tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60099257452400313012024-03-13T04:12:05.875-07:00kwaChirerekwaChirerehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10306481741499309181noreply@blogger.comBlogger352125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6009925745240031301.post-7117657420799092802024-02-27T02:15:00.000-08:002024-02-28T04:02:34.371-08:00Rodney T Munemo reads Shamhu YeZera Renyu<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi816EmfRZngdrDSFrEfUu8nEJ_KseYHKg3AW2aW1SbKGIxsFLF1U0XCn2d39EWRZZWEJ4Oj8PgXBqcduN24sayAVXWmdDH-zrV49Bk7tbJgcNTNSXXf-sLPID7msnBDoFJpidiOk7LIBPEKx92Hs45E2P3dPKX8WEimNRjTwZJrOQsijDGsmS56o0YZfzJ/s2048/Munemo.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2048" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi816EmfRZngdrDSFrEfUu8nEJ_KseYHKg3AW2aW1SbKGIxsFLF1U0XCn2d39EWRZZWEJ4Oj8PgXBqcduN24sayAVXWmdDH-zrV49Bk7tbJgcNTNSXXf-sLPID7msnBDoFJpidiOk7LIBPEKx92Hs45E2P3dPKX8WEimNRjTwZJrOQsijDGsmS56o0YZfzJ/s320/Munemo.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /> ( Rodney T Munemo)<p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: large;">A
day after I finished reading Memory Chirere’s latest collection of poems, Shamu
YeZera Renyu, the book won a National Arts Merit Award, as best book of poems
by a Zimbabwean in 2023! Amazing.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: large;">I
find Memory Chirere’s poems in Shamhu YeZera Renyu to be therapeutic to the
mind, with one poem particularly dwelling on the poetic charm of a child who is running after a bird in the sky while he is on the ground, in the morning, soon after; he is running to
complete a chore, and after that, running to play with other children in a running
game away from home, before running back home at the end of the day. Running…<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: large;">These
poems help one to navigate through the diverse, intractable, heinous and vociferous
forces of one’s life in Zimbabwe and Africa; being born, growing up and
eventually dying. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: large;">I
think that Chirere is a Shadrach + Meshach, and “A bad Nigga”/ Abednego type of
an author. This is because he refuses to comply or submit to the whims of pain
and he has also long discovered the art of taming pain. Through his works he
invites the pain of human life to the arena and he says to it “dance while I
beat the drums”.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: large;">In
another of Chirere's poems, a man wants to wander away and never return home. From now on, he wants to live only in the memory of his wife, children and friends. He thinks that
is better than suffering alongside them without being able to help. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: large;">In
yet another poem, a woman laughs at a man because he looks like her dear lover,
long lost in the past. In the other poem, a man carries a goat on his shoulders
for a long time down a township road and discovers that he has been sold a
ritual goat! In another, a woman and man nearly fall in love gradually as they
silently spy on each other through the gap in the fence of their houses. Then something more excruciating than love takes place to stop them...<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: large;">Published by the fast-rising Samantha Rumbidzai Vazhure's Carnelian Heart Publishing LTD in the UK and available through Amazon, Memory
Chirere's "Shamhu Yezera Renyu," or "Sjambok of Your
Generation" in Shona, is not your typical poetry collection. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: large;">Written
entirely in the vibrant, beautiful and evocative Shona language, Chirere wields
his words like a traditional whip/sjambok, to both challenge and entertain his
readers. Chirere outwits pain with humour, his poems delve into the
complexities of everyday life, tackling relatable themes of love, loss,
societal pressures, and the ever-present struggle for self-discovery. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: large;">His
masterful use of humour infuses a refreshing dose of lightness, preventing the
poems from becoming mired in despair. One of his poems is about the effects of bird song. You hear a bird
singing in the morning and sometimes you think that it is calling out your name, just in the manner of your mother or loved one. I also love the poem in which a man eats the child’s
plate of porridge, hoping nobody sees. The most stunning poem is in which a nameless man watches a wedding couple kissing and starts to think about the meaning of kisses. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: large;">Chirere
navigates the tightrope between social commentary and witty observation,
prompting introspection and laughter in equal measure. Although he wrote this
book in Shona, the emotional core transcends language barriers. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: large;">The
book’s vivid imagery and themes resonate with readers regardless of their
linguistic background. I agree with Ignatius Mabasa in the introduction that; there is no writer like Chirere, however, I think the
full richness and depth of "Shamhu Yezera Renyu" can be lost in
translation for those unfamiliar with the language. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: large;">Two
poems in this captivating compilation of Shona poems that navigates the
tapestry and intricacies of human experiences with a unique blend of humour and
insight are particularly outstanding for me and these are; “Mukanwa” and
“Muchipatara.” In these and other poems, Chirere demonstrates a unique ability
to balance levity with depth is a testament to his poetic prowess. Thus, making
"Shamhu yeZera Renyu" a testament to the enduring power of poetry to
illuminate the human experience.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: large;">I
am not surprised that this collection was ranked ahead of all other books of poems. Many thanks too, to Tinashe Mchuri, another great poet, for editing this book.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: large;">I
first came across Memory Chirere through his short story Maize in “Writing
Still”, a text which we covered in High School. Like all of my classmates we
assumed the name Memory was for girls. We had limited resources to search for
the writer, but thanks to the sweet bitter humiliation and correction that came
from our Literature in English teacher whenever we referred to Chirere as “she.”
<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: large;">During
my first year at the University of Zimbabwe, my roommate Brain used to play
Chirere’s youtube videos at Manfred. We would gather around the laptop as UBAs
listening to <i>Roja raBaba vaBiggie</i>. My
dream came true during my Masters studies, I talked to Chirere and found that
one cannot separate him from his works/humour. To my A level classmates and
everyone else who loves reading, Chirere is still writing and yes, he is a man. If you are in Zim, find the book through Brain Garusa door to door delivery at: 0779210403<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: large;">+ The writer of the above review, Rodney T Munemo is a Social Anthropologist (PhD Candidate at the
University of Edinburgh). Rodney is a recipient of the coveted Edinburgh-Leiden
studentship, awarded in 2022 in recognition of his academic excellence. His current doctoral research delves into the
critical nexus of youth waithood, liminalities, urban poverty, development, and
religious infrastructures in Zimbabwe. He remains deeply invested in exploring
Inclusive Education, the transformative potential of Online Learning, and the
complexities of Gender and Land Governance in Zimbabwe. His dedication to these
diverse fields reflects a multifaceted and intellectually curious scholar.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p>
<span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: large; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Email: <a href="mailto:r.t.munemo@sms.ed.ac.uk">r.t.munemo@sms.ed.ac.uk</a></span></p><p><br /></p>kwaChirerehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10306481741499309181noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6009925745240031301.post-52749240989877352072024-02-19T11:35:00.000-08:002024-02-20T00:43:45.769-08:00KwaChirere reads Shards by Cynthia Marangwanda<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-8YhyphenhyphenFxW1aElZFvIc4t5S645UNVzNgFdi7BJcgWGHIYC9b0iZACxVddGxDrlMqk8Gp5sZrtIdfRzJXBs7EYSFygTelo4asexrOiI4Gf3-Dg_CCQC1AP_G2Fej1PmHjMDJGjrECINf-iDfCq2dfsrFxB8a4lRS_938oEc1n3upkoXIbzOxzhn2WBKPgv5k/s1280/Shards-Cynthia-Marangwanda.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="829" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-8YhyphenhyphenFxW1aElZFvIc4t5S645UNVzNgFdi7BJcgWGHIYC9b0iZACxVddGxDrlMqk8Gp5sZrtIdfRzJXBs7EYSFygTelo4asexrOiI4Gf3-Dg_CCQC1AP_G2Fej1PmHjMDJGjrECINf-iDfCq2dfsrFxB8a4lRS_938oEc1n3upkoXIbzOxzhn2WBKPgv5k/s320/Shards-Cynthia-Marangwanda.jpeg" width="207" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="color: #5f6368; font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Shards</span></b><b><span style="color: #4d5156; font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">, a novella by Cynthia Marangwanda, published
by Carnelian Heart Publishing Ltd, ISBN-13: 9781914287404, Price: </span></b><b><span style="color: #70757a; font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">US$12.99<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="color: #70757a; font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> </span></b><b><span style="color: #70757a; font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">(A book review by Memory Chirere)</span></b><b><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" style="color: #70757a; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Before I came across Cynthia Marangwanda’s novella,
Shards, which was first published in 2014 by A LAN Readers Publication in
Zimbabwe, and republished in 2023 by </span><a href="https://www.everand.com/publisher/549949323/Carnelian-Heart-Publishing-Ltd" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><span color="windowtext" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Carnelian
Heart Publishing Ltd</span></a><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"> in the UK, I had always associated the Dambudzo
Marechera style and approaches with male writers only.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">From my very close experience with students
of literature in Zimbabwe, the excitement with Marechera is more pronounced in
young men than in women.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">The female students tend to find Marechera rather
outrageous and frightening, too, because of some of his scenes that are full of violence
against women characters. The female students feel that Marechera is “too macho” in his writings and
that he does not pay much respect to “women’s sensibilities.”</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">On pointing out that Marechera’s work is,
in fact, protesting against the dehumanisation of women, one of these female students
felt that “Marechera protests, right, but he still writes about violence against
women the way men do.”</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">However, Cynthia Marangwanda’s writing in Shards
carries close and vigorous stylistic and linquistic echoes of Dambudzo Marechera.
Marangwanda’s hypnotic and intense writing style, done in</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma;"> a language laden with abstract and acidic imagery, create a mood with
very close echoes to Marechera.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">For example, describing the house servant, Marangwanda’s
narrator says, “She casts me a slanted glance, the type a cat would throw a
mouse asking for directions…” and later, “she throws me an angular look, the
type a crocodile would cast a fisherman standing by the river…”</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">On describing her first meeting with Pan,
the narrator says, “Perception rotated on its axis and tilted abnormally to the
side. A revolution was abreast…the moment was shattered into scattering
shards…The strange young man’s voice was like scissors…”</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">When the narrator is locked up in the
mental facility, after what her family assumes is a mental breakdown, a Marecherean presence joins </span><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">her</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">: “As if from nowhere a youthful creature came and sat beside me. His hair
was a field of short dark spikes jutting out like upturned nails, his build was </span><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">awkward,</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> as if his body had tried and failed to wrest itself from the clutches
of adolescence, and he wore the most elaborate </span><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">horn-rimmed</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> glasses I’d laid
eyes on. The air he exuded was both manic and moody.”</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">This figure she calls Benzi, as he calls
her Mupengo. Together they discuss the poetry of Dylan Thomas and Christopher
Okigbo.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">When you set aside language and style, the Shards
story has a lot of other intrigues. It is a story about a sensitive </span><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">23-year-old</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> woman from the medium density suburb, relatively comfortable, cosmopolitan and
erudite. She is in the midst of rebelling against the nationalist generation of
her parents. She vigorously claims that they are failing to instill order in
the community and all around them is a life that is bereft of dignity and
integrity.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">She calls herself a practicing nihilist.
She thinks that “life is a gradual succumbing.” When the novel begins, she is clearly
against everything and everybody.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">She joins two institutions of higher
learning as a student, and drops out because, as she says, she finds “formal
education to be a sort of death of information.”</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">She wears tribal print dresses that sweep
the floor. She likes township jazz and reggae tunes. She is into black consciousness, reading a
lot around the ideas of Marcus Garvey. She is also being courted by an elderly
Pan Africanist filmmaker.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">She has tried to kill herself once through </span><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">self-poisoning</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> but has stopped trying “because of a fear of failing again.”</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">She has a friend called Pan, a fine art practitioner
who lives alone in a flat rented for him by an elderly woman in Russia in exchange
of sexual favours whenever she visits.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The first time that the narrator meets Pan,
it is love at first sight that jolts her to her roots. “And so we stood there
for what seemed an interminable second staring sharply through each other… A
revolution was </span><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">abreast,</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> and its focal point seemed to be an area of grey matter,
a lace of blurred lines. The moment was shattered into shards by the voice of
the unusual young man.”</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Another exciting side to this novel is how
the narrator is overwhelmed and haunted by the spirit of her dead grandmother.
You may want to think that this is a version of spirit possession. She sees
Grandmother and is immobilised by her. The people around her think that she has
mental problems. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Grandmother first appears to the narrator six
years after her burial when the narrator is having her hair plaited by a talkative
hairdresser who is going on and on about the men that she stalks. Listening to
the woman’s escapades, the narrator appears to fall asleep and that is when she
sees “my buried grandmother standing slightly to the side, in front of me.” The
narrator is </span><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">startled,</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> and the hairdresser is silenced, assuming that the narrator
has been stung by an insect.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Grandmother appears “with her hair </span><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">soaring.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">” and “she was holding out an ochre coloured </span><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">wrap cloth</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">” which she is
asking her granddaughter to receive. When the narrator does not accept this
ritual gift, Grandmother becomes very angry and menacing.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Grandmother eventually flies out through
the window!</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The girl assumes that this may not take
place again and that she has been going through a bout of schizophrenia. But
grandmother returns three days later, as the narrator is in her bedroom,
surfing the internet! This time Grandmother is holding a wounded white lion </span><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">cub,</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> but the narrator rejects this gift as well.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Grandmother advances towards the frightened
girl as “she bared her decayed </span><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">fangs,</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> and her eyes began to flash in a manner
suited to lightning…”</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Sometimes, when the girl is intoxicated
with alcohol, Grandmother’s visitations increase. Grandmother appears
everywhere and more regularly. She wants the girl to accept </span><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">something,</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> but the
girl is adamant. The duel continues and neither the Christian bible nor the
psychologist is able to rescue the young woman.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">This story is special in the sense that, to my knowledge, it is the first novel from Zimbabwe to explore the experiences of a character who is going through the early days of manifesting <i>shave</i> (alien spirit) or <i>mudzimu</i> (ancestral spirit). This is a process called called <i>kurwadziswa</i> or <i>kusunyiwa nemweya </i>(the early body and spiritual pains) experienced by a medium (homwe) until the <i>shave </i>or <i>mudzimu</i> are ritually accepted and welcomed. At this stage the medium may become sick, mentally and physically until the matter resolved. Marangwanda explores this with a postmodern brush, much like what Marechera does in House of Hunger, capturing how the boy in school hears voices and feels like he is being pursued by invisible strangers. However, in Nehanda, Yvonne Vera explores real spirit possession, the experiences of a fully established <i>mudzimu</i>.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The girl soon teams up with various other
radicals. There is her former school mate, Sheba. She is “dazzling. Wondrous.
Diabolically beautiful.” Sheba’s parents want her to study </span><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Architecture,</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> but Sheba
ends up choosing to go to Vienna where she studies Fine Art.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Sheba makes the narrator feel inferior as Sheba
is more physically and mentally endowed. She has already tried to commit
suicide three times with a razor and dozens of pills. She says she wants to die
in order to escape from what she calls “the agony of a fraudulent existence.” Ironically,
suitors flock around her, desperately. But she wants to die. She wants </span><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">to extinguish</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> herself like a candle.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">There is also another radical, a sculptor
called Shavi. He is “renowned for his grotesquely exquisite sculptures that
hint at macabre areas of the subconscious.” Shavi explains why people of his generation
are suicidal: “Alienation is the root of it. A widening remoteness and
detachment that refuses to be bridged. One can’t help but fall headlong into
the gaping gap</span><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">…. These</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> are futile times we are living in… I remember the days a
handful of us would meet in the park. We were all twenty something, jobless and
godless…When one of us surrendered and slit his throat open on a sunny day in
full view of our windowless eye, we knew the implosion had begun…”</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">While they are at it, Pan appears from the
gallery where he has been trying to hand in his work. His news is that: “They
said my work doesn’t fit the criteria. What f- criteria? They said it is
difficult to categorise, it screams too loud…what in Satan’s bloody hell does
that mean?” he bellows.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Soon they all feel futile and </span><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">helpless,</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> and
they go away in search of anything exciting and they come across a demonstrating
mob that they all happily join</span></span><a name="_GoBack" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"></a><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">, crashing into cars and
buildings until they fall flat. Anything that opposes the establishment is good for
this generation.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">The major message is that; when you are in a society which does not accept the contributions of your talent and skills, then you are doomed to go round and round the face of the earth.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Meanwhile Grandmother pursues the narrator.
She has many offerings. She will not relent. How will the narrator knock off this
intruder from her mind, </span><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">or</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> will she start to listen to Grandmother? But how can a
rebel listen to an elderly woman from beyond? Is a return to tradition and
roots the answer to all this angst?</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Shards, vacillates between postmodernism
and spirit possession. It races on with no calibrated chapters. We turn and
turn in the cauldron like the old fisherman in Hemingway’s Oldman and the Sea.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Shards
won the National Arts Merit award in 2015, in the Outstanding First Creative Work
category. Cynthia Marangwanda is genuinely talented. She is spontaneous and
writes madly. She is a </span><span class="TitleChar" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">writer and
poet from Harare, Zimbabwe, who is passionate about decolonisation and uplifting
authentic African spiritual identity. She is a holder of an honours degree in
Women's and Gender Studies. Her paternal grandfather, Mr John Marangwanda, is
part of the earliest generation of black Zimbabwean writers. The republication of Shards should give this shocking story a new lease of life.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -36pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p><p>
</p>kwaChirerehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10306481741499309181noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6009925745240031301.post-18128133456850639992024-02-08T03:23:00.000-08:002024-02-08T03:23:08.188-08:00Andrew Chatora’s Literature award…a background<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilf1mDHu3f_pN6kw_r2d2SAyPGUEFoM-NQSKS2DvPy030Vrr-xHxeJljO6NHr5ipp44vOWPFue8MBQLLutyWHdTDqRMAYX-Zyg2W960gw4N_fGfOweOuLucHfTrA1bINPZcKKbvnYizAGRFwdkOwU0ixOxD04SSq6aq0Hm-eLT6mtz3V2oa3YhESPKBjbd/s284/harare%20voice%20cover%20(1).png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="284" data-original-width="177" height="284" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilf1mDHu3f_pN6kw_r2d2SAyPGUEFoM-NQSKS2DvPy030Vrr-xHxeJljO6NHr5ipp44vOWPFue8MBQLLutyWHdTDqRMAYX-Zyg2W960gw4N_fGfOweOuLucHfTrA1bINPZcKKbvnYizAGRFwdkOwU0ixOxD04SSq6aq0Hm-eLT6mtz3V2oa3YhESPKBjbd/s1600/harare%20voice%20cover%20(1).png" width="177" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Mainstream
media in Zimbabwe has announced that Andrew Chatora, the UK based Zimbabwean author
of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Diaspora Dreams,</i> has won </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">the 2024 Anthem
Awards, Silver category, with his rabble-rousing third novel, <i>Harare Voices
and Beyond </i>which was published<span style="background: white; color: #222222;">
by the Chicago based Kharis Publishing – an imprint of Kharis Media
in February 2023.</span><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Writing
on his online X handle </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">(formerly
Twitter)<span style="background: white;"> a few days ago, Chatora said, “(I am )</span></span><span style="color: #0f1419; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">thrilled to share the
</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">news
that</span><span style="color: #0f1419; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> my debut short story collection </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Inside Harare Alcatraz and Other Short
Stories</span><span style="color: #0f1419; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> is published today, which incidentally is my birthday. I am equally
excited to finally reveal I am an award winning author courtesy of my third
book: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Harare Voices and Beyond</i> which
has recently been awarded The 2024 Anthem Silver Award on Tuesday’s cocktail
ceremony in New York</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> <span style="color: #0f1419;">Thank you to all those who read me and my esteemed
Publisher: <a href="https://twitter.com/KharisPublish"><span style="color: #1d9bf0; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">@KharisPublish</span></a>.”</span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #0f1419; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">This hat trick is
just deep and will surely shine a bright light on Zimbabwean Literature and particularly
the city of Mutare, where Andrew Chatora grew up. Currently he writes from his
base </span><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">in Bicester, England, where he teaches English
and Media Studies. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
winner in this category is for “</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">any published book or other written work
that aims to document or raise awareness for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion.
This can include fiction and non-fiction literature, history books, children's
story books, essays, op-eds, and more.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">In Chatora’s winning
novel, a white Zimbabwean family; </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The Williams</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> loses land in the
Zimbabwe land reform and they are thrown into chaos and move from being
previously well heeled and privileged white Rhodesians to being mere scarecrows,
who are sometimes pitied by their former black employees. They have to go to
downtown Harare and sometimes grovel to black people more like what you see in Nadine
Gordimer’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">July’s People.</i> In </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Chatora’s </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">novel, the empire
is somehow deconstructed. Th</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">e</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> story is based on Robert Mugabe’s <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>post-independence Zimbabwe, exploring without
restraint, a multitude of topics including family </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">feuds,</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> money, identity,
love, substance abuse, mental health, and politic, </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">among others.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">This is a shocking
glimpse into the lives of white Zimbabweans and their struggles in a country
that is built on the corruption, part of which they entrenched before losing
power by 1980. We see the ripple effect of the land reform affecting Julian, a
young white Zimbabwean man who loses his father, wife and children. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Harare Voices and Beyond</i> tells the stories
of the predator, the prey and everyone else in-between.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">This
is, to my knowledge, the first fully fledged novel by a black Zimbabwean
writer to look at the setbacks suffered by white folk during the Zimbabwe land
reform. Andrew Chatora searches delicately for the place and scope of the white
community in post independent Zimbabwe. Being a pathfinder of sorts, many
may find this novel either unsettling or satisfying, or both.</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Many
critical questions shall be asked, however. How do you write white people effectively
when you are a black writer from Zimbabwe? Would that tantamount to speaking on
behalf of the enemy? Would you be able to show that their loss is as a result
of complex events within and beyond Zimbabwe? The author’s real test was in
tactically navigating this very contentious terrain.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">However,
Chatora speaks clearly about this matter in his acceptance speech: </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">‘‘Much as I’ve been denigrated in some quarters as taking the side of
whites, nothing could be further from the truth. It’s not about taking sides
really.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">With my novel, </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Harare
Voices and Beyond,<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"> I was attempting to
fill in the missing link, the constant question on how it could have felt on
the other side, the landed white community during the land reform,” <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">So much had happened to white people during the land reform. Now, this
should not be conflated with I am anti-land reform as charged by some of my
detractors. But, to reiterate, that is the essence of the writer. I will always
defend my right to write without fear or favour on any contentious issues
affecting our society.’’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">In his debut novel of 2021 called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Diaspora Dreams</i>, which was a national
Arts Award nominees in Zimbabwe, the main character, Kundai Mafirakureva, is
following up on his teacher wife in England, </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Kay.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> Her pregnancy is now very advanced and Kundai has come to be with the
beautiful Kay in her time of need, something far away from Chikwava’s man in <i>Harare
North.</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Kundai does not know that he
has in fact come to ‘school’ to learn about what women can do, sometimes, to
their unsuspecting men when the survival instinct rises above love ties. When
you are used to the many books that dwell on how men typically abuse women,
then this book is something else, </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">in terms of how it treats the losing black
male psyche.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">In his second novel, </span><i><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Where
the Heart Is,</span></i><span style="background: white; color: #181818; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Chatora comes out as one of the very few
novelist</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">s<span style="background: white; color: #181818;"> from Zimbabwe to fully imagine the joys
and hazards of a physical return home from the diaspora. A man moves from Zimbabwe
to the UK, returns to Zimbabwe but finding it necessary to return to the UK, </span>as
the centre can no longer hold for him.<span style="background: white; color: red;">
</span><span style="background: white; color: #181818;">It is a charmed book about
going to and fro. Its place in African literature is lofty.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #181818; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In his fourth work, which is a collection of short stories
called<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Inside Harare Alcatraz and other short stories
Chatora </span></i><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">temporarily quit</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">s<span style="background: white; color: #333333;"> the novel to give us this charmed confluence of the novella,
the short story, the vignette, and the poetic essay. A collection of
shorter forms usually allows the artist to tell his story in tit bits and with
more varied urgency than what a novel allows.</span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Amongst some of
the leading celebrities honoured in this year’s 3<sup>rd</sup> Annual Anthem
Awards in New York were notable luminaries such as Hollywood actors Matt Damon,
and Kevin Bacon. Other conspicuous recipients of the Special Lifetime
Achievement includes Misty Copeland, Aurora James and Leon Ford inter-alia.
These are people who have distinguished themselves in different spheres of life
and thus honoured for their diverse roles and contribution in the field of Arts
and popular culture and it is this group that Zimbabwean, Andrew Chatora joins!
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Author Biography<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Andrew Chatora writes novels, short stories, literary essays
and hails from Zimbabwe. His writing explores multifarious themes of belonging,
identity politics, blackness, migration, multi-cultural relationships,
citizenship and nationhood. He lives with his wife Priveledge and their two
children in Bicester, England where he teaches English and Media Studies.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></p>kwaChirerehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10306481741499309181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6009925745240031301.post-76605315224234115992024-01-31T01:08:00.000-08:002024-01-31T01:08:15.482-08:00Tariro Ndoro reviews Andrew Chatora's short story book<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbWYUDFPCNtwO6NRAsnt2mhiDPo7calKHFQGq9mnT9dVLo1iGGQd8uuT4j-i5Bz7iQMslFQD82hv85VUQFh3uo_OCmJLR1nozTabspb0wlK_pynAHl38w3MnqN_M07PQj9Fd42xwerI43OGN0Y5il55TZhdOzXC_Ce4DzOxtBtxgpRqAJK7C71uSa3hLWU/s960/Andrew%20Chatora%20Altacraz%20pic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="519" data-original-width="960" height="173" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbWYUDFPCNtwO6NRAsnt2mhiDPo7calKHFQGq9mnT9dVLo1iGGQd8uuT4j-i5Bz7iQMslFQD82hv85VUQFh3uo_OCmJLR1nozTabspb0wlK_pynAHl38w3MnqN_M07PQj9Fd42xwerI43OGN0Y5il55TZhdOzXC_Ce4DzOxtBtxgpRqAJK7C71uSa3hLWU/s320/Andrew%20Chatora%20Altacraz%20pic.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p align="center" class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: center;"><b><span lang="EN-ZW" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Navigating Zimbabwe and her Diaspora: Through the Years<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: 36.0pt; text-align: center;"><b><i><span lang="EN-ZW" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Inside Harare Alcatraz and Other
Short Stories</span></i></b><b><span lang="EN-ZW" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> Reviewed by Tariro
Ndoro<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><i><span lang="EN-ZW" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN-ZW" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">When it reaches the bookshops in your neighbourhood soon in the first
half of 2024 you may see that<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Inside
Harare Alcatraz and Other Short Stories offers a fine assembly of different
tones, voices, and settings, giving a view of a Zimbabwe and her Diaspora that
is multifaceted writes Tariro Ndoro.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: 36.0pt; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN-ZW" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZW" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Zimbabwe’s socio-political landscape and the acutely complex
circumstances of the Zimbabwe diaspora informs the eleven stories that form
Andrew Chatora’s fourth book and debut short story collection,<i> Inside</i> <i>Harare
Alcatraz and Other Short Stories</i>. Told from the viewpoints of several
narrators living in diverse locales, <i>Inside Harare Alcatraz and Other Short
Stories</i> touches on the themes of turmoil, tenacity, broken society and sometimes
sheer desperation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZW" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">When it reaches the bookshops in your neighbourhood soon in the first
half of 2024 you may see that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Inside
Harare Alcatraz</i><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">and Other Short Stories </i><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">offers a fine assembly of different tones,
voices, and settings, giving a view of a Zimbabwe and her Diaspora that is
multifaceted writes Tariro Ndoro.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZW" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The collection opens with the scene of a man being thrown “kicking and
screaming” into a Harare jail cell in the title story, <i>“Inside Harare
Alcatraz”</i> which takes place in Harare’s maximum-security prison. The prison
is nicknamed ‘Alcatraz’ after the now defunct impenetrable and infamous
Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary Prison off the coast of San Francisco. In this
story, Chatora weaves the tale of an unnamed man who is assigned to go to this
prison and pretend to be a prisoner in the same cell as two “infamous”
political prisoners, highlighting the harsh and politically abused environs of
Zimbabwe’s correctional services. In this story, Chipendani the protagonist
must make difficult and surprising choices that will change the shape of his
life forever.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZW" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">However, the bulk of the book is set in Dangamvura, a township in
Mutare, Zimbabwe’s third largest city. Although Chatora has affectionately
mentioned both Dangamvura and the greater Mutare in his first two books, it is
in <i>Inside Harare Alcatraz</i> that he fully pays homage to his
hometown.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN-ZW" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">“Estelle the Shebeen Queen and Other Dangamvura Vignettes,”</span></i><span lang="EN-ZW" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> for instance, is the <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>story of a
Dangamvura <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>shebeen queen who runs a not
so covert brothel in which she employs her own daughters:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: 36.0pt; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN-ZW" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">I was privileged enough to be neighbours with Estelle
and only lived two doors away from her. Estelle was an unmarried woman in her
late fifties with a brood of daughters, who mostly were single mothers crowding
at her famed 4 roomed house; kwaMagumete as it was called; though it beats me
how they were able to live comfortably under such squalid conditions of
overcrowding, constantly stepping on each other’s toes. The irony growing up in
my hood, Estelle’s house was termed four roomed house but in reality, they were
two bedroomed houses itself an indictment of the colonial regime which never
seem to take into account the big number of African families and how they could
benefit from corresponding adequate housing.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZW" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Chatora fully describes the underbelly of township life as he details Estelle’s
and her daughters’ <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>methods of ensnaring
hapless patrons and then mortgaging their debts to the hilt. These women are
villains but, like in Yasher Kemal’s <i>Memed My Hawk,</i> the villain can as
well be a plausible hero. Estelle and her daughters must be hitting back at
society that has always disposed women.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZW" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">In one other story in this book, one family, the Chatikobos, barely
survives. Later on, Chatora delineates the foibles of the newly rich black
middle class in <i>“Of Sekuru Kongiri and Us” </i>as one man sacrifices his cultural
upbringing at the altar of upward mobility. His wife is a louder expression of
what Kongiri is able to hide about himself. After the sinister matter-of fact
tone displayed in <i>“Estelle the Shebeen Queen,”</i> “ <i>Of Sekuru Kongiri
and Us,”</i> one has already experienced a more playful side of both Dangamvura
and the author.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZW" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Chatora then uses the template of court hearings and legal procedure to
illustrate gender politics and the violence that often surrounds sex. Two such
stories are <i>“A Snap Decision”</i> and “<i>Tales of Survival: Avenues and
Epworth.” </i>The former takes place in the United Kingdom, in which a woman;
Pamhidzai has been accused of killing her mother’s lover. The story is, in many
ways, reminiscent of Jag Mundhra’s 2006 film, <i>Provoked</i>, which tells the
story of a young Indian woman who migrates to the United Kingdom for an
arranged marriage and yet she only face years of abuse at the hands of her
husband. Seeing no other way out for herself, she snaps and burns him alive. Chatora
has a knack for steeping his stories in legal complications. You may want to
coin a term legal-literature around Chatora’s works.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZW" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">In <i>“A Snap Decision,”</i> the protagonist, Pamhidzai, endures abuse
at the hands of a revolving door of men who date her mother. In the end, she
stabs the last one to death. Pamhidzai’s story also highlights the effect of
emigration on African families, a theme Chatora often visits in his other books:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZW" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: 36.0pt; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN-ZW" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">It was moments like these when I felt myself
spiralling into a dark pit of despair, I was unable to extricate myself from or
to claw myself out of. Why did I have to belong to such a dysfunctional family
as ours? I hated mummy more and blamed her for driving dad away in the first
place.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZW" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN-ZW" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Tales of Survival: Avenues and
Epworth,”</span></i><span lang="EN-ZW" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> on the other hand, describes the life stories of
several sex workers living in one of Harare’s diciest ghettoes – Epworth.
Herein Chatora highlights the social and economic ills that force young women
to take to sex work when they are robbed of other choices. But the most
important thing is that several key people try to put a stop to all this.
Whether this is achieved or not, is for the reader to decide.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZW" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Andrew Chatora’s Short stories </span><span lang="EN-ZW" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">remind me of what Elizabeth
Bowen’s words that the short story, more than the novel, is able to place man
alone on that "stage which, inwardly, every man is conscious of occupying
alone."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZW" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Chatora’s other books, <i>Diaspora
Dreams</i>, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i>Where the Heart Is</i>, and
<i>Harare Voices and Beyond</i> are set in Thames Valley, England with several
scenes set in Zimbabwe. The three <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>books
have the story of one family told in long form fiction over a long period of
time. Not so with <i>Inside Harare Alcatraz and Other Short Stories</i>. In
this instalment, Chatora uses more characters to inhabit more locales and the
greater part of the book is set in his native Zimbabwe. From the jail cells of
Chikurubi to the leafy suburbs of Harare, Chatora methodically reveals the
desperate lives of the base.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN-ZW" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Inside Harare Alcatraz and Other Short Stories </span></i><span lang="EN-ZW" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">is available through <span style="color: #00b0f0;"><a href="https://kharispublishing.com/"><span style="color: #00b0f0;">https://kharispublishing.com</span></a></span>
and major online retail sites such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Christianbooks.com,
Walmart, etc., or by contacting the author at:<span class="MsoHyperlink"> </span><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="color: #00b0f0;">ajchatora@gmail.com</span></span>
Order your copy today!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZW" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><b><span lang="EN-ZW" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Reviewer Biography<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Tariro Ndoro is a Zimbabwean poet
and storyteller. Born in Harare but raised in a smattering of small towns,
Tariro holds a BSc in Microbiology and an MA in Creative Writing. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Her work has been published in
numerous international journals and anthologies including <em><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-family: "Garamond","serif"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">20.35 Africa: An Anthology of Contemporary
Poetry </span></em>(Brittle Paper, 2018), <em><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-family: "Garamond","serif"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">Kotaz</span></em>, <em><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-family: "Garamond","serif"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">New
Contrast</span></em>, <em><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-family: "Garamond","serif"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">Oxford
Poetry</span></em>, and <em><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-family: "Garamond","serif"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">Puerto
del Sol</span></em>. Her poetry has been shortlisted for the 2018 Babishai Niwe
Poetry Prize and awarded second place for the 2017 DALRO Prize. <em><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-family: "Garamond","serif"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">Agringada </span></em>is her debut
collection.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="EN-ZW" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZW" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>kwaChirerehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10306481741499309181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6009925745240031301.post-60637748758689504892023-12-29T11:54:00.000-08:002023-12-31T03:15:32.999-08:00KwaChirere previews Andrew Chatora's debut short stories<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguAHOvqq4sc4xcpaR9SrJRxm6xZP5aSbNe7XFETUIke7b6QBvVINrSkhQHX6UHQNp63eeg3SEA5TcBlqzS2-9AbVNx2fPXzgWCythfeKPHau6EM8KU8wdxphRldOzWaR0sHX-db7CgCVRJHu2jFiFAtfV-MXPPGUiNBeu1gIEuAB4vyAikbN2fq5AF65Yk/s2560/Hardback%20Version%20First%20Choice.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2560" data-original-width="1585" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguAHOvqq4sc4xcpaR9SrJRxm6xZP5aSbNe7XFETUIke7b6QBvVINrSkhQHX6UHQNp63eeg3SEA5TcBlqzS2-9AbVNx2fPXzgWCythfeKPHau6EM8KU8wdxphRldOzWaR0sHX-db7CgCVRJHu2jFiFAtfV-MXPPGUiNBeu1gIEuAB4vyAikbN2fq5AF65Yk/w248-h400/Hardback%20Version%20First%20Choice.jpg" width="248" /></span></a></div><br /> <p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">Inside
Harare Alcatraz and other short stories<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">Author:
Andrew Chatora<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">Publisher:
Kharis Publishing<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">ISBN-13:
978-1-63746-234-8 <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">Date
of publication: 2024<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I
am privileged to reveal that this February 2024, Andrew Chatora, the UK based
Zimbabwean novelist, is set to release his debut short story collection called </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Inside Harare Alcatraz and other short
stories.</span></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">The
author of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Diaspora Dreams</i> has temporarily
quit the novel to give us this charmed confluence of the novella, the short
story, the vignette, and the poetic essay. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">A collection of
shorter forms usually allows the artist to tell his story in tit bits and with
more varied urgency than what a novel allows.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">This book of eleven
pieces, is made up of <em><span style="background: white; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">briefly fleeting and powerful scenes.<span style="color: #5f6368;"> </span></span></em>In his best moments, Chatora shows us the kaleidoscopic experiences of what it means growing up in
Zimbabwe’s Dangamvura, Mutare, which breathes like Leopold Senghor’s Harlem. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">One should not
miss the exciting series of short pieces under the title <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Estelle, the Shebeen Queen and other Dangamvura vignettes</i> because Estelle
rules here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She arranges and re-arranges
everyone in Dangamvura, without having to leave her seat! She can toss over the so-called man’s world the way a gambler tosses a coin. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">Upside down.
Inside out.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">Much early in
the story, we are told that; “Estelle was a woman in her late fifties with a
brood of daughters, mostly single mothers, who crowded her infamous four-roomed
house – <span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">kwaMagumete </span>as it was
affectionately called...”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">It is early
days into Zimbabwe’s independence and most mavericks necessarily have to belong to
the ended war, the party, the suburb, the market, the shebeen and to… Estelle! <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">Dangamvura Township
is a catalogue of characters. There is, for example, the police officer, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Wabenzi</i> who deliberately encourages
gruesome tales about himself to float around, trying to cultivate a legendary
folklore status in order to cow the community into submission. A cult hero in a
city in a nation that is emerging from a gruesome war of liberation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">Then there is a
respectable church man, <i>Baba </i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Makuwaza,</i>
who is dragged from Estelle’s shebeen half-naked, with his torn boxers on display,
as Estelle hurles invectives to both hapless <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Makuwaza</i> and his wife.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><span>Do not miss the other
story, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tales of Survival,</i> which is
set in Harare’s Epworth. E</span><span style="background: white; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">ach woman’s narrative in that series carries the day with pathos,
contradictions and humour. That way, the vignettes bring to life the plight of low-class Harare women and how they gradually find ways of grabbing at least
little victories from their miseries. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><span style="background: white; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">They are struggling to struggle! And they
struggle on. </span><span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Of Sekuru Kongiri and Us</span></i><span style="background: white; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> is a touching story. For me, it could be the best story in this whole collection.
It is potentially a prize-winning short story! It takes the reader through various
emotions. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><span style="background: white; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The most delicate part of the story goes: “</span><span>It’s important
that I make it clear he was not always Sekuru Kongiri. First, he was Uncle
Alfred…the once generous man increasingly became so tight-fisted and miserly
with money, only to his side of the family of course, that Dr. Watson nicknamed
him, “as tight fisted as concrete…” and so Sekuru Kongiri he became up to this
day.”</span><span style="background: white; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><span>The story has a
unique pace and amazing African cultural depth too. This tragic-comic story will
not fail those interested in the vicissitudes of African culture. </span><span style="background: white; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">The other story
to look out for is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Smoke and Mirrors</i>.
It is set in the UK. At Wendover Heights care home where Zimbabwean man, Onai,
works, looking after vulnerable adults, he meets Iffy, a Nigerian woman, and as
workmates from Africa, they bond easily. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">But, one day,
Iffy brings an exciting business plan to Onai: “I know about your wife and
family, I’m not an idiot. It’s not a real marriage I’m talking of here, Onai. You
have dual Zimbabwean-British citizenship, don’t you? Right. So that’s perfect
for us; we would pay you whatever amount you want to falsely get married to
someone from any of the African countries we deal with. It will be a sham
marriage. The idea is to get them into the country, allow them to settle into
their own life; they get a job, acclimatize to their mundane lives here, after
which you file for divorce. Or sometimes, it may be someone already in the
country, and they don’t have legal status. Dead easy, Onai; all parties win.
She gets her papers; you get your money. It’s a win-win for everyone. Easy
peasy.’’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">In the end, one
of them gets into agony for all this! This story stinks! You may need a towel
as you read it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Fari’s Last Smile</span></i><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> is </span><span>a
story that reads like something from the pages of Thomas Hardy’s <i>The Distracted
Preacher and other Tales.</i> A man keeps on falling, but rising each time that he
falls… in order to fall again. But each time that he falls, he does it in a
more novel way than before. He is even conned by people back home in Zimbabwe. They
tell him that they are using the money he is sending them to build a house. The
story teaches through tears.</span><span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">In the title
story itself, which is an intriguing mixture of fact and fiction, there are the
heart-rending experiences of political prisoners, ironically in independent and
contemporary Zimbabwe. You stagger as you watch how those with power in Africa
scuttle the chess board, forcing us to doubt African beauty, African pride and African
wisdom. But the so-called terrible man actually confesses in that story. He is the story. He is the only hope we have. You want to kiss
that story in the end. A terrible beauty is born.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">But Andrew Chatora
is relentless. He crosses the English Channel and marches into the African
diaspora community of England and gives us a snap survey of <span style="background: white;">racism which sits at the very core of contemporary
England’s psyche. In one of the stories, which is actually an essay short
story, </span>child narrator, Anesu, bemoans the exigency of systemic and
institutionalised racism. He is a first-generation Zimbabwean-British immigrant
who confronts a system his parents submissively put up with. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; font-family: arial; font-size: large;">Sometimes
you want to puke because the land which purports to be the quintessence of
Democracy is itself rotten at the very core and is full of "white savages!"<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">In the story <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Snap Decision a girl</i>, Pamhidzai, has
to contend with the question: “Why did you stab your mother’s lover?” What
follows is a mixture of the past and present and Andrew Chatora is back to his quintessential
theme of the struggles between men and women in marriage especially at the
instigation of a foreign environment.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">Then there is a story in which you are sitting with your daughter in England and the fool
innocently asks you, from nowhere: “Why don’t you use Shona names, since you
are from Zimbabwe, and you are always banging on about preserving one's cultural heritage and identity?” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">Then in explaining
to her who you are, you take one winding road that unravels Britain’s long but
pitiful relationship with the migrant. For this story, dear reader, you will
have to put on your spectacles!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">I say that
because here is a subliminal, meandering but enlightening treatise on race,
class, gender and identity politics in the diaspora. You are caught up in the rough
and tumble of Britain’s diverse cityscapes, names, ethnicity and place of abode.
One has to deploy them tactfully in the politics of survival.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">There is a
somewhat sombre tone in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">First </span></i><i>Wave, a</i> story where a Zimbabwean nurse; Shumirai,
working in the British national health service; takes a poignant tour de force
of how she and her fellow colleagues fought and conquered a global pandemic
which wreaked havoc on lives in its early days. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">In equal
measure, in a moving tribute, Shumirai mourns and lauds the passing of her work
colleagues, patients and family as she grapples with the government’s
mishandling of the crisis.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">Andrew Chatora
charts new territory by offering dual perspectives from different black
narrators’ lived experiences in both the former colony; Zimbabwe and its
colonial master Britain; in a new normal shift, i.e. post-independence reverse
migration cycle of citizens to the former colony.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; letter-spacing: -0.05pt; line-height: 28px;">Author Biography:</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; letter-spacing: -0.05pt; line-height: 28px;">Andrew Chatora is a noted exponent of the African diaspora novel. Candid, relentlessly engaging and vulnerable, his novels are a polarising affair among social critics and literary aficionados. C</span><span style="background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; letter-spacing: -0.05pt; line-height: 28px;">hatora’s</span><span lang="EN-US" style="background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; letter-spacing: -0.05pt; line-height: 28px;"> forthcoming novel, <i>Born Here, But Not in My Name</i>, is a long-run treatment of race relations in Britain, featuring the English classroom as a microcosm of wider society post-Brexit. His debut novella, <i>Diaspora Dreams</i> (2021), was the well-received nominee of the National Arts Merit Awards in Zimbabwe, while his subsequent works, <i>Where the Heart Is</i>, <i>Harare Voices and Beyond</i> and<i> Inside Harare Alcatraz and Other Stories,</i> has cemented his contribution as a voice of the excluded. <i>Harare Voices and Beyond</i> has recently been nominated for The Anthem Awards (2023).</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><span style="background: white;">+ Previewed by Memory Chirere, University of Zimbabwe</span><span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>kwaChirerehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10306481741499309181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6009925745240031301.post-14188576811540886992023-09-13T11:36:00.048-07:002023-09-18T11:12:16.213-07:00Fidelis Bushu offers first review of Shamhu yeZera Renyu <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9vEVgK8y37V_YH-EwoQZI4SPBAwkSzCSOherj7mOr7vvWhXfWsLPHh8-u2u16GWMCT4Uu2ADI5_bH7Ud-yvQXgE7ceLmDU3L9FKgYp_ecRZrNoVAmek-GQYyj85Q2lzQLhPmIZdoGuP04jl5Kv5p4MwHZEOhI_bd8eCYOhcmsykxluWK7rFvF0w2ebbmt/s707/apa%20pamba694b247-a426-40a9-8b27-bd77e2248b6a.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="707" data-original-width="508" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9vEVgK8y37V_YH-EwoQZI4SPBAwkSzCSOherj7mOr7vvWhXfWsLPHh8-u2u16GWMCT4Uu2ADI5_bH7Ud-yvQXgE7ceLmDU3L9FKgYp_ecRZrNoVAmek-GQYyj85Q2lzQLhPmIZdoGuP04jl5Kv5p4MwHZEOhI_bd8eCYOhcmsykxluWK7rFvF0w2ebbmt/w288-h400/apa%20pamba694b247-a426-40a9-8b27-bd77e2248b6a.jpg" width="288" /></a></div>(pic: Fidelis Bushu and Memory Chirere as young men in Bindura, 1995.)<p></p><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">A book Review by Fidelis Bushu<br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Title of Book: Shamhu
yeZera Renyu<br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Author: Memory Chirere<br /> </span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Publisher: Carnelian
Heart Publishing, UK, 2023<br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">issbn:
178-1-914287-11-4 </span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> </span></p><div style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Memory Chirere’s latest
book of Shona poems, Shamhu YeZera Renyu, gives me a range of personal memories
of him as man and poet whom I first met in his formative years.<br /> </span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> <br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I am happy that Memory
Chirere has continued to grow in stature as a writer and poet ever since. Now I often see him ranked among the writers of our country, Zimbabwe. I usually
smile at that as I try to deal with my memories. I am excited that many can now
see what I already saw back then. I must state that this may not be a
conventional book review. It is just a testimony instigated by Chirere’s latest
book.<br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> <br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> <br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Memory Chirere was
my work mate for a good number of years. Later, we both learnt that he is my uncle and I, his nephew,
because we the Bushus are related to the Nzou Samanyanga people of Dotito.<br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> <br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I first met Memory Chirere who was coming in as the
new teacher of Literature in English in a school where I had already been
teaching English for a couple of years. He was being transferred from a school in Madziwa so that he could help resuscitate the teaching of English at A level at Chipindura. I first saw him when he was offloading
his belongings from a truck onto the green grasses of Chipindura High School in
Bindura. We were to share a house in the school. After we had carried his suitcases
and the many-many books inside, he came out of the house to sit with me on the
doorsteps to watch my luxuriant little patch of maize crop. Then he had a lean
and hungry look. You could say he appeared underfed but athletic. He has
always been a warm and hesitant personality with a penchant for quiet introspection. Of course, he also had that
philosophic gaze into space common with teachers of Literature.<br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> <br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">In 1995, Tipeiwo Dariro, which carries his first batch
of poems, had just been published and it had already become a school text at
Ordinary level in Zim. I recall many students coming over to the staffroom to
see the poet and immediately walk away in disbelief. Meeting the writer of a
book that you are studying may actually be quite jolting. Chirere gave our
students at Chipindura High an opportunity to see that books could also be
written by people they knew.<br /> </span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Chirere blended well in the school environment,
regardless. He did not hold very strong views about anything. However, once he
understood a matter, he tended to put it across in a much simpler way than many
of us could, gradually, inflicting no pain on anyone! He has always been ‘avuncular’
and we laughed a lot together with him about that word. Chirere loves to break
down difficult concepts into everyday language. This has continued to be his
trademark as seen through some of his poems and short stories. In his first
poem in Shamhu Yezera Renyu, he writes:</span></div><div style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">“Ndave
kutya<br /> </span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">nekuti
handisati ndanyora<br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">bhuku
revanhu.<br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;"> <br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">kana
ndazoripedza <br /> </span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">vanhu
vanofanira kuona kuti<br /> </span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">ndivo
vakarinyora.<br /> </span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;"> <br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">vanhu
vanonyora bhuku ravo<br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">nemipinyi
nemapadza nemajeko nemitswi<br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">nemisodzi
nedzihwa nedikita...”<br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;"> <br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> <br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Chirere has always been attracted to the subject of
childhood in his writings. An early poem to this anthology is rightfully entitled ‘Ndaimhanya’
(I would run). It talks about how we are in constant haste during childhood and
that we all have an extraterrestrial fuel which pushes us throughout life:</span></div><div style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">“Ndaiti ndikatumwa upfu kumhiri uko<br /> </span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">ndaimhanya.<br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">Kana ndave kubva kumhiri ikoko neupfu<br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">ndaimhanya.<br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">Ndaipa vakuru upfu ndoenda kundotamba<br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">ndichimhanya.<br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">Ikoko ndaiwana vamwe vachimhanya<br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">Ini ndomhanyawo navo.<br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">Taimhanya tose dakara zuva rasvika pakunyura<br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">ndozomhanyira kumba.<br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">Ndaimhanya.<br /> </span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">ini ndaimhanya.”</span></div><div style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">In his short stories in his, Tudikidiki, a boy makes
it a habit to watch the goings on in the neighbourhood and street. I recall
that Chirere fell in love particularly with Kashangura Road in Bindura’s
Chipadze Township. He adopted that road, and it recurs in his two short story
books, Tudikidiki and Somewhere in this Country.</span></div><div style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">Kashangura is the
first road that you enter when you come to Chipadze from Chipindura High (from
the western side.) We often ambled along Kashangura with Chirere and the other
teachers; Mr Walter Hondo, Mr Robert Masunga and Mr Tavengwa Tore, talking about nothing in particular. One day
Chirere simply said, “This is my Miguel Street.” I understood him because I had read how all those short stories of VS
Naipaul went round and round Miguel Street. <span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Although
each story in Miguel Street is individualized, the setting is the imaginary Miguel Street in Port of Spain.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"></span><br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">Chirere liked to watch
the men of Kashangura drinking from the tiny verandas, with their eyes always
towards the road. He marvelled at the women plaiting one another’s hair with
the calmness of artists. He liked to see the children playing games right on
the narrow tarmac, their plastic balls rolling between our feet as we walked by.
Up to this day Chirere tells me about his going back to Bindura, again and
again, to taste the atmosphere of Kashangura. I feel it in his last poem:</span></div><div style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">“Dai<br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">Ndikakuwana<br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">uchipo.<br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">Dai<br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">Ndikakuwana<br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">sezvatinoita howa.<br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">Ndigokudzura.<br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">Ndichizunza mavhu.<br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">Ndichikudzura.<br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">Usingatyoke.<br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">Ndichikudzura
usingacheme.</span></div><div style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">Masvosve akatarisa.</span></div><div style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">Ndigokuradzika mutswanda</span></div><div style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">usingashevedzere.”<br /> </span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">Chirere tells me
that Chipadze brings to him echoes of Aime Cesaire’s long poem, Notebook of a Return
to My Native Land, a book that Chirere reveres to this day. <span style="background: white; color: #333333;">That long poem tells the story of one young
man's excited return to his home in Martinique, after being away in France. The
speaker of the poem is on a journey to confront history, the negatives and the
positives, but he is not sure how to begin. </span></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="background: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt;">I find the same vibe in Chirere’s longer poems, especially in ‘Detembo
risina musoro’ (the worthless poem). In that piece a man gazes at his many shoes (old
and new) on the shoe rack at night and is overwhelmed by the many futile journeys he has
made on this earth, in search of meaning:</span></div><div style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="background: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">“Shangu dzangu zhinji dzakaita rundaza
madekwana ano<br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">muimba yokurara dzinondipa kufunga nzendo
dzangu dzose<br /> </span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">dzandakafamba. Kuita seshangu dzevanhu
vandisingazive idzo<br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">dziri dzangu! Ndinozvisunya ndichidana zita
rangu repanyika.<br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">Ndinoona sendisingadzoke kwandinodanwa nguva
dzose. Mazvinzwa.<br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">Saka iwe pikisa tikakavadzane ndizive
handisi ndega. Uneni here?<br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">Ndiri ndofa nhasi, ungatoreurura kuti wanga
uneni here nhasi uno<br /> </span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">muupenyu huno? Ungatonderawo bvuri rangu
mauro kumadziro emba ndichidya nekuzavaza? Ungatonderawo kukapaza kwemawoko
angu?<br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">Dzimwe nguva ndinotarisa vana vangu ndoti
ndevangu pakudii?<br /> </span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">Ndevenyika! Kana naivo vana vandinoticha vanobvepi
gore negore?<br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;"> Ndevenyika! Zvinonzi ndingatiche chii kuvanhu
vane njere kare kudai?<br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;"> Ndiwoka madzimudzangara anonzi hupenyu hwangu.
Mavhiri emota<br /> </span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">akaturikidzaniswa seri kwezimba risingagare
vanhu. Asi pane kanzira<br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">ketsoka kanobva kugedhi kachiuya kumusuwo
wezimba risina pendi…”</span></div><div style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /> </span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">The speaker in that
poem could be losing his mind gradually. The more the speaker flies
into his own mind, the more he becomes enamored into existence. <span style="background: white; color: #333333;">The poem alternates between hope and
despair. You also find the same effects in ‘Kungoenda’ which leaves you wondering if the
narrator has travelled abroad or has actually committed suicide. Just as you
find in his earlier award-winning anthology, Bhuku Risina Basa Nokuti
Rakanyorwa Masikati, Chirere blurs the edges and just when you think you have
got him, you lose him!</span></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #333333;"><br /> <o:p></o:p></span></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="background: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt;">In real life Chirere gazes at an object and appears to
fall asleep in the beauty of his thoughts and when he wakes up you see it in
his eyes that he had travelled. In his writings, his characters try to deal with
the origins of their plight, their own insecurities, their own self-hate, and this
quest allows their voices to inspire others to transcend their passive and
horizontal identities.</span></div><div style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="background: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="background: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt;">I am not surprised that Robert Masunga, one of Chirere’s long
time associates, says on the blurb that this book is based on journeying,
physical and metaphorical. In one poem, a man is on the bus and on seeing the
bloodshot eyes of the driver; he starts to wonder if this one too is not his
long-lost son he may have accidentally sired during his many adventures across the world.</span></div><div style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="background: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt;"><br /> </span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="background: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt;">Or the other poem about a man journeying on a bus from
Harare to Mt Darwin and meeting people who appear to be shamans. You sit next
to a woman and all the way; she is busy on her phone, and she does not see you during the whole trip from Harare to Glandale. When she alights at Glandale, in order
to proceed to Chiweshe, you gawk at her until she goes beyond the bend, still
speaking into her phone!</span></div><div style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="background: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt;"><br /> </span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="background: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt;">She disappears from your sight with your soul. In her place
sits a new passenger, who is carrying roosters in a basket and, as he alights
at Kasimbwi, you follow him to say, you have left your roosters and people in
the bus do not realise that you are now under the influence of something akin
to Cyprian Ekwensi’s sokugo, or the wondering charm, that afflicts Mai Sunsaye
in Burning Grass. The </span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="background: white; color: #202124; font-size: 14pt;">sokugo causes men to wander off, deserting
their families and leaving behind their previous lives. Men suffering from
Sokugo are also unable to settle in a place for a few days.</span></div><div style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="background: white; color: #202124; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="background: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt;">In Chirere’s poem in question, the narrator has to be exorcized
by somebody at the next bus stop at Mushowani through wild and barbaric caning:</span></div><div style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="background: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">“Vamwe baba vazoti tinodzika tose
ndikubatsire paMushowani<br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">Murume mutema ane sutu nhema tai nhema
bhutsu nhema…<br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">Tadzika paMushowani.<br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">Abvisa bhande ndokuti:<br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">Mushonga wacho ndokukiya zvekuti dhu kuti
huku idzi dzisiyane newe.<br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">Zvanga zvisingasekese…<br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">Akumura bhande paye ndokundikwapaidza<br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">Ndokundirurusha<br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">Ndokundishwatura<br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">Ndokundichudika<br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">achiti, mhanya, mhanya, mhanya usiye huku…<br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">Ndatanga kumhanya ndichitevera mugwagwa
weDharuweni<br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">Ndokunzwa kuti jongwe nesheshe zvasiyana
neni.<br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">Ndamhanya kwenguva nekuti panga
pasingamirike.<br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">Izvozvi ndiri kunyora detembo rino pamusika
paDharuweni…”</span></div><div style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The Korekore country
and its mysteries come alive in some of these poems. Chirere himself is an
ardent follower of mbira music and African thought. He would play song after song of mbira on </span><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">his radio</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">, and the dancing feet of him and his friends would punctuate the night. We let him be.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /><o:p></o:p></span></span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">It was through him
that I came across many who were to become important in the literature of
Zimbabwe when they came to visit or to take him to </span><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">writers'</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> workshop beyond
Bindura. These are the likes of Ignatius Mabasa, Ruzvidzo Mupfudza, Emmanuel
Sigauke, Shingai Ndoro, Alson Mufiri, Dudziro Nhengu, Munashe Furusa, Irene Staunton and
others.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /><o:p></o:p></span></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;">I wonder what other
readers will say about poem, "Maraya naMareta," (Mary and and Martha). Is it
about friendship or romantic love or the combination of the two? Was Chirere
thinking about the struggle between appearance and reality? I have read the
poem Vana vandakaticha (the children who were in my class) with a lot of
interest, having taught the same children with Chirere. That poem begins:</span></div><div style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" lang="EN" style="color: #1c1e21; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;">“Aita mawara okuisa ruoko muhomwe mangu<br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" lang="EN" style="color: #1c1e21; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Achibva aburitsa dhora ndisina kumupa…”</span></div><div style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" lang="EN" style="color: #1c1e21; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"><br /></span><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" lang="EN" style="color: #1c1e21; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;">I am suggesting, in line with what Ignatius Mabasa says in his beautiful introduction to this book, that we have to acknowledge that through this book, Memory
Chirere has joined the elite poets of Zimbabwe through the sheer depth of his artistic
and thematic engagement. To Memory Chirere, I say with a muzukuru’s license: <i>Nayo
nayo, shamhu yenyu, a'sekuru!</i></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span face=""Tahoma","sans-serif"" lang="EN" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> <br /></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background: white; color: #1c1e21;">+</span><span style="background: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Get a copy of Shamhu yeZera Renyu in Harare for $17usd.
Contact Book Fantastic on: 263779210403. They meet anyone in town (Cbd) and
offer delivery services anywhere in </span><span style="text-align: start; white-space: pre-wrap;">Harare and the country (for an extra fee)<br /></span><span lang="EN" style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: medium;">Order it through Amazon:</span></div><div style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Shamhu-Yezera-Renyu-Memory-Chirere/dp/1914287118/ref=sr_1_2?crid=547U5IZCHOHM&keywords=Memory%20Chirere&qid=1686870413&sprefix=memory%20chirere%2Caps%2C179&sr=8-2&fbclid=IwAR1LGnL795VmEetxUQ_YejpxGsj4NMmAm0EQ1Nc-9K1w2Gr23tPRAp6baIs">Shamhu Yezera Renyu (Shona Edition): Chirere, Memory: 9781914287114: Amazon.com: Books</a><span style="color: #1c1e21;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> <br /></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span><br /></span>
</div>kwaChirerehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10306481741499309181noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6009925745240031301.post-39711168125366951722023-08-29T05:56:00.009-07:002023-08-29T06:05:53.405-07:00Musa Zimunya, Marechera and others in the turmoil of 1973<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL-8zOmfOaDtZOitHF94K31g8pbqPvYe9Cmf2QvXwUfmYeV6LliPvajQixa4hUDtdpEz5xxM3TjtRWNTypCsNn0jxAsUU2YXQarJRxCZ8ZXyJ5is7IFT0a8YZNxJ1IrNdFX6y1czLJCDdnKVUxPQtDEbYKYKaSL63272HJ3Ego9JKCe2HvNfxq15Mk7IrS/s542/Zimunya%20eminent.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="542" data-original-width="504" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL-8zOmfOaDtZOitHF94K31g8pbqPvYe9Cmf2QvXwUfmYeV6LliPvajQixa4hUDtdpEz5xxM3TjtRWNTypCsNn0jxAsUU2YXQarJRxCZ8ZXyJ5is7IFT0a8YZNxJ1IrNdFX6y1czLJCDdnKVUxPQtDEbYKYKaSL63272HJ3Ego9JKCe2HvNfxq15Mk7IrS/s320/Zimunya%20eminent.jpg" width="298" /></a></div><br /> Musaemura Zimunya<p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Through a recent article that appeared in the Joburg Review of Books, eminent Zimbabwean poet, Musaemura Zimunya relives the Pots and pans demo at the varsity of Rhodesia in 1973. Here is the link to his very informative narrative: </span><a href="https://johannesburgreviewofbooks.com/2023/08/17/marechera-was-the-epitome-of-this-simmering-revolt-musa-zimunya-remembers-the-pots-and-pans-protest-of-1973/"><span style="font-size: medium;">‘Marechera was the epitome of this simmering revolt’</span>— Musaemura Zimunya remembers the Pots and Pans Protest of 1973 – The Johannesburg Review of Books</a></p>kwaChirerehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10306481741499309181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6009925745240031301.post-64390259303021586442023-08-25T03:49:00.016-07:002023-08-26T06:02:33.681-07:00KwaChirere interviews writer, Fatima Kara<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga0qeXT5LS8dbhPkqY4uXj3jrJSlu_1kSibNcZupxHl770PGUN93hKkpEynOISifj7lYq0JEu78PNmun2Y6o7KNifW6d5yu-J-8s5jATDJx-hum-srSLnIVdW0EAHEJLFQXgGFklKYe-9vQFxxKukMO7a7n_zfJg7e7lryMEVgmOWT8jQIi2cl57Oi76zL/s737/Fatima%20kara%20pic.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="737" data-original-width="709" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga0qeXT5LS8dbhPkqY4uXj3jrJSlu_1kSibNcZupxHl770PGUN93hKkpEynOISifj7lYq0JEu78PNmun2Y6o7KNifW6d5yu-J-8s5jATDJx-hum-srSLnIVdW0EAHEJLFQXgGFklKYe-9vQFxxKukMO7a7n_zfJg7e7lryMEVgmOWT8jQIi2cl57Oi76zL/s320/Fatima%20kara%20pic.webp" width="308" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> Fatima Kara</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Fatima Kara’s debut </span><span lang="EN-US">novel</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">, <i>The
Train House on Lobengula Street</i></span><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">,</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> </span><span lang="EN-US">published this 2023 by Envelope Books, </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">is a rare story
about Indians coming to settle in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). </span><span lang="EN-US">T</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">he
story </span><span lang="EN-US">is </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">about the Kassims; a traditional Indian
Muslim family taking the economic opportunities that Southern Rhodesia offers
to migrants from the east in the challenging 1950’s and 60’s. Virtually a
villager from Hunyana village in India, Kulsum, the main character, is caught
up in a struggle against both Indian Muslim traditions and the racist terrain
of Southern Rhodesia. </span><span lang="EN-US">In </span><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The
Train House on Lobengula Street</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">, Fatima Kara delves into her
childhood experiences in the Indian community in Bulawayo, Rhodesia (modern-day
Zimbabwe) in the 1950s and 1960s. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: medium;">Below is my interview with Fatima Kara done this August
2023:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: medium;">Memory Chirere (MC): Fatima,
congrats on your debut novel. I see that there is not yet much information on you on the internet. Tell me about yourself.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: medium;">Fatima Kara (FK): As a third generation Zimbabwean,
I was born and educated in Bulawayo. I received a BA and Graduate Certificate
of Education from the University of Zimbabwe. Stories about people have always
captured my interest. I find working cross culturally particularly engaging.
The creative process of inventing characters inspires me. I use lots of description to help place my readers in the story and
spending time in different locations in Zimbabwe helps me to capture place.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: medium;">MC: When you are not writing, what do you do?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: medium;">FK: I propagate trees that give us food: pawpaw,
mulberry, avocado, and fig with the purpose of offering these saplings to
community leaders to plant orchards at schools and community centres around
Zimbabwe.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: medium;">MC: What is your idea of a good novel?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: medium;">FK: I like characters to be believable
as I enjoy following their emotional journeys and essential to this is realistic dialogue. Fluidity of prose and the richness of language are
essential to high quality creative writing.
For me the significance of the subject matter is key. My novel is based
in historical facts. I find creative writing that approaches difficult human
issues without flinching, very engaging. In my novel writing about Kulsum’s deep
desire to give her children a life better than hers was compelling. There were
times when her emotional journey got heavy and was painful, but I persevered. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: medium;">MC: How much of Zimbabwean writing
have you experienced?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: medium;">FK: My favourite Zimbabwean writers are Charles
Mungoshi and Petina Gappah. Some excellent writing came out of the struggle for
independence. Charles Mungoshi immediately comes to mind. He portrays with
ironic detachment the devastation of local Shona communities, materially and
spiritually, by the settler regime. On
the other hand, Petina Gappah’s stories are compelling, and the satire is
brilliant. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: medium;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: medium;">MC: What do you say about your
situation as a Zimbabwean writer of Indian origins?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">FK: I was born and bred in Zimbabwe.
Although I am not African, I consider myself fully Zimbabwean. Growing up and
being educated in Zimbabwe is a formative part of my life and fundamental to
who I am. As you know, the space I describe in my novel is the city of Bulawayo,
Zimbabwe’s second-largest city located in the largely Sindebele-speaking
province of Matabeleland. This is where I was born and therefore my stories are based in
the culture that is not the majority.</span><span lang="EN-ZW" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZW; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: medium;">MC: At what point did you get into
writing? What was your journey like up until the publication of this novel in
2023?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">FK: </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">During my childhood in Bulawayo’s
vibrant Indian community, I saw a lot of things that troubled me – like young
women travelling to faraway places to enter arranged marriages and Indian men
practicing civil disobedience against the white police. I couldn’t know for
sure what happened to them all, but I wanted to write a version of their
stories. I was always curious about the life experiences of older members of
the community and I listened to their stories and wrote them down. A few years
ago the story was ready to emerge from my mind </span><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-US">and onto paper.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: medium;">MC: In The Train House, you go episode
by episode, from 1940 to 1969, pursuing the life of Kulsum particularly. You put very specific contents into specific years. What was the
influence behind this time bound structure that you use? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: medium;">FK: The story is grounded in historical
facts and the places it describes are realistic but it’s a work of fiction. I
wove broad social history together with details of the Indian community. The
novel is important to me because I wanted to
tell the story of the contribution of the Indian Bulawayo community to
the struggle for independence, a story which most Zimbabweans don’t know.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: medium;">MC: There is the very sensitive issue of
arranged marriages at the heart of this novel. How do you relate with this practice as an
individual?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: medium;">FK: In the early part of the twentieth century, arranged
marriages were the cultural norm and the bride and groom rarely met before the
wedding with caste playing an important role. Over time, the system of arranged
marriages has evolved and at present they are more negotiated. Today the
families are still involved in introducing suitable partners but nowadays the men
and women have a choice. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: medium;">MC: You write solidly, packing every
episode with both the tiny details and fundamental experiences of your
characters. I find your style meticulous and elaborate, demanding that the
reader put aside everything and sit down with your book for a while. Was this
deliberate and what has been the influences behind that kind of writing? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">FK: Thank you. Yes, it was deliberate. I want to bring my reader into the minutiae of
the lived reality of my characters, especially the women, and that means
describing how they spend their days, how they relate to each other and their
families and to the external realities and forces they come up against. These
are immigrants to Southern Africa, bringing with them and trying to preserve
their own cultures, to negotiate and find their place in a new and often very
different culture. As with many other novelists, I feel the need to speak truth
to power, through my characters and their experiences. The writing of this
story was organic and based largely on my own experiences, as the struggle for
independence goes on in tandem with the family saga, where Nurse, Amar the
barber and Kulsum’s husband Razak, help to provide safe houses for activist
leaders. Kulsum, the story’s protagonist, fights for her daughters to get an
English education that will free them from a caste system that ensures their continued
dependency on men. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: medium; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">MC: In this novel, your women are generally very
conscious of the menfolk and of traditional norms around them. What do you
think about the role of women in societies closely conscious of tradition and religion?</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">FK: How could they be other than
conscious of what their men and their society’s norms expect of them? This is their
reality and it’s one of the reasons I want the reader to see it from the
women’s lived experience. Kulsum and Razaak fall in love and respect each
other, but their relationship is put under huge strain by the societal demand
that their daughters be married within the caste. </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span>The women characters in my novel know
that Indian women must play the part given to them. But they are astute enough
to see that in the baffling new world they have entered in Southern Africa
things are different. With Nurse’s guidance and encouragement Kulsum, Lakshmi
and Manjula make the decision not to be victims. We follow Kulsum’s emotional
journey as wife, mother, </span>businesswoman<span>, magical gardener and nurturer as cook.
At the same time all three women keep a balance between tradition and
modernity.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: medium;">MC: To me, Kulsum herself appears to dither
between accepting her fate as a woman in an Indian Muslim family and finding
her own way. What do you say? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: medium;">FK: Kulsum does not dither. She is
determined to give her children the best that life can offer in the colony and
like a chess player she moves her pieces with brilliance and shrewdness. She
successfully gets her daughters to have an English education, she takes her
family out of poverty by starting her own vegetable business and then she
builds her own house where she can bring up her children. Kulsum learns and is
guided by Nurse and Lakshmi, gurus of wisdom and life. She becomes a leader who
crosses cultural boundaries. She in turn guides and helps the young widow Manjula,
the tearoom owner, thus advancing women’s dignity.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: medium;">MC: For you, what is the purpose of
Kulsum’s daughter, Zora? Is there much distance travelled between mother and
daughter? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: medium;">FK: Zora is central to the story. Kulsum
fights for her and her sisters to have an English education. Zora does
brilliantly at school and helps her father in the business. When she has an
arranged marriage and is sent to Uganda, Kulsum is devastated, and she plots to
go and see for herself how her daughters are doing. The bond of understanding
and love between the mother and daughter is strong. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: medium;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: medium;">MC: Your men; Abaa, Razaak and Osman
appear to be steeped in the family norms and into making a living as Indian
traders abroad. They appear cleanly cut into this role. What do you think is the crisis that the Indian men away from India
have had to face over the years?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: medium;">FK: It was economic survival. The
government dictated what part of the economy they were sanctioned to enter.
Farming and industry were the domain of the whites. Indians were only allowed to
be merchants in designated areas, not in the city centre. The Indian business
community cultivated bonds with the Blacks and the Blacks in turn made a
conscious decision to support another disadvantaged group classified as Non-White,
rather than choose a white business. Solidarity came from supporting each other
and the Blacks built these alliances because they were largely treated with
respect and dignity by Indian merchants. There is a scene in the novel in Latif
Trading where one of Zora’s customers, a senior black seamstress talks about
how Zora taught her how to count money and helped her to work out measurements
for the articles of clothing she sewed, and these skills empowered her to start
her own sewing business. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: medium;">MC: In this novel, we do not seem to
move out of the Indian family to engage with the non-Indian Bulawayo community.
The closest that we come to Africans is through the houseboy, Jabulani. And
even then, he is not so much part of the story. Was that a conscious decision
and what led to this? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: medium;">FK:<i>The Train House on Lobengula
Street </i>revolves around segregation, racial discrimination and people
fighting for their human rights. In Rhodesia Blacks, Indians and Coloureds were
all classified as non-whites. The Bulawayo Indian community stood up as a
community to fight injustice. They cultivated links with the activists and did
not just take being denied the privileges of citizenship lying down. The
protest tradition in Southern Rhodesia preceded the rise of the nationalist
movement. There were people fighting for the rights for recognition as humans
and for human dignity and that manifested itself in campaigns of civil
disobedience like when they drove their cars to the whites-only driving cinema
and blocked the entrance until admission was granted to people of all races.
They fought and won the right to enter public libraries and swimming pools.
They supported the activists; provided safe houses in Bulawayo, visited
political prisoners in detention centres and provided money, groceries and
school uniforms for the families of detainees in the high-density suburbs. They
also took a great risk in printing and distributing an underground magazine to
politicise Indian youth. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: medium;">MC: You are based in the US at the
moment. How do you negotiate the various spaces you occupy, Indian
woman from Zimbabwe who sometimes works in the US?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: medium;">FK: The “spaces” you refer to are
geographical. I write from the space inside my head and my soul, and this
requires focus, deep concentration, solitude and time. Quite like Kulsum, I
constantly collect and cultivate herbs and seeds to share with others,
fostering friendships that extend across many parts of Zimbabwe. I am in the
fortunate position of being able to live in diverse cultures and so I engage,
learn and appreciate whichever culture I have the privilege of being present
in. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: medium;">MC: Besides this novel, what else should
we expect from you?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: medium;">FK: As peoples in the diaspora are
intimately familiar with, our stories are intricate and layered and don’t
always fit neatly onto chronological frameworks that are easily plotted. There
are many more adventures that my characters experience and I look forward to
sharing these with my readers. I am working on the sequel to <i>The Train House
on Lobengula Street</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: medium;">MC: Thank you.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p>
</p>kwaChirerehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10306481741499309181noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6009925745240031301.post-63476614384885801132023-08-09T23:04:00.010-07:002023-08-10T05:12:56.060-07:00Daves Guzha returns with AIKAKA!<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4f6RfCeJoU0b98GpJiqQku7NuzWAqE9eN0WvzzOmKyhxUJOkrXBSpn_52UTwG1n-nKNQ6nlFy39SnweKXnZmE4zByCSOOiJsdxPR9uEDQ_q-zmzbLd5xQGWR82gcI3fGhZmhxsAcDaM4g0cspkAvsqN1PoKgHWSZXAhuBldo8u7_4C7lIKO8bjk9fspwI/s1080/Aikaka.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="761" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4f6RfCeJoU0b98GpJiqQku7NuzWAqE9eN0WvzzOmKyhxUJOkrXBSpn_52UTwG1n-nKNQ6nlFy39SnweKXnZmE4zByCSOOiJsdxPR9uEDQ_q-zmzbLd5xQGWR82gcI3fGhZmhxsAcDaM4g0cspkAvsqN1PoKgHWSZXAhuBldo8u7_4C7lIKO8bjk9fspwI/s320/Aikaka.jpg" width="225" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Yesterday, Wednesday, 9 August 2023, in the evening, I
went to the Theatre in The Park in the Harare Gardens to watch veteran
dramatist’s, Daves Guzha’s one man play called Aikaka! The play is showing
every evening between 7 and 8, until the 12<sup>th</sup> of August.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">In that one man play, the major thread is based on the
former President of Zimbabwe, RG Mugabe, rising from the dead and starting to
wander about Harare, musing at what life has become in his short absence. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I must
admit that Guzha brings the RG deportment and mannerism, without doubt. That
characteristic line of hair just under the nose and RG’s typical sudden shifts
between emphatic anger and joy, the up and downs of his shoulders….his emphasized
pronunciation of certain letters in a word as in s-o-v-e-r-e-i-g-n-ty and Z-i-mbabwe!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">It is a satire on all of us and, interestingly, on RG himself. None of
us are spared as RG lingers the longest at the Mbuya Nehanda statue </span><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; letter-spacing: 0.2pt;">erected at the intersection of Samora
Machel Avenue and Julias Nyerere Way in the Harare's central business district.
“I am sorry, ambuya, but I could have done a better thing for you…” RG says in
his long speech, stepping all over the place as he looks at the </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">3-meter high
statue. He turns to the Reserve Bank and says very critical issues about the
major characters in that building. He serves his best when he turns to the imposing
Zanu PF Head Quarters.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Sometimes
RG chides his successors, and he clearly and notably overrates himself
and the audience is ironically allowed to see through some of his weaknesses as
a man and leader. There is the clever use of a delicate, believable but unreliable
narrator! It is criticism that allows you to critique the critic!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Guzha
expertly turns to change his wardrobe and appears as several other personae.
The climax, I think, is when the svikiro turns to the three major characters in
the coming 2023 presidential elections of Zimbabwe who are hanging on a puppeteer’s
rack, turning and twisting. Guzha taunts the presidential candidates with fundamental questions. It is like some kind of under-worldly inquisition. The puppets were done and controlled by Booker Sipiyiye. I could only marvel at the timing of the play! If it
had come a month earlier or a month later, the effect could surely have been less.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Although
this is a solo act, there is exciting contributions from renowned poet Tinashe
Muchuri and playwrights, Stanley Makuwe and Patience Phiri. Aikaka is a typical Shona interjection
and it expresses the speaker’s utter surprise at the sudden turn of events or
the sighting of the least expected things in life. Aikaka points at
incongruence for example, when you see a man flying or when you see the hare
chasing a dog! <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">If
you are in Harare this week, this is a play worth watching! Veteran actor and
director, Daves Guzha, has been off stage for over fifteen years. His most well
known one man play was called The Two Leaders I know. Subsequently it was
turned into a movie.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">+This
review by Memory Chirere<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; letter-spacing: 0.2pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 16pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 16pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><br /><p></p>kwaChirerehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10306481741499309181noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6009925745240031301.post-86500335963485150402023-07-30T11:59:00.032-07:002023-07-31T01:26:57.648-07:00KwaChirere reviews Fatima Kara’s debut novel <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj46PlsxdmO_Lk8lLfJAMeXmk1D4ruNcfddcyXy8cXRyWz-H0Jf9vBYtxSLObK__kbju2vKsD0AdkWTXKMCbgkHl5SHzHE3KbikkXg-Tr2qoM5Qv3NEbqvavBkCS27Dcp2I9WzuVe3m9jK5pXCWFKuE54S324aW-X_KnUoe77vf1uI0m6mOAJceYgwlqMFb/s499/Train%20House%20pic.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="311" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj46PlsxdmO_Lk8lLfJAMeXmk1D4ruNcfddcyXy8cXRyWz-H0Jf9vBYtxSLObK__kbju2vKsD0AdkWTXKMCbgkHl5SHzHE3KbikkXg-Tr2qoM5Qv3NEbqvavBkCS27Dcp2I9WzuVe3m9jK5pXCWFKuE54S324aW-X_KnUoe77vf1uI0m6mOAJceYgwlqMFb/s320/Train%20House%20pic.jpg" width="199" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><i>Title: The Train House on Lobengula Street,</i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><i>Author: Fatima Kara</i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><i>Publisher: Envelope Books: London, 2023<o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><i>Isbn: 9 781915 023094</i><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">(A Book Review by Memory Chirere)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Fatima Kara’s novel, </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Train House on Lobengula
Street</i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"> is a rare story about Indians coming to settle in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). It is a carefully crafted story about sojourning and transitioning. You are stunned that such a mature piece of work is only a debut attempt.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">This is also a family novel because the sojourner is still within a part of her
family. She cannot necessarily renew herself totally or remain stagnant because there is always family to consider. If you run, they stop you. If you linger, they push you on.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Meanwhile the sojourner’s traditions and beliefs are
put to an acid test at the same time by three </span><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">entities:</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> family, time and the new
space. </span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">This is a novel about continuity and change. Water and fire are in the same mouth.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">On the surface, this is the </span><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">easy-going</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> story about the Kassims; a traditional Indian Muslim family taking
the economic opportunities that Southern Rhodesia offers to migrants from the
east in the challenging 1950’s and 60’s. The author does well to weave a solid narrative that constantly persuades the reader to slow down and linger. Sometimes you stop to cross reference
details. This is something you find in other compact novels such as Doris Lessing’s </span></span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Grass is Singing</i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"> and Spiwe </span><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Mahachi’s Footprints</span></span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"> in the Mists of Time</i></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">; two novels also about the trials and tribulations of </span><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">newcomers</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> to Rhodesia.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">This novel gradually opens up like a wild and magical onion. The more you read the more you are paid. It is a story in which the least expected is always waiting by the corner.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">This is a detective novel of sorts too; working out
from 1969 backwards to 1940, up until 1969 once more, in order to establish why and
how Razaak grows to become unsympathetic to his wife. You find Razaak sending
his daughters far away to Uganda to arranged marriages. He is so determined to
scatter his family while hiding behind tradition.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The case of an emaciated Zora, running away from a
failed marriage in Uganda, back to Bulawayo with her sympathetic mother, to be
asked by her father to go back to Uganda, is quite startling. Zora’s sisters are also unhappy, and they feel like slaves sold down the river. This is a very sensitive story about a long-standing custom that has sustained generations. The author shows without preaching. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The story spins in time, meticulously finding out how
tradition and culture turn a once sweet man like Razaak into a scoundrel
and a hater of his wife who is a woman who gives Razaak eight children without complaining. Razaak gradually becomes
cold towards a woman whose life is spent being routinely pregnant; calling on the
nurse and the elders to help with her deliveries.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">What will a newly arrived and newly married young
Gujarati woman in colonial Bulawayo of the 1960’s want from her people and the colonial government? That is complicated. Kulsum comes to Bulawayo just after marrying Razaak in India and they
settle in the broad Kassim family, led by a laid-back patriarch called Abaa. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Virtually a villager from Hunyana village in India,
Kulsum is caught up in a struggle against both Indian Muslim traditions and the
racist terrain of Southern Rhodesia. She is in a double bind. Once outside the
bustle of the train station in Bulawayo on her first day, Kulsum is fascinated
to see that there are no rickshawallahs here, no loud vegetable sellers, no
children playing, no beggars, no goats and no cows too! <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">While she is still working out her new geographical
location, Kulsum senses that Razaak is more inclined to forget her! As soon as Razaak sees his long-lost father, his wife becomes second fiddle. When
father and son hug and exclaim at the station, it is left to the black servant, Jabulani, to
smile at poor Kulsum and ask her to join the celebrating party in the car. The marriage and attachment between Razaak and Kulsum end as soon as Razaak meets his father! Even when
they get home, Kulsum becomes an invisible woman, and her opportunistic mother-in-law quickly
takes over, more or less like an irate prison warder. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">When Kulsum meets her mother-in-law, Jee Ma, she does not even ask
after Kulsum’s sisters nor offer condolences on the death of Kulsum’s mother. Jee
Ma becomes Kulsum’s competitor with an upper hand. That Abaa says Kulsum cooks
better than Jee Ma makes it worse! Soon Kulsum gives birth to a boy when Jee Ma
has no son to boast about! You are given opportunity to see how some women treat fellow women in the race to please men.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Then one day Abaa fumbles with her daughter in law
wanting intimacy. This horrifies Kulsum who cannot report. She wonders if it is
because she struggles to secure her scarf, the laj. Jee Maa overworks Kulsum like a donkey even when she is going through
many of her pregnancies. The malicious backbiting continues until Kulsum and
Razaak move out of Abaa’s place in the middle of the night to find refuge
amongst other Indians in the vicinity.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Meanwhile the nationalist movement is growing in </span><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Rhodesia</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> and the Indians realize that they are only tolerated as a white man’s
buffer against the black people. </span><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Fortunately,</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> there are the politically conscious people such
as Amar. There is the radical coloured woman, the nurse, who is dragging the
Indian community to take their resistance. There is Lakshmi, the Hindu neighbor, who realizes that people had better quickly grow and transcend tradition.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Kulsum has to deal with her own in-built contradictions. She
constantly feels that although her in laws ill-treat her, she has a right to
their love. She fights hard to embrace those who reject her until the option is
to move on. This is consistent with the question she is asked by Nurse: “So,
tell me, which place did you like living in best; in Hunyana, your ancestral
village, or Madagascar, where you sold fish, or here, where your husband sells
spices?” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">And Kulsum's newly minted answer is: “This place.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Razaak appears radical at first, taking on his family
when he is wronged and even asking to leave in protest with his wife children in the middle of
the night. But as soon as his wife proves to be more enterprising and conscientious
than him, Razaak starts to want to fall back on tradition. He hates the house
that his wife builds for the family on Lobengula Street because, as many say, it looks like a
train house! But the truth is that they now have a
house of sorts.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">At one point Razaak cries out: “I am the father and I decide (for
my daughters). We will court trouble if we do not follow tradition.” He feels
defeated by his wife and falls back on the extended family which has all along
looked down upon him. In chapter 17, which is the climax for me, Razaak spills
the beans pitifully: “I don’t have the courage. Abaa was right about sticking
to tradition. You, Nurse, my wife-you are all moving too fast for me.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">While this is a rare story about the lives of Indians
in Zimbabwe, sadly the Africans are totally behind the scenes, only coming in
as houseboys. Jabulani, for instance is rather unexplored. He is seen but is not heard.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Asked by </span><em><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Asjad
Nazir</span></em><em><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 14pt;">
</span></em><em><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">of the</span></em><em><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></em><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">EasternEye on </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">what inspired her to write this novel, Fatima Kara says, <span style="color: #222222;">“<span style="background: white;">During
my childhood in Bulawayo’s vibrant Indian community, I saw a lot of things that
troubled me — like young women travelling to faraway places to enter arranged
marriages and Indian men practicing civil disobedience against the white
police. I couldn’t know for sure what happened to them all, but I wanted to
write a version of their stories.</span>”</span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">On <i>Amazon</i> it is indicated that </span><span style="background: white; color: #0f1111; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Fatima Kara is a Zimbabwean writer living in the USA and that </span>the
author has an MFA from Spalding University in Kentucky. When not writing, she
propagates fruit and nut trees, and plants them in schools and rural
communities around Zimbabwe.<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #0f1111; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><i style="font-size: 14pt;">The Train House on Lobengula </i><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><i>Street was</i></span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> shortlisted for the UK’s Laxfield Literary
Launch Prize in 2020.</span></span> The book can be ordered through: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Train-House-Lobengula-Street/dp/1915023092">Amazon.com:
The Train House on Lobengula Street: 9781915023094: Kara, Fatima: Books</a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>kwaChirerehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10306481741499309181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6009925745240031301.post-48624152821322100982023-07-23T05:21:00.003-07:002023-07-23T06:07:21.823-07:00The writer from Matobo speaks...<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhROJFoW0cLNmFvsTaATjoZxsJ4YcL_DQwrBBIg4OXr-CR9OjY_3rfzCUUKFmSnuvtpY1Rm1wqzpWxnapnH1QaJFmvTW2eCPV8cPTmmahIM2BhTggKBeNZtBHF4no1ITjwLc6LZlf1pbrVt66qLVNclLxANs6CAKNjGVhWGEZIv4WqpT9jfeSNrePyJtoqP/s1024/Nomsa@sofa.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhROJFoW0cLNmFvsTaATjoZxsJ4YcL_DQwrBBIg4OXr-CR9OjY_3rfzCUUKFmSnuvtpY1Rm1wqzpWxnapnH1QaJFmvTW2eCPV8cPTmmahIM2BhTggKBeNZtBHF4no1ITjwLc6LZlf1pbrVt66qLVNclLxANs6CAKNjGVhWGEZIv4WqpT9jfeSNrePyJtoqP/s320/Nomsa@sofa.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><b>Vuso
Mhlanga (VM) interviews Zimbabwean novelist, Tsitsi Nomsa Ngwenya( TNN) on her
new novel, </b></span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt;"><b><i>A Portrait
of Emlanjeni</i> published by Carnelian Heart Publishing in the UK this March 2023.</b><i style="font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt;">VM: Your new novel, A
Portrait of Emlanjeni is basically about a country girl from Matobo who is made
pregnant while she is still in school and her painful fights. Why did you pick
on a young woman and accidental pregnancy as the central issue to this story?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt;">TNN: Understandably,
the story is not solely about Zanele and her pregnancy. Indeed her matter is
one of the main reasons for the story. I write about things that break my
heart. When growing up in Matobo, I saw a lot of girls with brilliant minds
being turned simply into mothers and wives of men who only visited their
families once in two years or never returned from eGoli.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt;">VM: Sad indeed</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt;">TNN: Yes, my heart
goes to the girl child of Matobo and all Zimbabwe. The girls become mothers prematurely
not because of their willingness but because of the environment. Schools are
few, scantily-resourced, and far away. After walking 10 kilometers to and from
school, the girls come home to help with house chores thereby making them fail
to study. That is not the only problem; male school drop outs wait for these
girls by the river or in the valleys and persuade or force them into these
doomed relationships. That is is the Zanele territory!</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt;">VM: And I also see
that these voracious boys actually have one destination, eGoli!</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt;">TNN: The matter does
not end there, in most cases, these marriages fail and even these young mothers
end up going eGoli too, to work. Children are then left with senile
grandparents who cannot properly manage. Even if Emlanjeni people try to
preserve their moral values and culture, these new issues cause the moral
fabric to decay. Children no longer belong to the community because the
generation of young and middle-aged parents is not there to keep the social
values as they were before. This is the matter of this novel.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt;">There is need to
balance the socio - economic situation in building more schools with teachers
and revival of industries so that families can stay together and built a more
responsible future. South Africa is the only place where Emlanjeni people can
work, but this is not about Emlanjeni village only. Almost every family in the
country is supported by members who work outside the country. It is not a
problem of Emlanjeni alone.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt;">VM: Zanele is an intelligent
girl but during her first accidental slip, she is made pregnant by a fellow
village boy. What lessons should young people have from this?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">TNN:</span><span lang="EN-US"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"> Young people, not girls only, must always
guard their bodies and think about a future and a life they want. They must know that it does not take many sexual
encounters to fall pregnant. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt;">VM: Someone may say
that you carefully present the breathtaking environs of Matobo as a rich and
key character to this novel just like in Cry the Beloved Country and Waiting
for the rain. What do you say?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt;">TNN: I had to take
the reader with me presumably from Bulawayo, to Emlanjeni village, where the
story is happening. We discussed this a lot with my initial editor, Tanaka
Chidora. So, making Emlanjeni Village a character was at the back of our minds.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt;">VM: Can you say
anything about your growing up in Matobo? What place does it hold in your heart?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt;">TNN: I cannot even
imagine growing up in any other place. Ah, Matobo; the sounds and smells of the
mornings and evenings shaped my being. I feel the cool morning air of that
place and the cold on my shoeless feet. I feel the September heat. I hear the Matobo
cows mooing and the cockerels announcing the hours of day. I hear the women
laughing by the well as they fetch water and tell each other stories about
their men, their children and their many dreams. Even now, I see the men
cutting wood and talking among themselves lazily as they share a beer calabash
and the momentary cigarette. Rich memories came into this novel and I hope my
readers will wallow in them.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt;">VM: The title
Portrait of Emlanjeni suggests that this story is some kind of a picture of
Emlanjeni. What did you mean by that title? How did you arrive at it?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt;">TNN: The story is
about many stories in one, many issues intertwine. It is all about Emlanjeni people’s
traditions, culture and their way of life. There is the issue of contestable traditional
practices affect women. There is, for example, MaMpunzi being married to her
late aunt’s husband. It will cause rich debates. There is the avenging spirit
and some will say is it real? There are issues concerning Christianity versus
traditional religion, working together as a community, sharing everything and
helping each other in everything. There is judicial conflict. The whole thing
becomes a portrait, a picture. For that, Chidora said let’s settle on the
portrait word. Even the second editor and ultimate publisher, Samantha Rumbidzai
Vazhure liked it too.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt;">VM: The women in
this novel are explored deeply; especially the way they talk, love, work and
feel. For me, they erupt from the page!</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt;">TNN: Thank you,
Vuso. I did not set out to write as deeply as you say about the women. I just
wrote. The women of Emlanjeni are what they are. Working together, accepting,
understanding and helping each other. I am still, in my own way, one of those
women. I am in each and every one of them. I exist because they do and see, appreciate
and value my existence too.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt;">VM: There is a lot
of humor and comic moments in this novel and yet the novel also dwells partly
on the civil war and tragedies of the early 1980’s that took place in Matobo
and the whole southern region of Zimbabwe. How were you able to handle all that
together but coming up with a beautiful story?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt;">TNN: I am able to
mention the evil tragedies of the early 80’s because the pain, sorrow and fear
still exist in the people of that region. It is something that cannot be ignored.
Looking at Bhalagwe mine continues to remind the people of what befell them in
that time. It is there in our country’s history. It was going to be a mischief
and betrayal on my part not to mention, even in passing, since the story of
Emlanjeni travels through the place.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt;">VM: How long did it
take you drafting, writing and finally publishing this novel?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">TNN: I wrote the
story in 2013, in anger and mental turmoil, after I had shut down my business.
I wrote the whole first draft of the manuscript in 21 days. I was not talking
to anyone. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt;">VM: What have you
learnt through writing and producing this book?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt;">TNN: Through writing
this book, I learned that writing a book and getting it published is not a one
man or woman show. Many people are involved who become part of the book. The
first person to read the first draft, David Mungoshi, passed on before the back
was published. As authors, we must be patient and work well with others. This
book went through the hands of four different people because the final editor.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt;">VM: Could you take
us through all the books that you have written and what each is about.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">TNN: I have
published four books so far. The two Ndebele novels, </span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt;">Izinyawo Zayizolo and </span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: #4d5156; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Zalabantu Ziyebantwini</span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"> have helped in preserving language and culture for the future
generation. The collection of short stories in English, The fifty Rand note and
other stories has been well received by readers and scholars. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt;">VM: What is your
view about publishing this story with Carnelian Heart Publishing who are out of
Zim?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt;">TNN: I am happy that
the book was published outside Zimbabwe by a publisher with the means to take
it across the world and back to Zimbabwe itself. It is no secret that local
publishers are overwhelmed by economic challenges and have downsized greatly on
fiction. Very sad! The other issue is that the local market is struggling under
current economic challenges and people cannot afford buying books. The book now
competes with mealie meal and relish. So people tend to photocopy or to share
that one copy in the village or township. So it is the time to publish abroad.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt;">VM: In Portrait of
Emlanjeni your pen takes us back in time to a world of powerful chiefdoms and
benevolent, wise and powerful kings. Tell us more about that world and what
inspired that motif!</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt;">TNN: Tsitsi Nomsa
Ngwenya: I was a keen reader of Wilbur Smith, in his stories; he portrays
African people as people with no system, no brains, no order. So I was
answering his views on issues to do with the hierarchy of the Villages to the
Chief and to the Spiritual leaders of African people. I was trying to show that
we do have the order, and that in our own ways, we could live in peace and
respect of each other.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">VM: Thank you so
much for your time and responses, Nomsa.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt;">+Vuso Mhlanga is a
literary critic and academic based at the University of Zimbabwe where he
teaches Literature in English. He also has a keen interest in Law and
educational matters.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><a name="_GoBack"></a><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></b></p><p>
</p>kwaChirerehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10306481741499309181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6009925745240031301.post-1263457276345269142023-07-03T09:19:00.004-07:002023-07-03T09:21:45.082-07:00Ignatius Mabasa writes intro to Shamhu YeZera Renyu<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjybjUyQjFQGsmoOWsflKP207fG3MqYjx---L715WeV4NMZ5tIyTAWxkTYMCgBErBXmtwEsaGEDUGTSv_Ft-kXVZk4_Y3M63dN0T_JI2NmbSMiE88a-lr1IKmwdBPv-UdRfL0K2vV2ZCZrD2FbFYXluoXRVUfMkw7E3QPGC47HtODOl7-iKWiCBStKYcw3_/s499/Shamhu-shamhu%20cover.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="333" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjybjUyQjFQGsmoOWsflKP207fG3MqYjx---L715WeV4NMZ5tIyTAWxkTYMCgBErBXmtwEsaGEDUGTSv_Ft-kXVZk4_Y3M63dN0T_JI2NmbSMiE88a-lr1IKmwdBPv-UdRfL0K2vV2ZCZrD2FbFYXluoXRVUfMkw7E3QPGC47HtODOl7-iKWiCBStKYcw3_/s320/Shamhu-shamhu%20cover.jpg" width="214" /></a></div><br /> <b style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt;">Musumo</span></b><p></p><p><i style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Shamhu Yezera
Renyu</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 14pt; text-align: justify;">
raita kuti ndifunge kuti, mudetembi Memory Chirere anonetsa kuti umuwanire
mupanda kana tasvika panyaya dzekunyora nhetembo.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Chirere
munyori asvika panotyisa pakasiyana nepaaive mazuva aakanyora nhetembo dziri
muna <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tipeiwo Dariro</i>, kana muna <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bhuku Risina Basa</i>. Munyori Chirere ari
mubhuku <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Shamhu Yezera Renyu</i> abva zera
uye akwira manera asi kwete evaRozvi ekunoturunura mwedzi. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Uyu
ave munyori anoziva kuti kuve munyori hachisi chipo chake semunyori, asi chipo
chevanhu chinofanira kubuda maari chichinopinda muvanhu kuti munyori agove
murapi anorapa vanorwara mumagariro. Kunyora kwaChirere nhetembo dzino kunenge
kupakura kwamai vane vana vazhinji, vanopakura vachisara vasina, asi chinovapa
kuguta kuziva kuti vana vavo vaguta, nyangwe ivo vaine nzara.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Nhetembo
dziri mubhuku rino dzinotaura kuti Chirere ave kudivi revakuru vanoona zviitiko
zvehupenyu hwazvino, asi vachiona kuti kwavakabva, makuriro avakaita
nezvavakanzwa imhodzi dzakaputirwa muchipepa dzikapfekerwa muchengo chemba.
Kubudikidza nenhetembo idzi, Chirere ari kuvhomora, oputunura chipepa chine
mhodzi dzakare idzodzo, odzidyara muvhu renguva ino, odziyemura dzichimera,
kukura nekubereka. Ari kukoka vaverengi kuti vadye naye nhopi yenguva dzaakanga
ari kakomana kuNyombwe, kumakomo eMavhuradonha. Tinokura tiri mumisha yedu, asi
makwenzi, miti, tsine, zvuru, nzizi nemakomo atakakwira zvinodzoka
kuzotiyeuchidza kuti paye pawakadarika nemandiri, mweya wangu wakanamira pauri,
uye zvaunofunga nekurangarira ndini newe.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Asi
kana zvake Chirere ari nyanduri, nhetembo dzake dzinomutengesa kuti iye mutauri
wengano nemunyori wenyaya pfupi. Manyorero aChirere haasi</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">emunhu anoda kuti vanhu vafunge kuti kunyora
nhetembo ibasa rekuvhiya svosve kuti ugosara nedehwe racho kuti urirovere
paruware nehoko, kwete! Chirere anonyora nhetembo dzake seanotamba, uyewo
seanotambisa pfungwa dzevaverengi. Kashoma kuti unete kana kunzwa kuda kusiira
nhetembo dzake panzira, nekuti kufanana nengano, muverengi anongoramba
achibvunza kuti “Chii chakazoitika?”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Chirere
anosetsa muverengi, asi achidzura shumba ndebvu, nekusvina mamota embwende.
Anotamba nemazwi, asi achifukunura mazimbambaira eruzivo rwuri mururimi
rweChiShona zvekuti unobva waona kuti chokwadi vanhu vanonyora vakapakurirwa
nemugwaku kuti vave mhizha.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Maziso
ake anoona zvinoonekwa neruzhinji, asi chipo chake chiri mukutora izvozvo
zvamunoti zvemazuva ese, obva azvisvinyanga semusuva wesadza. Munomuona Memory
Chirere achiseva musuva iwoyo mumarwadzo kana mibvunzo inenge minzwa michena
yemuunga mosara makashama iye achitsenga.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Nhetembo
dziri mubhuku rino dzinobata nguva, nzvimbo, maonero nematingindira akawanda. Chave
kudiwa ibhuku rekupenengura zvinhu zvakawanda zvaanobata – maonero ake ehudiki,
pfungwa dzake pamusoro perudo, kuseka kwake hupenzi huri matiri – kusvika
mumaburitsiro aanoita mapere ari murima rehupenyu hwedu.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Ignatius
Mabasa, Harare, 2023.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">+order this book on Amazon: </span><a class="x1i10hfl xjbqb8w x6umtig x1b1mbwd xaqea5y xav7gou x9f619 x1ypdohk xt0psk2 xe8uvvx xdj266r x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r xexx8yu x4uap5 x18d9i69 xkhd6sd x16tdsg8 x1hl2dhg xggy1nq x1a2a7pz xt0b8zv x1fey0fg" href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FShamhu-Yezera-Renyu-Memory-Chirere%2Fdp%2F1914287118%2Fref%3Dsr_1_2%3Fcrid%3D547U5IZCHOHM%26keywords%3DMemory%2520Chirere%26qid%3D1686870413%26sprefix%3Dmemory%2520chirere%252Caps%252C179%26sr%3D8-2%26fbclid%3DIwAR2eyHwM57c7g0XS8NdQAzkTS1O5Ssbe4XuY02rTowlY1TsBAZP-lU1T6Vs&h=AT0j6xaEw4Q-qkw5QZ6MLlWu51ZQ4u30Ui3J5PiWpcD1F41Kt2PbYkBwXvSR7q0hmsQanbNLtKErvlyUzKyxA0FHie9K-5XI9cnRsEzXkbDYdA2MR6rEfHdPC5mys3Roa0Y&__tn__=-UK-R&c[0]=AT1CDc8qbocJHHr_siKe475BVO5dZaOkG_iujju8uM7tY0di5eO66NnXynnccxs4sQbmnyZY21jZf9Cgs_JoxUM08hk2IeaWa4ocnIqIWEuzh0MrjLhwEHnKHKqyhpyi2QnZvNKi9LrULDZRiHwgN2zbgdQi69629K7TKtWucrY0z57c9cMR3oaz8Y0" rel="nofollow" role="link" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; animation-name: none !important; background-color: white; border-color: initial; border-style: initial; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: left; touch-action: manipulation; transition-property: none !important; white-space: pre-wrap;" tabindex="0" target="_blank">https://www.amazon.com/Shamhu-Yezera-Renyu-Memory-Chirere/dp/1914287118/ref=sr_1_2?crid=547U5IZCHOHM&keywords=Memory+Chirere&qid=1686870413&sprefix=memory+chirere,aps,179&sr=8-2</a></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">+ <span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: left;">Get a copy of this book in Harare for $17usd. Contact Book Fantastic on +263779210403. They meet anyone in town (cbd) and offer delivery services anywhere in Harare and the country (for an extra fee)</span></p>kwaChirerehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10306481741499309181noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6009925745240031301.post-83853129931480661642023-05-15T23:53:00.009-07:002023-05-16T06:21:41.443-07:00KwaChirere reads Austin Kaluba's new stories<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRHPJ-1Th8xTvNXO4Eb5KpyeRVdK7MzkESW60cGIiw7RDno-8OCmOxuR91dG1sxvhkxKyl6E5gZDKCgdttWL1ZE50qzzXqaT2atb2jHkUjSGxwicf_F-Lmn457qrAyjkGbzTtEjIZY03IBQfDiKO6be0mX3k8Pct_ZueDY6-VQsuL0pTUF421Q1FKbgg/s400/Kaluba's%20book%20cover.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="250" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRHPJ-1Th8xTvNXO4Eb5KpyeRVdK7MzkESW60cGIiw7RDno-8OCmOxuR91dG1sxvhkxKyl6E5gZDKCgdttWL1ZE50qzzXqaT2atb2jHkUjSGxwicf_F-Lmn457qrAyjkGbzTtEjIZY03IBQfDiKO6be0mX3k8Pct_ZueDY6-VQsuL0pTUF421Q1FKbgg/s320/Kaluba's%20book%20cover.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><p></p><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Author: Austin Kaluba<br /></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Title: </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Mensah’s
London Blues and other Stories<br /><o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Publisher, Carnelian Heart Publishing in the UK,
2023, 117 pages<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Paperback ISBN 978-1-914287-04-6<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Hardback ISBN 978-1-914287-05-3</span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The exciting Zambian author, Austin Kaluba, who once
wrote a letter artistically and impeccably, like Dambudzo Marechera, has
published his own collection of short stories with </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Carnelian Heart Publishing in the UK! It is a book entitled <i>Mensah’s London Blues and other Stories</i></span><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">.</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Amongst these short stories, of course, is the people’s
favourite piece “Dambudzo Marechera’s letter to Samantha” and Kaluba’s fans will
be happy to find it here. Until
recently, very few people knew that the so called “<i>Dambudzo Marechera’s letter to Samantha”</i> was not written by
Marechera himself but by Zambian writer, Austin Kaluba, as </span><span style="background: white; color: #0f1419; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">part of a broad 2011 project in Marechera’s memory. Kaluba
imagined what Marechera would sound like writing to his </span><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">ex-girlfriend</span><span style="background: white; color: #0f1419; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;"> after having </span><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">expelled from Oxford University.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Kaluba's “Dambudzo Marechera’s letter to Samantha” generated an
avalanche of positive responses in Zimbabwe and among Zimbabweans in the
diaspora. Because of the very successful imitation of Marechera style and language demonstrated in that piece,
many believed it was actually written by Dambudzo himself. The responses even
crossed to academics who thought the letter was written by Dambudzo himself.
When it was revealed that the letter to Samantha was not written by Marechera
himself, many were disappointed to the extent that, for a while, they rejected
the revelation itself. Such is the power of art.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">When I interviewed Austin Kaluba a few months ago, he
had this to say about his "Dambudzo Marechera’s letter to Samantha": “I had read
works by the late Zimbabwean writer and tried through extensive reading on his
life to understand his troubled upbringing in colonial Zimbabwe, his years in
England and his bohemian life that could have qualified him to be some kind of
black Oscar Wilde. Yeah, I had to get it right by not leaving any detail that
summed up the life of the shamanic writer he was…”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Kaluba continued, “Marechera’s vulgar language and
mistrust of any other person who did not share his views about the crooked
world had to be crammed into the story. Dambudzo thrived on shocking people
using sexual symbolism and other unconventional ways of driving his point home.
I had to get all this right. I also ensured the story worked at two levels;
Dambudzo representing Africa explaining himself to his white girlfriend who is
representing Europe. In short the story is about the damage Europe has done on
its former colonies…”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The Marechera letter begins: “</span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Dear
Samantha</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">. </span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">I think by now you have heard what happened when
those hypocrites in administration chased me from their white university giving
me an option between being sectioned or expelled. I chose the latter, a
decision which shocked them out of their warped wits. I have forgiven them
because together with you they thought as an African student from some remote
Southern African country I was privileged for receiving tertiary education at
Oxford, a learning institution they have overrated as a citadel of knowledge
just like Cambridge or Harvard. It is such academic mad houses
that keep on churning out arrogant, snobbish, hypocritical and pea-minded
bastards who enter the world with the superior airs of holier-than-thou, we and
them attitude calling themselves Doctors, Professors or any stupid titles to
distance themselves from other ordinary folks whom they look down on as dunces…”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">The story about Marechera’s troubled stay in
England is well known as it appears in many versions in many of his
autobiographical narratives and they have now over spilled into Kaluba’s
collection.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">In </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Mensah’s
London Blues and other Stories</i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">, Austin Kaluba writes short stories about
characters from across Africa; apartheid South Africa, Zimbabwe, Ghana,
Nigeria, Malawi and others, sometimes picking snippets of the various mother
tongues from each of those countries. It is a collection that shows how the UK
has become a melting pot, a cultural confluence even. There is the overpowering
sense of how Africans play out their crucial drama away from Africa.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">There is an antagonistic relationship between the destination and the home
left behind by the one who travels. This is more closely related to the old but
constantly resurfacing ‘centre – periphery’ theory. Generally the western city is the centre and
the home of those in the Diaspora is the periphery.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; mso-outline-level: 1; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The characters in these short stories are constantly aware that they are
in foreign territory. Their activities show that they are constantly looking
back at home in the periphery, which in turn is either checkmating them or
aiding them down a rebellious path from the culture and norms of home.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">However, this collection makes a calculated and laid
back take off with a child narrator’s story called "Kippie Goes Home." It is during apartheid South Africa, a boy is
given a suicide note written by a neighbour’s son so that he could read it
loudly to two elderly women. After that the letter reader is never the same again. He is transformed.
The boy from next door who has slaughtered himself suddenly comes alive. As he
reads the letter, the boy is transfigured. He is nolonger reading. he is now living the life of the writer.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">The title story
itself, "Mensah’s London Blues" begins with the voice of a forlorn Ghanaian man: “I
came to England as John Mensah, then I became Kofi Gyan, and later I came to be
known as Kwame Ampiah. I was busted for my deception when my real name appeared
in all the newspapers. My dark face popped out of the picture sheepishly, as if
butter wouldn’t melt in my mouth. The headlines mostly ran along the lines of
“Illegal Immigrant Arrested for Drug Trafficking.”</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; mso-outline-level: 1; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">It
is a story about the life of many migrants to the UK. It recalls the writings
of Brian Chikwava, Andrew Chatora, <strong><span style="color: #404040; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Leila Aboulela and others. </span></strong></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The current
migration of young Africans from Africa to the West for economic reasons has
given birth to a rich literary tradition that tries to open up the challenges
and even the opportunities brought in by this mass movement. In these stories,
western space causes a lot of havoc on the body and mind of the traveller.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Maybe my favourite story in this collection is "Mrs Skerman." It shook me to the core. Because his
visa in the UK is running out, Kofi plans to find just any female British citizen to
marry and be allowed to stay. In this tragic-comic story, the hunter becomes
the hunted! Kofi meets</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> Mrs Skerman through a dating agency. She is 20
years older than him! His first description of her is something to recall as it
reveals Austin Kaluba’s power of description which also runs through this
collection: <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">“The first thing I noticed was her pronounced
ugliness. The skin on her face was thick and leathery, making her resemble a
walrus. She had wrinkles around her eyes and a deep frown line in between her
brows, as though a small axe had made its mark. She had a fleshy double chin with
a beard sprouting from it, and though she shaved every morning, it never helped
to smoothher complexion. The blade left ugly red marks which were worse than
the beard. She was also unusually tall for a woman and walked with a shuffling
gait, her meaty hips moving piston-like. She spoke in a halting voice that fell
somewhere between a whisper and a growl…”</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">And their first dance in the seedy bar is described
thus:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">“With so many beers in my belly, when she suggested dancing, I jumped up
and led her to the dance floor. It was a slow beat. She held me close in a bear
hug, our movements closer to body combat than ball dance. I repeatedly stepped
on her shoes, but she didn’t seem to notice. I felt we really looked funny, but
the other people were too drunk to see…”</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">What follows in this story is a huge lesson to all young African men who
think that they can take advantage of elderly white women to win what may look
like easy pickings. The final twist to this tale left me wanting to laugh and
cry at the same time.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">“Auntie Agatha’s
Quest” is a story about a Zambian woman whose imitation of whiteness goes
overboard. She is always constantly writing her O level English and failing.
The harder she tries, the harder she falls. When she crosses over to settle in England
with her husband, her drive for white things is still unstoppable and this
leads to one tragic moment after another. Only when she is ill does she resign
and loudly break into perfect ChiBemba, “Ntwaleni kumwesu eko nkaye fwila. Teti
mfwile mwanabene. We chalo uli mukali.” – Take me home to die. I don’t want to
die in a foreign land. Oh, what a cruel world.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">“Maria’s Vision”
is a story about two Zimbabweans in the diaspora who are drifting apart. They
are coming from a tumultuous Zimbabwe but as soon as they get to England, that
change of zone helps them realise that they are just a terrible mismatch. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">The more Tapiwa
watches tv the more they re-enact what is on tv: “Tapiwa finished his meal and
switched on the TV. He changed channel after channel till he settled on a
repeat boxing match between Daryl Harrison and Danny Williams. He moved his
head at the landing of each punch from the two boxers. Maria hated finding
herself with such a difficult man. She had thought long and hard about how she
could end her miserable marriage, especially now that she was in Britain where
divorce was easier than back home. But something always held her back, not
least of all the fear of shaming her family and acting contrary to her
Christian faith…”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Then there is
the Nigerian, Obi Akwari who is always writing essays about why the Igbos of
Eastern Nigeria ought to secede from the rest of the country. In his work, he is
not only targeting Nigerians, but the Western world as his audience, especially
the Britons and the French, who were responsible for the genocide against the
Igbos during the Biafra civil war during the late '60s and early '70s. He
believes in his work so much so that he sometimes faints with emotion in the
middle of his sentences!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Austin Kaluba’s best stories have a
psychological realism and concision seldom matched by other writers.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">About his own life as a writer Austin Kaluba once said to
me: “I am an introvert who is highly opinionated and bohemian. I write poetry,
short stories and do translations. One of my translations <i>Frown of the Great</i> in English was previously published as Pano Calo
in ci-Bemba (the commonest language in Zambia). It has been re-published in
Zimbawe by Mwanaka Media and Publishers as a bilingual collection. I am also working on a collection of short stories
<i>Mensah’s London Blues and Other Stories</i>
to be published in England. The collection has two stories with Zimbabwean
characters <i>A Dream Deferred</i> and <i>Maria’s Vision</i>. The latter has been made
into a movie by </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Tendai
Mudhliwa, a UK-based Zimbabwean film maker. The movie stars Memory Savanhu and
a cast of UK-based Zimbabwean actors like Goodwin Ngulube, Lydia Nakwakilo,Ashley
Majaya ,Belinda Majego and Kudzai Manyeku. So you see Memory, my love for Zimbabwe has not ended with writing about Dambudzo but contributing a movie to
Zollywood. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I have also translated John Bunyan’s <i>Pilgrims Progress</i> into ci-Bemba…”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">+Memory Chirere</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> </span></p><p>
</p>kwaChirerehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10306481741499309181noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6009925745240031301.post-37779365217716316572023-04-10T10:17:00.008-07:002023-04-12T12:35:50.512-07:00When Three Sevens Clash: a book review<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3xmdbyHR_qirAPU3YuB3HAMtm8Fa9rKOSP_txd5ZDU86GkExgOFOqBTw9dIiVFggv_kvGPpkr0Qwxe7IBdP6psemISTmpIoTyHAKACZJ6KiA1S_Q0mBYslfE37pyUYyMXG_U6rHGecdQZsnuOEeDG5sr_BL5Pgkl0tBF7jBj0wJ-1_2zxyfoKMJ3GeA/s1008/three%20sevens%20cover.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1008" data-original-width="754" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3xmdbyHR_qirAPU3YuB3HAMtm8Fa9rKOSP_txd5ZDU86GkExgOFOqBTw9dIiVFggv_kvGPpkr0Qwxe7IBdP6psemISTmpIoTyHAKACZJ6KiA1S_Q0mBYslfE37pyUYyMXG_U6rHGecdQZsnuOEeDG5sr_BL5Pgkl0tBF7jBj0wJ-1_2zxyfoKMJ3GeA/s320/three%20sevens%20cover.jpg" width="239" /></a></div><br /> <b style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Reviewing <i>When Three Sevens Clash</i></span></b><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">A book review by Memory Chirere, Harare.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">I am yet to recover from a tumultuous experience I had
recently in coming in touch with </span><i style="font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">When
Three Sevens Clash</i><span style="font-size: 14pt;">, a book cum magazine conceived and published by veteran journalist, Percy Zvomuya, as his own initiative towards the end of 2022. The major focus of this work, largely in narrative form interspaced with drawings and pictures, was to </span><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">highlight the life</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> and music of legendary Zimbabwean
musician, Thomas Mapfumo.</span><o:p style="font-size: 14pt;"></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">From a distance, Thomas Mapfumo appears to be
generally intimidating but on the cover of this publication, there is a mug
shot of him smiling. </span><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">It is as</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> if Thomas is
a boy again; looking down at his peers from atop the bus window, just before a
trip from the Chihota Communal lands where he spent part of his boyhood. In the 1950's journeys
by bus from any place to Harare, Salisbury, tended to be far apart. These were considered great occasions as one’s folks came to the
bus stop to say goodbye. There would be tears of joy and pain, too.</span><o:p style="font-size: 14pt;"></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">We are fortunate that a group of renowned writers and
artists; Farai Mudzingwa, Geraldine Mukumbi, Tony Namate, Tawana Mudzonga,
Brooks Marmon… have just given us a cross sectional gaze at the life and times
of Thomas Mapfumo. They delicately marry the music to the environment, explaining
and clarifying the many things around Thomas Mapfumo. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The pieces by fictional
authors, Musaemura Zimunya and Brian Chikwava are particularly most focused on
Thomas Mapfumo, from the 1950’s to the present day. For me they make the pith of this magazine and should not go without mention.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Editor, Percy Zvomuya says the title </span><i style="font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">When Three Sevens Clash</i><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> comes from
Joseph “</span><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Culture” classic</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> Hill’s 1977
album Two Sevens Clash. When on 7 july 1977, whe actually four sevens clashed;
seventh day, seventh </span><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">month,</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> seventy-seventh year, many in Kingstons did not
venture out lest they be caught up in the apocalypse. Thomas Mapfumo, who was
born in 1945, turned 77 in July, the seventh month of the year: three sevens
clashing once more!</span><o:p style="font-size: 14pt;"></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Percy Zvomuya meets Musaemura Zimunya at the funeral
of Thomas Mapfumo’s musician young brother, Lancelot’s burial at Warren hills
in Harare on 10 October 2022 and it becomes a moment to review the route and
roots of Thomas Mapfumo and Chimurenga music. A kind of workshop is planned and
this book carries such proceedings. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The longest rendition comes from renowned Zimbabwean
poet, Musaemura Zimunya, himself a relative and once publicist manager of
Mapfumo when Coen and Merz were attempting to do a documentary on Thomas Mapfumo
in the mid 1980’s. Zimunya writes with care and precision.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Place and people are critical in Zimunya’s rnarrative.
Born and raised in Chihota Communal lands amongst his mother’s people, it is
indicated that Mapfumo has a Christian background, rather untypical for a man
who eventually becomes the icon of Zimbabwean traditional music with mbira at
its core. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">It is all in order that during his early days in
Salisbury, now Harare, Thomas played drums and the saxophone in the the African
Christian marching Church where he went with his mother.. He was imbued in the
Christian harmonies and vocal arrangements. But latter you learn that this was
an unintended apprenticeship! Suddenly you notice that this s the same route
that other Zimbabwean musicians tended to take.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Then there was the dramatic entry of rock and roll into
the life of Thomas from the big world out there. Out goes classical jazz, and Thomas
is now in Mbare, then Harari township. Thomas and his peers are found<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>spotting the rockabilly haircut<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>known as “the Elvis cut” after Elvis Presley
of rock music, of course. Teenage radicalism and the windfall of <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>sixties enter and Thomas escapes rather
forcefully from the conservative Christian clutches of the family. He finds
himself with a band, the Cosmic Four Dots which he forms with his peers. They
are doing covers for various rock artists. Life is sweet. Thomas is good on
stage and soon, he sings Prestley’s part for the Springfields<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>at an event in Harari and they immediately
smuggle him!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Thomas is now very active. he quickly helps compose
and record <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Shungu Dzinondibaya, Anopenga
Ane waya and Conie</i>, in chacha style, songs that later became great hits in
Shona music. But soon Jimi Hendrix dies, and with him, the hippies. Thomas had
to move on musically.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Zimunya’s first encounter with Thomas was is in 1973
when he is sneaking out a politically turbulent University of Rhodesia. Just
about the historic mukwembe demonstration that brough black students in
collision course with Iam Smith’s bully boys. Thomas was at home busy learning
to play the saxophone. His reason was that Jimi Hendrix and the guitar had been
too mainstreamed in the community and that there was need to move on and create
other sounds and other images. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">In their young men’s conversations, Zimunya works out
that Thomas imagined starting on African rock in which the brass would play a
central role almost in the mould of Osibisa, the Ghanaian British outfit of the
times. More and more, the big black world was becoming radicalized. In the US,
the great American civil rights leader, Martin Luther King Jr had been
assassinated in 1968. In Rhodesia itself, there was a growing political crisis
that saw the detentionof nationalist leaders like Ndabaningi Sithole, Joshua
Nkomo and many others. Accordingly the sociopolitical space naturally spawned
new expressions, thrusts and genres. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Soon the emergence of the Hallelujah Chicken Run band
at the Mangula Mine west of Salisbury, created space to experiment with
traditional Shona rhythms. At the centre of this project were trumpeter Daram
Karanga and bassist Robert Nkati and they needed a vibrant young vocalist and
in came Thomas Mapfumo on vocals and drums. There would be guitarists, Elisha
Jossam and Joshua Hlomayi Dube. The journey from rock and roll and pop music to
African based sounds and rhythms was set.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">There came the singles <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hoyo Murembo</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Torido
Mutoridodo</i>. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The experiments were
quite rich and soon Thomas Mapfumo the vocalist and front man of this band had
opportunity to reenact the Shona <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">svikiro</i>
medium during the shows. In one picture in this magazine, Thomas is shirtless,
holding in one hand, the microphone and in the other, a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">gano,</i> the traditional ceremonial axe and a spear. Below that Thomas
is wrapped in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">retso</i>, the spiritual
cloth. At this moment, Thomas had crossed the threshold. In Highfield in 1965,
Zimunya says Mapfumo mesmerized the urban revelers with his trance like
performance of the revolutionary traditional song, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hoyo murembo</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Mapfumo and his musical peers; Zexie Manatsa, Oliver
Mtukudzi and others become typical characters in typical circumstances. They started
to forge music “that told of the cunning brutality of the settlers, their
seizure of land and the suffering of Africans through forced labour, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>political detention and imprisonment.” A
revolutionary spirit had seized them. Music is being actively directed by the
events on the ground. Often they clash with the powers that be but the
audiences across the country urge them on.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Musaemura’s critical view is that; by fusing the
traditional Shona sounds of mbira <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and
modern pop sounds such as Afro rock, Thomas helped to reconfigure Zimbabwean
music and that “in the five short years it took him to rise to super star
status, he dragged a brainwashed and reluctant people out of their confusion
and defeatism.” No wonder his music became known as Chimurenga music. Murenga
is the term for the radical and warlike great Shona ancestor.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">This article also traces the key figures in Zimbabwean
music who have worked closely with Mapfumo as his Chimurenga music develops.
These are many watershed characters in Zimbabwean music. There is the guitar
maestro, Jonah Sithole a co-founder of the Chimurenga music because Chimurenga
is said to be based on his mbira guitar. In his moments of anger, he loudly
reiterates this fact to Thomas Mapfumo himself.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">There is also Charles Makokowa who was also good at
adapting well known popular songs and sounds from the Shona folk tradition. There
is Chartwell Dutiro, who could play the tenor saxophone, the mbira, ngoma,
hosho and provide backing vocals. There is trumpeter, Ernest Ncube and
trombonist, Cannan Kamoyo. There is the inimitable keyboard player, Lancelot
Mapfumo, and the heavily disciplined bassist, Washington Kavhayi. For a musical
form to develop there must always be consistent instrumentalists.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Thomas Mapfumo produced great hits that have become
part of the Zimbabwean folklore <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">like
Pfumvu paruzevha, Dangurangu, Wakura, Bhutsu Mutandarika, Kariba, Corruption, Hanzvadzi,
Chipo change, Pemberai</i> and many others.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Zimunya is acutely aware of the ups and downs in the
life and music of Thomas Mapfumo and his tendency to openly lampoon whether the
country is under Ian smith or Mugabe or Munangagwa. This is his most consistent
feature. Maqpfumo’s fall out with the ruling style of Robert Mugabe, whom he
previously supported, is well known. Subsequently, Mapfumo goes into self
imposed exile but exile appears to be the downsize as it coincides with the
coming of age of the great artist.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Zimunya’s article dovetails principally with that of
Brian Chikwava, a distant admirer of Thomas Mapfumo from a different generation
and now living in the UK. He is the author of the prizewinning novel, Harare
North. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Brian Chikwava has very
interesting observations. One of them is that Thomas Mapfumo, just like Robert
Mugabe, is a proud and headstrong man, especially where sticking to principles
is concerned. In Chikwava’s view, the two men are each other’s shadow! Two men
with a rural and Christian background who find themselves supporting the same
cause albeit from different angles and eventually clashing…<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Chikwava writes that Mapfumo could not be short
changed because, for example, he knew his real worth. Chikwava recalls one
moment when Thomas arrives at the Harare Agriculture show with his band to play
and asks the organisors, “So how much are we getting paid?” The organizers mentioned
a number and emphasized that that it is what everyone was getting. “Saka
mungatienzanise nana Pengaudzoke?” (Can you equate us with the little band Pengaudzoke?)
and Mapfumo asked his band to leave the place immediately.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Using the iconic song <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Zuvaguru </i>as the quintessence Thomas Mapfumo music, Chikwava says
that song is “the soundtrack of my childhood post independence Zimbabwe.” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Zuvaguru</i> was that song which Chikwava’s
father invariably put on the gramophone when they had visitors. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">It is a song about the great day when what has been
hidden in the bushes will come out. On the flipside is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Motobika doro</i> in which Mapfumo goes deep into the roots of the new
nation, Zimbabwe, into the customs and traditions out of mbira out of which Chimurenga
music emanates. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Brian Chikwava wonders why this record is never found
amongst any of Mapfumo’s music on cd or vinyl, or to download or stream. “I
have only the vinyl copy that once belonged to my father.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">About Mapfumo’s project of bringing mbira to the
people through electric guitars in modern venues with Dube and Sithole,
Chikwava has this to say, “(this is) the luminous discharge of energy that manifest
when Africans brought their sensibility to bear on a space previously assumed
not be theirs. At these crossroads, new identities are forged, there is an
awakening, and we see new horizons beyond which the song persists, even after
the physical object has varnished.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">When Three
Sevens Meet</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> is a critical read for
those connoisseurs who wish to get accurate details on the development of
Thomas Mapfumo as a musician in oreder to fill in the gaps. The other articles
in this book dwell on musical venues of the times, the cultural setup from
which Mapfumo derived his music and many other exciting things.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>kwaChirerehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10306481741499309181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6009925745240031301.post-18496336206316792122023-03-13T23:30:00.009-07:002023-03-16T00:54:54.588-07:00Tsitsi Nomsa Ngwenya’s A Portrait of Emlanjeni: a preview<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt81X6KiCqKXafNe4sf_6RX2uVFEZzkxG42zyVKk5PduKBWHacU_xWbPQpi73ffMIcoEn4afRSJwqxUE1BjOFcpF2Y5VV3z1KpqAY7NQWF8ppIgj3ZlcN3S9IdkCDdojVoFTMSOzlemzJ_q1XWvfl4g2SUpR9SNNVTMpbyko65O2Da4TsPvPBwMsc6VQ/s631/portrait%20of%20Emlangeni%20final.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="631" data-original-width="630" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt81X6KiCqKXafNe4sf_6RX2uVFEZzkxG42zyVKk5PduKBWHacU_xWbPQpi73ffMIcoEn4afRSJwqxUE1BjOFcpF2Y5VV3z1KpqAY7NQWF8ppIgj3ZlcN3S9IdkCDdojVoFTMSOzlemzJ_q1XWvfl4g2SUpR9SNNVTMpbyko65O2Da4TsPvPBwMsc6VQ/s320/portrait%20of%20Emlangeni%20final.jpg" width="319" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Tsitsi Nomsa Ngwenya’s
novel, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Portrait of Emlanjeni</i>, is set
to be published by the UK based Carnelian Heart Publishing this March of 2023.
It will definitely bring us to the literature and environment subject. From a
human perspective, it is very easy to declare that this is a story about the
rise and fall and rise of one Zanele, the daughter of Hadebe of Matobo,
Zimbabwe.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The first time that I read
the opening phase of this intriguing novel, I kept on saying to myself, but where
are the people, where are the people? As in Mungoshi's <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Waiting for the Rain and </i><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Vera's</span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> The Stone Virgins</i>, you may only fully appreciate the people if you
are ready to feel the pulse of the landscape from which they erupt. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">In what many will be able to
call an environmental novel, Emlanjeni in Matobo, is </span><span style="background: white; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">integral to the story and it becomes one of the major and very
active characters. I</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">t is an art
</span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN;">that uses a known geographical area thoroughly, </span><span class="e24kjd"><span lang="EN-ZW" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZW;">describing and
dwelling on its natural features elaborately in order to show that the life, social relations,
customs, language, dialect or other aspects of the culture of an area and its
people, can indeed become overridden by what the environment is becoming.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">“To
reach Emlanjeni, one has to plan a three-hour drive from Ematojeni, about
twenty kilometers South of Bulawayo. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 14pt; text-align: left;">Ematojeni
Hills of the famous Njelele Shrine and Matopos National Park, a national
heritage site, lies on the village’s north. You drive on a strip road, curving,
turning and meandering around huge rock boulders, past the balancing rocks</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">…” the novel begins. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">You know that you
are already journeying. Then you are warned, “The place is dry. One can smell
its dryness. Acacia bushes dot the flat landscape which is littered with
little, whitish, dusty stones. The whole surrounding area, all the way to Mwewu
River, is mostly gullied and dry, giving the impression of a place being
frequently cleaned by nature’s maids....”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Then
you are taken into the sky: “If one cared to imagine the aerial view of the two
rivers bordering the village, Simphathe and Marabi, with the Kwanike hillocks
on the south, the picture would be a breath-taking one, the kind you find
framed as a monument in a museum. The sandy loam, some patches of black clay on
some areas and red soils on the other, holds the ground together.<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>Grass slowly dies of thirst after the
February-March rains only to come to back to life during the October-November
planting season…”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Then
you are told that the journey has always been bumpy, “...that is the bridge that
makes bus drivers forbid women and children from occupying the front seats. As
the bus descends, fearful passengers on their maiden trips to Bulawayo,
koNtuthuziyathunqa, let out shrieks which sometimes cause the driver to lose
control of the steering wheel…” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Eventually
the people fully pour into the story, creating a din- “Most young boys in
Emlanjeni do not take school seriously. The schools are far apart such that
pupils walk long distances. Even if some, especially girls, want to pursue
education, they fail to do so because idlers and school dropouts wait for them
on their way from school. These girls are persuaded and forced into love
affairs which lead to pregnancies and hastily planned marriages…”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">You have now landed in the territory of <i>Malayitshas</i> who bring groceries in big <i>tshangana</i>
bags from South Africa and Botswana, blankets and other items given to them to
take home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is said that some mothers,
upon receiving these parcels, forget their disappointment. Those whose
daughters send a <i>malayitsha</i> frequently, are seen wearing beautiful <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">izishweshwe </i>dresses, berets and sneakers
to village parties and other communal meetings.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">It
is also indicated that everyone cycles in Emlanjeni and women even as old as
seventy cycle to church, miles away. They are serious about attending these
church services where they give God the love they could have been giving to
their absent children and spouses! At the local St Joseph’s Secondary School,
bicycles can be seen balancing on each other, piled on trees within the school
premises. Younger women cycle to clinics with babies strapped on their backs.
Some experienced women even cycle balancing beer calabashes to village parties.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Then
suddenly we come to the eye of the storm when Zanele, the apple of Emlanjeni’s
eye, and one of the greatest scholars in the region, realises that a “wrong”
person has made her pregnant somewhere in the thorny bushes! She decides that
this has to be her secret because if the world knows then her very own world
will fall apart.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Zanele
has a very challenging predicament. The man who makes her pregnant is a known
layabout- a long time friend of hers who dropped out of school because he has
nobody to pay his fees. Sipho is his name and he herds cattle, reading books
and writing brilliantly desperate poetry in the arid bush. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">During
some moments, Zanele thinks that she loves Sipho. But in some, she tends to
think that she actually pities him and that this cannot be the basis for a good
marriage. Besides, Zanele wants to remain in school like her niece, Nonceba. But…
Zanele is already pregnant! How will she go back to boarding school?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Sipho
wants her to stop going to school. Sipho does not want to see any man close to Zanele.
His knife is already sharpened and ready. He follows her everywhere, listening
into her conversations with people from behind the scanty bushes. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is becoming an animal, making appointments
with Zanele in the bush so that he beds her with a curious sense of vengeance.
Zanele is both attracted to and repulsed by him…There is a morbid attraction
between them and that thing runs across this story. You read on with a sense of
trepidation as the least expected happens…Discordant lovers in their beloved
dry land.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Meanwhile
the dry countryside goes on, rendering this book a festival of a variety of
cultural materials. This novel is a bewitching manual on how to make beer for
the rain making ceremony. You read about the </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">ijumo ceremony: “This is a cleansing custom which is
performed before the rain dance ritual they are brewing beer for. All village
men, including boys, wake up early to clean the forests of dead animal
carcasses and bones, bringing down disused birds’ nests, removing debris thrown
on the riverbanks and destroying abandoned homesteads.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This book teaches you;<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">how to prepare <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">isitshwala</i> with impala biltong in
marula-nut sauce,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>how to prepare <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">isitshwala senyawuthi</i>, a type of thick
porridge cooked with<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>finger millet,
served with<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> amasi</i> for supper, how to use
the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">umsuzwane</i> herbs to heal deep
wounds, how to draw beautiful portraits on walls of huts using<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>white ash, how girls play the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">inkente</i> game and you also read about the
character of the now defunct <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Nholowemizana
ritual, which was about </i>a bride having to have sexual intercourse with her
father-in-law… and many other items.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">This
book teems with characters; various and unpredictable. There is Mamoyo who “would
darn, darn and darn, her hands moving softly, slowly and carefully.” There is Sikhwehle
Jiyane, a fully grown man and “had things been alright with his mind, he would
have made a wonderful husband and father. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">What
baffled a lot of people was that most of the time his faculties seemed quite
alert. This made some people think that he was alright after all, while others
were not too sure of that. He was one of those people the villagers called <i>‘umuntu
kaMlimu,’</i> meaning God’s person.” There is Sibanda who rapes his daughter in
front of his wife. There is also Tholakele Mpunzi, an extremely beautiful woman
in her late twenties who is married to an old man and men try every trick in
the book to woo her.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">A Portrait of Emlanjeni </span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">tries to take a panoramic picture of this place from the unique
landscape, the minds of the people, their rich culture and the subsequent
challenges that they face in the changing times in Southern Zimbabwe. It is a
story told through a woman’s gaze, very sensitive on how women experience a
landscape made by nature and men.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Tsitsi
Nomsa Ngwenya grew up in Matobo in Matabeleland South, Zimbabwe. She was first
published by University of South Africa Journal, Imbizo, in 2014. In 2016,
Radiant Publishing House published her first novel, Izinyawo Zayizolo written
in her mother tongue, IsiNdebele. The novel was received with much critical
acclaim in the academia. In 2017, Royal Publishing House published her
collection of short stories titled, The Fifty Rand Note</span><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" style="background: white; color: #626262; font-size: 10.5pt;">.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" style="background: white; color: #626262; font-size: 10.5pt;">+previewed by Memory Chirere, Harare.</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>kwaChirerehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10306481741499309181noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6009925745240031301.post-35312164491861871412023-02-07T07:59:00.000-08:002023-02-07T07:59:01.327-08:00Tariro Ndoro reviews Chatora's HARARE VOICES & BEYOND<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI5WqQ-uXYxZQzQZBNtGgxlG_9KhDEzsT0-cG41yPrOcxiO3obJChgAuW7eCSOW_0KsTd9Mvn8NmvyTOvTF8fEb4Ie9OxqsA3d4ChppdVMgjSaCg5GeCsz5NlQ3fAsH6wGLx9HD8CULGt-WaQ176FGg4z2xFxz9bgGtMhX_GHSP76nLk-_85tAv_yXHg/s2560/Harare%20Voices%20and%20Beyond%20Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2560" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI5WqQ-uXYxZQzQZBNtGgxlG_9KhDEzsT0-cG41yPrOcxiO3obJChgAuW7eCSOW_0KsTd9Mvn8NmvyTOvTF8fEb4Ie9OxqsA3d4ChppdVMgjSaCg5GeCsz5NlQ3fAsH6wGLx9HD8CULGt-WaQ176FGg4z2xFxz9bgGtMhX_GHSP76nLk-_85tAv_yXHg/s320/Harare%20Voices%20and%20Beyond%20Cover.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-ZW" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;">"Harare
Voices and Beyond" – Confessional Family Drama Extraordinaire: A Welcome
Addition to the Canon<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><o:p></o:p></i></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-ZW" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;">Child abuse, domestic
violence, and incest all find a voice in Chatora’s new book: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Harare Voices and Beyond</i> which offers a
difficult but essential read.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-ZW" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;">Tariro Ndoro<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-ZW" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZW" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;">While the literary novel dominates the
Zimbabwean scene, genre fiction is no stranger to the nation. The crime novel
is a particularly guilty pleasure with titles such as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">All Come to Dust</i> by Bryony Rheam and the “Detective Sibanda Series”
(<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sibanda and the Rainbird</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sibanda </i>and<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> the Black Hawk Sparrow</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sibanda
and the Death’s Head Moth</i>) by C.M. Elliott being prime examples. Although
these novels are mainly set in the southwestern region of Matebeleland, Andrew
Chatora’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Harare Voices and Beyond</i> is
a welcome addition to the cannon.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZW" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZW" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;">Set in the capital city of Harare and mainly
narrated from the confines of Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison, Chatora’s
novel is greatly reminiscent of Petina Gappah’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Book of Memory</i>. An<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>interesting twist to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Harare Voices
and Beyond</i>, which would make it more of a suspense novel than a traditional
crime novel is that the plot opens with the main protagonist, Rhys Williams, on
trial for killing his brother, and at no point does Williams deny the murder,
rather choosing to allude to extenuating circumstances that led to the death,
making <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Harare Voices and Beyond</i> a
"whydunnit" rather than a "whodunnit." Such a theme is
brought out well in crime novels that often ask the reader to weigh what they
deem good, bad, and morally grey:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZW" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;">This is it for me and mother. Are we going to
die. There’s no other way the courts will let us off for the murder of my
brother, Julian – Mother’s youngest son gone rogue.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZW" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZW" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;">Rhys Williams narrates the story of his
brother’s death, beginning at the point in time when his family traumatically
lost their farm in Mazowe at the time of the Land Reform Project in Zimbabwe.
Traumatised, his younger brother, Julian, turns to drugs to numb his pain and
it is this addiction that eventually leads to the destruction of the family as
a whole. However, the novel as a whole is narrated from the viewpoints of
multiple characters.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZW" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;">As Chatora wrote this story, he showed all sides
of Julian’s addiction, highlighting the circumstances that often lead to drug
use and abuse in Zimbabwe, which is an important theme as drug abuse in
Zimbabwe is on the rise owing to youth unemployment and poverty. As one of
Julian’s drug dealers note:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-border-shadow: yes; mso-padding-alt: 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZW" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;">In reality most
of my ilk in our downtown Harare gang had similar lives like me stemming from
broken homes devoid of a father figure. Those who ran away from home, living on
the streets. Ben was one such fellow, he was brought up without a father, his
mother struggled to make ends meet, so he used to do anything for a living.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-border-shadow: yes; mso-padding-alt: 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZW" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-border-shadow: yes; mso-padding-alt: 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZW" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;">This opens up
the broader conversations surrounding addiction in Zimbabwe as many young
people are recruited into drug rings early. Another ugly aspect of the drug
trade is the way in which it tears apart families as addicts care less and less
about the people around them as they chase the next high. Chatora capably
describes Julian’s downward spiral into stealing from his family to feed his
meth habit: <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-border-shadow: yes; mso-padding-alt: 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZW" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-border-shadow: yes; mso-padding-alt: 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZW" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;">But I needed a
fix. How else can I get my fix if I don’t get to nick Doris’s jewellery or any
other household valuables which came my way? One has to do what one has to do.
What people seem not to know? Downtown Harare drugs didn’t come cheap. And
hearken people, you don’t really understand what it’s like when one needs their
fix do you? Now, don’t you go tell me you do, because clearly you don’t. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZW" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZW" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;">On the other hand, Rhys Williams meets sultry
Marina Thompson a vivacious mixed race British lassie. Whilst Julian’s story is
that of a privileged young man who turned to drugs after surviving trauma,
Marina represents the other side of the coin as she grew up in the British
foster care system as a drug addiction rendered her only parent an unfit
mother. Despite her disavowal of recreational drugs, Marina finds herself
embroiled in this world through no choice of her own. Perhaps Chatora chose to
include Marina as a character to embody the long-term consequences of drug
abuse in society.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZW" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZW" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;">Chatora also looks at other themes such as
belonging. While his earlier works position Zimbabweans in the Diaspora and
provide social commentary on their adaptions to living in the UK, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Harare Voices and Beyond</i> questions the
place that white Zimbabweans and immigrants (Malawian and Mozambican) hold in
their nation and how this speaks to their enfranchisement or lack thereof,
posing the question to the reader of who should belong and which criteria (in
any) guarantees nationhood.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-ZW" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;">Harare Voices and Beyond</span></i><span lang="EN-ZW" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"> asks its readers to actively participate in the
conversations surrounding weighty topics such as substance abuse and belonging
while itself taking the accessible form of a suspense novel and thus making
these topics alive for both literary aficionados and the casual reader alike.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-ZW" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;">Harare Voices and Beyond</span></i><span lang="EN-ZW" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"> is published by Chicago-based Kharis Publishing
– an imprint of Kharis Media LLC and is released on February 27, 2023. Copies
are shortly available to order in digital, paperback and hardback format from
Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books a Million, Walmart, Target Christian books and
other online book retailers.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZW" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZW" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;">The book adds on to Chatora’s growing stable of
contemporary fiction/migrant literature. It is a welcome addition to his
catalogue, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Diaspora Dreams</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Where the Heart Is,</i> also published by
Kharis Publishing and available from<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Amazon.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZW" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-ZW" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;">Author Biography<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZW" style="color: black; font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond; mso-fareast-font-family: Garamond;">Andrew
Chatora is a Zimbabwean novelist, essayist and short-story writer based in
Bicester, England. He grew up in Mutare, Zimbabwe, and moved to England in
2002. His debut novella, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Diaspora Dreams </i>(2021),
was approvingly received and nominated for the National Arts Merit Awards
(2022)<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">.</i> His second book, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Where the Heart Is</i>, was published in the
same year to considerable acclaim. Chatora’s forthcoming book, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Born Here, But Not in My Name</i>, is a
brave, humorous and psychologically penetrating portrait of post-Brexit
Britain. Chatora is noted for his acerbic and honest depiction of the migrant
experience. Heavily influenced by his own experience as a black English teacher
in the United Kingdom, Chatora probes multi-cultural relationships, identity
politics, blackness, migration, citizenship and nationhood.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZW" style="color: black; font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond; mso-fareast-font-family: Garamond;">+Reproduced here with the kind permission of: </span><a href="https://thisisafrica.me/arts-and-culture/harare-voices-and-beyond-confessional-family-drama-extraordinaire-a-welcome-addition-to-the-canon/" style="text-align: left;">"Harare Voices and Beyond" – Confessional family drama extraordinaire: A welcome addition to the canon (thisisafrica.me)</a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-ZW" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZW" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZW" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-border-shadow: yes; mso-padding-alt: 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-ZW" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-border-shadow: yes; mso-padding-alt: 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZW" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZW" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZW" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>kwaChirerehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10306481741499309181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6009925745240031301.post-76231606997843913882023-01-01T05:22:00.016-08:002023-01-01T09:50:44.755-08:00KwaChirere reviews Starfish Blossoms by Vazhure<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGYUEstQgqCSRr8NwU7dcDN1wS8thwpAuQ4-Y6Pog-yrKNPn-D7WDVzFs_MWqnWZSEqz2KkJFnlUNKyoYduMgf1uXvsIEsqC5E8NGh3NlWmlK_SGsZ_cB9iAcpajR8k-hUnchFfZQAxeuCsN0EZL68loiCjiZbnAfCQmwDinGMoWdYDtyzpL-SfiX7vg/s594/Starfish.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="594" data-original-width="400" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGYUEstQgqCSRr8NwU7dcDN1wS8thwpAuQ4-Y6Pog-yrKNPn-D7WDVzFs_MWqnWZSEqz2KkJFnlUNKyoYduMgf1uXvsIEsqC5E8NGh3NlWmlK_SGsZ_cB9iAcpajR8k-hUnchFfZQAxeuCsN0EZL68loiCjiZbnAfCQmwDinGMoWdYDtyzpL-SfiX7vg/s320/Starfish.jpg" width="215" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Title: Starfish Blossoms<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Author: Samantha Rumbidzai
Vazhure<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Publisher: Carnelian
Heart Publishing, 2022<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Hardback: isbn:
987-1-914287-27-5<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Paper back: isbn:
978-1-914287-28-2<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">E-Book isbn:
978-1-914287-29-9<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I am hoping to refer to Samantha Rumbidzai Vazhure’s
latest collection of poems, Starfish Blossoms, as a <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">multi-tasking anthology. </b><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">It often occurs to a poet that one of her books may
carry pieces from the many different periods of her life, ably reflecting continuity
and change of the poet’s vision and methods over time. This is the essence of a multi-tasking
collection. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Through such a book, the poet makes definitive
statements on a wide range of themes and subjects under one cover. Later in
life, the poet herself may actually sit back, like any other reader, and re-read
her own book in search of the growth of her own philosophy of life and the
development of her craft. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">As a result,<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> Starfish
Blossoms</b> is a festival of sorts. Many of these poems ring with the unmistakable
clarity of biographical information from the life of the poet herself; the ups
and downs of life, the poet’s discoveries, the poet’s mental experiments and the
poet’s acute personal memories. You could draw the poet's graph, underlining your favourite pieces and flipping over others for further reading.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I may want to call this book a diary anthology, too.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">What is however clearer to me than my other observations
is; this collection is decidedly based on the firm foundations of the wisdom of
one’s female ancestors, both in mythical and real time. This book can be read as an archive of women's thoughts and sweet secrets from one generation to the other.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">In these pieces, there is the hovering presence of the
persona’s paternal grandmother, vaChivi. She is the spirit of the lioness, hunting
relentlessly for game in order to feed her pack of cubs. VaChivi is more
vicious and runs much faster than her lazy and redundant male counterpart. Hunting
is not sport. It is a matter of life and death. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">There is also the
maternal grandmother, aChihera, the woman of the Shava Eland totem. Charwe Nehanda
of the first Chimurenga is amongst the strong Chihera women of Zimbabwe. They
are renowned in Shona lore for their resilience and sometimes they are known to be strong headed, fighting harder
than their fathers or their husbands!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">These two archetypes VaChivi and aChihera demonstrate
that this poet is coming to the world stage already armed with ready-made
stories of the brave women from her own community. She is not looking for new
heroes. She already has the blood of heroines running through her veins. She is only looking for a broader audience. For me
this is Samantha Rumbidzai Vazhure’s greatest achievement. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">In the very first poem the persona recalls her time
with her grandmother out in the countryside. It is a return to the stable
source and to roots that go deep.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Grandmother hides her monies everywhere; inside her crimpling
doek, under the reed mat and even inside her G-cup bra. Meanwhile the corn is
roasting by the fireside. When she asks her granddaughter to count her money,
the younger woman says, “but you can’t see the money even if I were to count it
for you!” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">And the elder answers: “These eyes can see what they
want to see.” Meaning I would not have asked you to count the money if you were not a trusted fellow. This poem is a story about the easy
camaraderie between women from across generations.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">In the poem Hanyanani, the poet goes even deeper into the Shona
mythology. An old woman lives in the drought smitten district of Chivi in a
year when the famine is at its bitterest. There is danger that the many-many
orphans that she is keeping in her homestead may actually starve to death. VaChivi
goes up and down amongst her neighbours and she finds no food to cook. But the
orphans gather around her crying louder and louder... <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">VaChivi comes up with a plan which has become
legendary amongst the Shona people. She lights a fire as if everything is
alright and puts a pot full of water on the fire. There is still nothing to
cook and VaChivi picks pebbles from the bare ground and throws them into the
pot and she tells her grandchildren that she is now cooking something and she
will make soup out of it. She dishes out the ‘soup’ eventually. It is the mere
hope amongst these children that the hot water that they are taking in is real
soup. That saves their lives;<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">And there’s an old
woman from Chvi<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">who cooked stones
and drank the soup.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">She did not
swallow the stones.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Did she not know
that those<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">who swallow stones
do not die?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The Chivi woman’s story is about intense hope and
resolve. In the same area there is a contemporary tale about Hanyanani, a ghost
that goes ahead with its ghostliness without thinking about what people say
about her as a ghost. Sometimes Hanyanani terrorises wayfarers who walk the
paths in the middle of the night from beer drinking binges. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The daring drunkards even think s Hanyanani is a fresh new
prostitute from more urbane place like Masvingo, Harare and Bulawayo and on
being taken to her home, the men fall into deep sleep. When they wake up they
find that they are actually resting in the graveyard! In a more contemporary
period, Hanyanani is often reincarnated as Peggy, the other terror ghost of the other Zimbabwean towns of
Chiredzi and Triangle.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">These are stories about woman triumphalism retold in poetic form. Vazhure
does not exactly rewrite these myths but her allusions to them through her poetry are powerful and
strategic. Vazhure uses local materials to talk about global issues.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The story of the girl, Fatima, in the title poem Starfish blossoms, is retold by a girl child narrator. Fatima works for other
people looking after their home and children. Fatima uses herbs in order to
elongate her sexual organs and improve the general fecundity of her body. She
is aiming at attracting one powerful suitor. The result is tragic but Fatima
does not collapse and cry. Her spirit of resistance remains in the mind of the
girl narrator who tells this story. The narrator wants to avenge Fatima and create a
freer version of her. Fatima, Just like the widely spread starfish flower in
blossom, has some overarching influence on other women including the
persona.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">In one transcendental poem, My mother aloft a raging
fire, the persona sees mother way before mother is born. That recalls the Shona proverb chisionekwi
humhandara hwamai, it is impossible for anyone to meet their mother during her girlhood! But the persona is that rare seer who has powerful visions of her own
mother’s girlhood. She was there before and during her own mother because she is a fellow woman:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">In my dreams of
mother, rare as true love<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">she looks nothing
like the end, but rather, the beginning<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">before I was born
– a vivacious stunning queen…<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Afro glowing like
a golden halo…<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">In her youth,
which no son or daughter can ever see, mother was a terrible beauty. Strangely,
when mother tries to pass on the cooking stick, like a baton in athletics, she is
raising it by the wrong hand and the persona runs away from receiving the
cooking stick! Presumably, the daughter is running away from the seemingly
disabling traditional women’s duties. But is clear that in her wild and speedy flight, the daughter
persona runs with no baton, tripping and falling along “abysmal tracks” of athletics
and wakes up very tired and exhausted. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">This poem
challenges us to see the womanly duties differently. You may choose to see
slavery in women’s domestic duties but beyond that, the caring duties of
motherhood have actually sustained generations. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Woman’s duties
have been a subject of heated debate. If you perform them you are damned, if
you don’t, you are damned too. The life of a mother appears to beg for a more careful
reading. There is pain in a mother’s life but there appears to be life at the
end of mother’s pains. We have come this far because of our mothers.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Down the pages, in
a more cryptic poem, the poet clarifies her position: “An abused mother is too
sore and too drained to nurture her children the way Mother Nature intended her
to.” As confirmed in Barbed crowns, suffering should not be the crown of thorns
that a woman should continue to wear. Women should rebel from oppression but
should not refuse the natural task of suckling and healing the whole nation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Samantha Vazhure’s
poems are a useful addition to the rich tradition of Zimbabwean poetry. Her views on how women ought
to proceed from the concrete local foundations as they grow globally, are going to
provide space for discussion amongst scholars and theorists. Samantha Vazhure studied Law and Business Administration
at the University of Kent. She works in the UK as a regulatory consultant in financial
services. She has published various collections of poems and short stories in Shona
and English.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.75pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 21.75pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Reviewed by Memory Chirere<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>kwaChirerehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10306481741499309181noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6009925745240031301.post-57812999795312638192022-11-08T06:51:00.020-08:002022-11-09T01:16:15.216-08:00The return of Andrew Chatora...Harare Voices and Beyond<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYdiKbXRU6lvZCRkCmPBkwvBUJi0vUIwWphJLA6-R9tFQy0BTFH7H56EJHv763xe2pa6K13_hqv9gazqyK7xS_jUTKNyugt5JaGKC2XaiEsTvyf_3XFfF6e_Y0bBQgzOzLQvfb48369xwC_9zQJ7GfkeuTxnfF02yxztEqw9_dvb9NbI1hVL-Uyd-EbQ/s284/harare%20voice%20cover.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="284" data-original-width="177" height="284" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYdiKbXRU6lvZCRkCmPBkwvBUJi0vUIwWphJLA6-R9tFQy0BTFH7H56EJHv763xe2pa6K13_hqv9gazqyK7xS_jUTKNyugt5JaGKC2XaiEsTvyf_3XFfF6e_Y0bBQgzOzLQvfb48369xwC_9zQJ7GfkeuTxnfF02yxztEqw9_dvb9NbI1hVL-Uyd-EbQ/s1600/harare%20voice%20cover.png" width="177" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-highlight: white;">The UK
based Zimbabwean author, Andrew Chatora, has yet another new novel on the way!
This is the third novel in three years from the fast rising writer from Mutare.
It is called <i>Harare Voices and Beyond</i>.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">This story is based on the troubled lives of a white commercial farming family who dramatically
lose both their very active father and their farm in Mazowe to </span><i style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">jambanja</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">. The
term </span><i style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">jambanja</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"> is Shona for fast and sometimes dramatic activity. <i>Jambanja</i> became the other
term for the recent occupations of white farms in Zimbabwe.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-highlight: white;">After such a loss, the Williams drift reluctantly to their house in a posh northern suburb of Harare but soon inactivity and poverty set in. The
two white boys; </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;">Rhys and Julian Williams</span><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-highlight: white;"> start to drift away
physically and mentally. They go south of Robert Mugabe Way, into the traditionally poor black territory of Harare in search of survival, beer, dangerous drugs,
easy sex and other things. Meanwhile, their mother, Doris, becomes a sitting
duck. She floats mentally and the sudden fall of fortunes leaves her close to being
an invalid. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-highlight: white;">The
boys are gradually 'going native' as they become involved in spaces and activities
not usually associated with the well-heeled white masters of Zimbabwe since
occupation.</span><span lang="EN" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"> They are newcomers to a world of lack that they had only watched from a safe distance. There is always a
price to pay when one falls from privilege. In colonial discourse, </span><span style="color: #1d2228; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">the term “going native” means the white man is becoming one with the 'savages' or the natives, to the extent of eating what they
eat and eventually feeling as they do… </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">When
the worst comes, this family is caught up in a wave of loud misunderstandings
amongst themselves and in the subsequent melee, the mother and one of the boys
allegedly kill the younger of the boys by accident and in fear, they secretly bury his body in their home, until it is eventually discovered.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">This
is, to my knowledge, the first fully fledged novel by a black Zimbabwean
writer to look at the setbacks suffered by white folk during the Zimbabwe land
reform. Andrew Chatora searches delicately for the place and scope of the white
community in post independent Zimbabwe. Being
a pathfinder of sorts, many may find this novel either unsettling or satisfying, or both.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Many critical questions shall be
asked. How do you write white people effectively when you are a black writer
from Zimbabwe? Would that tantamount to speaking on behalf of the enemy? Would you be able to show that their loss is as a result of complex events within and
beyond Zimbabwe? The author’s real test was in tactically navigating this very contentious
terrain.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Chatora has chosen a subject that is
emotive and well followed across the world; the land reform of Zimbabwe. Was
the reform right? Was the land reform necessary? Was the process, right? Was Mugabe
right? Should Mugabe be bashed all the way for leading this land reform? What
should the white people have done to come out unscathed? Have we ever seen a
reform of a similar scale in all post independent Africa? How does jambanja
echo the earlier process of white occupation of black land a century earlier?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 5.0pt; margin: 5pt 0cm 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-highlight: white;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 5.0pt; margin: 5pt 0cm 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-highlight: white;">But<i> Harare
Voices and Beyond</i></span><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-highlight: white;"> does not disappoint.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">The fast track land reform phase brought
Zimbabwe into the international media, arguably much more than the liberation
struggle for Zimbabwe itself. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">In a widely circulated website interview with Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
of (February 2004), Zimbabwean writer and literary scholar, Robert Muponde, argues that ‘Land is
the text of Zimbabwean History and Literature.’ He is referring to the
centrality of Land in the earlier seminal Zimbabwean literature texts set in
Rhodesia. Some of them are <i>Waiting for
The Rain, Dew in the Morning and Without a Name.</i> In all these novels, land
is either an issue in the background or is a side show with varying degrees of
prominence.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">As I come to the end of Chatora’s novel, I recall that Robert
Muponde adds: “…the writer who a year ago was urging the politician to seize
land, even factories and shops belonging to white people (as suggested in
Mujajati's <i>Victory of 1993</i>), in the name of the people, now finds that
the politician has not only outdone the writer in shouting the presence of
inequalities in society. The politician has gone further. He has left the
writer with two stark choices: the writer must endorse the politician's and war
veteran's actions because that is what he (the writer) was urging in his poems
(in the case of musicians, in their songs), or he must condemn the actions as
reckless, etc.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-highlight: white;">As I think about that, I realise that perhaps, a big take away from this novel is the
author’s ability (which may surprise Muponde) to skillfully showcase and
dramatize to the reader that the land reform in Zimbabwe has its sharp and
irreconcilable contradictions.</span><span lang="EN" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"> There are many versions of the land reform story of Zimbabwe, depending on who is telling
which part of the broad story, where... and who is listening!</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">In many ways
this is a detective story narrated through Rhys and Marina, two prisoners at
the Chikurubi Prison as they recount their personal life stories which have
brought them to their present realities. They are a crucial link to the mafia
style underworld of Harare. In the dead of the night, Harare crawls with the
least expected liaisons between the rich and the poor, black and white and at
every corner, there is a surprise meeting between rivals. In this space you meet perverts, street people, hard core criminals, politicians, preachers, drug pushers...</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Chatora is now a
master at delicate subjects. In his first novel, he shows us the trials and
tribulations of a determined black teacher from Zimbabwe who tries to teach
English to white children in England. His second novel is about a native who</span><span style="background: white; color: #181818; font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"> leaves the periphery (Harare) for the
centre (England) due to economic reasons, but later returns to the periphery
(Harare) and returns to London once more! </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><i><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-highlight: white;">Harare
Voices and Beyond</span></i><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-highlight: white;"> is published by Chicago based Kharis Publishing – an
imprint of Kharis Media LLC and is released on 1<sup>st</sup> February 2023.
Copies will shortly available to order in digital, paperback and hardback
format from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books a Million, Walmart, Target
Christian books and other online book retailers.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">The
book adds on to Andrew Chatora’s growing stable of contemporary fiction/migrant
literature as it is a welcome addition to his cannon, two other books: </span><i style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Diaspora
Dreams</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"> and </span><i style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Where the Heart Is</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"> are also published by Kharis
Publishing and available from Amazon.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-highlight: white;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">+Preview
By Memory Chirere, University of Zimbabwe</span></p><p>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 14pt; text-align: justify;"> </span> </p>kwaChirerehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10306481741499309181noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6009925745240031301.post-70541118004952947222022-10-07T09:03:00.011-07:002022-10-09T09:44:01.524-07:00New book on Dendera music<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQwZNq21L1FNO-Y5bqJr0I9houT73o_UrCGXlzJnfj2poAv5w_6s0t1vbmxhDkCIV50otLa4bvwcJzqXqKxEi-r4sISbR6UFC1gRh2kGCIHaS_3es4EffQX9Vdt17_lBvBd5lvx_6GYAwY2zBuoAc2OqWJtFIDQqaNF4A1i69dvdUa0znmQtwCuIHRLA/s4032/dendera.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3016" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQwZNq21L1FNO-Y5bqJr0I9houT73o_UrCGXlzJnfj2poAv5w_6s0t1vbmxhDkCIV50otLa4bvwcJzqXqKxEi-r4sISbR6UFC1gRh2kGCIHaS_3es4EffQX9Vdt17_lBvBd5lvx_6GYAwY2zBuoAc2OqWJtFIDQqaNF4A1i69dvdUa0znmQtwCuIHRLA/s320/dendera.jpg" width="239" /></a></div><br /> <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Musambo WeDendera, by Biggie Chiranga</span></b><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Published by EssentialBooks
Publishing Co. Norton, Zimbabwe, 2022, pp105</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Isbn:
9781779209443 for copies phone: +263786626048</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">(A review by
Memory Chirere)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">This book is a
sweet little thing written in easy Shona. It does many crucial things that no other book on Zimbabwean music has ever done. Let me go gradually and haltingly
before I forget all the things that I want to say.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">This is the first complete book on the history of
Dendera music. It is elaborate; beginning with the brothers, Simon and Naison Chimbetu
down to the subsequent successor Dendera musicians. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">This book is a gift to those who are into the
history of music genres. You see here the interconnectedness of the Dendera music
genre with other music genres of Zimbabwe, making this one a book about both
our sad and happy days as a nation. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">This book is the first one to follow astutely the life
of a Zimbabwean musician; beginning with his parents in Tanzania, going into
how and why they left Tanzania down to all the sons and daughters they beget and
all the grandchildren who continue to come.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">This one is the first book to pursue individual Dendera
songs, slotting them into clear categories: Love songs, songs about death,
songs with bird motifs, songs with animal motifs, songs in Swahili, songs in
English, songs in Shona, songs in Ndebele.. on and on… This book is a bank of
sorts. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">This book goes into the functions and purpose of each
of Dendera guitars and how they relate with the lyrics. It also goes into
voices. The intricacies!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">This is the first book to list the number of awards
won by Dendera musicians starting with the founder, Simon Chimbetu to the
latter day Dendera chanters. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">This is the first book to carry all the pictures of
Dendera band leaders and those of their band members.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The technique used by the author is to show how his own life intertwines with Dendera music over the years. Through that he searches for the meaning of Dendera. You may say that
this book is Biggie Chiranga’s diary. Chiranga is a renowned Shona poet and
educationist who had opportunity to come very-very close to Simon Chimbetu.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">But this is not a perfect book. Not at all! It still
needs much closer and more active proof reading and a more edifying cover in its second edition. Some
of the photographs may need a total recast. There may be need to make an English
version of this book as a matter of urgency because this book has to reach a wider audience.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">This book answers many of the questions that you may
have had on Dendera music and other musical genres of Zimbabwe. I hope that you
can also see that I love Dendera music so much. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I wish we could have more other books like this one on
Zimbabwean musicians.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Shona version:</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Bhuku rino unotove mudyandakasungwa zvawo! Rakanyorwa neShona yakareruka ichitsvedzerera pakuverenga.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Bhuku rino rinoita zvinhu zvandisati ndaona zvichiitwa
nechero bhuku zvaro munhooroondo yose yemabhuku emuZimbabwe. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Regai ndidome zvishoma zvacho ndisati ndakanganwa.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Rino iri ndiro bhuku rekutanga kunyorwa pamusoro penhoroondo
yemusambo wemumhanzi <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>weDendera kubva paunotangira
naSimon naNaison Chimbetu kusvika pauri nhasi. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bhuku iri chipo chaicho kuvanhu vanoita
zvenhoroondo yemimhanzi. Unoona bhindepinde revanhu veDendera nevamwe vaimbi
vakawanda veZimbabwe, mukufara nemukusuwa.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Rino bhuku ndiro bhuku rekutanga kutevedza hupenyu
hwemhuri yemuimbi kubva kuna baba naamai vachiri kuTanzania kusvika kuvana,
kusvika kuvana vevana vavo- zvichingodaro... Unobva watoona kuti mhuri
yekwaChimbetu iri kubva apa ichienda apo, ichienda apo. Kunge rwizi rwuri
kuyerera…<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Rino ndiro bhuku rekutanga kutevera nziyo dzose dzemusambo
weDendera richidziisa muzvikwata. Dzerudo padzo, dzerufu padzo, dzine mhuka
neshiri padzo, dzehondo padzo, dzerurimi rweSwahili, Chirungu, Ndebele neShona
padzo…zvichingodaro zvichidaro. Kureva kuti bhuku rino ibhangi zvaro.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Bhuku rino rinopinda mumaimbirwo eDendera nehurongwa
hwemagitare acho. Ihochekoche.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Rino ndiro bhuku rekutanga kudonongodza mibairo yose
yakawanikwa nevaimbi veDendera kubva munguva yaSimon Chimbetu kusvika nhasi. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Ndiro bhuku rekutanga kutakura mifananidzo yevaimbi
vose veDendera zvose nemifananidzo yevanhu vavanoridza navo. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Bhuku rino rinoshandisa chidobi chokutipa nhoroondo
yokuti munyori Biggie Chiranga anosangana papi muhupenyu hwake nenziyo dzakasiyana
siyana dzeDendera, zvakare nziyo idzi dzinorevei kwaari. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Bhuku iri tingariti dhayari raiye Biggie Chiranga.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Hazvireve kuti bhuku iri harina mhosho dzaro. Pavachaita edition yepiri, ngapagadziriswe zviperengo nemavara akamheyama pano nepapo. Bhuku iri dai raiswa muchirungu kuti risvike nzvimbo dzakawanda.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Ukaverenga bhuku rino uchaona richipindura mibvunzo
yako mizhinji pamusoro pemumhanzi weDendera nemimwewo mimhanzi yeZimbabwe.
Ndinofunga kuti matoona kuti kana neni ndinoda musambo weDendera. Dai tikawana
mamwe mabhuku akadai pamusoro pemhanzi yemuZimbabwe.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Memory Chirere, University of Zimbabwe, 2022<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>kwaChirerehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10306481741499309181noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6009925745240031301.post-71382393411514635122022-09-30T13:10:00.008-07:002022-10-05T10:34:35.813-07:00The man who wrote Marechera's letter!<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgASlKsjTKxHzUzgtSrtRRZbzFzq8dUWiKTy-1lCYjlKweaU1MvBHCUxjrS8ohpEmXcbyn738M03NQ4qf5ByPNbcHd0Mn-KSQXYP-MYqpjd41J20X4nY4Z4Svi2K_pLXRxm81glajZG7PzYvfi7LZg1iFCriDdiuqCoG6k_7QaAZnh84xErosvrB-nazw/s220/austinkaluba.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="220" data-original-width="200" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgASlKsjTKxHzUzgtSrtRRZbzFzq8dUWiKTy-1lCYjlKweaU1MvBHCUxjrS8ohpEmXcbyn738M03NQ4qf5ByPNbcHd0Mn-KSQXYP-MYqpjd41J20X4nY4Z4Svi2K_pLXRxm81glajZG7PzYvfi7LZg1iFCriDdiuqCoG6k_7QaAZnh84xErosvrB-nazw/s1600/austinkaluba.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><br /> Austin Kaluba<p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The so called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dambudzo
Marechera’s letter to Samantha, </i>which has gone viral on many websites, was
not written by Marechera! It is actually a work of art by Zambian
writer, Austin Kaluba. Kaluba wrote it as </span><span style="background: white; color: #0f1419; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">part of a
2011 project in Marechera’s memory. That is the fact! Often you see it written
in many places that (the letter) was written by Marechera “</span><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">to his white ex-girlfriend, Samantha, after Marechera had
been expelled from Oxford University.” Many ordinary readers and scholars have
taken the bait.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><strong><span style="color: #444444; font-size: 14pt;">Austin Kaluba</span></strong><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> was
born in northern Zambia in 1966 and studied journalism at the prestigious
Africa Literature Centre in Kitwe-Zambia. He then joined the national newspaper
The Times of Zambia as a features writer. He studied creative writing at
different institutions in the UK. Kaluba’s poetry has appeared in the black UK
newspaper The Voice and his short stories have been published in magazines in
Europe.<span style="color: #666666; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">KwaChirere recently interviewed Austin Kaluba about the sensational letter.
We also replay the letter here just after the interview. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="color: #666666; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #444444;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">KwaChirere: Austin, is it true that you wrote the so called
Marechera’s letter to Samantha, Yes or No.</span><span style="color: #444444;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Kaluba: Yes, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">KwaChirere: When
did you write this letter exactly?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Kaluba: It was
in 2011 when I was living in Oxford in England. I did write the piece which is in
epistolary form. At that time I was living in Oxford where I was studying
Creative Writing at a Diploma level at Oxford University (Department for
continuing education). I was frequenting several pubs where Dambudzo used to
hang out when he lived in the university city. </span><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">The
pub is City Arms along Crowley Road.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> <span lang="EN-US">It is a real place. One old guy who knew Dambudzo likened my
character with that of the Zimbabwean writer. I used to hit the bottle quite
hard, was argumentative, anti-social and writing as my spirit dictated.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">KwaChirere: Why
and under what circumstances did you write the letter?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Kaluba:</span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: whitesmoke; color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 9pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Ivor Hartmann, a Zimbabwen writer,
came up with an idea of cerebrating Dambudzo's posthumous 59th birthday in 2011
and thought of putting together an ebook anthology entitled "Remembering Marechera,"
consisting of essays, reviews, short stories and poems to be published by
StoryTime Publishing. He invited submissions until the 6th of April 2011. If my
memory serves me well I think American-based Zimbabwean writer, Emmanuel
Sigauke,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>was to write some poetry while
another Zimbabwean writer, Tinashe Mushakavanhu, who had studied Marechera at
Phd level, was to do an essay. The Nigerian literary critic, Ikhide Ikheloa, offered
to do some reviews on the late writer while Ivor Hartmann was to do some short
Stories. The project was aborted and I thought of posting my piece online.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">KwaChirere: Do
you by any chance know how and why the letter went viral?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Kaluba: Not at
all. I was just surprised to read about the avalanche of positive response the
story generated in Zimbabwe and among Zimbabweans in the diaspora. Many
believed it was written by Dambudzo. The response even crossed to academicians
who thought the letter was written by Dambudzo himself. I had read works by the
late Zimbabwean writer and tried through extensive reading on his life to
understand his troubled upbringing in colonial Zimbabwe, his years in England
and his bohemian life-style that could have qualified him to be some kind of
black Oscar Wilde. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">KwaChirere: This
is very close imitation of what has been known as Marecherean language. Do you
write your own works using this kind of language?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Kaluba: Sure, I
identified with his anger and indignation at the corrupt world. I would say the
Dambudzo in the letter has some characteristics that are purely mine. I agree
with him at so many levels though I didn’t experience what he went through in life.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">KwaChirere: When
one looks at your letter, it comes close to real details in Marechera’s life,
his expulsion from Oxford, his having had relations with white girls, his constant
fear of being deportation back to Rhodesia etc. What is your comment?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Kaluba: Yeah, I
had to get it right by not leaving any detail that summed up the life of the
shamanic writer he was. His vulgar language and mistrust of any other person
who did not share his views about the crooked world had to be crammed into the
story. Dambudzo thrived on shocking people using sexual symbolism and other
unconventional ways of driving his point home. I had to get all this right. I
also ensured the story worked at two levels; Dambudzo representing Africa, explaining
himself to his white girlfriend who is representing Europe. In short the story
is about the damage Europe has done to its former colonies. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">KwaChirere: What
do you think you have achieved through this?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Kaluba: I though
writing about Dambudzo was daunting. I had to go out of my way by getting into
his character. I had to act like a method actor who sheds his self to enter
into the character he is depicting. The success of the story to me lies in the
reaction from people who knew Dambudzo personally and the other group that read
his works. If the two groups can see him in the letter, then that is an
achievement for me.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">KwaChirere: May
you please speak briefly about your own individual life and life as a writer.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Kaluba: I am an
introvert who is highly opinionated and bohemian. I write poetry, short stories
and do translations. One of my translations <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Frown
of the Great</i> in English was previously published as Pano Calo in ci-Bemba (the
commonest language in Zambia) It has been re-published in Zimbawe by Mwanaka
Media and Publishers as a bilingual collection. Tendai Mwanaka, the publisher
has published a number of my poems in his anthologies promoting African
languages. I am also working on a collection of short stories <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mensah’s London Blues and Other Stories,</i>
to be published in England. The collection has two stories with Zimbabwean
characters <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Dream Deferred</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Maria’s Vision</i>. The latter has been made
into a movie by </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Tendai
Mudhliwa, a UK-based Zimbabwean film maker. The movie stars Memory Savanhu and
a cast of UK-based Zimbabwean actors like Goodwin Ngulube, Lydia Nakwakilo, Ashley
Majaya, Belinda Majego and Kudzai Manyeku. <u>So</u> you see Memory, my love of
Zimbabwe has not ended with writing about Dambudzo but contributing a movie to
Zollywood.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I have also
translated John Bunyan’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pilgrims
Progress</i> into ci-Bemba.<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The letter itself below:<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Dear Samantha</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">I think by now you
have heard what happened when those hypocrites in administration chased me from
their white university giving me an option between being sectioned or expelled.
I chose the latter, a decision which shocked them out of their warped wits. I
have forgiven them because together with you they thought as an African student
from some remote Southern African country I was privileged for receiving
tertiary education at Oxford, a learning institution they have overrated as a
citadel of knowledge just like Cambridge or Harvard. It is
such academic mad houses that keep on churning out
arrogant, snobbish, hypocritical and pea-minded bastards who enter the world
with the superior airs of holier-than-thou, we and them attitude calling
themselves Doctors, Professors or any stupid titles to distance themselves from
other ordinary folks whom they look down on as dunces.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><b> <o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">These idiots have
done little in changing the world for a better place. If anything, they have
contributed in making it worse by joining their counterparts in the right-wing
maggoty camp influencing policies that worsen this Babylon called earth. They
wear gowns and mortar boards receiving degrees from pink-faced old blokes who
shake their hands and congratulate them for entering the world of knowledge.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><b> <o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">I am glad I never
graduated to attend the graduation ceremony which I find nauseating. If I had,
I vow I would have dressed in my blue jeans with a T-shirt or overall, just to
show how stupid the all fucking thing is.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><b> <o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">I had the same
experience at the University of Rhodesia which was normally attended by middle
class white boys when those white buffoons in administration kept telling us
black students how lucky we were to receive education at the institution of
higher learning.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><b> <o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">You always accused
me of being strange, eccentric, bohemian or even mad. I can assure you that I
am as sane as any bloke right-thinking people consider as being normal whatever
that means.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><b> <o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Do you remember the
night you took me out on Valentine’s Day or some other stupid celebration at
City Arms along Cowley road in Oxford and you kept on hanging on me and kissing
me like we were movie stars. You were hysterical that I was not returning your
love as you expected. I am always annoyed when a white person starts showering
too much love on me. I am less angry when you people are hostile against my
race or even blatantly racist to the extent of calling me Nigger, Kaffir or
even monkey. I wouldn’t fight back or take much offence as some blacks would
do. A white person fawning over me never fails to arouse sleeping demons in me
that are hypersensitive to hypocrisy which I have been encountering since my
childhood in Rusape shortly after my father died.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><b> <o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">I have had so much
of this sympathising from my school days at the mission school and university
back home when those hypocrites felt they were doing us a favour by civilising
our cursed lot. I am almost paranoid when it comes to racism masquerading as
colour blindness.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><b> <o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Remember how mad you
became when I even rubbished the idea of marriage as another form of societal
hypocrisy. I see no difference between marriage and fornication, whether one is
sanctioned by some holy man claiming to represent God, here on earth or two,
horny fools deciding to copulate in the back of a car, on top of an office
table or in some dark alley. Whenever I tried to explain to you things that
have shaped my life, my childhood problem of stuttering nearly came back
scaring the shit out of me.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><b> <o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">I have elected to
write you this letter long after we have parted just to explain some of my
views on life. I know I am anti-social, but I feel most people who readily
classify me to be equally anti-freedom of an individual or even mad. I live
outside their narrow and provincial world just as I consider them outsiders in
my world that is hinged on freedom of an individual.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><b> <o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">My physical and
mental insecurity that have dogged me since my father died have made me a
stranger in a world where hypocrisy, lying and dishonesty reign supreme making
anybody calling the perpetrators of these vices broods of vipers, an odd one
out or a dissident.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><b> <o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Since coming over
here, I have gone through several stages of identity crisis, self-hatred, self
re-examination, excessive Afro-optimism, excessive Afro-pessimism, reversal
racism, escapism and alienation. Maybe it is a manifestation of these
conflicting mental feelings which made the authorities think of sectioning me.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><b> <o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">After living rough
in Oxford where I pitched a tent near the Uni shortly after being expelled, I
am hanging a lot with my good Rasta friends in London. I am somehow in tune
with these rootless, ganja-smoking pseudo-ideologists. We agree on many issues
like the world being Babylon-the western influenced materialistic, oppressive,
manipulative, and capitalistic. There is too much ganja and reggae music which
I find soothing. I don’t however agree with some far-fetched ideologies of my
Rasta brothers of revering Haile Sellasie, that dictatorial midget in Ethiopia
as God. I also don’t agree with their excessive promotion of blackness which I
find hypocritical and escapist.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><b> <o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Samantha, they say
writers are show businessmen trying to interpret the world on paper unlike
their counterparts in music who use music. There are two musicians I find
interesting. It is Bob Marley and Jim Morrison. I connect with both of them in
my lifestyle and telepathically. Both were shamans who died young and only received
recognition when they were six feet under.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><b> <o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">I have a premonition
that I will die violently or young. I don’t care because I don’t feel I belong
to this world. I am like an Abiku child in Yoruba mythology, a spirit child who
is fated to a cycle of early death and rebirth to the same mother. Sometimes I
dream of living in another age where I was a griot who was burnt at a stake for
lambasting some tyrannical chief. At other times, I dream that I lived in
another era as a poet who was drowned by the chief’s henchmen for refusing to
apologise for an insulting poem he had read in a village arena against
injustice.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><b> <o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Do you remember how
Mrs Brown reacted when I wrote a short story on how I worked in a chief’s
palace as a pussy shaver shaving the pubic hair of the women in a harem? I
still remember the opening of the story. It read: ‘My job in chief Molokolo’s
palace, who, all along thought I had been castrated, was to shave the pubic
hair of his wives at the palace. The story ended with me bedding some of his
wives and paying the ultimate price of death. You remember how white Mrs Brown
turned when I read the story? She screamed that I was mad. Well, the morality
of the story is that many leaders in power think their subjects are blind to
their excesses in urinating on people’s rights. They think we are castrated
until we rise up and unmask their hypocrisy or demand for justice.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><b> <o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">I might go back to
Zimbabwe because I can’t continue living like a tramp. I have already seen the
inside of British Police cells twice or thrice. I have to finish the book I am
writing first. It is called House of Hunger. I have destroyed several
manuscripts of other books that I have attempted to write because I don’t feel
they capture the message I am trying to communicate.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><b> <o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">However, as a
citizen of the world, a polyglot, I feel going back home won’t calm the demons
in me that cry for a just society where the freedom of the individual is
paramount. What I am reading in the Papers on Zimbabwe seems to be miles away
from that ideal world which, both the repressive white regime of Smith or the
popular nationalist black government of Mugabe, are miles away in realising a
society I dream of.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><b> <o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Many African
societies which benefited from the wind of change in the sixties have already
failed to cut the umbilical cords of colonialism that connects them to their
former masters both economically and socially. Nationalism might even be a
guise of deep envy of the lives colonialists live. Many African leaders just
introduce follow-fashion-monkey societies that emulate the system they replace.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><b> <o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">You see Samantha,
this thing called colonial mentality eats at the core of your heart or soul
like a cancer. Many nationalists, and even academics, are both irredeemable
victims of colonialism whether consciously or unconsciously. They don’t realise
how entrenched the problem is in their makeup like DNA. They achieve what they
call independence ( from what?) and change flags and national anthems but fail
to establish new home-grown societies based on their cultures, values and
norms.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><b> <o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Many erroneously
think it is getting independence that is the most difficult stage in the
freedom attaining process. I feel to the contrary that what is difficult is
establishing a nation that is compatible with modernity. It is like having a
baby. Every fool who has a healthy dick can impregnant a woman with no
intention of having a baby. It is raising a baby that is the trickier part
since you have to nurture the baby to young adulthood.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><b> <o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">I know a number of
my African intellectual friends who reject everything European in favour of
everything African or black. These idiots need psychoanalysing by God himself
since this is an extreme manifestation of self-hatred highly masked as race
pride. Though I abhor most western things, I am equally nauseated by most
things African. The Nigger who sang Say It Loud, I am Black and Proud was in
actual sense saying Say It Fucking Loud, I am Black and Ashamed. Oh, yes isn’t
it Louis Armstrong, hailing from the same shabby background who honestly
complained in song that the colour of his skin was a sin?</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><b> <o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Apart from my name
Dambudzo, I don’t think Samantha you remember me revering Africanness or
blackness. Most whites are racists, including you and several so called
liberals, who shower us poor souls with love when they are consciously or
unconsciously pitying us for being black. As I said earlier Samantha, a white
person expressing excessive love for a black person is simply saying you are
also a human being which is worse than any racist insult.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><b> <o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">I remember my
English teachers both at St Augustine’s Mission School and the University of
Rhodesia praising me for getting good results by saying ‘well done Charles. You
are such a brilliant black boy’. A brilliant black boy? Fuck! I could have
killed those sons of bitches for not praising me because I was a brilliant
pupil, and not a brilliant black boy. I know you would argue, Samantha, that I
was being oversensitive, but what do you expect from someone whose race has
received numerous insults since blacks and whites came into contact?</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><b> <o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">That’s why even now
as I strive to establish myself as a writer, I don’t want the title to go with
the adjective ‘black writer’. Fuck even other demeaning terms like black,
Negro, coloured or African. A writer is just that, a fucking writer! Period.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><b> <o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Knowing how
condescending you are, just like many of your kind, you will quickly find a
word in your language to define me. Strange, bizarre, eccentric, bohemian,
unconventional, odd or even mad. It is your language. I wish I could describe
whites in Shona - that is deep Shona with idioms and proverbs that would elude
even the most educated white linguist in my language. However, I associate the
language with backwardness, provincialism and even the squalor.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><b> <o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">I might link up with
you when I come back to Oxford. Meanwhile, I am still squatting with several
friends.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><b> <o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Yours</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><b>Charles William
Tambudzai Dambudzo Marechera.</b></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>kwaChirerehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10306481741499309181noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6009925745240031301.post-38899978488288495112022-04-02T01:34:00.002-07:002022-04-02T01:41:28.463-07:00Ignatius Mabasa: Borrowing is not sowing...<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhImHs7Ofu27pcGAmO18z-jeYy_oDwPqwn_k3EOlULwctz-6nbVwOFRdcpDJH0nGOdZPUmYtC3YfEYkx2q6MoKb_JASKnPDJmPyFEh4hMzyoPgjtdyiyA3Y9_wr5IMT3RhjAwUCMP2eM-MbUDo8wV_vEQwcXU85uIhdfIty4cf-5iMx7OOFzKwUNFJlNA/s640/IgnatiusMabasaBeard.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="640" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhImHs7Ofu27pcGAmO18z-jeYy_oDwPqwn_k3EOlULwctz-6nbVwOFRdcpDJH0nGOdZPUmYtC3YfEYkx2q6MoKb_JASKnPDJmPyFEh4hMzyoPgjtdyiyA3Y9_wr5IMT3RhjAwUCMP2eM-MbUDo8wV_vEQwcXU85uIhdfIty4cf-5iMx7OOFzKwUNFJlNA/s320/IgnatiusMabasaBeard.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /> (Ignatius Mabasa)<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">In this wide-ranging
interview, </span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">multiple award-winning Zimbabwean journalist, editor, musician and scholar, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Moses Magadza</b> (MM), talks to </span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">celebrated Zimbabwean writer, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Ignatius
Mabasa</b> (IM), about many issues, including: Mabasa's iconic PhD; promoting the vernacular;
some of his books; religion and creative writing; the power of
storytelling; the infamous tiff between the late Les Enfant Terrible of
literature, Dambudzo Marechera and Aaron Chiundura Moyo, the current state of writing
and publishing in Zimbabwe; and being a musician.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">MM</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">: You are </span><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">the first Zimbabwean to write a PhD thesis on a subject
studied in English in your vernacular Shona at Rhodes University, South Africa.
What inspired this?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">IM</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">: There must be a first of something, right? The Shona PhD
thesis had to be a first. It had to be done. Zimbabwe got its independence in
1980. We are now a 40-year-old country but we still don’t value our languages.
I think it’s a scandal and a shame! <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">By looking down upon our languages, we are perpetuating the
cognitive domination that existed during colonialism where the colonised
depended on the coloniser’s concepts and categories to think about his own
reality. Then what is the value of political independence if we are looking at
the world through borrowed paradigms? At what point will we tell our own
stories - if we ever get to tell them - because we are forgetting them and
forgetting ourselves? Chinua Achebe says the story is our escort and without it
we are blind. There is a mental battle going on, unfortunately in this
ideological battle, most Africans are like the wolf that ate its own tail
thinking it had caught a very fat squirrel.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">MM</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">: This matter about your iconic PhD has gone viral on social
media across the world. How do you respond to people’s reaction to you – almost
like Ngugi WA Thiongo – doing a major work in your vernacular? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">IM</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">: My PhD written in Shona has shown me that there are a lot
of Africans out there who identify with the problem of being mentally colonised.
There is a strong desire to decolonise the mind. The challenge is that most key
institutions - like schools and universities, government departments in charge
of arts and culture, and the media - are unwilling to decolonise because the
decolonisation agenda is not appealing to the cocacolonised mind. We still think
wisdom speaks in English. We are proud when our children are articulate in
English yet look at us blankly when we talk to them in indigenous languages.
Our governments must understand the nexus between language and development. Borrowing
is not sowing.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">MM</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">: Your thesis is titled </span><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Chave Chemutengure
Vhiri Rengoro: Husarungano Nerwendo Rwengano Dzevashona"</i>. In English, the
title equates to "The folktale in confrontation with a changing world”. Please
say more about your topic and your thrust.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">IM</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">: </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Chemutengure</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> is a deceptively simple indigenous folksong composed
when the whites came into Zimbabwe with their many wagons. The song effectively
serves as art, media, theory, as well as a critique of capitalism and
colonialism. Unfortunately, as part of Africa’s heritage and indigenous
knowledge system, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Chemutengure</i> has
not been carefully studied in African schools and tertiary institutions
alongside other national narratives and symbols. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Chemutengure </span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">is “pedagogy of the oppressed,” and critiques the need
for Africans to pry, as Last Moyo (2020) puts it, “the grip of Eurocentric,
Western-centric, and monocultural universalism to a more progressive cultural
politics of a multicultural, inclusive, emancipatory theory and pedagogy.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Chemutengure</i> is an indigenous folksong
that was created to critique, to analyse, to document, to generate communal and
national dialogue – it means the so-called “primitive” indigenous people
without the aid of European education and knowledge could </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">make
sense of an observed reality and guide the collection and evaluation of
evidence</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Chemutengure</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> is a knowledge product that fights against what Walter
Mignolo described as the “inscribing </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">conceptualization of
knowledge to a geopolitical space (Western Europe) and erase(d) the possibility
of even thinking about a conceptualization and distribution of knowledge
‘‘emanating’’ from other local histories</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">MM</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">: What did you learn from writing your thesis?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">IM</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">: I learnt that it is okay to practice epistemic disobedience.
I discovered that our fear of the gatekeeping in academia is also a design in
the colonial system that stands in the way of intellectualising and theorising
in African languages. I thank open-minded academics like Professor Russell
Kaschula, one of my supervisors for the trailblazing work he is doing to
intellectualise African languages. But here in Zimbabwe we need an academic
revolution and even learn from our Chinese friends on how much they value and
use their languages for development.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">MM</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">: Did you do your thesis as a writer or a scholar and how
does the writer in you relate with the scholar in you - which is stronger?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">IM</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">: Initially I wanted to do a PhD in creative writing, because
I am a writer and a storyteller. When I applied to one of the universities in
South Africa that offers PhD studies in creative writing, they didn’t seem
interested in indigenous language creative writing. A Professor friend of mine,
Flora Veit-Wild, told me about auto ethnography. This is a way of doing
research about one’s culture, not as an outsider (the way anthropologists from
Europe used to study our cultures), but as an insider and active participant of
that culture. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Auto ethnography as a methodology is also a product that
demands very high levels of creative writing. I read a few articles on auto
ethnography and just loved it. I think it is what most of arts and culture
practitioners in former colonies should be doing in big numbers – because it
allows us to build our knowledge systems as well as to reflect and think
critically about processes that we consider ordinary. So, my thesis is a great
conversation between the writer and the scholar in me. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">MM</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">: You burst on the literary scene in 1994 with Shona poems in
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tipeiwo Dariro</i>. Could you reflect a
little on that first writing project?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">IM</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tipeiwo Dariro</i>
is actually one of my many poems that I wrote after being frustrated by lack of
publishing opportunities and being denied a voice as an aspiring young writer.
It is a plea for a space in a sphere that is dominated by established voices. I
had been writing poems and being published in magazines and literary journals –
and those poems published in the different publications were some type of
validation that I had what it takes to be considered a formally published
writer. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">It was after meeting
with Chirikure Chirikure on a radio show that I read some of my poems. I can’t
remember who else was there among budding writers, but after the radio show,
Chirikure, who besides being a poet himself was also working for College Press
Publishers as an editor, asked us to submit some poems to be considered for
publishing. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tipeiwo Dariro</i> was
published in 1993.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">MM</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">: You then published <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mapenzi</i>,
a novel. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How did this book impact the landscape
in Shona literature? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">IM</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mapenzi</i> was my
first novel. It was published in 1999. It was a result of a wonderful
opportunity I got to be taught the history of the Shona novel by the late
Professor Emmanuael Chiwome. Having been raised by my grandmother’s folktales,
and then discovering Shona novels when I was about eight years old – I got the
opportunity to see the trends of the development of the Shona novel including
how the early writers were influenced by oral literature. So, during the
lectures by Professor Chiwome, my colleagues were writing notes to pass the
exam, but for me as a budding writer, I had found a very rare opportunity to
get guidance on how to write a novel that avoided the many weaknesses found in
the Shona novel. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">So, you find that from the title <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Mapenzi”</i> you are confronted by an almost surreal world that at the
same time allows the reader to be tossed in a vortex of psychological debris.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The style is almost unlike anything one had
seen in a Shona novel – it is a fragmented story that is so sincere in how it
critiques society in post-independence Zimbabwe. The storyline is so many
things bedevilling an independent state. In a way the moral, political,
economic and social decadence in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mapenzi</i>
stinks to the core. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">So, I think <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mapenzi</i>
was a success because it ditched the narrative style that had become associated
with the Shona novel. The use of madness as a device to drive the story allows
for so many possibilities and even allows readers to feel safe in their own
madness.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">MM</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">: Some people have described your other novel, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ndafa Here?</i> as a feminist project? How
do you respond to this characterisation of the novel?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">IM</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">: It is very true. Actually, when I wrote <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ndafa Here?</i> I was very worried that I
was going to be attacked for trying to speak for women, yet I had to because I
was witnessing the cruellest and dehumanising things that were happening to two
women that I knew – and these things were being done by other women. Again,
like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mapenzi</i> – I think the success of
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ndafa Here?</i> comes from the way it
does not gloss over things that make other writers feel are too sensitive to
write.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Literature must speak the truth or shut up – especially when
it chooses to be advocacy literature like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ndafa
Here? </i>I met a woman in Harare who approached me and asked if I was Ignatius
Mabasa. I said yes – and she sighed and said something like: “Thank you for
writing the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ndafa Here?</i> story. It’s
my story – you were writing about me.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">She went on to tell me about how her mother-in-law and
sisters-in-law ganged up against her and caused her divorce. She ended up in
tears.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">MM</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">: You also wrote the novel <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Imbwa yemunhu</i>. Now that title! What was going on?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">IM: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Imbwa yemunhu</i> is a very spiritual and
experimental novel. It is the only Shona novel I know that takes place in locations
and settings that are spiritual. When you read the book, you will realise that
when we judge people we have no time to love them, but if we sincerely love
people, we give them medicine to heal. Musa, the protagonist is a “failure” in
life because he is running away from an old man with a pack of dogs who is only
visible to him. Musa gets labelled “a dog” because he is considered such a huge
failure who at 40 is failing to get married and settle down. When Musa finds
love, it is a married woman who is desperate to escape her marriage to a
homosexual husband. The novel seems to be asking, “Who is without sin? Let him
be the first to throw a stone!”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">MM</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Imbwa yemunhu</i> is
often called an antinovel. Talk a little about that.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">IM</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">: These are perceptions of critics and other learned people.
I am not sure why they would call it an antinovel. I know that the style is
different – the setting is crazy and the storyline very experimental. It brings
together visions, dreams, talking cockroaches, songs, poems and still allows
the reader moments to laugh. All I know is that of my four novels – <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Imbwa yemunhu</i> is very special to me. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">MM</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">: Your other works, including the latest novel <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ziso Rezongororo,</i> have often been called
extended Christian sermons. How do you respond to that?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">IM</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">: I guess I have always wanted to be a preacher. I am a lay
preacher, and I love the word of God. As you know, we carry ideologies of who
we are, where we live, what we love and read as well as the education we will
have received. I guess this is why my works have such a strong aroma of Christ.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: #2000;"> I consider creative writing as a gift to influence society and in line
with the biblical command that each one of us must use their gifts for the
benefit of others. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: #2000;">As you might know,
the experiences of an artist have a way of following him in his writings
whether consciously or unconsciously. My grandfather was a preacher and from
when I was eight years old I used to read the Bible to him because his sight
was failing. So besides being a child of my grandmother’s folktales, I loved
the stories that I encountered in the Bible. </span><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">MM</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">: You are a pious man. How do you juggle creative writing and
your religious life as a Christian?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">IM</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">: I am not sure why you are asking this question, but I guess
it could be to do with the belief that most people associate with artists –
that they are an unpredictable and weird lot who talk to themselves or argue
with their characters. Here I am thinking of Charles Mungoshi’s Garabha in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Waiting for the Rain</i>. As for me, I write
and create because God has given me the spirit to create, to teach, to
challenge, to disturb, to nudge and even be silly and cause comic relief. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I identify a lot with Exodus 31. </span><span class="text"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I guess this is why you can sense the aroma of
Christ in what I write and in my worldview. </span></span><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">MM</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">: You are also a story teller on stage and radio. What does
that achieve that the written book cannot?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">IM</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">: Storytelling in front of an audience is the real deal! In
the beginning was the word. Of course, when the Bible says this it is talking
about Jesus, but for us as a people, before the written word, God spoke and we
spoke too. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I started telling stories before I could read or write. My
grandmother told me stories that she heard from her mother and her grandmother.
All those were not written, but stored in their heads. Now here is the power of
the spoken story – it is alive and flexible. It is not fixed but it responds to
situations and circumstances. It changes as society changes and that can make
it very rich and relevant to the people of any given period of history. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I love live storytelling because I get to see the responses
from my listeners. It energises me as a storyteller and allows the spirit of
the story to envelope the teller and the audience. This is why stories
traditionally were told in a dimly lit hut after supper. They were a
performance that relied so much on tone and pitch of voice as well as body
movements. The atmosphere would just become alive. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I remember how after a story session we would be so afraid to
go to our sleeping quarters because the rustling leaves outside would make us
think that the rogue hyena had escaped from the story world into our real world!
Stories are better when told than when written.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">MM</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">: How does your work as a Shona novelist and a fabulist
relate with your work at the University of Zimbabwe where you teach in Media
studies?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">IM</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">: I teach digital storytelling, filmmaking,
photojournalism, global media industries among other courses. All these are
ways of storytelling. The only difference is that they are visual. So, I am
very much at home and I am even challenged to explore new ways of storytelling
– especially transmedia storytelling.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">MM</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">: How do you think your philosophy of life has been captured
in your work so far?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">IM</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">: This is a difficult question. It has not been much about my
philosophy as an individual, but about who we are as a people because none of
us is as good as all of us. We need to see how our God-given values as Africans
have been captured by capitalism such that we have become shallow in our relationships,
in our languages and our thinking. But that is not who we are. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Munhu haasi muzvinhu, asi ari muvanhu
nehunhu</i>. No matter how well we speak English or bleach our skins, we will
never become white people. And if you look at it, you will see that the West is
now sick and tired of itself and they want us to be like them. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">MM</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">: More recently, you wrote an essay about the tiff between
writers the late Dambudzo Marechera and Aaron Chiundura Moyo in the early 1980s
as regards the place of Shona language in literature. What is the major thrust
of your argument on the issue between Chiundura and Marechera?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">IM</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">: </span><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">As a
Shona language author and advocate I didn’t take lightly the contempt expressed
by Dambudzo Marechera for the Shona language and its writers. Marechera is
alleged to have dismissed Shona author Aaron Chiundura Moyo on two separate
occasions, saying, “Aaron <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">munyori</i>, he
is not a writer.” Like I pointed out in my essay published by Brittle Paper, through
the statement, Marechera was condescending and promoting the philosophy of
imperialists who took English to be superior to the “native,” his being,
language and culture. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Marechera scholars have argued that his statement was banter.
I argue that treating Marechera’s utterances as banter demonstrates how
effective Marechera is in exploiting cultural practices such as jokes,
drunkenness, “eccentric antics” and postmodern deniability as platforms for
distinguishing himself from the “village” other. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">In Marechera’s fight for recognition and relevance, the local
is inferior and the global superior. Marechera used the English language as a
hegemonic tool to shut out narratives by the muted subaltern and remove their
dignity and confidence, while also expecting cultural affirmation from them.
There is no doubt that Marechera was a genius, but he mobilized the same
qualities to become an agent for the exclusion of the Shona language and its
knowledge systems.</span><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">MM</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">: What have been the turning points in your life as an
artist? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">IM</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">: Having my novel <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mapenzi</i>
selected by the Zimbabwe International Book Fair as one of Zimbabwe’s best 75
books of the century. Being awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to teach in the USA
in 1999. Being invited by the San Francisco International Poetry Festival to go
to America to read my Shona poems in 2009. Being appointed by the University of
Manitoba as writer and storyteller in residence in 2010. Sharing a NAMA award
with Charles Mungoshi for the best creative work for my novel <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Imbwa yemunhu</i> in 2014. Having my fourth
novel <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ziso rezongororo</i> published by
Oxford University Press who coincidentally published the very first Shona novel
by Solomon Mutswairo titled <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Feso</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">MM</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">: What is the current state of writing and publishing in
Zimbabwe?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">IM</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">: The writing is getting better and going international – see
the likes of Tsitsi Dangarembga, Petina Gapah, Tendai Huchu, Novuyo RosaTshuma,
NoViolet Bulawayo and others. However, domestically the publishing is getting
weaker and weaker. We have lost the ground gained after independence. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">We have seen local publishing houses close or scale down
operations. Zimbabwe Publishing House, Baobab Books, The Literature Bureau are
dead. While Mambo Press is still there, it is no longer as vibrant as it used
to be. The Zimbabwe International Book Fair too is on its knees. The Budding
Writers Association of Zimbabwe which played a key role in mentoring and
developing writers also died. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">We have efforts to support budding writers by the Writers
International Network, but it needs organised support from those ministries
charged with arts and culture. A nation that does not invest in telling its own
stories will soon become colonised because cultural productions are not just a
type of ideology, but hegemony as well. Besides de-colonisation, we need to
have a de-westernisation project at a national level.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">MM</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">: You are also a musician. What inspires you and what have
you achieved in this regard? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">IM</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">: I am a poet who loves to blend poetry with music. I have
named my poetry with music – gospoetry because it is gospel poetry with music. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have done three albums – the first two were
with Ngaavongwe Records and the third one I did independently. I see poetry
served with music as a beautiful and enjoyable way of communicating. I have
received good airplay on radio and I have people who still treasure the poems
up to today – especially the song “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Yadhakwa
nyika</i>” that I did with my friend Albert Nyathi.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">+the end<o:p></o:p></span></p>kwaChirerehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10306481741499309181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6009925745240031301.post-82505649059256398942022-02-02T00:02:00.007-08:002022-02-03T02:14:12.019-08:00Batsirai Chigama's alternative man! <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ngisKw6trZs/Yfo6OyjlStI/AAAAAAAACGQ/164OZ_LHjq0Qgqd1lt68ZMA7aL2AhkKFQCNcBGAsYHQ/s526/BatsiBk271183560_10159807530343530_5870580352635117974_n.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="526" data-original-width="526" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ngisKw6trZs/Yfo6OyjlStI/AAAAAAAACGQ/164OZ_LHjq0Qgqd1lt68ZMA7aL2AhkKFQCNcBGAsYHQ/w320-h320/BatsiBk271183560_10159807530343530_5870580352635117974_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Title: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">For Women
Trying To Breathe and Failing</i><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">By <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Batsirai Chigama</b>,
Ntombekhaya, Harare: 2021, 132 pages<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Isbn: 978-177925-791-8<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">There are many ways of writing protest poetry. One of
them is for the poet to take on that which she abhors, head on. The poet could
settle on subjects like politics and violence and get to their roots, sampling
their DNA, pointing out the perpetrators themselves etc etc. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The poet could also lambast the way men ill-treat
women in general. She could even write against the usual clobbering of women by
men for no particular reason. The poet could go round and round until the page
is wet. Or, she could grieve all the way, burning a hole that runs from cover
to cover.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The poet could then breath in and out, take a walk or
make a quick cup of tea for herself. Or, she could just rest and settle like
fog upon the earth.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">But in this her new book called <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">For Women Trying to Breathe and
Failing</i></b>, Batsirai Chigama has, for me, one very special section called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">How Love Should Be</i>. In that section,
Chigama chooses to protest against man’s abuse of women by actually giving us
the alternative man. This is a rare feat! Here is a man that the women would
prefer… <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">In school we used to call that the control experiment!
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">When a male reader goes through that section, he may
definitely come face to face with what he could have been when the world was
fresh and the hills were still soft. It is like coming home in the middle of a
rainy night to find your better version sleeping in your very bed! When that
happens, and you are able to control your nerves, you may see what you could
have been and not the brute that you have become. We tend to come into the
world too late or too early to be sane.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">In one of those poems by Chigama, a woman gazes at a
man and thinks, “of all the places (that) I could live, your heart is the
paradise I choose.” In another, a woman refers to her man as “a best seller to
me” and more specifically, “babe I would carry you around in the duffel bag of
my heart, flip through you, slowly grasp(ing) every single word profound…” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Then she describes an imaginary good, lovely and well
behaved man with:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“There are some rooms in your palms<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Where I feel I belong<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Quiet<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Calm<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Steady<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Warm<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Full of you.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">These are the kind of men’s palms that women look for
everywhere without finding. Those palms with rooms! But that is only the
beginning because in yet another poem, the title poem to this section itself,
the poet writes about her man’s “gentle softness” and her man’s “dewy kindness
that drips each time you look at me and hold me strong in the embrace of each
syllable.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">And the man is so good that the woman even admits her
own faults, “I am a mess I know, yet the way each vowel curves in your iris is
the magnet that centres my universe.” And that electric section of poems continues
unabated. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">In another piece, a joyful woman reads a book of poems
by the window as her caring man wears the apron to prepare a toast for her,
roasting a chicken drumstick for her and the sad part is that the man does it
that only on Sundays. If he could do it more regularly, the better!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Here you find a man who knows how to spell love even
in his sleep. There is also talk about “a man who smiled with his eyes,”
causing a woman bloom like a flower in season. That is not even enough because
in yet another poem, “ a woman meets her former lover (so that she is able) to
touch the wrinkles on his body and realizes that she still loves him even more than
before and that it was really “stupid (hat they had) let each other go the way
we did.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Then there is a section called For Women Who Forget To
Breathe While Alive, which has poems about how women’s woes affect their
private and bodily lives. There are also sections about women failing to
survive and another more reassuring section about “women finding their feet.”
There is also a section that carries “the random thoughts of a woman sojourner.”
Maybe these are about the poet’s feelings at all the different spaces she has
visited (at home and abroad.) <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">And yes, this collection has sections about politics,
particularly our turbulent politics and how much we have developed wounds that
run deep. Zimbabwe of the recent times goes under appraisal.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">This is Batsirai Chigama, unplugged. With this her
second collection after Gather The Children, which won the NAMA award 2019, this
poet decided to come out more flaming and establishing her identity as a poet
about raw feelings and the troubled internal landscapes as experienced by woman
and country. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Very ably edited by fellow poet, Ethel Kabwato, with
designs by Chiratidzo Chiweshe-Sauro, this book will find a place in Zimbabwean
poetry alongside firebrand poets like Freedom Nyamubaya, Eve Nyemba, Primrose Dzenga,
Hope Masike and others.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><b>+ Book review by Memory Chirere, Harare.</b><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>kwaChirerehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10306481741499309181noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6009925745240031301.post-53055098503347652012021-11-08T21:17:00.008-08:002021-11-08T21:59:17.329-08:00KwaChirere previews Andrew Chatora's Where the Heart Is<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QMMzlrxhC9A/YYoEH32UHfI/AAAAAAAACEE/mP3xKMhUkJoUdjCFuU6kr_QFKLrRl8RIgCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/Where%2Bthe%2BHeart%2BIs%2BFinal%2BBook%2BCover%2B%25281%2529.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1356" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QMMzlrxhC9A/YYoEH32UHfI/AAAAAAAACEE/mP3xKMhUkJoUdjCFuU6kr_QFKLrRl8RIgCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Where%2Bthe%2BHeart%2BIs%2BFinal%2BBook%2BCover%2B%25281%2529.jpg" width="212" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">A preview by Memory
Chirere</span></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">It is not every day that one previews a work of
fiction. The fast-rising UK based Zimbabwean writer, Andrew Chatora, has a
second novel in the wings. It is set to be released soon on November 30, 2021 by his
US based Publishers: Kharis Publishing. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The forthcoming <i>Where
the Heart Is</i> could be, partly ‘a novel of ideas.’ </span><span style="background: white; color: #181818; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">A 'novel of ideas' is a novel whose story
expounds and explores a particular philosophical perspective on the world. </span><span style="background: white; color: #282829; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The idea is as important to the book as plot,
character, and setting.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Chatora’s </span><span style="background: white; color: #181818; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">story clearly expounds on and explores a particular debate
which may not have been fully explored by many novels from Zimbabwe. For
instance; when the native leaves the periphery (Harare) for the centre
(England) due to economic reasons, does it make sense for him to want to return
to the periphery once more? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #181818; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">If he does return, is this homecoming or second coming, really
possible? Are people really able to fully return to their source without
sparking contradictions? The man who returns, why does he return at all? Or, to
what does he return? You may go back to the source physically but is it viable
economically, spiritually and socially?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #181818; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Chatora’s native returns from the centre (London) to the
periphery (Harare) intending to stay for good but returns to the centre in a huff! When a man goes
and returns and goes away again, what do we call him? Is such a native confused
or he is merely confusing the observer? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #181818; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Where is his heart? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #181818; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">But there are some in our midst who may say, wait a minute,
even if going back to one’s country from the diaspora is difficult, could it be
viewed as an entirely wrong thing to do, if one wants to? Which one is one’s
country?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #181818; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Well, Fari Mupawaenda tries to return to good old Harare from
England and through him, the novel sparks a storm.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #181818; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">When it finally hits the market, <i>Where the Heart Is,</i> is going to be one of the very few novels by a
Zimbabwean that fully imagines the joys and hazards of a physical return home
from the diaspora. Olley Maruma tries it with his text <i>Coming Home (2008),</i> but I think his main character does not leave
behind any stake in the UK. His is the return of a post pubertal man. He also
does not leave for the UK once more. Stanley Nyamfukudza tries it with <i>Aftermaths (1983),</i> but he is only
working on the matter in one short story from a whole collection. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #181818; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The diaspora-based literature by Zimbabwean writers rarely
thinks about this crucial reverse trip and its subsequent rich psychology. It
is often assumed that it is easy to return because one was born here, anyway. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #181818; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Yet, as dramatized here by Chatora, the reverse trip is also
a story about the human body, a memory test and the struggle between geography
and anticipation. During this reverse trip, the traveller is actually carrying
heavier and multivarious cargo than during the first outward trip. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #181818; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">In Fari’s case, part of his crucial cargo has actually
remained behind in the UK. His wife, a zealous cosmopolitan, the daughter, a
conflicted bed hopping undergraduate and the son; a budding homosexual, will
not follow Fari in his trip to what they see as the back of beyond. They have
decided to invest fully where they are.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #181818; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Fari is convinced that whatever he achieves in the diaspora
should only make adequate sense only if one returns to the source. He
constantly judges people and things around him from the point of view of a
country that he has long left behind. And yet he has changed. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #181818; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I enjoy the underlying suggestion that Fari is both right and
wrong in trying to return. That is the strongest lesson that I took away from
this novel. If you return you are damned. If you don’t return, you are damned
too! <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #181818; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I also want to call <i>Where
the Heart Is</i>, a ‘thinker’s novel’ because you can never read it and not
re-examining issues like culture, distance, centre, periphery, family, love,
sex, marriage etc . <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Just like what we witnessed with Chatora’s first
novel, <i>Diaspora Dreams,</i> the latest
novel will surely throw the readers into irreconcilable camps because the men
and women in this story are not always sharing the same ideological pedestal. The
women are vehement and their criticism of their men is close to the bone.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">And the men, too, are not always agreeing with one
another. The silent competition is an act of attrition. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #181818; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #181818; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The author also uses sexual intercourse as an extra language
of unity and disunity, and this will set tongues wagging.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #181818; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">As in Pepetela’s <i>Mayombe
(1979)</i>, Charles Mungoshi’s <i>Kunyarara
Hakusi Kutaura? (1983), </i>Ignatius
Mabasa’s <i>Mapenzi (1999)</i> etc the
characters in Chatora’s latest offering come out very clearly individualised. They speak from a very private angle. Each
of them has a distinct signature . <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="background: white; color: #181818; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Where the Heart Is,</span></i><span style="background: white; color: #181818; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> is Andrew Chatora’s second novel after <i>Diaspora Dreams</i> which was published by
Kharis Publishing in the US. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #181818; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">It’s now available to pre-order on Amazon’s url link below:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #181818; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Where-Heart-Andrew-Chatora/dp/1637460848/ref=sr_1_1?crid=RUCJ071FZ6NQ&keywords=where+the+heart+is+andrew+chatora&qid=1636276312&sprefix=where+the+heart+is+andrew+chatora%2Caps%2C63&sr=8-1">https://www.amazon.co.uk/Where-Heart-Andrew-Chatora/dp/1637460848/ref=sr_1_1?crid=RUCJ071FZ6NQ&keywords=where+the+heart+is+andrew+chatora&qid=1636276312&sprefix=where+the+heart+is+andrew+chatora%2Caps%2C63&sr=8-1</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #181818; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">In Harare, copies will be sold by Book Fantasticks
Booksellers reachable on:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #181818; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Brian: +263 77 921 0403 <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #181818; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Kudzi + 263 715 072 288<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #10317d; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Email:</span></b><span style="color: #10317d; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
<span style="background: white;">fantasticbooks.21st@gmail.com</span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #10317d; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #181818; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="https://bookfantastics.co.zw/">https://bookfantastics.co.zw/</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #181818; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #181818; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #181818; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> </span></p><p>
</p>kwaChirerehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10306481741499309181noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6009925745240031301.post-32420023819457383942021-09-09T07:53:00.003-07:002021-09-09T07:57:59.551-07:00KwaChirere reads Thomas Bvuma's new Historical novel<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ujzJSmfWINY/YTofulUVHeI/AAAAAAAACDE/UcR60BeKSSwrW9OaLbKT1_xHuGdhQKUEwCLcBGAsYHQ/s500/Chosen%2BGeneration51B3xsbImTS.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="329" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ujzJSmfWINY/YTofulUVHeI/AAAAAAAACDE/UcR60BeKSSwrW9OaLbKT1_xHuGdhQKUEwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Chosen%2BGeneration51B3xsbImTS.jpg" width="211" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“The Chosen Generation” a historical novel by Thomas
Sukutai Bvuma<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Independently published in 2021, 207 pages, isbn:
9798585091247<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">(Reviewed<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>by
Memory Chirere) <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Young Masara Musamba of Sakubva, Umtali, Rhodesia, is
involved in the war of liberation that gave birth to Zimbabwe as a ZANLA
fighter. This is his story told under his war name; Nyika Yababa, or simply
Yababa. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">He quickly joins the war after beating up his white
boss who had beaten him for a flimsy reason at a fruit canning factory where the boy is working temporarily while waiting to go and enroll at the prestigious University of Rhodesia. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">It is a serious crime in Rhodesia for a black man to
beat up a white man, for whatever reason. You would rather run before the police catches you. So
Masara abandons his job, his pay and his very beautiful girl friend, Wadiwa and
rashly clambers up the mountains on the western side of Umtali, crossing the border
to join the guerrillas across in Mozambique by first getting to Chibawawa
refugee camp in September 1976.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Masara had met some ZANLA guerilla before in his own
Mutambara communal lands and had always had a romantic view of the war of
liberation and the guerrillas. He had always hoped to join the liberators one
day. This historical novel is renowned Zimbabwen poet, Thomas Bvuma’s first long
prose offering.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">But who is Thomas Sukutai Bvuma in Zimbabwean
Literature? Initially, </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">using the pen-name Carlos Chombo, Thomas Bvuma wrote the well known poem,
“Real Poetry” at the height of the war in the late 1970’s. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">“Real Poetry”
eventually got more “visible” publication in the Zimunya-Kadhani edited post
war collection called And NOW the Poets Speak (1981). Musaemura Zimunya and
Mudereri Kadhani set out to bring together poems which reflected on the
Zimbabwe revolution then. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Bvuma’s “Real
Poetry” defines struggle as people’s real poetry. Very reminiscent in content
and form to Jorge Rebelo’s poem called “Poem,” “Real Poetry” quickly became a
classic of sorts. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Zimunya and Kadhani
could not “resist using (the poem) as a choric prelude to this selection.” They
wrote somewhere that they also “found (in this poem) the power of the
intellect, control of rhythm and style well combined and married to idea,
action and reaction” and that through it, one recalls the more prominent
Angolan war poet, Agostinho Neto himself.” Zimunya nad Kadhani also used a
section of the poem on the blurb of the cream coloured And Now The poets as the
theme poem and the poem <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>went viral. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Thomas Bvuma, like
Alexander Kanengoni and Freedom Nyamubaya, wrote poems at the war front in
between battles either as a pastime or a means to reflect on the war he was
participating in. He is still writing and publishing poetry long after the war
of liberation and some of his key pieces constantly jog one’s mind. More of
Thomas Bvuma’s poems were later published in Every Stone That Turns (1999)
almost two decades later! They are arranged in a way that sets out to capture
the changing times from war to independence.<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[endif]--></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">But his latest work, the historical novel called The
Chosen Generation, appears to give the more elaborate materials that inform the
turmoil and thought that one finds in the poem “Real Poem” and the collection
of poems called “Every Stone that Turns.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">This novel fits in and tucks in real critical
geographical and historical factors that have been glossed over by many writers
of Zimbabwean war fiction and even those in war history..<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<h1 style="background: white; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; font-weight: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Through this novel, places critical for training and
refugees like Chimoio, including its attack by Rhodesians on 23 November 1977,
Chibawawa, Tembwe and others are brought to life from the point of view of a
recruit and soon to be a trained cadre. There are no sacred cows in this
narrative.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></h1>
<h1 style="background: white; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; font-weight: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">As you read this novel, you are forced to compare and
contrast it with such iconic works such as Chinodya’s Harvest of Thorns,
Kanengoni’s Echoing Silences, Mazorodze’s Silent Journeys From the East,
Mutambara’s The Rebel in Me and Miles Tendi’s </span><span style="color: #0f1111; font-size: 14pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The Army and
Politics in Zimbabwe: Mujuru, the Liberation Fighter and Kingmaker.<o:p></o:p></span></h1>
<h1 style="background: white; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #0f1111; font-size: 14pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The story is written from a rather laid back point of view of an ex combatant
now sitting in his house in poverty stricken post war Chitungwiza township of
the economically tumultuous 2008. He is for searching his place in all the
tricky things that have happened and sometimes he thinks that his generation is
not chosen but cursed. But he insists that he wants to judge them fairly. <o:p></o:p></span></h1>
<h1 style="background: white; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #0f1111; font-size: 14pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The narratives moves gradually, with ease, finding facts and fallacies, even
fitting the 1970’s within the context of the world’s rebellious youths of the
hippies, rock music and many other things. The story takes you to places and
decisions made outside Rhodesia and the war front. The war in Rhodesia is part
of world events and that is the strongest theory propounded by this book.<o:p></o:p></span></h1>
<h1 style="background: white; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #0f1111; font-size: 14pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">In chapters 10 to 13, which are very critical, the writer recreates
Chimoi as it was in the context of the war against Ian Smith. He goes for
geographic space within historic and social context. You begin to read into the
détente period, Zanla conscription methods as from 1976, the rise and fall of
the Vashandi ideology, love affairs, betrayals, Zipa, Zanla-Zipra relations, the
battle of Mavhonde, Tongogara, Herbert Chitepo, Robert Mugabe, Rex Nhongo and
the attacks and counter attacks between and amongst people and systems.<o:p></o:p></span></h1>
<h1 style="background: white; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #0f1111; font-size: 14pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">This book is a must read for all people with a genuine interest in the emerging
perspectives on Zimbabwe’s difficult war of Independence and how much it is a
prelude to what took place within zimbabwe soon after. <o:p></o:p></span></h1>
<h1 style="background: white; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #0f1111; font-size: 21pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p> </o:p></span></h1>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>kwaChirerehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10306481741499309181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6009925745240031301.post-72167152878879193842021-06-25T02:01:00.000-07:002021-06-25T02:01:12.693-07:00KwaChirere reads Ignatius Mabasa's 4th novel, Ziso Rezongororo<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DQeO-2fgtNg/YNWZ6wBjsXI/AAAAAAAACBc/1MZbC4n8AugbJjxDpz2SEj2NxnT1OPhAwCLcBGAsYHQ/s225/Zisoziso.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="225" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DQeO-2fgtNg/YNWZ6wBjsXI/AAAAAAAACBc/1MZbC4n8AugbJjxDpz2SEj2NxnT1OPhAwCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/Zisoziso.jpg" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><b><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Ziso ReZongororo, a novel by
Ignatius Mabasa<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><b><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Published by Oxford
University Press, 2021, Cape Town.<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><b><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Isbn:978 0 19 072177 0.</span></i></b><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">A Review by Memory Chirere<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Ziso Rezongororo, which translates to; the eye of a millipede,
is the most recent Shona novel by the inimitable Zimbabwean writer, Ignatius
Mabasa. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">These are Shemhu’s very-very delicate recollections of
his very turbulent boyhood. Shemhu, the dramatic name, is equivalent to shame in
English. That name worries the boy immensely as he refers to it as ‘zita
rinorwadza.’ He wonders if his parents were ashamed to have a baby boy or; they
were having a go at all the people who, for some reason, had declared that they
would never have a baby.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The boy’s insensitive teacher would look at Shemhu in
class and say, “Shame on you, Shame.” The boy would cringe.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Shemhu’s parents divorce when he is just a boy of five.
On the day his mother leaves the homestead, somebody very sympathetic asks Shemhu
to go pick some cucumbers from the fields, and when he comes back, his mother
is gone and gone forever!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The boy hopes his mother has gone away on an ordinary
visit. He waits for days on end and his spirit crumbles. When she does not
return, that is when the boy learns about the terrible word ‘divorce’ for the
first time.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Years later, Shemhu writes a letter to his mother but neither
does he know her address nor affords an envelope and a stamp. The letter
eventually rots in his back pocket. Part of the letter goes: Amai, muri kupi?
Muri kuitei ikoko? Muchadzoka here? Muchiri kundida here kana kuti
mandikanganwa? Mufunge zvenyu amai, ndakatukwa ndichinzi uri mwana wenyoka.”
Something like; mother where are you? What are you up to? When are you coming
back? Do you still love me? Mother, they say that I am the young one of a snake…<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Every child appears as innocent and seemingly as blind
as the millipede; zongororo. But the millipede is to be seen going everywhere,
feeling its way up and around objects, almost blind but sensitive. For Ignatius
Mabasa, the mind of a child is like that, questioning, active, indefatigable
and overly sensitive. That is Shemhu’s condition.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">As he gropes on after his parents’ divorce, Shemhu
goes on an intense mental search. Many people don’t know how it feels for a boy
to try to work out why his parents can no longer be together. That is the forte
of this novel.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Shemhu asks Dhanyere (an older nephew whose parents are
also divorced) about the meaning of divorce and all he says to Shemhu is, “It (divorce)
is something close to what happens when a cow is forcing its calf to stop
suckling when the calf still desperately needs to suckle…, the cow running away
from the poor calf and sometimes having to kick the poor calf in the face..”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The boy, Dhanyere, works out that divorce is not
mutual; the cow wants the suckling to stop but the calf wants to continue…Your
mother is gone, the people eventually tell Shemhu. But Shemhu wonders why he
was not consulted before the so called divorce!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Immediately, Shemhu’s father gets married to a new
woman. Shemhu fails to relate with the new woman. He also loses touch with his
father. You come face to face with what a child feels to see his dear father
being suddenly tender to a new woman who is not the boy’s mother! <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Eventually, Shemhu’s father dies too and the boy is
adopted by his father’s brother who transplants Shemhu from the village to the
city. Sadly, Shemhu’s uncle takes the boy home with no prior arrangement with
his wife, maiguru, in the city. When uncle gets to his Highfields house with
Shemhu there is a huge row between him and maiguru.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The well fed and stubborn woman complaints loudly that
she will not tolerate God forsaken strangers from the village into her home
just like that: Zvekuunzirwa tuvanhu twune mazino anenge embeva, twusingagezi
ndizvo zvandisingade” The frightened boy waits outside the house as he hears his
uncle plead with his wife until he is grudgingly accepted. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">You tremble with the book in your hands.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">For me, the tense relationship between Shemhu and maiguru
is, most probably, the worst person to person relationships that I have
encountered in all Zimbabwean literature. Shemhu says, “maiguru vaindibata
sebepa rafuriswa madzihwa rinofanira kuraswa,” meaning; maiguru treated me like
used tissue paper that needs to be thrown away.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Shemhu is very dark in complexion. He is generally
darker than all the people around him and he suffers from a kind of racial
segregation in the extended family. Maiguru tells Shemhu that he is just too dark
and scary to look at: “Shemhu, unotyisa unozviziva! Maziso ako matsvuku ayo,
neganda rako dema iro zvinoita kuti uite kunge munhu wemashave. Chakachena
chete pauri mazino.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">At some point, maiguru tells her son, Simbai that
Shemhu is a monster! “Simbai, tiza! Hokoyo naShemhu uyo!” afterwards she bursts
into uncontrollable fits laughter. She also says words like, “Shemhu uri firimu
chaiyo. Uri Chituta chine kirimu!” meaning the boy is as amazing as a film star
and is prince of all idiots.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">One day, when maiguru is miffed that Shemhu is taking
too long in the bathroom, she bursts into the little room and starts to relieve
herself in full view of the stunned boy who is still bathing! </span><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-highlight: white;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-highlight: white;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-highlight: white;">This
is a story that will make you cry. This is a story that will make you laugh.
This story will change your relationship with children and young people. You
will be happy to know that this story has no sad ending and that Shemhu’s
relationship with maiguru ends well.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-highlight: white;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-highlight: white;">Ziso
ReZongororo has been prescribed by Zimsec for A level Shona exams from 2021 to
2023. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-highlight: white;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">It is not difficult to see why Ignatius
Tirivangani Mabasa is considered one of the leading writers of his generation
in Zimbabwe. He is also a storyteller, and musician, who writes mainly in
Shona. He was born in Mount Darwin and grew up on his grandfather's farm there.
Mabasa is the first Zimbabwean to write a PhD thesis in Shona at Rhodes
University, South Africa</span>. <span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Mabasa's
debut novel, the satirical </span><i style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">Mapenzi</i><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"> (Fools), won first prize in the Zimbabwe
Book Publishers’ Association Awards in 2000.</span> His second novel, <i style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">Ndafa Here?</i><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"> (Am I Dead?) won the 2009 </span> (NAMA)
Outstanding Fiction Book as did his novel, <i style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">Imbwa yemunhu</i><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"> (You Dog) in 2014.</span> He lectures in Media
and Journalism studies at the University of Zimbabwe.<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-highlight: white;"> <span lang="EN"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-highlight: white;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span lang="EN" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>kwaChirerehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10306481741499309181noreply@blogger.com0