Charles Mungoshi dies

                                (Mungoshi 70th birthday pic by D. Maruziva)
It is sad that the world renowned Zimbabwean writer, Charles Mungoshi, is no more. He died in the early hours of the day today, 16 February 2019 at a hospital in Harare. Although he had been unwell for the past few years, there was hope that he would make it back to his writing desk. It was not to be.

At his 70^th birthday on the 2nd December 2017, Mungoshi listened intently as we spoke about the day to day challenges and quipped: Kana rwizi rwakazara musaruedze negumbo. Siyai rwakadaro.  Rwuchaserera. (If a river is in flood, don’t dare cross. Wait until it subsides.)  That was quite a mouthful and very characteristic of him too to produce lines with subterranean meanings. In 2006 he wrote a short note: Put the lead on the handle but don’t let the handle rot in your hand.

Charles Mungoshi handled a broad range of literary genres and styles in a way that is very rarely surpassed by many in the so called Third World today. His literary profile is compact.  He was a novelist, poet, short-story writer, playwright, film scriptwriter, actor, editor, translator, and consultant.

Mungoshi wrote convincingly and continuously in both Shona and English where many of his compatriots tended to write in English or Shona or Ndebele only. In 1975 alone, for instance, Mungoshi published two books: Waiting for the Rain (a novel in English) and Ndiko Kupindana Kwemazuva (a novel in Shona). These two works exude separate amazing qualities that one wonders how they could have been written “back to back.”

That ambidexterity was no fluke because later, in 1980, Mungoshi repeated a similar feat, publishing Inongova Njakenjake (a play in Shona) and Some Kinds of Wounds (a short-story collection in English.)  It is as if Mungoshi writes simultaneously with two pens - one in the left hand and the other- in the right hand!

In fact and as shown below, between 1970 and 2000, a period of 30 years, Mungoshi made an average of one major publication in every one and half years and won a prize of sorts for each of them.

1.  Makunun'unu Maodzamoyo (Brooding Breeds Despair) (1970)
2. Coming of the Dry Season (1972
3. Ndiko Kupindana Kwemazuva (How Time Passes) (1975)
4. Waiting For the Rain (1975)
5. Inongova Njakenjake (1980)
6. Some Kind of Wounds (1980)
7. The Milkmen Doesn't Only Deliver Milk (anthology) (1981)
8. Kunyarara Hakusi Kutaura? (1985) (Silence is Golden?)
9. The Setting Sun and The Rolling World (1987)
10. Stories From A Shona Childhood (1989)
11. One Day Long Ago (1991)
12. Abide with me (1992)
13. The Axe (1995)
14. Gwatakwata (1995)
15. Children’s Video Picture Book ((1998)
16. Walking Still (1997)
17. Writing Still (2004) an anthology in English with Mungoshi's poems
18. Branching Streams Flow in the Dark (2013)

Awards

1. International PEN Awards (1975 twice for both Shona & English and 1981)
2. Noma Honorable Awards For Publishing in Africa (1980, 1984, 1990 and 1992)
3. Commonwealth Writer's Prize for Best Book in Africa for The Setting Sun and The Rolling World (1988)
4. Honorary Fellow in Writing Award in the Creative Activities of the International Writing Program by The University of Iowa (1991)
5. USIA (United States Information Agency) Award for participating in the International Visitor Program (1991)
6. The Setting Sun and The Rolling World was a New York Time notable book of the year (1989)
7. Order of Merit Certificate Award by Zimbabwe Writers Union for winning in 1984 & 1992 the Noma Award for Publishing in Africa (1997)
8. Commonwealth Writer’s Prize for Best Book in Africa for Walking Still (1998)
9. Charles Mungoshi as 1998 winner of the Commonwealth Writers Prize, he was to be received in audience by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth. That year again the Queen graciously agreed to meet the winner at Buckingham (Tuesday 12 May 1998)
10. Received 7 awards at the Zimbabwe International Book Fair's 75 Best Books in Zimbabwe for 7 of his books (2004)^[5]

 11.  National Arts Merit Award (NAMA) Silver Jubilee Award (2006)

 

12. One of Charles Mungoshi's poems has been curetted by the William & Melinda Gates Foundation as a  permanent display as public art at their new headquarters in Seattle, Washington, in the U.S. 2011

13. Certificate of Honor Award of the 30^th anniversary of Zimbabwe International Book Fair for dedicated service (2013).

 14. National Arts Merit Award 2014.

Maybe the greatest strength of Mungoshi literature is the life-like feel he has for people.  He has sympathy for the under-dog, without over-writing. His characters belong to believable circumstances, place and time and are endearing. He says about writing parts of Waiting for the Rain: “I was living in it (the story didn’t happen in the past. It is a drum. It is happening, it is playing now.”
Mungoshi’s works have been translated to numerous non-European languages; Waiting for the Rain from English: to Hungarian (1978), to Norwegian (1980) and to Russian (1983) second, Coming of the Dry Season from English: to Russian (1985) Third, The Setting Sun and the Rolling World, from English: to Japanese (1995) Stories from a Shona Childhood from English: to Swiss (1996), to German (1988), Walking Still from English: to Swiss (2006).

Born to a rural farming community in Chivhu on 2 December 1947, Mungoshi has very humble origins and has remained down to earth despite his international stature. Until the time he fell ill recently, he had travelled across Zimbabwe, mentoring young and new writers, sometimes for no fee. Records at the Budding Writers Association of Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwe Women Writers association can bear testimony. He has mentored  or directly influenced  younger writers, among them Ignatius Mabasa, Ruzvidzo Mupfudza, Albert Nyathi, Joice Mutiti, Lawrence Hoba, Chiedza Musengezi, Thabisani Ndlovu, myself and others.  His style of writing has become a brand.  In honor of his amazing ambidexterity and depth, the University of Zimbabwe – conferred an honorary doctorate degree (Doctor of Letters-DLitt) on him on Friday 14 November 2003. 
The essence of Mungoshi literature is about grappling with the issues of home, identity and belonging in the changing times. He is constantly asking key questions: Do we truly belong to this land? Is it possible to belong here and elsewhere? What must we change and what exactly must continue and why? Is there any space for the individual in our quest for collective glory? Are we right? Are we wrong? In this quest Mungoshi pens “The Accident” a short story from Coming of the Dry Season which seems to question and challenge the stance of a people living under minority rules – the book landed him in trouble and is banned in Rhodesia only to re-appear later and has been studied in schools ever since. Mungoshi’s writings have also tended to evoke that strong sense of Zimbabweaness. We shall sorely miss him. NB: for all funeral arrangements, talk to family spokesperson Tendai Madondo at +263 783837098
+By Memory Chirere, Harare

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shona anti-novel reviewed again...

Kunaka kweChibarabada kuri mukudhaka

Tinashe Muchuri. (2015). Chibarabada. Harare: Bhabhu Books, 200pages.
Edited by Ignatius Mabasa.

Zvandakapiwa Chibarabada naTinashe Muchuri musi watasangana paNational Gallery of Zimbabwe muHarare, handina kumbofunga zvokuti chingandidhaka kusvika pakukanganwa bhachi rangu pachiteshi chinokwirwa mabhazi ekuNorton.

Ini ndini ndakakanganisa, kuita rudo neChibarabada ndisati ndasvika kurabu kwandinogara. Chakanyanya kundikwezva moyo ibutiro racho raive nemifanikisoyezviso zviviri. Zviso zvine meso makuru nemeno ari pachena.

Ndaive nechidokwadokwa chokuda kuziva kuti zviso izvi ndezvanaani. Mushure mekuverenga rungano urwu, ndakazoziva kuti zviso izvi ndezvevanhu vandakambosangana navo vachikurukura nezveChibarabada.

Chibarabada chacho chimbori chii? Chibarabada ndiwe neni. Chibarabada iguta risina magetsi, chingwa nemvura yokunwa. Chibarabada mugwagwa uzere nemakomba. Chibarabada inyika yemapenzi.

Chibarabada inovhero rine manyorerwo akasiyana namamwe manovhero atajaira kuverenga. Pamwe pacho rwungano rwacho rwunoita kunge bepanhau riri kutaura zviri kuitika, pamwe pacho rwunoita kunge chikwangwani chinononngedzera vanhu kwachisingasviki, pamwe pacho rwunomboita kunge izwi ragodobori.

Shingi anotaura rwungano rwuno achisheedzera seanorova bembera, pamwe pacho anozevezera achisekera muhapwa, pamwe pacho anoungudza matama ake azere nemisodzi. Urwu rwungano rwunoyanika nyaya yokushungurudzwa kwadungamunhu, mhuri nenyika nekuda kwemakaro.

Shingi anokura achidya nokurasa. Hupenyu hwake hunotanga kushanduka musi unofa vabereki vake netsaona yemumugwagwa. Babamunini vake Merinyo nemukadzi wavo Eve vanomuonesa ndondo kusvika azonosarudza kugara kurabu reMosi. Ari ikoko anoona huipi nehutsinye hwemhuka dzinorarama muguta reMosi.

Muchuri anoshandisa chidavado chekuimba nziyo, nekutaura ngano mungano. Rwungano rwuno rwunoita seChibarabada, rwunotutuma furo rwuchiserera, rwotutuma furo rwuchigadzana, rwunotutuma zvakare rwuchiserera. Rwungano rwunoda kuverenga uchizororera. Ukaverenga kamwe kamwe unoshaya kwarwakananga. Rwunomboita kunge rwumbo rwejakwara, rwoita kunge tsamba yorudo, rwomboita kunge nduri dzenhorimbo.

Rungano rwuno harwudi kuverenga uri pako wega, rwunoda pane vanhu vazhinji pakaita sopamusangano kana mubhazi. Harwudi kuverengwa mumwoyo, rwunoda uchisheedzera semunhu asina hanya. Ukadaro harwukudhake seChibarabada.

+++naPhumulani Chipandambira, Norton, Zimbabwe, February, 2019.
to buy/order Chibarabada: +263782883203

 

article in which I complain about the book situation in Zim

Find here The Sunday Mail article in which I complain about the current situation of books in Zimbabwe: https://www.sundaymail.co.zw/a-peek-into-zimbabwes-book-industry

ZIBF INDABA 2018 CALL FOR ABSTRACTS

(Farayi Mungoshi making remarks at a previous ZIBF main event)
           

            ZIBF INDABA 2018 CALL FOR ABSTRACT

 The dates for the Zimbabwe International Book Fair have been set for 24-29 September 2018. The Indaba Conference will therefore take place on 24 and 25 September 2018.  The theme of the 2018 Indaba Conference is “The Book: Creating the Future”. 

Sub-Themes: Presenters are encouraged to submit their own innovative topics that speak to the theme, The Book: Creating the Future. The following sub-themes are meant to guide possible research areas although they may be used as research topics:

 1)      Reading and writing books that create and inspire the future

Papers should discuss issues around Creative Cities in line with UNESCO’s agenda, arts and culture imaginations and envisioning the future including multi-media publications. The following are additional areas of focus:

Ø  Gearing the Book Industry for adult readers of tomorrow;

Ø  Gearing the Book Industry for young readers of tomorrow;

Ø  Use of social media for writing and publishing;

Ø  Writing books for ECD; and

Ø  Interfacing the book with other multi-media publications.

2)      Transforming and modernising societies through reading and writing

Presentations may focus on national development trajectories to industrialise and modernise nations. They should also address the regional and international development agendas such as Africa Agenda 2063 and the UN 2030 SDGs regarding the need to transform people’s lives for the better in tomorrow’s future through the eradication of poverty; quality health through eradication of HIV & AIDS and other communicable diseases; and the need for education that transforms nations through industrialisation and modernisation.

3)      Books for Science, Mathematics, Engineering, Technology and Medicine including Climate change.

4)      Towards unity within the Book Industry

Access to Information for All as provided through National Book Policy, Intellectual Property, Copyright and eradication of Piracy.

 

We therefore urge and encourage contributors to the 2018 Indaba to come up with ideas that will benefit all participants in the book value chain.  

 

SUBMISSION OF ABSTRACTS

Abstracts of not more than 500 words and word-processed in Times New Roman script with 1.15 line spacing should be submitted by 31 May 2018 by email to events@zibfa.org.zw with a copy to zibfa@yahoo.com. The abstracts will be reviewed by experts and authors of selected abstracts will be notified by 30 June 2018.  Presenters should submit the full papers and power-point presentations of the full paper by 31 July 2018. Power-point presentations MUST summarise the full paper in bullet form and should enable presenters to speak to the paper within the allotted time. 

Thank you

Mr Jasper Maenzanise

Deputy Chair, Executive Board, Zimbabwe International Book Fair Association

 

A quote...and a new picture

                                                            Memory Chirere




And remember, no matter where you go, there you are-----Confucius

Charles Mungoshi turns 70

(Mungoshi birthday pic by D. Maruziva)

 

Legendary Zimbabwean writer Charles Mungoshi turns 70 today 2 December 2017. Mungoshi handles a broad range of literary genres and styles in a way that is very rarely surpassed by many in the socalled Third World today. His literary profile is compact.  He is a novelist, poet, short-story writer, playwright, film scriptwriter, actor, editor, translator, and consultant.

While each of the other prominent writers of Zimbabwe like Vera, Marechera, Chinodya, Chiundura Moyo and Sigogo, have tended to write in English or Shona or Ndebele only, Mungoshi has written convincingly and continuously in both Shona and English. In 1975 alone, for instance, Mungoshi published two books: Waiting for the Rain (a novel in English) and Ndiko Kupindana Kwemazuva (a novel in Shona). These two works exude separate amazing qualities that one wonders how they could have been written “back to back.”

That ambidexterity was no fluke because later, in 1980, Mungoshi repeated a similar feat, publishing Inongova Njakenjake (a play in Shona) and Some Kinds of Wounds (a short-story collection in English.)  It is as if Mungoshi writes simultaneously with two pens - one in the left hand and the other- in the right hand!

In fact and as shown below, between 1970 and 2000, a period of 30 years, Mungoshi made an average of one major publication in every one and half years and won a prize of sorts for each of them.

1.  Makunun'unu Maodzamoyo (Brooding Breeds Despair) (1970)
2. Coming of the Dry Season (1972
3. Ndiko Kupindana Kwemazuva (How Time Passes) (1975)
4. Waiting For the Rain (1975)
5. Inongova Njakenjake (1980)
6. Some Kind of Wounds (1980)
7. The Milkmen Doesn't Only Deliver Milk (anthology) (1981)
8. Kunyarara Hakusi Kutaura? (1985) (Silence is Golden?)
9. The Setting Sun and The Rolling World (1987)
10. Stories From A Shona Childhood (1989)
11. One Day Long Ago (1991)
12. Abide with me (1992)
13. The Axe (1995)
14. Gwatakwata (1995)
15. Children’s Video Picture Book ((1998)
16. Walking Still (1997)
17. Writing Still (2004) an anthology in English with Mungoshi's poems
18. Branching Streams Flow in the Dark (2013)

Awards

1. International PEN Awards (1975 twice for both Shona & English and 1981)
2. Noma Honorable Awards For Publishing in Africa (1980, 1984, 1990 and 1992)
3. Commonwealth Writer's Prize for Best Book in Africa for The Setting Sun and The Rolling World (1988)
4. Honorary Fellow in Writing Award in the Creative Activities of the International Writing Program by The University of Iowa (1991)
5. USIA (United States Information Agency) Award for participating in the International Visitor Program (1991)
6. The Setting Sun and The Rolling World was a New York Time notable book of the year (1989)
7. Order of Merit Certificate Award by Zimbabwe Writers Union for winning in 1984 & 1992 the Noma Award for Publishing in Africa (1997)
8. Commonwealth Writer’s Prize for Best Book in Africa for Walking Still (1998)
9. Charles Mungoshi as 1998 winner of the Commonwealth Writers Prize, he was to be received in audience by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth. That year again the Queen graciously agreed to meet the winner at Buckingham (Tuesday 12 May 1998)
10. Received 7 awards at the Zimbabwe International Book Fair's 75 Best Books in Zimbabwe for 7 of his books (2004)^[5]

11.  National Arts Merit Award (NAMA) Silver Jubilee Award (2006)

12. One of Charles Mungoshi's poems has been curetted by the William & Melinda Gates Foundation as a  permanent display as public art at their new headquarters in Seattle, Washington, in the U.S. 2011

 

13. Certificate of Honor Award of the 30^th anniversary of Zimbabwe International Book Fair for dedicated service (2013).

14.  National Arts Merit Award 2014.

In the year 2004  Zimbabwe 75 best books, a project meant to come up with the best books ever to come out of Zimbabwe, Mungoshi appeared in the top 5 lists in both English and Shona categories – a feat completed by no other Zimbabwean writer.  The late Ruzvidzo Mupfudza, a short-story writer and essayist, even joked in The Daily Mirror of the same week that had any of Mungoshi’s works been translated to Ndebele, he could also have led in that category!

On 3 March 2006, Mungoshi appeared in the final list of the recipients of the Silver Jubilee Literary Awards, alongside Shona novelist Aaron Chiundura Moyo, pathfinder literary critic, George Kahari and Ndebele novelists, Ndabezinhle Sigogo and Barbara Nkala. He had beaten other hot nominees: fellow writers like Chenjerai Hove, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Mordekai Hamutyinei, Thompson Tsodzo, Pathisa Nyathi, Ben Sibenke and the late Dambudzo Marechera, and Yvone Vera.
As stated before, Mungoshi handles a broad range of literary genres and styles in a way that is yet to be surpassed by anyone in Zimbabwe. If the novel as in Makunun’unu Maodzamoyo (1970) or Waiting for the Rain (1975) offers the man a wider axis to explore and develop ideas, maybe his shorter bursts of inspiration find acute expression in shorter fiction as in Coming of the Dry Season (1972), Some Kinds of Wounds (1980) and Walking Still  (1997).  When that is done, the man does not linger long and suffer for he also broke into poetry in The Milk-man doesn’t Only Deliver Milk (1981). Feeling maybe trapped with traditional literary forms, he could, and as happened in 1992 with Abide with me, 1995 with The Axe and Gwatakwata, Children Video Picture Book 1997, get into writing for the screen.  Not apologizing for it, or looking back, he can go into acting itself. For instance he appears in plays as “the journalist” in Ndabve Zera, “the store-keeper” in Makunun’unu Maodzamoyo and as Trebonius in Julius Ceasar (produced by Andrew Shaw.)

When it suits him, he can also hit the road and present papers in Zimbabwe and across the globe.  The numerous invitations he has received are testimony to his status as an unofficial cultural ambassador of Zimbabwe. He has been Visiting Lecturer at the University of Florida in the 2000 Spring Semester and Resource Person at Netherlands’ Groningen Children’s Book Year Workshop in 1996. His profile shows that from 1980, 1990, Mungoshi did not go for a year without giving a paper in places like the University of Florida, Iowa, Durham University, Amsterdam, New Zealand, Australia, Cambridge University and many more.

Mungoshi is not very well known as a poet, arguably because he writes less poetry. However, his single poetry anthology, The Milkman Doesn’t Only Deliver Milk is deep and revealing. He refers to poetry in one interview as “only a sideline, a mere finger exercise” in his continuing endeavor to condense language to a spare state of fine precision. Mungoshi’s poetry exudes the styles and philosophies of his more celebrated prose.
The greatest strength of Mungoshi literature is the life-like feel he has for people.  He has sympathy for the under-dog, without over-writing. His characters belong to believable circumstances, place and time and are endearing. With use of deceptively simple language and plot comparable only to Mozambique’s Luis Honwana’s and maybe South-Africa’s Ezekiel Mphahlele’s too, Mungoshi tells stories about things you didn’t quite know about people you know.
For Mungoshi, writing is not external. It is participatory. It is not a profession or hobby. It is life. He says about writing parts of Waiting for the Rain: “I was living in it (the story didn’t happen in the past. It is a drum. It is happening, it is playing now.”
And maybe unknown to him, Charles Mungoshi helped introduce and popularize the techniques of psychological realism and stream of consciousness in Zimbabwean Literatures. At the attainment of Zimbabwe’s independence, African scholars in the Department of English of the University of Zimbabwe found Mungoshi’s quantity and quality of work very useful in arguing for a course on works by Africans in English language. The Rhodesian academics had often argued that there were not enough of such works to be studied in schools, colleges and at university levels.
A research conducted recently on the same department alone had very interesting revelations.  First, Mungoshi’s works have been translated to numerous non-European languages; Waiting for the Rain from English: to Hungarian (1978), to Norwegian (1980) and to Russian (1983) second, Coming of the Dry Season from English: to Russian (1985) Third, The Setting Sun and the Rolling World, from English: to Japanese (1995) Stories from a Shona Childhood from English: to Swiss (1996), to German (1988), Walking Still from English: to Swiss (2006).

Born to a rural farming community in Chivhu on 2 December 1947, Mungoshi has very humble origins and has remained down to earth despite his international stature. Until the time he fell ill recently, he had travelled across Zimbabwe, mentoring young and new writers, sometimes for no fee. Records at the Budding Writers Association of Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwe Women Writers association can bear testimony. He has mentored  or directly influenced  younger writers, among them Ignatius Mabasa, Ruzvidzo Mupfudza, Albert Nyathi, Joice Mutiti, Lawrence Hoba, Chiedza Musengezi, Thabisani Ndlovu, myself and others.  His style of writing has become a brand.  In honor of his amazing ambidexterity and depth, the University of Zimbabwe – conferred an honorary doctorate degree (Doctor of Letters-DLitt) on him on Friday 14 November 2003.  

The essence of Mungoshi literature is about grappling with the issues of home, identity and belonging in the changing times. He is constantly asking key questions: Do we truly belong to this land? Is it possible to belong here and elsewhere? What must we change and what exactly must continue and why? Is there any space for the individual in our quest for collective glory? Are we right? Are we wrong? In this quest Mungoshi pens “The Accident” a short story from Coming of the Dry Season which seems to question and challenge the stance of a people living under minority rules – the book lands him in trouble and is banned in Rhodesia only to re-appear later and has been studied in schools ever since. Mungoshi’s writings have also tended to evoke that strong sense of Zimbabweaness.
+By Memory Chirere, Harare

 

 

 

 

 

'sermon' on the mount

Memory Chirere reading (from Tudikidiki) to a writing workshop audience on top of Chisiya Hill, Zvishavane 2016, October.