Children Writing Zimbabwe
Review by Beaven Tapureta
Books written for children by both local and international writers glut the market while there is a comparative lack of books written by children themselves. We have few children seriously published as potential authors. And this is what makes Children Writing Zimbabwe a very valuable book and an enormous contribution to the high school and young adults’ literature in the country.
What we had in the past were stories for children adapted from ancient scrolls, picture books that were primarily didactic and about animal characters. This perhaps did appeal to the middle-grade children.
Children Writing Zimbabwe however explores a different avenue in that even though most of the short stories carry the look-before-you-leap leitmotif they exceptionally feature contemporary, interesting and sometimes complex characters.
In Find my Body and Take it Home by Andrea Washoma the character Lydia Stones embarks on a trip to a dreadful place known as Camp Horror. While most people anticipate her disappearance she comes back home a heroine. She carries home a very important message from the Boy Scout ghost whom she encounters at the camp.
Besides having rich characters who are contemporary role models, another amazing aspect about this whole book is that the authors, young as they are, tackle very important themes created by the misunderstandings of adults, issues which then affect them in different ways as children. Domestic violence, rape, prostitution, crime, AIDS and the economic crisis are reflected in the stories.
Destiny by Samantha Luiz explores the pain and sorrow of a young woman trapped in a forced marriage to an old man.
As a girlchild Buhle is denied the right to education and to choose her own destiny, and because of tradition she is forced to marry an old man who makes her life miserable.
The story Wheelbarrow by Trevor Carlson has a new approach towards the issue of rape. This short story teaches the rape victims to report cases of rape immediately so as to avoid complexities that come with not reporting. Debbie is raped but because she fears to be stigmatized by her peers she is reticent about what happened to her until she confides in her friend but it’s already too late.
She is eight months pregnant and she could even have contracted AIDS although this AIDS issue is not implied in the story at all. Then the story We Did Not think She Would Do it by Hope Chakombera seems to be an answer to the story Wheelbarrow in that, here, once a rape victim, Amarah actually becomes a heroine at the end of the story. She is not hindered by the stigma and trauma of rape but she progresses to save her people from the human-like creatures, “aliens” invading the village.
There are three stories, Every Little Thing by Matida N Ndlovu, Adrian and John by Lana F Williams, and 1979 by Gamila Elmaadawy that share the same beginning…
But the stories vary in terms of creativity and originality. Every Little Thing has beautiful metaphoric language and tells us how guns disturb peace.
It tells us about the extent to which crime affects other people’s happiness. In the story, Dumi is shot in the chest by robbers at his house, dies a few minutes later, leaving behind a deeply grieved wife whom he had married only a month ago. In Adrian and John the author draws our attention to how greed can actually break friendships.
John shoots his friend Adrian after arguing over who should keep an emerald they had picked up on their way from work.
In today’s Zimbabwe civil servants, particularly teachers, are the least paid. In a bid to counter the pestiferous economy, some have given up the dignity of their professions in order to survive.
This irresponsibility by some teachers is very excellently tackled in the short story Detective Molly by Chervonne Risinamhodzi in which teachers are paid foreign currency by some “nasty cash crew” who came from rich families and never took studying seriously. Molly, a student, is determined to stop the “nasty cash crew” from sitting for an exam paper which some unscrupulous teacher leaked to them beforehand.
On the whole, the young authors in Children Writing Zimbabwe have what it takes to be star writers of tomorrow.
From here they will move forward and continue to give a voice to serious issues that affect them as a society of young people as well as as individuals.
The book contains forty one short stories of varying depth and by budding authors some of whom have joined BWAZ through the British Council sponsored Power in the Voice (PIV) programme for young people. British Council transferred the PIV programme to BWAZ in July 2008.
The design of this book is artistic, only that the Table of Contents doesn’t indicate the page number where each story can be quickly found.
However, this is not a potential hindrance to the vast ocean of interesting, gripping, and meaningful fiction contained in the book.
The publication is unmistakably a breakthrough and many thanks should go to the British Council, The World Bank, Stanbic Bank, the Meikles, Nestle Zimbabwe and the Culture Fund for the support they gave to this progressive literary project pioneered by one of Zimbabwe’s reliable newspapers, The Standard.
Title: Children Writing Zimbabwe
Author: Various
Edited by Ruby Magosvongwe, Memory Chirere, and Jerry Zondo
Year: 2008
ISBN: 978-0-7974-3704-3
First published by: The Standard