Press statement: ZIBFA fire alert

 

ZIBFA Chairman’s statement Country on Focus Gazebo fire

We regret to inform the book industry in Zimbabwe and all our stakeholders and partners abroad about the fire that destroyed the iconic ZIBF Country of Focus Gazebo at the Zimbabwe International Book Fair grounds and the immediate vicinity in the early hours of Saturday morning of 29 May 2021.

We want to thank the City of Harare Fire Brigade for their quick response once they were informed. They managed to put out the fire. But being a timber and thatch building, the speed at which the fire moved means that the structure was burnt beyond repair.

At this point, the cause of the fire and other details are not yet known. We await feedback from the municipal authority fire team and the police who attended the scene.

As the book industry, this blow comes after a long period of subsequent trials. The sector has been reeling under the impact of piracy. Covid-19 shutdowns derailed the 2020 ZIBF and we had no traditional face to event in the Harare gardens. This left our hearts bleeding.

However, we are glad to announce that some partners have already stepped in to assist us with rebuilding the gazebo and the vicinity. You may want to know that the ZIBFA Executive board and the General Council were already seized with redoing all our structures and the vicinity as a matter of urgency.

With the support of our partners, we are looking forward to a whole new look which will maintain our strong cultural background and natural look while incorporating high safety standards against man-made and natural disasters.

We are still in the process of engaging other partners and all Zimbabweans and people abroad are welcome to lend a hand. We are much encouraged by the positive response we have received so far.

We will be announcing specifics of these exciting development over the next few weeks in due course.

The destroyed gazebo is where the iconic Chinua Achebe alongside Luis Bernardo Honwana of Mozambique and others showcased their literary oeuvre and addressed the media during their joint first visit to Zimbabwe. That spot had become a destination for book connoisseurs from across the world with books being displayed and briskly sold both on the ground and first floor. This has also been the venue for the Hifa Poetry Café for sometime, now.

 

ZIBF has profiled Zimbabwe internationally on an annual basis, through the international exhibitions that have been running for more than thirty years since its inception in 1983. We are therefore calling upon all stakeholders to help in retaining and safeguarding this longstanding legacy. 

 

Since then, ZIBF has annually exhibited Book Fairs in the Harare Gardens, a central venue in the Capital City, also conveniently located within reach of the CBD and hotels that host international delegates and stakeholders that annually come for the Fairs. Closely tied up with the presence of ZIBF Offices in Harare Gardens and the peaceful environment, is the twin aspect of both domestic and international tourism that Zimbabweans will seriously consider in preserving the present site and purpose of Harare Gardens as a strategic venue for Critical National Projects such as ZIBF.

 

Situated next to the ZIBF is the National Art Gallery which also houses the national treasure trove of artworks, specifically stone-art or sculptor. Both these spaces promote, preserve and disseminate local cultures while marketing and promoting the same to the regional and international communities. These two functions add value to the importance of the Harare Gardens to the populace.

 

ZIBF values your continued support and would appreciate your views or further inputs to this.

 

Our theme for Zibfa 2021 is still; Book Industry: the dynamics within is receiving positive responses for the traditional July-August event.  Having observed that most of the themes from 2011 to 2016 addressed developmental and philosophical issues, the board decided to select a theme that may give us a rare opportunity to look more closely at the internal welfare and goings on of real people and institutions (big and small) in the book industry itself in Zimbabwe and Africa. We want to dwell on the work relations between our writers and publishers, printers, booksellers and librarians, readers for example. We are convinced that a very introspective gaze at both the open and behind the scenes of the book sector may be exciting and enriching.

Enacted in the early days of the first decade of Zimbabwe’s independence, this gazebo and its vicinity were used each year by a country that we chose to focus for showcasing their books and other cultural materials. Nigeria, Iran, Ghana and others were once stationed in that spot.

 

I thank you.

Your faithfully

Memory Chirere,

Chairperson of the Executive Board of the ZIBFA

 

 

am hunting for a publisher: Tanaka Chidora

 In the following exciting and wide ranging interview, author of Because Sadness is Beautiful? Tanaka Chidora, says he is looking for a publisher for his novel. Find link to the interview here: "Because Sadness is Beautiful?: In Conversation with Tanaka Chidora" (mosioatunyareview.com)

Moses Magadza reviews Justice Oagile Dingake's "Towards A People’s Constitution for Botswana"

Veteran journalist, Moses Magadza reviews Justice Oagile Dingake's unique book: "Towards A People’s Constitution for Botswana" Follow this link: BOOK REVIEW: Towards a People’s Constitution for Botswana | Windhoek Observer | News Stand (observer24.com.na)

Towards a People’s Constitution for Botswana

By *Moses Magadza

WINDHOEK – A constitution developed through wide consultations with the people that it is intended to serve is more likely to be a widely accepted and respected document than one crafted behind the scenes and foisted onto the people. This seems to be the pith or fulcrum of “Towards A People’s Constitution for Botswana”, one of four recent books by Justice Oagile Bethuel Key Dingake.

That Dingake is a remarkable jurist, a brilliant scholar and a versatile writer is incontestable. The former Judge of the High Court of Botswana and now a Justice of the Residual Special Court of Sierra Leone, the Supreme Court of Papua New Guinea and the Court of Appeal of Seychelles, has earned many top honorific titles. Indeed, so many, that legal journalist Carmel Rickard, writing in a Judicial Institute for Africa (JIFA) Newsletter, remarked that Dingake is one of those learned people who pose real problems for those keen on titles!

She was right. Dingake’s other titles include Doctor of Law (PhD), Professor and, lately, Chancellor. This, after he was inaugurated Chancellor of ABM University College in his own native country, Botswana in 2020. He holds, also, a double professorship from two renowned universities: The University of Cape Town in South Africa, and James Cook University in Australia.

“Towards A People’s Constitution for Botswana” is a short but packed book. Only 103 pages. Written in very accessible English, one can say it is easy on the mind.  In fact, it is possible to finish it in two or three days. This is a relief, given most lawyers’ notoriety for writing in tongues.

Writing clearly and simply is one of Dingake’s celebrated trademarks. Small wonder he has been likened to the renowned British judge, Lord Denning; who happens to be one of his mentors. In fact, as I indicated in one review of his other book, some lawyers in Botswana and in the SADC region consider him Botswana’s Lord Denning. And for good reason.

Yash Ghai, Emeritus Professor of Law at the University of Hong Kong and Chair of the Constitution of Kenya Review Commission (2001 -2004), wrote the foreword. In the foreword, Ghai waxes lyrical about Dingake’s mastery of matters constitutional.

Ghai writes: “In this excellent contribution to what he tells us is a debate already under way, Justice Dingake while acknowledging the critical role of the current constitution, … proposes its replacement by a very different form. Judge Dingake, now a judge, also a former teacher and scholar, has proposed, in his scholarly way, a transformative constitution”.

Ghai continues: “As an African scholar who has played some role in the making of a few constitutions in Africa (and other) states, I am very impressed by the way justice Dingake presents his argument”.

I share the above sentiments. It would seem from the introductory sections of this book that Botswana is on the verge of a constitutional review. Such an undertaking may take place early this year according to the announcement made by the President of Botswana, His Excellency Mokgweetsi Eric Keabetswe Masisi. Judged from this vantage point, this publication by a leading constitutional lawyer, judge and intellectual is timely.

Having read the book with extreme assiduity, two major themes dominate this book. These are the need to ensure that the people play an active and informed part in the formulation of the revised constitution and the need for a transformative bill of rights.

In fact, with respect to the constitutional review process Dingake warns that the process should be truly people-driven and should not be hijacked by politicians if the constitution is to endure and be a proud treasure of the people of Botswana.

In arguing for a people-driven constitution Dingake places heavy reliance on Article 21, of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, Article 25 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Article 13(1) of the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights, all of which emphasise the right of the people to take part in the conduct of public affairs. He also calls for informed participation that must be preceded by a comprehensive civic education similar to the one undertaken in South Africa prior to the adoption of the 1994 democratic constitution.

He writes: “Experience demonstrates that effective and extensive public participation in constitution making process contributes significantly to social cohesion and national unity”.

 Dingake advocates for an inclusive process that is not hurried in which civil society, trade unions, youth and women’s organizations play meaningful roles. He calls for a constitution that respects all the elements of the rule of law such as transparency, democracy, human rights, good governance, accountable government and fairness.

He traces the above values to the Magna Carta of 1225, in which liberty featured strongly. He quotes as an inspiration the following excerpt from the Magna Carta: “No freeman shall be seized, or imprisoned or dispossessed or outlawed, or in any way destroyed; nor will we condemn him, nor will we commit him to prison except by the legal judgment of his peers, or by the laws of the land”.

The above line extolling the virtues of liberty permeates Justice Dingake’s thoughts on the constitutional review process.

On the aspect of a transformative bill of rights, Dingake calls for adoption and entrenchment of socio-economic and cultural rights given that Botswana’s current constitution only recognises civil and political rights. He also calls for the establishment of a Human Rights Commission, a Gender Commission and other measures to promote open democracy and an accountable government. He is also very strong on freedom to access information subject only to limitations that are internationally recognized.

In this book Dingake acknowledges that although Botswana’s first constitution has served the country well, the time has come to formulate a more progressive constitution that can guide Botswana’s development trajectory and secure the welfare of the people, whilst at the same time serving as a guide to other countries thinking of reviewing their constitutions.

As a comparison the book discusses in some detail the experiences of other countries in Southern Africa that include Zambia and Zimbabwe. Dingake expresses the hope that Botswana can avoid some pitfalls or deficiencies of the constitutional review process in some African countries.

Having read this book and learnt much about the best approach to constitution making, I recommend it to politicians, members of civil society, trade unions, media practitioners and members of the public in Africa and beyond. My only beef with this remarkable book is with its modest title, which might give the arguably inaccurate notion that its lessons and ideas are uniquely applicable only to Botswana, when the author might have penned a global blueprint for making constitutions!

I am convinced that if Batswana can read and implement some of the suggestions in this book, Botswana will in due course have one of the most celebrated progressive constitutions in our region and indeed in the whole world. Politicians, civil society in Botswana, trade unions, women and youth formations and members of the public would do well to get themselves a copy of this book as part of the preparations of the constitutional review process Justice Dingake discusses in this book.

*Moses Magadza is the winner of the SADC Media Award (2008), a freelance journalist and a PhD student with research interests in framing of key populations by the media. He is based in Windhoek, Namibia.

KwaChirere previews Diaspora Dreams, a novel by Andrew Chatora

 

Diaspora Dreams, A novel by Andrew Chatora

Published by KHARIS PUBLISHING,2021, isbn: ISBN-13: 978-1-63746-029-0

There are strong indications that the UK based Zimbabwean writer, Andrew Chatora, is going to release his debut novel, Diaspora Dreams with Kharis Publishing in the US very soon.  

On noting the subject matter, I was initially tempted to assume that this new author would take the usual route about a young Zimbabwean coming to the UK because of the crisis back home.

Ever since Dambudzo Marechera of The House of Hunger’s “I got my things and left…” of 1978 to the present, the central character of such novels, who is almost always a young fellow, flees home and country in search of an alternative existence. After that, he becomes double faced, constantly checking on the new ground while peeping at the political goings on back home. He then to then becomes a keen political eye.

However, Chatora takes a very courageous and startling detour with this new book. The main character, Mr. Kundai Mafirakureva, is following up on his teacher wife, Kay in England. 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 single minded man in Harare North.  

But Kundai walks late. He does not know that he has in fact come to ‘school.’ He does not know that he is coming to the UK to learn about what women can do, sometimes, to their unsuspecting men when the survival instincts rise above love ties. If you are used to the many novels that dwell on how men typically abuse women, then this book is something else.

From the moment Kundai from  N133A Dangamvura- Mutare, manages to secure a visa at Heathrow, a whirlwind takes over. Husband and wife are on new turf. This is the UK. Their constant power struggles over which relatives should receive money from the UK and who should not, begin in earnest. Traditional African filial ties are on trial.

Kay constantly reminds Kundai that he is just a black man, anyway and that black men in the UK have no favorable recourse to the law. “Kundai, remember, you are just a black man in the UK.” On several occasions when they have a row, the British police are called to the house and they come with a clear assumption that; when a black man is in a quarrel with a woman, it must just be him who is on the wrong. They are ready to assume judge and jury. They often advise Kundai to either come to the station with them or go put up somewhere else for the night. The stereotypes run deep and Kundai is walking down a well laid script.

The climax of their fights with Kay comes when Kundai notices that Kay’s mother, vaFugude, has the temerity to use DHL to send love potions or concoctions to Kay from her sangomas, all the way from Zimbabwe! These mixtures are to be used on Kundai so that he becomes a compliant husband. An avid believer in seers, medicine men and dark mystical forces, vaFugude makes it her specialty to consult these darker, underworld forces on behalf of her daughter, Kay.

Everything becomes a power issue with Kay. From sex to normal conversation, she has to have the last word. Their divorce is tumultuous and tends to prove to Kundai that the British legal system is rather impatient with the protestations of men folk in these matters. Kundai has to go to court a record eleven times, to be allowed mere contact with his children. This involves meeting periodically with the children under observation, in a neutral empty hall. The children become tormented and disgusted. They have a distant look in their eyes.

In search of comfort, Kundai goes on to cohabit with a white workmate, Zettie, whom he calls ‘a stunning looker.’ Zettie is a young liberal-minded white girl from an affluent Buckinghamshire family. She appears to be the answer to Kundai’s questing spirit. She quickly learns to cook traditional Zimbabwean dishes and tries to speak Shona. She wants to be the ideal wife to an African man far away from Africa. But on their first visit to Zimbabwe, Zettie falls for and gets impregnated with Kundai’s cousin, Kian! They hit it off straightaway with Kian, as they both sit long drawn-out hours on the veranda at the Vumba homestead, downing lagers and continuously chain smoking weed, as if they have known each other for ages. Once more, things fall apart for Kundai.

Kundai quickly moves on. He does not want to be alone. He hooks up with a woman on an online dating website. She is a Zimbabwean called Jacinda. They quickly get married and Jacinda joins Kundai in the UK. In no time, she starts to treat Kundai to the bitterest and scariest lesson of his life. You read on with a numbed face!

Kundai loses it all and his subsequent charmed incantations and chants while in an English madhouse, are the most revealing part of this novel. As a result, Diaspora Dreams could be of interest to those who study the male psyche and manhood. The losing black male is still a dark area, rich with distances to be traveled and depths to be probed. 

But this novel is not just about Kundai and his women. It also dwells on what often goes on when you set out to teach English to English pupils when you are actually a black teacher from a former colony! To date, I have not come across a novel that dwells at equal length on the relationship between a teacher from Africa and white school kids, and the relationship between a black teacher and the white school administration in a white country.

Andrew Chatora received an MA in Media, Culture and Communication from UCL. He has written and published widely on topical issues with This is Africa publication. He is principally interested in the global politics of inequality which he interrogates through his writings. When he is not writing, he is working on his PhD thesis on Digital Piracy, with Birmingham City University’s School of Media and English

+Reviewed by Memory Chirere, University of Zimbabwe

 

 

 

KwaChirere reads Tanaka Chidora's Because Sadness is Beautiful?

 

 

Because Sadness is Beautiful? Poems in English by Tanaka Chidora,(with a foreword by Magdalena Pfalzgraf), published by Mwanaka Media and Publishing, Harare, 2019, isbn:978-1-77929-596-5

Tanaka Chidora’s first book of poems in English, Because Sadness is Beautiful? dazzles with that question mark at the end of the title. That question mark flips in the reader’s mind like disco lights. I think it is meant to challenge you to look at things inside out. That way, you may experience what the late David Mungoshi calls on the book's blurb “a near out of body experience.”

Beauty, as we know it cannot live side by side with sadness. They are meant to fight like fire and water or light and darkness. I will suggest that sadness, as you find in these poems, is beautiful because the poet has found a way of linking that sadness with concrete historical movements in Zimbabwe and all Africa. Put differently, sadness becomes beautiful when you can trace it back to its source. You start to separate man from his shadow, however hard they try to mingle. A terrible beauty is born in these poems, not because a revolution is waged, but because you have been persuaded to look and understand very clearly how you have become and how long the road ahead is.

Many of these poems talk about ‘the old that hides in the folds of the new.’ Growing up, our uncles told us horrifying stories about straying through sacred grounds at night where you run and run and run but always feeling that you were on the same spot! For Chidora the poet, “the ugly underbelly of the new/ reveals itself to a few.”

As a result, Chidora invents phrases and lines that startle through their intense internal opposition, like when he writes about ‘peace armed to the teeth,’ like ‘someone touched the hem of my smile,’ like ‘one day peace decided to have children,’ like ‘the river roaring, spinning and tearing its clothes…’ and ‘open your eyes and see that there is nothing to see.’

In that regard, you may probably like that short poem called ‘Leaving.’ For some people, as shown in this poem, leaving one’s country comes when one stops talking about the terrible situation in their country. It is strange that you may actually leave a country when you give up on it, while you are still in it, that you may not leave it physically. The poet could be suggesting that people and country are like the dog and its tail! One can never catch the other during a chase. Also, nobody may effectively leave a country once you are born to it and experience it.

The poem ‘Father’ could be the watershed poem in this collection. Father is a hopeless drunkard but you can see that he is also a protector, sometimes he is a preacher-philosopher and sometimes he is your weak friend whose injured body has to be ferried home by others. You do not need to open your eyes to see father because you see him with your eyes closed, because he is painted by Chidora with care and ease. Chidora’s ‘Father’ is not drawn with the usual stereotypical brush used for parents in literature. Chidora’s ‘Mother’ poem which comes earlier will definitely struggle against the ‘Father’ poem. Chidora's mother poem is a given. But, the father poem is a challenge.

Mbare features prominently in these poems. Mbare is often side-lined in Zimbabwean literature. ‘Magamba hostels’ portrays the known hostels as a wreckage seen from the sea shores at different times of day, sparking different mixed thoughts. Then there is another longer poem that dedicates a stanza to each of the 13 blocks of that historical hostel. Mbare is described as a cultural melting pot. Mbare is an embarrassment to the politicians who give empty promises. Mbare is a place where small men and women have opportunity to recreate and re-arrange themselves. Mbare is a language by itself. Mbare is a place of waiting, of arrival and departures.

These poems are torn between belonging and disinterest in the country. They search for something to hold on to, something beyond the misery around us. You come away from this book with the idea that; whatever the very crucial things we have experienced in history, they may not be good enough to keep us together for as long as we do not achieve peace, prosperity and harmony. I am also touched by the fact that this is one of the last few books that the late great David Mungoshi edited before his exit.

+Reviewed by Memory Chirere, University of Zimbabwe  

 

 

 

A VIDEO of me reading

 You can see and listen to me reading “Roja rababa vaBiggie” (from my book, Tudikidiki) to a writing workshop audience on top of Chisiya Hill, Zvishavane way back in 2015, October. The video is here> Roja raBaba vaBiggie - YouTube

++the actual short story: Roja rababa vaBiggie

Vanhu vose vaiona roja rababa vaBiggie richikwidza nekudzika naKashangura mazuva okutanga vaingoti, “Iri ndiro roja ratiri kutsvaga tichishaya.  Baba vaBiggie vakaita zvavo mhanza.  Iro ndiro roja rinonzi roja.”

 

Chinhu chinofadza kuita roja rako rinoshanda, rine mhuri diki, rinogeza, risingadhakwe zvakanyanya, rinodzika naKashangura rakanyarara dakara rasvika pamba.

 

Mumwe musi takazoona roja rababa vaBiggie richitenga chibage chokugocha richinogara padombo richidya.  Takangotiwo ndizvo zvinoita roja kwaro kumbotenga chibage pamusika richidyawo.

 

Roja riye rakasimuka ndokunotenga mumwe muguri wechibage ndokudzoka padombo kunodya.  Takangotiwo ndizvo zvinoita roja kwaro kana ragarisa risingadye chibage chokugocha.  Ko, miguri miviri yokugocha yakaipei? Chakaipei chibage chinogochwa nanaamai vepamusika?

 

Asika roja riye rakasimuka kechitatu, kechina … richitenga chibage richidya rigere padombo kumhiri kwemugwagwa.

 

Munhu kana achidya chibage chekugocha anoita kunge ari kuridza bhosvo.  Roja kana richidya miguri yechibage chokugocha rigere mhiri kwemugwagwa, rinobva ratanga kunakidza.

 

Mamwe mazuva tairiona richidzika naKashangura richiteverwa mumashure nemukadzi waro mupfupi, mutsvuku akabereka mwana.  Vaiteverana vasingataure, vachiita kunge mombe dziri kuenda kunonwa mvura. 

 

Zvavo havo baba vaBiggie.

 

Tairiona zvakare roja riye rakatakura mwana  mumaoko richinotenga muriwo pamusika.  Taingotiwo ndizvo zvinoita roja kwaro kumbotakurawo mwana waro wekubereka.

 

Richingobva kumuriwo, raibereka mwana kumusana rakananga kumagirosa.  Taingoti ndizvo zvinoita roja kwaro kumboitawo zvinhu zvatisati tamboona zvichiitwa muno muChipadze.

 

Richidzika naKashangura riine mwana kumusana, richibva kumagirosa, vakadzi vachiriona vachirovana kobo nepaheji, varume vachitarisana mhiri nemhiri kwaKashangura vachizunza misoro.

 

Baba vaBiggie vakabva vateverawo mumashure, rimwe zuva, vachimhanya, heti iri muhapwa, vachiti, “Jackson, Jackson!” Asi roja ravo rakanga ratopinda mugedhi kare nemwana waro kumusana.

 

Vakadzi vakarovana kobo nepaheji, varume vakazunza misoro.  Pane  munhu mumwechete akangoti, “Baba vaBiggie neroja ravo vari kurasika papi?”

 

Izvozvo ndizvo zvinoita munhu anonakidza.  Musi waunotanga kumuona hapana kana chaunoona paari.  Vakawanda vanhu vanonakidza vatinosangana navo mutown, kuChiwaridzo nekuChipindura asi hativazive.

 

Umwe usiku takamutswa nemhere mhere.  Baba vakabuda vakangopfeka chikabudura chavo chete. Takabva tavatevera zvisina kunzi teverai. Takamhanyira kumugwagwa, kutara.  Chii? Chiiko chiri kuitika muno muChipadze?

 

Takanzwa kuti mhere mhere iye yaibva kutower-light.  Takawana vanhu vaungana vakatarisa kumusoro soro kwetower-light.

 

Roja rababa vaBiggie rakanga riri pamunhongonya petower-light! Kuita kunge tsoko iri kuita misikanzwa.  Vanhu vainge vachishevedzera, “Buruka iwe! Ukadonha kubva ipapo unofira mahara!”

 

Roja rababa vaBiggie rakatarisa pasi pataive ndokuseka.  Rakaseka asi maziso aro aive nemisodzi.  Takasekwa neaichema!

 

Zvakatinetsa saka takapindirawo tichiti, “Buruka! Unofira mahara iwe-e!”

 

Roja rakazviramba, “Handiburuke!  Handiburuke!”  Rakatenderera tenderera pazvisimbi zvetower – light kuita seraive pamasofa.

 

“Buruka! Buruka!”  Chipadze yakaimba.  Misodzi yevanhu yakabuda.  Chokwadi, chiiko chinoita kuti roja kwaro zvakadaro ridaro? 

 

“Heyi! Murume aita seiko uyo?  Anomuziva ndianiko?”

 

Asi roja harina kupa vanhu mukana.  “Ndoda kufa! Ndoda kufa!”  Rakabata patower-light neruoko rumwechete, muviri wose uchirembere semuzerere.  Takabata matumbu ndokuteterera, ndokuombera.  Raigona kuwa kubva kumusoro soro ikoko.

 

Roja rakazodzorera makumbo patower-light vanhu vakatura befu.  Roja rakachema, “Amai! Amaiwe-e-e-e,”  zviye zvinoita mushini webhucha kana uchicheka nyama ine bhonzo.  “Ibvai pano! Handina kukushevedzai!”  Rakatanga kurembera zvekare.  Kuita muzurere.  Kuita chipepa chiri mumhepo.  Kuita kunge chinhu chisiri munhu.  Takagwagwadza.

 

“Munofunga kuti ndakapusa, saka regai ndife!  Ndinoda kufa!”  Roja rakadzorera makumbo patower-light. Chipadze yakatura befu zvakare.

 

“Hamudi kubva, ha?”  Roja rakabvunza rakatarisa Chipadze.  Raive kure, kudenga kusingakwirwe nemupenyu.  “Hamudi, nhaika?” Chipadze yakabvunzwa.  Roja rakakatanura hembe ndokuikanda pasi.  Hembe chena ine dikita nyoro kumusana. Yakakoromoka ndokuti zivha-a kumhara painge pasudurukwa nevanhu.

 

Taiti zvapera asi roja rakanyatsogara pazvisimbi ndokutanga kukumura bhurugwa!

 

Vakadzi vose nevasikana vakabva vati, “Yowe-e! yuwi-i!” vachitarisa pasi nokumhanyira mudzimba.

 

Roja rakatobva rakwamatata, “Mirai! Murikutiza chii?  Mirai!”

 

Hamhenowo mumwe murume asina matyira akati, “Heyi! Zvaita seiko? Unoda chiiko?”

 

Roja rikati, “Ndinoda kufa nekuti munoti ndakapusa!”  Rakatanga zvakare kurembera.  Rakati pidigu ndokurembera nemusoro, nemaoko rakabatirira pazvisimbi nemakumbo.  Varume vane chitsama vakaverereka neheji ndokuenda vachiti, “Hatichazvigona, tingazonzi taivepo.”

 

Roja rakarembera, musoro uchiita sewejongwe riri padara refu refu. “Regai ndife! Ndavakufa amai! Ndofira mari yangu, amai!”  Roja rakabowa kuita hwemhuru chaiyo.  “Ama-a-ai!”

 

Ndipo pakazosvika baba vaBiggie, vachisimudza heti yavo vachipukuta dikita pamhanza nehengechepfu.  Takasuduruka.  “Regai zvipedzerane.  Nyaya hatiizive.  Iwe mudhara, pedzerana neroja rako!”

 

Baba vaBiggie vaifemereka.  Vakatarisa mudenga ndokuti, “Jackson! Jackson! Kana uchida mari yako ndinokupa mhani!”

 

Roja rakati pidigu ndokugara patower light.  Takaombera maoko.  Takaridza mheterwa. Takatura befu. “Iri kupi mari yacho?  Ndoda mari yangu! Zvisizvo, ndofa nhasi chaiye.  Hazvitombonetsa!”

 

Baba vaBiggie vakadedera.  Vakadzikisa ruoko mubhachi ndokuburitsa rumbu remari. “Mari yako iyi mwanangu, buruka!”

 

“Iri kupi?”  roja rakabvunza richitarisa pasi.  “Iri kupi?  Handisi kuiona!”

 

“Iyi! Iyi” Takadaro tichinongedzera mari. “Buruka utore mari!”

 

“Imarii?” roja rakabvunza. “Verengai ndichiona. Verengai ndichiona! Handidi zvokunyeperwa!”  Maziso eroja akavaima.

 

Yakaverengwa.  Mazana emazana.  Kuita matutu matutu, izvozvo roja rakaringa pasi.  Kuita  rimwewo zinhu riri pamusoro soro riri kubhadharwa nevari pasi.

 

Roja rakazoti, “Chisudurukai!” Takaita saizvozvo.  Takanomira kure kwazvo, takapeta maoko, takabata hana, tichitura befu.  Takaona roja richidzika, simbi nesimbi, richiridza kamuridzo, musana waro - usina hembe – uchipenya muchiedza chetower – light.

+naMemory Chirere

KwaChirere reads Grey Angels by Virginia Phiri

 

Grey Angels, novel in English by Virginia Phiri,

Published/reprinted in 2019, by Corals Services, Harare, Isbn: 9781779295033

Reviewed by Memory Chirere

When it finally breaks into mainstream reading society, Virginia Phiri’s latest novel, Grey Angels will definitely set tongues wagging, in Zimbabwe and beyond, for a number of reasons.

“I Linda Jojo, who is supposed to be Prof Joseph Jojo’s daughter decided to do the unthinkable…” says the narrator from the very start. And yet Virginia Phiri is using a clever technique coined “the unreliable narrator” by Wayne C. Booth way back in 1961.  

In this kind of writing the narrator's unreliability is never fully revealed but only hinted at, leaving readers to wonder how much the narrator should be trusted and how the story should be interpreted.

Put differently; what Linda is seeing is very difficult for her or the less discerning reader to comprehend. It is our duty to find out the meaning of what she says she has seen. You may need to read between the lines and read backwards, or sideways, all the way. That is Virginia Phiri territory.

Linda’s father is an enigma. He is a master of sorcery, even opening what Linda calls “a bush school” in which selected children are forced to train in both cultural issues and the dark arts. Linda’s father is a leading Biologist in the country and has come up with ground breaking scientific researches. He is also a devout Christian upon whom the whole church relies. You keep on asking, is he a fake or a genius?

When Linda is born, he disappears with her to some unknown place during the full moon. When he returns, the baby is covered up in ritual blood. His mouth is dripping blood.  He tells his cowed wife not to bath the baby for a specific period. And yet he does not tell his wife whether the blood is from animal or man.

On Saturdays, he takes the teenage Linda to the bush school for initiations which include; incisions, lacerations and having dragon tattoos drawn across her thighs. On Sundays he happily takes Linda and the family to the Christian church in his Pontiac. At some point, he tries to arrange a marriage for Linda but she wriggles out. He has a mentor, a shadowy university colleague called Dr Swaga Swaga. Together, they are indomitable until one is caught in bed with the other’s wife.

Linda offers passive resistance in order to save her mother and siblings from the marauding professor. Linda’s mother, Tandeka Jojo, is a hapless school dropout who was forced to marry a man double her age. She doesn’t know the real day to day activities of her very-very learned husband. She does not understand why her husband keeps bodies of various dead rodents and insects in the house. She does not understand the countless rituals that her husband performs everywhere in the house.

When the professor is inflicted by insanity and dies, the family is relieved as it is safer to mourn him than to live with him. The manuscript of his memoir is in the house, ready for publishing. Maybe only from that book will the truth emerge. His major weakness is not to reveal his agenda to the people around him. His angels can only be grey and not bright.

Virginia Phiri is no stranger to the genre of taboo writing. In Desperate, her collection of short stories of 2002, she writes about women in various kinds of prostitution. In Destiny, her novel of 2006, she writes about a character who is a hermaphrodite. In Highway Queen a work of 2010, she writes about the cross boarder trading women of Zimbabwe and the horrors that they confront and triumph over.

Virginia Phiri has featured in various poetry and short story anthologies in English, Shona and Ndebele. She has also contributed in non-fiction anthologies such as Women in Resilience (2000). Phiri is also an African Orchids expert and has published many articles in international orchid journals. In 1999, a new species of orchid was named after her. The orchid is called “Polystachya Phirii”.