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Tendai Huchu ( Source ) Today, I bring you an interview (a discussion) with Tendai Huchu. I interviewed him when his first book The Hairdresser of Harare came out. He has published his second book: The Maestro, The Magistrate, and The Mathematician. I caught up with him via Facebook and this is what ensued. Nana Fredua-Agyeman : So how did The Hairdresser of Harare   do? And how was it accepted in Zimbabwe noting the subject matter? Tendai Huchu : The Hairdresser isn't a book I think much about now. I have moved on as an artist. It was well received in Zim. First print run sold out. Good reviews. It was a popular read. Nana Fredua-Agyeman : OK. Great. I'm surprised you say you think not much about it. Is it that you are more concerned with your new work? Tendai Huchu : Yeah, I am doing newer and, hopefully, more interesting stuff. I have/am evolving. For me, the next project is always more exciting than the last. I imagine it is the same for all writers. ...

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...

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 ...

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 di...