ZIMBABWEAN novelists, even the most successful, have a hard time surviving. In a workshop at the Zimbabwe International Book Fair (ZIBF) last week, only two were able to say they earned their living from writing.
One then confessed to being a journalist too, and the other, a playwright, admitted his main income comes from performance, not royalties.
Unless a work of fiction is prescribed for schools, print runs of more than 2 000 to 3 000 are rare. Shimmer Chinodya, whose Harvest of Thorns was a setwork which sold 80 000 copies, is a university teacher, and Charles Mungoshi, renowned for Coming of the Dry Season, has turned to film scriptwriting.
Chenjerai Hove was at the fair to sign copies of his new book, Guardians of the Soil. Produced in collaboration with photographer Ilija Trojanow, it is a journey through Zimbabwe, taking the form of a series of interviews with community elders. Hove described it as ”a tapestry of voices”.
He said the idea was to listen to ”those who talk about life’s essence every day … We searched for the substance, the root, the beginning which spells the shape of the future.”