Writing Still: New Stories from Zimbabwe
Edited by Irene Staunton
(Weaver Press)
In Zimbabwe’s current political situation, with freedom of speech being heavily curtailed and many journalists banned either from writing or from the country itself, this collection of 24 stories represents defiance against an oppressive system that would rather they were silent. Hence the title.
Three of the stories are set during the colonial period, when the liberation struggle was being waged in earnest, while the majority of the stories here deal with issues pertinent to contemporary Zimbabwe — poverty, disease, homelessness, corruption, and so on.
Pat Brickhill’s Universal Remedy, Stanley Mupfudza’s Mermaid Out of the Rain, Memory Chirere’s Maize and New Mourning by Mary Ndlovu, Uncle Francis by Stanley Nyamfukudza, Home Coming by Vivienne Ndlovu and Sorting it Out by Yvonne Vera — all these highlight the plight of women in Zimbabwe. Women often carry the responsibility of being breadwinners in a country plagued by poverty, infidelity and HIV/Aids.
Clement Chihota’s The Kiss, Brian Chikwava’s Seventh Street Alchemy, and Shimmer Chinodya’s Queues cleverly depict what people are going through and resorting to in their daily battle for survival in Zimbabwe. Prostitution, bribery, lack of resources such as petrol, and the frustrations of dealing with bureaucracy in government offices. Queues is a humorous love story that the author uses to show the relationship between the Zimbabwean government and its people from colonial to post-colonial times. The story of Seventh Street brings Harare to life with its vivid descriptions of the people and the streets.
William Saidi’s The Winning Side, Nevanji Madanhire’s Grim Reaper’s Car, Charles Mungoshi’s Sins of the Father, Julius Chingono’s Maria’s Interview and Gugu Ndlovu’s Torn Posters depict the post-colonial trend of affluent black people in powerful positions acquiring the same prejudices as the former (white) oppressors, and perpetuating the injustices they fought against during the struggle.
But not everything is grim in these pieces, as reflected in stories such as Alexander Kanengoni’s Ugly Reflection, Derek Huggins’s The Revolutionary and Chris Wilson’s Twelve Chitenges. These stories are about people talking to each other across the racial divide.
Interestingly, while the collection starts with a story of an individual who leaves the country to seek refuge elsewhere when the political situation worsens, it ends with the tale of another, who is determined to stay, despite the odds. The collection draws on a vast array of authors and issues, with stories that have a sense of familiarity for many in contemporary Africa. As Writing Still editor Irene Staunton says, writers in Africa have a difficult but important task: “Writers of integrity become the pulse of a nation, its eyes, its ears, and the barometers of its values.”
Zim book fair ready to roll
The Zimbabwe Book Fair (ZIBF), which takes place from July 31 to August 7, has announced that 383 of its possible 400 stands have already been booked, beating the ZIBF 1999 record. Only 185 stands were taken last year, because, said the ZIBF, of the “unfriendly economic climate”. The theme for this year’s fair is Voices: Dialogue Across Nations, and that of its Indaba colloquium (July 31 to August 3) is African Studies in and outside Africa. For more information, go to www.zibf.org.zw