M.K. Asante: Author. Filmmaker. Professor.

At 29, when most of us are struggling to set our feet firmly somewhere, M.K. Asante is already an author of three celebrated books, the latest being It's Bigger than Hip Hop, a filmmaker and a professor. This Zimbabwean gem says he was conceived at the night of a Bob Marley concert and birthed nine months later. Thus, at conception point Asante was/is a man of the arts.

This exceptional professor shows that one can be a professor and be 'hip' at the same time. The two go together. In sweatshirt, Nike 'foot' and a cap over his Rasta hairdo, Asante has given lectures in over 25 countries across the world. He says that what counts is not the material things we wear, but the intellect - that intangible thing seated in the head which has no correlation with your dressing - that counts. A first glance would lead you to judge him as a hip hop star or a fashion aficionado; but Asante says it's bigger than hip hop. 

The Philadelphia Inquirer described him as a "a rare, remarkable talent that brings to mind the great artists of the Harlem Renaissance." Asante is the recipient of the Langston Hughes Award and his latest book has been hailed by the Los Angeles times as "An empowering book that moves you to action and to question status quo America."

Note that all these were not grabbed from the classroom. He is also street-smart and have earned his fair share of rustication, dismissals and 'negative-branding' by teachers. He was told he would not amount to nothing, but ten, twelve years on, he has amounted to some so significant that his achievements are worth sharing. Asante's other books are Beautiful. And Ugly Too and Like Water Running Off My Back, winner of the Jean Corrie Prize from the Academy of American Poets.

As an acclaimed filmmaker, Asante direcated The Black Candle, a film he co-wrote with renowned poet Maya Angelou who also narrates the prize-winning film. It was through this work that Maya Angelou commented on his talents on facebook. And this is where I met Asante. He wrote and produced the film 500 Years Later, winner of five international film festival awards as well as the Breaking the Chains award from the United Nations. He also produced the multi award-winning film Motherland. Read more about him here, but first listened to this interview with CNN's African Voices.

83. Shadows by Chenjerai Hove

Title: Shadows

Author: Chenjerai Hove

Publishers: Heinemann (African Writers Series)

Genre: Novella/Pastoral/Politics

Year of Publication: 1991

Pages:111

Country: Zimbabwe

For the Africa Reading Challenge

Chenjerai Hove's Shadows is a story to read. In just 111 pages, Hove tells a story about love and death and the politics surrounding and leading to Zimbabwe's independence. Johana's father left his ancestral home to Gotami's land. There he became famous and rich, until the arrival of Marko. Johana walked with the boys and did the things they did. She herded the cattle and milked the cows. She found the classroom hostile. And she loved the boy with the civet cat in his mouth. But the boy seems to see through her; not talking to her after he had initially expressed his love for her. Then Marko came. A boy who had escaped poverty from his own land. The two saw within themselves a common destiny and fell in love, platonic initially but then with time it morphed into something emotional, something that needed to be fulfilled. And it was fulfilled. When Johana's father heard of the happenings between his daughter and Marko, the boy from far away, he disapproved it and almost killed him. Later Marko would die by his own hands and Johana too. One from a rope, the other from a poison.

Written along the line of Romeo and Juliet, Shadows weave within its pages the politics of the day. How misunderstanding broke within the camps of those who were fighting for independence. How this fight for independence and this misunderstanding lead to the death of innocent rural folks. Within this we find that Johana's father is an alienated figure, neither supporting the freedom fighters nor supporting the colonialist. However, there were places in the story where one is more likely to assume that Johana's father appreciated the white rule more than the 'unknown' fighters in the bush and their cloudy course. 

He is a master farmer, he remembers. Do people not remember how the white man who teaches the good ways of farming came to our house, spoke a lot of things many of which no one could understand? Did he not mention my name so many times that people thought I was the younger brother of the white man? Every time he opened his mouth, his tongue danced with my name on it. Who in the whole village has had the white man come to praise him in his own home? They were jealous, their eyes looking at me as I stood there next to the white man like his interpreter, nodding as if I could understand the language of the nose. (Page 43)

And there were other places where Johana's father saw the white man (the colonialist) with a different eye. This makes Johana's father a character difficult to comprehend. He was a mix of everything: apprehension, fear, love, hatred, indecision and more. Just like all of us are. In him we find a man who would protect his children and his family and yet when his actions lead to death would also take the blame and suffer for it.

Having invited death onto his homestead, Johana's father left home for the city. While in the city he was officially declared a fugitive from justice by the guerrillas for being a saboteur. The brutal killing of his sons reached him and this dissociated his awareness of himself from himself.  He was later to be killed by the very individuals who killed his sons. Like Johana's father, Hove, a critic of the Mugabe government, would also go into exile in 2001.

Described as an extended prose poem, this pastoral story written in the vein of Mia Couto is evocative and makes the reader think and ask questions. Though the narrative keeps changing from an omniscient narrator to the first person (mostly, Johanna's mother), such shifts do not distort the read. One does not find the bump that one finds in stories of switching narratives.

My only problem with this brilliant piece is a problem I have had with most stories by Africans but one I have not written about. It is the use of a refutable 'lack of knowledge' for 'mistrust'. This is not only demeaning of African native farmer but also a continuous misunderstanding of the ways of our people. Recently, a body of knowledge has become approved in Agriculture, Indigenous Technical Knowledge. This body of knowledge shows the depth and level of thinking of the African farmer. For instance, why does he/she practice mixed cropping instead of monocropping? Now we know that, in addition to the diversification of production which leads to food security should a given crop fail, there is also the gain in nutrients released by one plant and taken up by the other. A simple example is the nitrogen-releasing leguminous crops interplanted with nitrogen requiring crops like maize. Yet, we who are of our people refuse to learn of and understand their ways. In Shadows Johana's father was a farmer who rears cattle. However, when he bought a piece of land at Gotami and was asked not to take his cattle there because of tsetseflies he became worried. And mistrusted the District Commissioner who had sold the land to him. He asked himself how flies could kill cattle. My problem is that wouldn't cattle raisers know of the tsetsefly, especially if they have been doing this all their lives?  However, we find that Johana's father did not know of the tsetsefly.

However, this may be my own misinterpretation and whether it is or it is not, it takes nothing away from the beautiful and carefully woven story of Hove. Though this wasn't the Hove I was after, I knew after I completed this that I would search for Bones, his most acclaimed piece. This piece is recommended to all who love beautiful prose.

_____________________________

Author's Bio: Chenjerai Hove (b. February 2, 1956), is a leading figure of post-colonial Zimbabwean literature. He's one of Zimbabwe's finest writre's now living in exile for fear of his life. Novelist and poet Chenjerai Hove gained international fame in 1988 with his novel Bones. In recent years, his work (which revolves around the theme of the spiritual importance of land in African cultures) has gained a new significance in the light of the social crisis unfolding in his native Zimbabwe. In 2001, Hove left his country of birth amid the escalating violence triggered by the government of Robert Mugabe. He now leads a migrant's life in the West and is an outspoken critic of the Mugabe regime.(Source)


ImageNations' Rating: 5.5 out of 6.0

63. Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga, A Review

Title: Nervous Conditions

Author: Tsitsi Dangarembga

Genre: Fiction/Novel/Coming-of-Age

Publishers: Ayebia Clarke

Pages: 208

Year of Publication: 1988; (this edition, 2004)

Country: Zimbabwe

For the Africa Reading Challenge and Top 100 Books

Set in a period when women were hardly considered for education because they would soon be married off and therefore be lost to the household from whose meagre financial resources she was educated, Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga, tells the story of young Tambudzai - or Tambu as she was known - as she challenges her archetypal family which threatens to consider her as an ordinary member of the homogeneous group of women. However, Tambu's resolve to seek education was so strong that she was not sorry when her brother - Nhamo - died. In the first sentence of the first chapter she says

I was not sorry when my brother died. (Page 1)

This sentence would cause jaws to drop and sensitive people to ask why? However, written in the first person singular narrative and directed at the reader, Tambu tells the events that led to the death and which led her to realise her dreams of being educated and for which she was offering no apologies. The story is not all about the death of Nhamo but about

my escape and Lucia's; about my mother's and Maiguru's entrapment and about Nyasha's rebellion (Page 1).

Knowing that all the individuals mentioned in the above sentence are women, one soon realises that the story is about the female independence or freedom in a patriarchal society. The book does highlight the gender inequality that existed within the society and how it affected women. It is not a book dedicated to the fight against tradition or an Africa versus the West book, it is a book that addresses common sense issues such as education for all, respect for all, and soliciting each other's views in decision-making. It is a book that seeks to equalise humanity irrespective of the gender of the person.

As a young girl Tambu relished to be in school but was prevented from doing so by her father, because he was poor and also because the only son in the household, Tambu's brother - Nhamo - was in school and all financial resources have been allocated towards his education. However, we realise that Jeremiah's - Tambu's father - decision not to educate his daughter does not arise only from poverty but also from the fear that men had for educated women and also from the stratum men and society had placed women. For when Tambu argued with his father concerning her education, his father asked:

Can you cook book and feed them to your husband? (Page 15)

Thus, the traditional duty of a woman to be his husband's keeper and the bearer of his children were being drummed into her at that early stage. As non-conformist as Tambu was and as one who would not accept a decision without challenging it, she asked her mother whether Babamukuru's - their uncle who had taken Nhamo to school at the missions where he is the headmaster - wife (Maiguru) who is educated cooked books for their uncle:

This time, though, I had evidence. Maiguru was educated, and did she serve Babamukuru books for dinner? I discovered to my unhappy relief that my father was not sensible. 

I complained to my mother. 'Baba says I do not need to be educated,' I told her scornfully. 'He says I must learn to be a good wife. Look at Maiguru,' I continued, ... 'she is a better wife than you' (Page 16)

Tambu's quest for education was perhaps borne out of Maiguru's demeanour, which at that point she didn't know it was a facade, and also of Nhamo's reaction to village life whenever he comes on holidays. Nhamo was alienating himself from his sisters and his family; he saw the village as below him and Tambu also wanted to be out of that place, to be like Maiguru. However, when she could no more convince her parents, she decided to grow maize and use the proceeds to pay her fees. Yet, it wasn't until the death of her brother that the family decided to educate her.

In this novel, Tambu tells of how all the women in the story are in one way or the other trapped, including even the seemingly enviable Maiguru, whose level education was at par with her husband's. Maiguru was trapped by marriage and society. With all her education her husband hardly solicits her opinion in matters of familial decision. Consequently, she was unhappy, complains a lot, and lives under the shadow of her husband. And she had to give up a lot in her personal development just to make society happy. She tells of how everybody thought when she travelled with her husband to the United Kingdom, she merely went there to 'look after' him while he studied. No one knows the level of her education and she prefers to keep it that way. Lucia is trapped by poverty and bareness and because of these her family members consider her a witch. However, Lucia is strong-willed and hardworking. Ma'Shingayi - Tambu's mother - was herself trapped by poverty, neglect and illiteracy. Due to these she and her husband lived under the shadows of the more educated Babamukuru, doing things she would personally not have done but had to because Babamukuru had said so. Ma'Shingayi was so broken that when an opinion was asked of her, she jumped into a long tirade, pouring out all that had worked to weaken her psychologically, emotionally and physically in a series of rhetorical questions:

Since for most of her life my mother's mind, belonging first to her father and then to her husband, had not been hers to make up, she was finding it difficult to come to a decision. 

'Lucia' ... 'why do you keep bothering me with this question? Does it matter what I want? Since when has it mattered what I want? So why should it start mattering now? Do you think I wanted to be impregnated by that old dog? Do you think I wanted to travel all this way across this country of our forefathers only to live like dirt and poverty? Do you really think I wanted the child for whom I made the journey to die only five years after leaving the womb? Or my son to be taken from me? So what difference doe it make whether I have a wedding or whether I go? It is all the same. What I have endured for nineteen year I can endure for another nineteen, and nineteen more if need be. (Page 155)

And the last of the women is Nyasha - Babamukuru's daughter. Nyasha is trapped between cultures. Having spent a larger portion her formative years in England and having acquired certain behaviours that are contradictory to the expectations of traditional society, Nyasha was caught in a web-like entanglement with nowhere to go than to push forward or rebel. She shouts at her father, argues and challenges his authority. And in one of such altercations she hits him after he had done so.

In one way or the other all these women - save Ma'Shingayi - rebelled against Babamukuru's authority and societal expectations. Some ended well, such as Maiguru whose opinions began to be solicited in decisions, Lucia who got a job and Tambu herself who was being educated. However, it did not end well for Nyasha who found it difficult merging these two cultures, and so broke down.

Whereas the women were seemingly trapped, the men in the story were either weak and poor such as Takesure and Jeremiah, wealthy and opinionated such as Babamukuru, or ambivalent such as Chido - Nyasha's brother. This is a book of complex emotions and reactions. For relationships that look fresh and thriving on the surface are actually stale and dead on the inside.

To sum it up, I went through a roller coaster of emotions. I got bored at certain points, insane at others, virtually threw the book away, asked deep questions at others, conflicted my initial emotions at more places, and finally fell in love with the book. For instance, as much as I didn't like Babamukuru 'blowing' his daughter I was shocked of the daughter's reply; I was shocked of Tambu's refusal to attend his parents' wedding because it shamed her (I attended my parents marriage when I was about twelve); I wanted to tell Maiguru to stand up to Babamukuru, but Babamukuru was not a monster. He was actually a family man providing for his extended family, showing care as is expected of him. He only was reacting to 'what people might say'. I wanted to tell Nyasha that there are cultural differences because it is always bad to have altercations with your parents or any adult. I wanted Babamukuru to sit down with his daughter and talk to her and to listen to her opinions too. I wanted Maiguru to stop covering up issues. And these are the issues Tsitsi Dangarembga wanted to bring out. Had I reviewed this book just after reading, I would have reacted badly to it. But now, after days of digestion, I know what Tsitsi was about.

This is a typical coming of age story, though I believe things are turning around for many women. I enjoyed this book and would recommend it unreservedly to all readers. And remember there is a sequel to this The Book of Not which I would be reviewing soon, but not next.

_______________________________________________________

Tsitsi Dangarembga

Brief Bio: In 1959, Tsitsi Dangarembga was born in what was formerly referred to as Rhodesia, now called Zimbabwe, in the town of Mutoko. Although born in Africa she spent her childhood , ages two through six, in Britain. She began her education in a British school but concluded her early education, her A-levels, in a missionary school in the City of Mutare. Later, she went back to Britain to attend Cambridge University where she pursued a course of study in medicine.

Back home, she began a course of study at the University of Harare in psychology. During her studies, Dangarembga held a job at a marketing agency as a copywriter for two years and was a member of the drama group affiliated with the university. In 1983 she directed and wrote a play entitled "The Lost of the Soil". She then became an active member of a theater group called, Zambuko. While involved in this groups she participated in the production of two plays, "Katshaa!" and "Mavambo".

In 1985, she published a short story in Sweden entitled "The Letter" and in 1987, she published a play in Harare entitled "She No Longer Weeps". Her real success came at age twenty five with the publication of her novel Nervous Conditions. This novel was the first novel to be published in English by a black Zimbabwean woman. In 1989, it won her the African section of the Commonwealth Writers Prize. Prior to this award she had won a second prize in the Swedish aid-organization, SIDA, short story competition. After Nervous Conditions was published in Denmark, she made a trip there in 1991 to be part of the Images-of-Africa festival. Dangaremba continued her education in Berlin at the Deutsche Film und Fernseh Akademie where she studied film direction. While in school she made many film productions, including a documentary for German television. She then made the film entitled "Everyone's Child", her most recent credit. It has been shown worldwide at various festivals including the Dublin Film Festival. (Source)

ImageNations Rating: 6.0 out of 6.0

52. The Hairdresser of Harare by Tendai Huchu, A Review

Title: The Hairdresser of Harare

Author: Tendai Huchu

Genre: Novel

Publishers: Weaver Press

Pages: 189

Year of Publication: 2010

ISBN: 978-1-77922-109-4

Country: Zimbabwe

I picked Tendai Huchu's debut novel, The Hairdresser of Harare, knowing not what to expect. In my interview with the author I had asked him what the book is about and his response did not help me when I finally discovered what the book is about.

The Hairdresser of Harare is more than a novel about love and acceptance. It is about the prejudices a society has against certain segment of its people. It is about self discovery and recognising that between the black and white continuum are shades of grey. This novel pushes the boundaries of African fiction, and in doing so not only broaches but discusses a subject matter that even I don't feel comfortable talking about - sexual orientation. 

The Hairdresser of Harare is set in the period when the Zimbabwean economic crisis was at its peak and hyperinflation has resulted in shortages of basic necessities such as sugar and petrol. Vimbai is a hairdresser at Mrs. Khumalo's salon. She is the queen that rakes in the money and customers specifically request her services, at least she was and they did until the arrival of Dumisani or Dumi. Dumi is a smooth talking gentleman with genteel mannerisms and his recruitment posed a threat to Vimbai's reign as the queen of Mrs. Khumalo's salon. Dumi's personality together with his deep knowledge of what to do for each customer made him the best hairdresser and customers - including Vimbai's customers - now begged him to work on them. And this seems to set the two on 'I-hate-you' path until Dumi came in with a request.

So when Dumi wanted a place to stay and Vimbai offered him an apartment in her house, the two became close. They became even closer when Dumi, attending his elder brother's wedding, introduced Vimbai as his girlfriend. That was when Vimbai realised that Dumi's parents are among the richest in the country, so why would the son of a wealthy man with all the connections become a hairdresser? This Dumi wouldn't say much about but with his parents accepting her, as their muroora, even when they later got to know that he has a child, Chiwoniso, born out of wedlock, and showering her with gifts, the questions increased. Which wealthy parents would allow their son to marry a lady from nowhere and who, in addition, ha a child?

When Dumi met Mr. M__ and he started coming home late, Vimbai realised that there is something wrong with Dumi. Searching for the truth and finding it, Vimbai was devastated and couldn't believe that the man she loves could be so evil.

The passages that were by far the sickest were the ones in which he declared his love or Mr M__, as if such a thing were ever possible. He used passionate terms like 'the love of my life', which only men and women use. (Page 167)

Tendai Huchu

Written in the first person by Vimbai, we learn of what it is to be a homosexual in a country with laws against homosexuality. Dumi went through a lot of pain - physical and emotional ones - because of whom he is; because he wanted to be accepted; because he wanted to be who he is. I found my self sympathising with Vimbai agreeing with her perspectives on the issue, approving some of her actions, hating her for others and still getting convinced by Fungai's philosophical explanation of homosexuality, which earned him the isolation of his friends. 

There was a lot more going on in the novel too. The reality of the conditions in Zimbabwe was strongly stated without the narrator (or writer) being sentimental. For instance, we find that Dumi's objectivity makes him question a lot of things that happen in the country like corruption, while still not leaving the country because he believes in the country; while still questioning a BBC reporter who had come to report on the dwindling tourism. It was a pity that what made him finally leave was not his hatred for the country but his non-acceptance within it. 

In Vimbai we have an observant character. However, I was hurt when she questioned which was better, life under colonial rule or life under dictatorship, after seeing a long queue of people waiting to get their passport issued to them?

It was ironic that during the war of independence people had not left in the way doing now under the same revolutionary government that had freed them. Could it really be that independence had become a greater burden than the yoke of colonial oppression? (Page 122)

I always believe that it is better to rule one's own country no matter how bad one rules it. When we do, we can hold ourselves to account and can deal with our issues internally. I would be hurt to hear a South African say Apartheid is a better government. But that's Vimbai's observations and she was justified given the desperation of the time.

The novel was replete with fresh metaphors and allusions. This is how Vimbai, the narrator, described herself after betraying Dumi:

I walked through the packed streets of the city feeling like I was being weighed down by thirty pieces of silver.

The problem with this novel lies in the non-translation of some of the foreign phrases used, though this wasn't much but judging from the way I enjoyed the prose I wished I could understand every word written in the novel. I also believed that certain generalisations that the narrator made took something away from it and certain facts should have been left out such as humans thinking they were superior to animals. We have always thought so.

Being the first full-length novel I have read that explicitly deals with homosexuality as a subject, this tour de force has tempered my perspectives on the subject. This is a novel that worked absolutely for me on all levels: theme, plot, prose, and many others. It is a wonderful book and a very bold attempt at raising this moribund topic up for discussion. I recommend this novel unreservedly to all readers. This book, on its own, has widened the horizon of African writing. It has, singularly, taken it from the confines of what is perceived to be accepted to a pedestal where nothing is restricted except one's imaginative ability. Tendai Huchu deserves all the praise and for such a debut novel as this, he really needs to be recommended. This being my first reading of a Zimbabwean author I was not disappointed, I only sit in wait of his second novel. 

Read my interview with the author here. Make purchases here.

ImageNations Rating: 5.5 out of 6.0

An Interview with Bryony Rheams, author of This September Sun

We continue today with our interviews with new authors, which began about two weeks ago. Today we interview the fifth author in the series, Bryony Rheams, author of This September Sun. Bryony Rheams was able to make some time to answer some questions for ImageNations. Soon after its release, This September Sun has won an award for first book in Zimbabwe. 

Can you tell us something about yourself (place of birth, school and anything in between)

I was born in Kadoma, Zimbabwe in 1974. We moved around a bit in my early years before finally moving to a mine just outside Bulawayo when I was about eight. I went to school in Bulawayo, completing my A levels in 1992. I then went to the UK on a gap year and also spent another year working in Zimbabwe before going back to the UK to go to university.

Which writers or people have influenced your writing?

Doris Lessing and Virginia Woolf

How would you describe your style of writing?

People tell me my writing is very easy to read, conversational in tone. I like using first person narrator who builds up a relationship with the reader.

How difficult was it for you to become publish?

AmaBooks were familiar with my work, so they were keen to read This September Sun when I told them about it. However, finding a publisher outside of Zimbabwe has proved quite difficult. I think that publishers have quite set ideas about what they want from Africa in terms of storylines.

How did you feel when you saw your name on the cover of the book?

It was very exciting. I felt a huge sense of accomplishment.

Tell us something about your book, This September Sun.

It's basically the story of the relationship between a young girl, Ellie, and her grandmother, Evelyn. Evelyn is not your conventional grandmother: she separates from her husband and finds herself a job, a flat and a boyfriend. Ellie finds herself as the go-between her grandmother and the rest of the family, who all feel she has done the wrong thing. Ellie eventually grows up and goes to live in the UK, where she studies literature. She longed to leave Zimbabwe, but now finds the UK cold and lonely. She returns to Zimbabwe on hearing that her grandmother has been murdered and is assigned the task of going through her things. On discovering Evelyn's letters and diaries, she discovers another side to her grandmother and unlocks some long-concealed family secrets.

What particularly motivated you to write this novel?

I started off with the first line which came to me after a conversation with friends in which someone said that the British flag was burned at Brady Barracks in Bulawayo at Independence in 1980. Then I wrote the first chapter and thought, what now? It all came from there.

What do you intend to achieve with your writing?

At the moment, my motivation is almost purely financial. I want to have enough money to stay at home and spend time with my young daughter and write without pressure of a job. I don't have any particular message, but I do feel that I had something inside of me that needed to be expressed and now I've done that I think my next book might be quite different.

Has being published changed your life?

Not dramatically, but it's very nice when people tell me that they've really enjoyed reading the book.

Who are your target audience when you write?

I don't think of anyone in particular and I know that a wide variety of people have enjoyed my book. It seems to have an equal appeal to those who also grew up in Bulawayo around the same time, but is not limited to them.

What do you intend to add to the Zimbabwean Literary-Scape, which I see to be growing day by day?

I'd like to think that I've opened a different perspective onto white Zimbabwean life and also shown that subject matter need not be limited to poverty, AIDS, suffering and the like.

What is it that makes Zimbabwean writers stand out? For instance, Irene Sabatini won the 2010 Orange Prize for New Writers with The Boy Next Door.

I haven't actually read Irene Sabatini's book so I can't comment on that score. I think partly there is a longer history of writing in Zimbabwe than in other countries, Zambia, for instance, and so Zimbabwean writing has had time to develop. I also think there has been greater interest in Zimbabwe over the past ten or so years because of the political and economic situation there. Times of crises traditionally spawn good writing as well.

Your book has just won the Zimbabwean Book Publishers Award for 2010. What does this mean to you? And does it put some pressure on you regarding your next novel?

I was pleased to win the award as it means my writing is valued, especially in my own country. Yes, I do feel the extra pressure to get on with writing another novel.

What do you do apart from writing?

Mainly look after my two daughters. That doesn't leave me much free time! I love reading, though, and enjoy taking the opportunity to curl up with a good book. 

Where could we get copies of your work, outside Zimbabwe?

At the moment in the UK, it is available through Books of Zimbabwe. It is on sale in certain bookshops in South Africa and Zambia.

Any work in progress?

Yes, I have started my second novel and also have lots of ideas for a third.

Bryony's Book Award

I opened my blog to find good news. I serialised new books from new authors and that included Bryony Rheam's This September Sun. This morning I got to know that it has won the the 2010 Zimbabwe Book Publishers Award for First Book...

The book is available at the Books of Zimbabwe website. It is also available from independent bookstores within Zimbabwe and South Africa and would be available at amazon soon. However, if you cannot get a copy please direct your email to amabooksbyo@gmail.com.

Extracts from the book, This September Sun, and other amaBooks publications, could be read from their website here.

ImageNations contacted Bryony and she has accepted to be interviewed here... Look forward for this interview.

An Interview with Tendai Huchu, Author of The Hairdresser of Harare

Tendai Huchu

Last week I serialised debut literary works from authors from different countries on the continent. Comments from readers were very positive. For most readers, my posts were the first time they had heard of these authors. Thus, it would be important that readers get to know these authors very closely.

If the access to the other authors prove positive and if they accept an interview from me, I would again serialised interviews from all the authors I have talked about. I begin today with Tendai Huchu, author of The Hairdresser of Harare. Please leave comments stating what you would want to know from these authors.

Can you tell us something about yourself (place of birth, school)?

I was born in 1982 in a sleepy mining town north of Harare called Bindura. It was the sort of place where everyone knew your name. I attended the local primary school and then went to boarding school in Harare up to my A Levels

Why did you decided to become a writer and how did you become one?

Writing is a form of escape for me. My head is a very crowded place but its only when I write that I find calm and solace. For a time I can ignore the reality of my circumstances. I only have to put pen to paper and I'm away.

How did your family take it when you took to writing (support, disappointment)?

I live 10,000 miles away from my family so writing was never something we discussed much. I get occasional encouragement and plenty of indifference. There are however friends who have become like family to me, Martin Gotora and Tafadzwa Gidi, who took keen interest in my work and gave me moral support when I faltered.

Which books did you find yourself reading while growing up and which are you currently reading?

I never really read literature outside of the texts proscribed in my education curriculum. Reading would have meant less time for playing sport, which I was awful at and chasing girls, another endeavour for which I was a complete failure. But from my youth I have vague memories of The Hardy Boys, A Kiss from Little Bear, Animal Farm.

At the moment I am reading Tsitsi Dangarembga's Nervous Conditions, Henry Olonga's brilliant biography Blood, Sweat and Treason and my landlord's rent arrears letter.

Do you have favourite writers whose writing influenced yours?

Sarah Ladipo-Manyika, Dostoevsky, Kafka, Dumas; the list is endless because every writer I read influences me in some way.

Which genre of literature are you comfortable with and which did you begin with?

Like everyone else where I am from, I began with a mix of western fairy tales and oral African folktales. I am comfortable with all genres, I will not confine my taste to one genre: If a book is good you will enjoy it regardless.

What motivates you to write?

For me writing is a form of exorcism. An idea will spin round and round in my head and unless I cast it out I will go insane.

Which writing style are you comfortable with and which do you find challenging?

I don't know what you mean but I write simple linear narratives. Because of this though, I find it difficult to allow my characters the freedom of expressing themselves outside of preconstructed plots.I like to play God but in the end the characters rebel and do their own thing anyway.

How difficult was it for you to become published, have you published anything before?

It was very difficult simply because like everything else writing is a craft that requires practice and patience in order to become good at it. The Hairdresser of Harare is my first published novel.

Tell us something about your book, The Hairdresser of Harare.

It is the story of Vimbai, an ambitious young single mother navigating her life through Zimbabwe's social, political and economic decay whilst trying to create a better future for herself and her daughter. Along the way she meets Dumisani, a dashing man from a wealthy family who, unknown to her, carries a dark secret that will shatter her view of the world. It is a story about love, hope, despair and challenging prejudices.

What is more important to you: Theme, Plot or Style?

You can't pick one over the other. For a book to work all these must come together to form a harmonious whole.

How did you feel when you saw your name on the cover of the book?

I threw up then went numb. You see, to me the story was nothing more the a concept in my head, a keystroke on a laptop, an email in cyberspace to my publisher, a microsoft word document but when I saw the book, The Word became Flesh. It was now real, its own independent entity, living, breathing, solid.

Has being published changed your life? Improved your writing skills?

My life hasn't changed one bit but my writing has improved because I worked with a fantastic editor, an old hand who opened my eyes and who, bit by bit, drove me to take my writing to a point far beyond what I thought were my natural limits.

Do you intend to be a full time writer or is writing going to be a part time activity?

It would be lovely to be in a position where I could devote my life to my craft but the reality is that I too have to earn my daily bread, Monday-Friday 9am to 5 pm, just like everyone else.

Any work in progress?

Someone told me it's bad luck to talk about work in progress.

Tendai's book could be purchased through weaverpress. The author also has an official website here.

Two From Zimbabwe: Tendai and Bryony

African literature has come a long way. It has moved from the periods where one could count the number of writers on ones fingers to today where quality works are produced almost everyday. Now, no one has the excuse of saying that he or she never had the opportunity of reading books by people of the continent. Before jumping fully into African literary works, I used to say that books written by Africans are too difficult to read and that they seemed to be meant for the big 'L' literature genre. Besides, having been born in a small town where there were no huts I was worried that almost every African book I picked had to deal with huts and fireside issues. The trend has changed and today we have writers writing on varied subjects and I don't mind reading about the 'Huts and Fireside' stories because I know there are others that write about other issues. Good.

Within the past week or two I have come across five new first novels by five different authors from three different countries. I would talk about them in series. Today I present the Zimbabwe duo of Tendai Huchu and Bryony Rheam. 

The Hairdresser of Harare by Tendai Huchu

About Tendai Huchu: Tendai Huchu was born in 1982 in Bindura, Zimbabwe, He attended Churchill High School in Harare and from there went to the University of Zimbabwe to study Mining Engineering. He, however, dropped out in the middle of the first semester, found work briefly in a casino and from there drifted from one job to the next. Four years later he returned to university and is now a Podiatrist living in Edinburgh, Scotland.

The Hairdresser of Harare is his first novel.

About The Hairdresser of Harare: Vimbai is a hairdresser, the best in Mrs Khumalo's salon, and she knows she is the queen on whom they all depend. Her situation is reversed when the good-looking, smooth-talking Dumisani joins them. However, his charm and desire to please slowly erode Vimbai's rancour and when he needs somewhere to live, Vimbai becomes his landlady.

So, when Dumisani needs someone to accompany him to his brother's wedding to help smooth over a family upset, Vimbai obliges. Startled to find that this smart hairdresser is the scion of one of the wealthiest families in Harare, she is equally surprised by the warmth of their welcome; and its is their subsequent generosity which appears to foster the relationship between the two young people.

The ambiguity of this deepening friendship--used or embraced by Dumisani and Vimbai with different futures in mind--collapses in unexpected brutality when secrets and jealousies are exposed.

Praises for The Hairdresser of Harare: 

"Like very good dark chocolate this is a delicious novel, with bitter-sweet flavour"

"A subtle and refreshing story of life in contemporary Harare ... a novel of morality, prejudice and ambition told with humour and tragedy" Brian Chikwava, award-winning author of Harare North

Tendai Huchu has accepted to be interviewed on this blog, so please just watch this space. However, until then you can visit his website. Visit weaver press for your copies.

This September Sun by Bryony Rheam

About Bryony Rheam: Bryony was born in Kadoma in 1974 and lived in Bulawayo from the age of eight until she left school. She studied for a BA and an MA in English Literature in the United Kingdom and then taught in Singapore for a year before returning to teach in Zimbabwe in 2001. She was part of the British Council sponsored Crossing Borders creative writing project and has had short stories published in several anthologies, including all three volumes in the Short Stories from Bulawayo series and in Long Time Coming: Short Writings from Zimbabwe. Bryony won the Intwasa Arts Festival koBulawayo Short Story Competition in 2006.

This September Sun is Bryony's first novel.

About This September Sun: According to The Zimbo Jam, the novel is a chronicle of the lives of two women, the romantic Evelyn and her granddaughter Ellie, from the time Evelyn arrives in the country in 1946 to the present day. 

Growing up in post-Independence Zimbabwe, Ellie yearns for a life beyond the confines of small town Bulawayo, a wish that eventually comes true when she moves to the United Kingdom. However, as with many Zimbabweans, life there is not all she dreamed it to be... read the rest at The Zimbo Jam.

Praise for This September Sun

A beautifully executed story about Ellie's painful journey of discovery through her family history. The writing in This September Sun, poetic at times, fires a clear warning shot across the bows of world literature to announce that Bryony Rheam has arrived to claim her rightful place--Christopher Mlalazi

An Impressive first novel by an accomplished writer that contains both romance and mystery--Brian Jones (one of the directors of amaBooks)

The novel is currently available in throughout Zimbabwe.

Get these books and enjoy the read.

Another Great Writer Has been Born--Irene Sabatini

My post on June 8, 2010 was titled 'The Zimbabwe I know'. In that post I bemoaned, partially, what has now become Zimbabwe; of the human right abuses and our complicity in it and our failure to recognise the good things that is Zimbabwe. I then went ahead to chastised people for treading the path of the media moguls for painting Zimbabwe dark. I especially talked about the literary talents that abound in Zimbabwe and the need for us to talk about it, shout about it and inform all. Today I have been vindicated.

Whilst surfing the net, I came across the blog entry 'Zimbabwe Writer Wins 2010 Orange Award for New Writers' at the blog 'Wealth of Ideas' managed by Emmanuel Sigauke, co-editor for the first StoryTime anthology 'Africa Roar'. I was happy and quickly went ahead to read and checked out this wonderful author. 

Irene Sabatini won her category with the book 'The Boy Next Door'. According to the Chair  Judge, Di Speirs,

'At the heart a love story, it is also so much more as, through the experiences of its charismatic protagonists, it charts the first two decades of the emerging Zimbabwe with honesty, humor and humanity. Irene Sabatini has written and important book that will enchant readers and which marks the emergence of a serious new talent.' 

What more can I add after this! Read it for yourself here...

Synopsis

As Zimbabwe breaks free of British colonial rule, young Lindiwe Bishop encounters violence at close hand when her white neighbour is murdered. But this is domestic crime, apparently committed by the woman's stepson, Ian, although he is released from prison surprisingly quickly. Intrigued, Lindiwe strikes up a covert friendship with the mysterious boy next door, until he abruptly departs for South Africa. Read the rest here....

About Irene Sabatini

Irene Sabatini was born in a coal mining town in south-western Zimbabwe. She grew up in Bulawayo. She left Bulawayo for Harare to attend university. After university she went to Colombia where she stayed for four years working as teacher and studying for her masters. Soon after that she started writing. According to her "The writing seemed to just spiral out of me, and if I had to pick a time when I really started this journey it would be that wonderful quiet morning on a verandah so many years ago in the Colombian countryside." Read more about this author here....

To reiterate my earlier post, let's come together and promote literature on the continent. This continent has a lot of stories that could be churned out in droves. Through literature we can solve most the problems we are facing as a continent. We can educate our children, induce a positive attitudinal change, and influence positively the thinking of posterity. 

The Zimbabwe I Know

Since the day Chinua Achebe published is classic novel, Things Fall Apart, African literature has enjoyed a stupendous growth that had our economies progressed along such trajectory, even at an infinitesimal level, we sure would be amongst the world's 'haves' and not amongst the 'have nots' as we currently find ourselves. Chimamanda Adichie has professed of the inspiration she got from this book and that it was this book that made her know that people with skin colour like hers can also be in books. 

In recent times news about and/or form Zimbabwe have always been political with some humanitarian  tragedy or human rights abuse twist to it. It is difficult to hear these media talking about the the greatness of this nation of stones, about the talents that abound in the country. And whilst these media giants are eagerly propagating the negatives, because that is where the news is juicy, we also follow their trail and talk negatively about it. About the human rights abuses (though G. Bush has the worst human right record), about the dictatorial regime that has become Zimbabwe, (though in the US every call can and is eavesdropped according to the PATRIOTS ACT), about every negative that we hear or is told us. 

We also hardly talk about our positives. Yet, there are many young and talented writers in that country. Many who should command our respect. My interest to promote African Literature has brought to my notice many of such writers and these individuals take their work serious. I am not here to talk about all the Zimbabwean writers I have met on this blogosphere but to bring to your notice one particular Zimbabwean writer whose work marvelled many.

Tsitsi Dangaremba

Some years ago the Zimbabwean Literary Foundation (ZLF) came out with their list of Africa's 100 best novels of the 20th century and amongst them was Tsitsi Dangarembga's Nervous Conditions (released in 1988). This novel made waves and was well received. However, Miss Dangarembga never added to this well received novel until in 2006 when she published The Book of Not as a sequel to the Nervous Condition.

The Book of Not as a sequel to Nervous Conditions traces 'Tambu's continuing quest to redefine the personal, political and historical forces that threaten to destroy the fabric of her community--and reveals how its aftermath still bedevils Africans today. Dangaremba's language sparkles and dances on the page as she delves into the education system, the liberation struggle and attitudes of contemporary Zimbabwean in an incisive and insightful examination of a system calculated to destabilize the sense of self. Read the rest here...'

Wizzy Mangoma--Published Poet

Wizzy Mangoma

Born in Zimbabwe, Wizzy Mangoma is a Writer, Spoken Word Artist, Storry Teller, Dancer/Choreographer, and Theater Director. She has travelled thoughout Africa teaching and learning different African cultures. Read more about Wizzy here...

According to Wizzy, she is inspired by life and she's influenced by sharing and acting in the now because tomorrow may never come.

Wizzy has published a book of poetry titled 'Moment Treasures'. The collection promises to be interesting, judging from her rich experience with songs and tradition... Click here to make a purchase.

29. The Wasp and the Fig Tree by Brian Chikwava

Brian Chikwava is an African writer. His short story Seventh Street Alchemy was awarded the 2004 Caine Prize for African Writing and Chikwava became the first Zimbabwean to do so. Brian is among the exciting new generation of writers emerging on the African continent. Although born in Bulawayo, Chikwava's formative years were spent in Harare, where he attended university and frequented the popular artistes' venue The Book Café.

The Fig Tree and the Wasp is a short story I read at the Granta online magazine. This short story is an interesting and thought-provoking piece. It defines the author-artiste and projects him very much. I have not read anything by Brian save this short story and I am very much impressed by his writing.

The freedom for independence, which led to freedom of indulgence, the contraction of the 'long-illness' disease and the death of the the victim, is the trajectory upon which the story travels. The lives of men and women, boys and girls in the new Zimbabwe was likened to the behaviour of the wasp in the fig tree. According to the author '..in the fig-wasp world, when all the girls have flown away to lay their eggs elsewhere and propagate the species, the fig fruit only goes down with the boys. In the world of men, when the rot set into the compounds and townships, it spared neither sex. Big jawed or winged, they all came down in the silent darkness of their fruit', thus the title of the story.

 

Brian uses two characters Silingiwe and Screw Vet to represent the new generation of females and males, respectively, in the new Zimbabwe. The story also portrayed the hypocrisy in most African homes where any communication on sexual health is abhorred yet they live or dance away their sexual fantasies. This was aptly said in the story '...acting out their sexual fantasies but not talking about sexual health.' The acting was made prominent by the new wave of waist-twirling dance, iskokotsha, which took the new Zimbabwe by surprise leading to the new wave of sexual promiscuity and sexual indulgence leading to death and thus breaking the long-practiced tradition of children burying their parents. 

In its entirety, the story deserved to be acknowledged. Read the short story here at Granta.

ImageNations' Rating: 5.0 out of 6.0