The 'return' of Charles Mungoshi

Branching Streams Flow in the Dark By Charles Mungoshi, published in 2013 by Mungoshi Press, Harare, 165 pages, ISBN: 978 079 7444911, prize$18, phone: +263 774054341

(previewed By Memory Chirere)

This transcendental novel; Branching Streams Flow in the Dark, published by his family, marks the long awaited 'return' of leading Zimbabwean author, Charles Muzuva Mungoshi.

The prize winning author of Coming of The Dry Season, Waiting For The Rain and Kunyarara Hakusi Kutaura? who had been ‘silent’ ever since his major single publication, Walking Still in 1997, has chosen a special way of returning. As his wife, the acclaimed actress Jesesi Mungoshi states in the dedicatory note, ‘it took Charles over 20 years to write this book and he was still perusing through it when he fell into a coma on the 30th of April, 2010’.

He has thankfully recovered in time to see it in print.

It is therefore befitting that this book is about living beyond malady. During her darkest and loneliest moment, when her baby dies of AIDS and her husband runs out of the house and her mother is virtually unkind, Serina Maseko sees through herself and others, as if she were beyond pain and reproach. She is floating because during this period, before the advent of Anti Retro Viral Therapy use in the management of the Acquired Immuno-Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), being diagnosed as having the infection is an automatic death sentence.

Serina begins to write a very long and winding letter to a long - forgotten school mate, Fungisai Bare. In that letter, Serina forages through her turbulent life and that of people around her, confessing her sins and confronting all the ghosts in her life, searching for certain key moments to hold on to…

“That laugh! That echoing percussion laugh of his! It made me a little sad and excited and extremely nostalgic for something I-didn’t-know-I-ever-had-but-which-I-suddenly-missed all together at the same time, as if it were something half-remembered from a very distant and dusk-hued place, where you could see as in a dream hardly-formed stick-figures in sunlit-dust-motes silhouette and before you could touch them, they would all dissolve and disappear before you – except for a lingering where-am-I sensation left in you…That laugh! You don’t know how much I rode on it and it took me where I fantasized that you never happened and he was all alone with me on this trip – but – BUT – you would suddenly appear! You put the fear of thunder and lightning in me. I don’t forget how you shredded Ketina Zvapano to tear-soaked shame-drenched rags when you lit upon her after you had heard that she’d been walking – or showing? – your Leo the secret ancient bush toe-path up to the sacred never-dry-up spring in the old hills!”

 

And then Serina comes across one Saidi on a city bus. It is just by chance! As you read on, you want Serina and Saidi to fall in love. You tell your foolish self that this is love at first sight! It is because Serina and Saidi are forlorn because they have AIDS. But Serina soon learns that Saidi is and has been much closer to her than she has ever known. Saidi leads Serina to her long lost father – the evergreen Samuel Maseko. Saidi leads Serina to her runaway husband, the brilliant coward - Michael Gwemende. Saidi leads Serina to his own mother, Samuel Maseko’s first wife - the indefatigable Stella Mkandhla Dube! Finally, Saidi leads Serina to a path into herself.

 

All these ‘streams’ begin to branch into what was threatening to remain unknown. Here, as in the novels of Jose Saramago, especially Blindness, seeing can be both disease and recuperation:

 

“… If you were looking at Mother looking at Father, then Father appeared to be dirty, uncouth, uncivilised (Mother’s favourite word), backward – and you found yourself lost in seeing him like that… you would convince yourself that this was your original observation of him... on the other hand, if you were looking at Father looking at Mother, you saw shame and falseness right through everything, starting first and foremost, with the highly out - of – key voice shrilling for attention so that it jarred on the nerves like a child running a razor blade through velvet skin… Mother would not hear Father. She would simply see her poor husband, Samuel Maseko, as an also-ran, second-hand sort of lost soul…”

 

You come away from this novel with a feeling that the river of life stretches from the familiar, and branches into the far away and subterranean streams of eternity.

Get your copy, for $18 by phoning: +263 774054341

New Literary magazine for Zimbabwe

The Write Mag Call for Articles

Published by Write Africa, and edited by a renowned Zimbabwean author, literary critic, lecturer and blogger, The Write Mag is a new quarterly literary magazine whose key focus is on promoting African literature. The magazine will be produced in print, with an online version available on the Write Africa Website in due course.

This is a call for articles to the first issue of the magazine, which will have an initial print run of 5000 copies and distributed around Zimbabwe and exhibited at major local Book Fairs. Authors, lecturers, teachers, critics, reviewers and other interested individuals are invited to submit articles of any length, and on any theme, based on the following broad and sub-categories.

1. Book Reviews -New Book Reviews, -Blast from the past book reviews, Local, regional and International - The Bookstore and Featured book prices	2. Publishing information -Publishing options- traditional, self, co-publishing, etc. - Publishing platforms: print, e-publishing, etc.  -Featured publisher in Zimbabwe, Africa or The whole world, -Publishing Advice  -Publishing Agents
3. Author Profiles and interviews -Established Authors (living and dead, with priority on 1. Zimbabwean, 2. African and 3. International authors in that specific order) -Upcoming authors, but with a growing profile and some form of published work or making the waves -Pictures, works, interviews, etc.	4. Literary works -Previously Published work excepts -Unpublished work excepts or full content + short stories + poetry + plays + Novels and Novellas (only excerpts will be published)
5. Study guides and information on Literature -For Students in High Schools -For University students	6. Literature and ICTs -ICT hardwares, software and applications -How to information- on creating, managing, using marketing e-platforms -Featured platforms
8. Features -Any arts related issues that have a bearing on the literary arts or artistes. -Other organisations and initiatives that are making the arts headlines	9. Intellectual property -Copyright and intellectual property -

 Submission Guidelines

The Deadline for this call is 21 August 2013. Articles received after this date will be considered for future editions.
Send all articles to: writeafricatrust@gmail.com
All inquiries: Lawrence Hoba (Write Africa): +263772939136/
Conditions
-Write Africa will not be paying for this issue, but all contributors will receive 5 copies of the magazine.

-Submission does not entail subsequent publication as this is a competitive process, but the editorial will make an effort to communicate with all individuals who submit articles and acknowledge receipt of submitted articles as well as the status of their articles.

Zimbabwe Writers Association (ZWA) mourn Chiwoniso Maraire

The Zimbabwe Writers Association (ZWA) board, the entire membership and all our friends and colleagues in the writing fraternity of Zimbabwe and abroad are deeply saddened by the sad loss of Chiwoniso Maraire; singer, songwriter, and exponent of Zimbabwean mbira music. We pass our condolences to her family, the arts fraternity and fans. In our view, Chiwoniso was a fellow storyteller and intellectual who demonstrated rare talent, vision and wit. We shall miss her friendship and her rare ability to promote enduring Zimbabwean cultural traditions through her music. People like Chiwoniso do not die!

Tinashe Muchuri

Secreatary General, Zimbabwe Writers Association, 27 July 2013

+263733843455/ zimbabwewriters@gmail.com

ZIBF Harare - 2013 calender REVISED

Dear All

On behalf of the ZIBF Executive Board, I would like to advise our valued key stakeholders, funding partners, writers, publishers, booksellers, librarians, prospective presenters, exhibitors, educationists, scholars and members of the general public that our calendar of activities has been revised in order to make way for the Zimbabwe national plebiscite scheduled for 31 July 2013.

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause to all concerned.

Nevertheless, ZIBF intends to run on the same Theme as previously advised, namely, “ZIBF@30: Enabling Creativity, Writing, Publishing and Reading for Africa’s Growth”.  Most crucially, we remain committed to our enduring objectives and to ensure that the events continue to celebrate our thirty years of providing a truly Zimbabwean and African Book Fair with the same revamped programmes and activities as promised. 

The following is a schedule of the new dates for our outstanding activities:
ZIBF 2013 BOOK FAIR DATES: 30 September – 5 October

 Indaba 2013 Dates                 30 September – 1 October

Young Person’s Indaba         2 October

Setting-up Day                       1 October - 1430 hours to 1630 hours

Traders’ Day                           2 October

Exhibitions                             3 - 5 October

Writers’ Workshop                5 October      

 MUTARE BOOK FAIR DATES: 18 – 19 October        

Setting-up Day                       17 October - 1430 hours to 1630 hours

Exhibitions                             18 – 19 October

Writers’ Workshop                18 October

 More information regarding these events will be made available to the public from hereon. We look forward to your continued support.

 Kind regards

Mr Musaemura Zimunya

Chair, Executive Board, ZIBF

Website: www.zibfa.org.zw

ZIBF 2013 Theme:         "ZIBF@30"

Indaba 2013 Dates:       30 September – 1 October

Book Fair Dates:           2 October  – 5 October

Setting-up Day:             1 October 1430 hours to 1630hours

Bulawayo Book Fair      22 March - 23 March

Masvingo book Fair       31 May - 1 June

Mutare Book Fair           18 October -  19 October

Telephone: +263 4 702104, 702108, 705729,  707352

Tel/Fax: +263 4 702129

 

 

 

Making writing make money in Zim: Stephen Chifunyise

Full time career in writing is an aspiration shared by many Zimbabwean writers. Except for a few  whose works become prescribed textbooks, most writers in Zimbabwe have  been disappointed by the  unprofitability of their writing. Fiction writers who choose self- publishing have found it even harder to generate income from sales of their books. Those  who distribute their books through bookshops have been as disappointed as those who published through reputable  local or foreign book publishers when they have to accept the reasons  given for not receiving any royalties from the sale of their books. This reality has forced some writers to remain in the writing -as- a -hobby frame of mind which is in itself a major stumbling block to creative writing. It is therefore necessary to look for ways of ensuring that talented writers make their writing careers viable. The following are some of the ways  worth considering.

 

First, all published writers, especial fiction writers, must turn themselves into mobile bookshops for their own books. This entails negotiating with publishers  for an arrangement where the writers  are issued with copies of their books at the authors  discount  and  in which  they proceed to sell their books and get the type of commission booksellers would  have required. Alternatively, the author buys his or her books at authors discount  and proceeds to  sell the books  with a  mark up which  book sellers would have allowed. This arrangement ensures that the writer uses  all occasions to sell his or her books. This is an approach of taking books to the people. I have personally sold many of my own books and of fellow writers at international cultural events at home and abroad.

 

Second, during the Zimbabwe International Book Fair and other book fairs such as in Bulawayo and Mutare  and industry and trade fairs and agricultural shows,  writers could mount exhibition  stands   and sell  their books. The experience of the Writers Collective  which in the  last  two  years has mounted a stand  at the  Zimbabwe  International  Book Fair   to exhibit and sell  books mainly by  self-published writers  has been good.  The presence of authors  at the stand who autograph  copies bought  is a major marketing tool. Some writers had to take people looking for their books to their publishers stands.

 

Third, writers must take advantage of the multiplicity of newspapers and magazines  in the country- a phenomenon that has been followed by the birth of two commercial radio channels,  to  write for these publications and  radio channel. Writers must take up the challenge to become columnist or regular correspondents. They must approach editors of the newspapers and magazine to indicate subjects they would like to write about as well as research they would like to undertake in order to produce features that could be considered for publication. Radio and the television channels need to be approached by writers who indicate what they can  write  for them  especially drama.

 

Fourth, a number of theatre groups are beginning to look for scripts which they can present to corporations, development organisations and agencies for  promotional  and developmental campaigns. Writers with interest in scripting drama for radio, stage and television should seek partnership or collaborations with theatre groups so as to secure writing assignment. Writers should also approach actors whom they have see in   stage and television productions and offer to write plays which they can present to producers for commercial theatre. Writers could also approach theatre producers with their scripts  and indicate  the actors they had in mind  when writing the plays.. Writers of such plays are paid once off fee and a percentage of gate -takings whenever  their  plays are performed. There is strong feeling that  among actors, directors and producers  in Zimbabwean theatre that the shortage of scripts is one of the major challenges being faced.

 

Fifth, writers should approach corporations, development organisations, governments departments  and institutions with offers to write articles, dramas or documentaries  about them, their campaigns and  concerns. The area of environment and sustainable development  is  as potent for engagement of writers as areas and issues to do with health issues. Coming up with scripts for plays about International days that are celebrated in Zimbabwe is one strategy  that   writers  should consider. The writers would be expected to go  international organisations concerned  with the commemoration of such days. Writers could give theatre groups their scripts so that the theatre groups themselves would approach agencies and organizations concerned with the celebrations of the international days.

 

Sixth, the recent developments  in  the production of  computer generated animations has  brought about the need for collaborations between writers and film makers( animators) Writers with good stories for animation are essential and being sought after. Writers associations can help bring about this collaboration by inviting film makers especially those   involved in production of animations to dialogue and establish the requisite collaboration..

 

Lastly, many visitors to the Writers Collective stand  at the Zimbabwe International Book Fair, this year asked for children’s story books  in indigenous languages. One pre-school owner indicated that writers of such books would be expected  to visit pre-school centers with their books  as well as finding out  what children’s books such centres require..

I sincerely hope that these ideas are worth considering.    

THANK YOU

+ Paper presented at the Zimbabwe Writers Association (ZWA) meeting: Harare, September 1, 2012

I have been mistaken for Achebe: Ngugi

(Ngugi wa Thiongo, with Noviolet Bulawayo, Sarah Ladipo Manyika, Mukoma wa Ngugi, and Emmanuel Sigauke.)

I first met Chinua Achebe in 1961 at Makerere University in Kampala. His novel, Things Fall Apart, had come out, two years before. I was then a second year student, the author of just one story, Mugumo published in Penpoint, the literary magazine of the English Department. At my request, he looked at the story, and made some encouraging remarks. What I did not tell him was that I was in the middle of my first novel for a writing competition organized by the East African Literature Bureau; what would later be published as The River Between. 

My next encounter was more dramatic, for my part, at least, and would impact my life and literary career, profoundly. It was at the now famous 1962 conference of writers of English expression. Chinua Achebe was among a long line of other literary luminaries, that included Wole Soyinka, J P Clark, the late Eski’a Mphahlele, Lewis Nkosi and Bloke Modisane. The East African contingent consisted of Grace Ogot, Jonathan Kariara, John Nagenda and me. My invitation was on the strength of my short stories published in Penpoint and in Transition. The novel most discussed in the Conference as a model of literary restraint and excellence was Things Fall Apart.

But what most attracted me was not my being invited there as ‘writer’ but the fact that I would be able to show Achebe the ms of my second novel, what would later become Weep Not Child. It was very generous of him to agree to look at it because, as I would learn later, he was working on his novel, Arrow of God. Because of that and his involvement in the conference, he could not read the whole ms, but he read enough to give some useful suggestions.

More importantly, he talked about the manuscript to his publishers, William Heinemann, represented at the conference by June Milne, who expressed an interest in the work. Weep Not Child would later be published by William Heinemann and the paperback by Heinemann education publishers, the fourth in the now famous African Writers series, of which Achebe was the Editorial Adviser.

I was working with the Nation newspapers when Weep Not Child came out. It was April 1964, and Kenya was proud to have its first modern novel in English by a Kenyan African. Or so I thought, for the novel was well publicised in the Kenyan Newspapers, the Sunday Nation even carrying my interview by de Villiers, one of its senior feature writers. I assumed that every educated Kenyan would have heard about the novel. I was woken to reality when I entered a club, the most frequented by the new African elite at the time, who all greeted me as their Kenyan author of Things Fall Apart.

Years later at Achebe’s 70^th birthday celebrations at Bard College attended by Toni Morrison and Wole Soyinka, among others, I told this story of how Achebe’s name had haunted my life. When Soyinka’s turn to speak came, he said that I had taken the story from his mouth: he had been similarly been mistaken for Chinua Achebe.

The fact is that Achebe became synonymous with the Heinemann African writers series and African writing as a whole.  There’s hardly any African writer of my generation who has not been mistaken for Chinua Achebe. I have had a few such encounters. Every African novel became Things Fall Apart, and every writer some sort of  Chinua Achebe.  Even a protestation to the contrary was not always successful.

The last such encounter was in 2010 at Jomo Kenyatta Airport. Mukoma, the author of Nairobi Heat, and I had been invited for the Kwani festival whose theme was inter-generational dialogue. Mukoma, my fourth son and I fitted the bill perfectly. As he and I walked towards the immigration, a man came towards me. His hands were literally trembling as he identified himself as a professor of Literature from Zambia. 

“Excuse me Mr Achebe, somebody pointed you out to me. I have long wanted to meet you”

“No, I am not the one,” I said, “but here is Mr Achebe,” I added pointing at my son.

I thought the obvious youth of my son would tell him that I was being facetious. But no, our Professor grabbed Mukoma’s hands, before Mukoma could protest, grateful that he had at last shaken hands with his hero. The case of mistaken identity as late as 2010 shows how Achebe had become a mythical figure, and rightly so.

He was the single most important figure in the development of modern African literature as writer, editor, and quite simply a human being. His novel, Things Fall Apart, the most widely read novel in the history of African literature, since its publication in 1958, became an inspiring model.  As the general editor of the Heinemann African Writers Series, he had a hand in the emergence of many other writers and their publication.  As a human being, he embodied wisdom that comes from a commitment to the middle way between extremes. And of course courage in the face of personal tragedy!

The last time I met him face to face was at his 70^th birthday celebrations held at Bard College. With me was Njeeri, my wife, and our five year old son Thiongo and six year old daughter, Mumbi.  When I introduced James Currey, and mentioned that he had been Achebe’s publisher, Thiongo decided to write his own novel on the spot. On a piece of paper, he made many marks, folded the piece, and handed the one page manuscript to James Currey. James politely accepted it.  Within the next one hour Thiongo wrote several other one page novels and began rushing them to the publisher. James Currey resorted to avoiding his new writer for the rest of the party. Mumbi reacted differently, drawing a portrait of Chinua Achebe, and gave it to him when my wife took them to be photographed with Uncle Chinua. Mumbi, now a second year college student, recalled that encounter and the line drawing, when I told her about Achebe’s passing on.

Achebe bestrides generations and geographies.  Every country in the continent claims him as their author. Some sayings in his novels are quoted frequently as proverbs that contain a universal wisdom. When my book, Dreams in a Time of War, was launched in Nairobi a year or so ago, the guest speaker PO Lumumba interspersed his speech with proverbs. They were all taken from Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. His passing marks the beginning of the end of an epoch.  But his spirit lives on to continue inspiring yet more African writers and scholars of African literature the world over. 

Ngugi wa Thiong’o
+ Taken from:

http://www.polis.leeds.ac.uk/lucas/activities/leeds-african-studies-bulletin/chinua-achebe-the-spirit-lives thiongo.php

 

 

 
 

Tinashe Muchuri, Beavan Tapureta, Lawrence Hoba and Martin Denenga

On Monday, 1 November 2004, I wrote a review article for a local paper and on seeing it and reading it today, I NOTICE that it was actually various young writers then affiliated to the now defunct Budding Writers Association of Zimbabwe who were some of the first people writing from within Zimbabwe to publish significant fictional work based on the fast track land reform of Zimbabwe. Tinashe Muchuri, Beavan Tapureta, Lawrence Hoba and Martin Denenga, you have your own corner in Zimbabwean literature! Some of these writers are now more established in writing and various other art forms. I also sense now that the Budding Writers Association of Zimbabwe scored its firsts which it never lived to benefit from. Below is that unedited review from 2004: 

 Zimbabwe land issue and creativity

Zimbabwe’s Land Issue:The Budding Writers’ Perspectives, Harare, 2004.
ISBN:0-7974-2859-3
Editor: Dudziro Nhengu
A reflective Book Review by Memory Chirere
A new journal called ZIMBABWE LAND ISSUE has just hit the Zimbabwean and South African book markets like a bolt from the blue. It is the first in a new series of the “topical issues” journal being published by the Budding Writers of Zimbabwe (BWAZ).

BWAZ is a writer’s organization for new and young authors of Zimbabwe formed in 1990.  It has since grown to represent the nurturing of the growing army of new voices in Zimbabwe. 

With the return from exile in 1980 of serious writers like Dambudzo Marechera, Stanley Nyamufukudza, Musaemura Zimunya, Wilson Katiyo and others, there was a sudden and acute realization amongst the youth that writing could be taken seriously and a man or woman could be called “a writer.”  With the help of the then vibrant Zimbabwe Writers Union (ZIWU) there were inspiring readings and literary talks in Harare, Gweru and Bulawayo.

In due course BWAZ was formed.  To this day some of its earliest and founding members like Albert Nyathi, Ignatius Mabasa and the late Stephen Alumenda have grown to national stature.

Last month when the average established writer of Zimbabwe was yet to contribute to the ongoing debate and activities of the phenomenon now called the Zimbabwe Land Issue, BWAZ led the way with a scintillating publication.  Since the start of the mass farm occupations over two years ago, there has been remarkable silence about the land issue among Zimbabwe writers, save for Alexander Kanengoni who has routinely dropped here a story and there an essay-short story.

Could our writers be “playing it safe” because they are afraid to define their different positions?  Or, as one literary critic, Maurice Vambe told me, “they are still watching, Memory.  If they were to write about the land issue as it happens, they risk being journalists!”  Really?

This BWAZ journal contains short stories and a novella  based in various ways on the land issue in Zimbabwe.  These pieces, it must be emphasized, represent individual writers’ reaction  the land issue.

Handidzokere Shure Part 1-3 is a stimulating debate in epistolary from.  Three budding writers, Tinashe Muchuri, the late Blessing Chihombori and Beaven Tapureta build up on each other’s ideas and writings.  Should the land be taken away from the whites?  Should it be divided equally between black and white? What is the role of women here? What is the role of history? Is the reform necessarily violent…?

In Part I there are two letters – one from the “educated” George Gororo to his father and the other one from the determined Mr Gororo himself, in response to his son’s letter. These two letters represent two camps on the land issue.  George is an industrial worker who religiously believes that blacks cannot own farms because they neither have the technical know-how nor the resources to meaningfully turn the land into food to feed the whole nation.  George believes that blacks should only stick to domestic farming and leave commercial farming to the whites, who according to him, “…are the champions  of the Zimbabwe economy.”His father on the other hand argues that the land belongs to the blacks, it is their birthright and the white farmers must pack their belongings and leave for Britain.

Tinashe Muchuri continues with these “letters” between father and son up to Part 4.  Convinced that his father is an incorrigible land occupier, George shifts and writes to his mother to “please plead with father to leave Ndege’s farm now…” and stop dancing and ululating as the menfolk subdivide the commercial farms.

And the mother responds with unsurpassed verve: “You surprise me a lot George, my son.  So you think I am just, ululating and dancing?  I am not silent, George.  Ululating and dancing are a form of communication too… strategic talking.”

While Muchuri’s letters dramatise the typical  irreconcilable perspectives to the land issue in Zimbabwe, the writer could have gone beyond  binarism.  The epistle form is understandably an attempt to recreate a community dialoguing but the author could have taken this as opportunity to be more nuanced.  One could have given systematic background to why father and son view the issue differently.   Instead of erecting two war-fronts, one could have added a third or even fourth dimension.  The land issue in Zimbabwe, ironically, has offered some people opportunity for action or ambiguity or total detachment. More important, the rearrangement of land in Zimbabwe has not only operated at a physical level.  The mass movement of people, goods and properties has also caused a radical evolvement of mindsets and attitudes.  The Zimbabwe writer has a tremendous task here to explore even the land reform in the mind. 

In that regard “Tendai’s letter” by Beaven Tapureta, though cryptic, manages somehow to problematise the land issue in a more interesting manner than maybe Muchuri’s “letters.”  Tendai is a Zimbabwean young woman in exile in England but she has never lost sight of the events back home.  Out in cold England, she works for a white woman who not only calls her sister but also exploits her.  For Tendai, sister achy and feminism are abstract and lofty and does not address concrete issues.

Lawrence Hoba’s “The Trek” is evidence that some budding writers are reading widely and that one should not consider influences pernicious.  Hoba’s story reads like Honwana’s short story called “Papa-Snake and I.”  Here as in all prominent  Southern African short stories the child narrator sees much more than it intends to.  In “The Trek” the narrator is very critical of his father, an ex-fighter  who has acquired a farm formerly owned by a white man.  Father is lazy, always after beer parties. It is only mamma, throughout the years,  who has been the real land tiller.  The farm gate is written “Mr. J.J. Magudu.”  Why not “Mrs J.J. Magudu?” asks the narrator.

The late Martin Denenga’s novella – “Weeping,” is perhaps the greatest revelation of this literary journal.  As you read the first paragraph of this fast paced story, it occurs to you that this is a story that you will not ignore: “Some people simply called him Goddard. His friends called him Tim and his wife called him darling. His workers called him Goddard. His nickname was Minatonga, which means I rule. He hated his nickname…”

“Weeping” is about a conflict between a black community and a white farmer.  The white man accuses and punishes the community for poaching on his farm.  The neighbouring black community, especially Maruza, does not understand why and how they can be accused of poaching from their own motherland and so the conflict rages on.

Denenga does not limit the land conflict in Zimbabwe to one historical epoch, the land redistribution period.  He takes us back in time to long-standing conflicts that existed between Baas Goddard and his African neighbours of the adjacent Tribal Trust Land.  This helps to prove a historical fact that the animosity between blacks and whites in Zimbabwe over land is as old as colonialism itself.  The writer presents complex characters, black and white, and helps dispel the myth of a superior race.

Denenga feels deeply into the lives of farm folks and they ring true.  Their fears are expressed in their Nyanja laced conversations, drawing deep into their migrant labour backgrounds.  Their constant refusal to succumb to fate is best expressed in the seemingly mundane dance parties they organize in the farm compounds. Amongst them are guitarists of note, gifted story tellers, bottom wiggling dancers and legendary kick-boxers.

Since Chanjerai Hove’s novel called Bones, a prizewinning 1989 publication, “Weeping” is, arguably, the only literary piece in English that listens to the pulse of the farm-worker community.  One hopes that local publishers will soon take up this story.  It is only sad that Martin Denenga himself has passed on without seeing his work in print.  Infact information at the BWAZ offices has it that the unassuming Denenga was from a Marondera farming community.  One day he dropped the script at BWAZ, saying, “Read. Tell me what you think about it.”  They were never to see him again.  For over a year BWAZ put up notices in the papers and Radio Zimbabwe for Denenga because internal assessors found the script worth publishing. That tells the painful story of the struggles of Zimbabwe’s new writers. Denenga died not knowing the fate of his story and he remains unkwown.

Shimmer  Chinodya makes a guest appearance in this journal with his short story “Settlers.”  Chinodya like Stanley Nyamufukudza, Aaron Chiunduramoyo and Dr Charles Mungoshi are some of the prominent writers who have worked very closely with BWAZ in its various creative writing workshops across the country. Chinodya is well known as a great innovator of the short story form and he does exactly that with “Settlers.” Here the narrative follows the rambling thoughts of a new farmer and as you read on, your spirit rises, sinks, rises…

This neatly bound and boldly printed journal is well annotated and user friendly.  However the cover needed some deeper imagination.  The picture of the eastern portions of Zimbabwe in loam soils could have been more appropriate for a Geography or Agriculture text book.  One could have gone for a picture of many of Zimbabwe’s rolling wheat-lands or the never-ending stretches of newly ploughed red earths of early summer. The title too, is rather longish and its scholarly wording suggests, unnecessarily, regret.  A shorter, sharper and poetic line could have just done a better job.

One hopes that these writings will travel far and wide and contribute to both the debate and action on the land issue in our country and elsewhere. Maybe, against all odds, Zimbabwe’s more established writers could be pushed into writing about and around the LAND ISSUE.