Was 2009 a year for Zimbabwean Literature?
Tinashe Mushakavanhu
2009 introduces two Zimbabwean writers to the world. Caine Prize winner, Brian Chikwava, who is currently based in London, releases his much awaited novel, Harare North from Jonathan Cape and Swiss based lawyer, Petina Gappah’s collection of short stories, An Elegy for Easterly, is released by Faber & Faber. This is an exciting moment for Zimbabwean literature.
But not so long ago there was Violet Lunga’s Desperate Choices (2003), Stanley Makuwe’s Under this Tree(2005), Valerie Tagwira’s The Uncertainty of Hope (2006), Memory Chirere’sSomewhere in this Country(2006), Togara Muzanenhamo’s Spirit Brides (2006), Wonder Guchu’s My Children, My Home (2007), Chris Mlalazi’s Dancing with Life (2008) and Ignatius Mabasa’s Ndafa Here? (2008) – a festive collage of the new Zimbabwean writer.
But what defines these writers (mostly born from 1970 onwards during the decolonization process), and how do they differ from the older writers such as Chinodya, Dangarembga, Hove, Kanengoni, Mungoshi and Vera? Whereas it is possible to say that the earlier writers have their nationalist politics in common, the younger writers seem to be less encumbered. This is not to say they are apolitical – they are very political, after all, the political could be said to be one of the defining traditions of Zimbabwean literature, but their politics are less unified, more individual, and less predictable.
The new Zimbabwean writer provides a bridge that crosses our borders and reflects the universal in the specifics of our predicament. And the literature s/he creates humanizes the phenomenon being described as “the Zimbabwean crisis.” Yes, Zimbabwe with Uncle Bob, may be a perfect stereotypical outpost of tyranny for the Western imagination, but Zimbabwe, to these writers, is a country of a people with a capacity to dream, to feel pain, to smile and not mere cholera statistics flashed on every news bulletin in Europe and America. Of course, this is not to politically suggest that these writers write because they want to interpret their country or culture, they just write what they have to write.
Though, it’s obscene to say, the humanitarian tragedy manifesting in Zimbabwe is certainly a source of inspiration and has triggered a flurry of creativity. A generation of writers is emerging out of this rubble of disaster to produce a powerful, evocative body of literary history that will alternately serve as a primal screen denouncing tyranny, records that will serve as a means of grappling and coming to terms with this national trauma, and a literature that will serve as a vehicle for imagining a better world.
There are two categories of the Zimbabwean writer today, those who have remained in the country and those who have gone to live elsewhere. But despite the geographic location of the Zimbabwean writer, whether just across the Limpopo, or the damp and grey London, or the metropolitan New York, or broken down Harare, all these writers share a passion for a country ruined by some old men of the past. Their stories capture the smells and sights and pains and joys of Zimbabwe.
Many obstacles stand in the way of the Zimbabwean writer. Due to the legislative smothering of the principle of freedom of expression, there is a kind of fear enveloping Zimbabwe – because you never know what will happen to you if you dare to freely express your mind. But, it seems the censors have not at all been interested in the ‘fiction’ writer. Its fiction after all and besides they must have other emergencies to deal with! This disinterest can be attributed to a more general disinterest in literature and that indifference is a devious form of censorship because it means no official government assistance, no media coverage, no pedagogical or cultural influence.
Another worrying reality is the local publishers lack of finance to take on new projects due to the ever failing economy, and notwithstanding, the market for books in Zimbabwe is little, if not pathetic – people are not concerned with the nourishment of the mind but with what keeps their bodies going. SURVIVAL. But, the most productive incubators of this literary inferno is the combined efforts of amaBooks, Priority Projects and Weaver Press – small companies, with modest budgets and above all a passionate commitment for keeping the Zimbabwean imagination and story alive.