, comrades and friends, I would like to finish these few words with acknowledging the trust and support in cash and kind we have received for our programmes and activities from the following:

      Ø  CULTURE FUND IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE EUROPEAN UNION

Ø  KOPINOR AND NORCODE

Ø  BRITISH COUNCIL

Ø  HIVOS IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE NORWEGIAN EMBASSY and

Ø  THE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT AND CABINET, ZIMBABWE.

I should also pay tribute to our media partners for continuing to support us throughout the year.  Long may you continue to serve the nation in support of education and literacy.
Thank You Very Much
MUSAEMURA B ZIMUNYA
CHAIR, EXECUTIVE BOARD, ZIBF
Contacts: events@zibfa.org.zw  Telephone: +263 4 702104, 702108, 705729,  707352
Tel/Fax: +263 4 702129
  

The Grass Is Singing- S.O.S.

If you have new or good second hand copies of Doris Lessing's The Grass Is Singing, my literature students would like to buy them! Contact:chirere02@hotmail.com / memory.chirere@facebook.com