Amelia’s Inheritance
Filed under: Books & literature, Entertainment, Arts & Culture, News you won't find elsewhere, Other Entertainment, Topical issues
Amelia
Paperback 204pp, Lion Press, 2010
Zimbabweans are picky readers and even pickier book-buyers. Who can blame us, considering that a considerable portion of the literature that has been churned out over the last two decades has been about the Chimurenga or the more recent political conflict? In a country where professionals earn $100 a month, who really wants to spend $10 on a book about how bad Rhodesia was or how repressive the present regime is? We know all that already.
How refreshing then to come across Sarudzayi Mubvakure’s second and latest literary offering, Amelia’s Inheritance! Set mostly in Ian Smith’s Rhodesia, this is the story of Amelia Gruber, the daughter of a German immigrant man and a mixed-race woman of unknown parentage, who had been raised as an orphan. As a child, her peers mark her as an outcast, and perhaps this pushes her from the psychological and social fortress the White settlers built around themselves and allows her a glimpse of the rest of the world. Her father loses his wealth and dies a broken man, leaving the family to cope as best as they can as one of Rhodesia’s best kept secrets; the Poor Whites. Amelia’s mother loses her mind, and her younger sister elopes leaving Amelia to hold on to precious little else. Sisi, their maid, stays with her.
Speaking of secrets, boy are there plenty! The people she meets along the way seem to know a lot more about her past than they should, and it seems less and less a coincidence that they have come in to her life. Amelia is also learning about the wider world, she is crossing the racial and social barriers of Rhodesia. She makes friends with a Black activist. Through their relationship, we are reminded of a fact that doesn’t seem to get mention by other writers; that the dispossession of indigenous Black people’s lands by White Settlers did not end with the Pioneer Column but continued well in to the last days of that ignoble racist political system. Like I noted, Mubvakure doesn’t take up too much prose telling us what we know already. In a suspense-filled, pacy narrative, Amelia becomes part of the process to break down those barriers and the secrets of her past become unlocked in a stunning conclusion.
Mubvakure has marked her own territory on the Zimbabwean literary landscape. Amelia’s Inheritance reminds me of Dickens’ Great Expectations, Oliver Twist etc in that she has a hero whose circumstances are set to change as the mystery of their past unfolds. However, despite her many shortcomings, the most glaring being her poverty and the breakdown of her family, Amelia is hardly a passive subject to the whims of fate. And there may be a bit of Catherine Cookson in the style, too. But Mubvakure’s style is original and establishes her as one of the most exciting new authors on the scene.
Available through Lion Press Ltd’s website and their growing list of distributors worldwide, and the major online bookstores.
The Rastafarian Christmas
Filed under: Inspire & motivate, News you won't find elsewhere, Religion, Spirituality for such a time, Topical issues
The following articel was originally published in the 24th December 2006 edition of The Sunday Mirror, Harare. The video depicts an Ethiopian hymn celebrating the Birth of Christ.
በተሳብ ቂዱስ The Blessed Virgin Maryam and Her Son
Lidät – the Rastafarian Christmas
Christmas as the saying goes, means different things to different people.
Even so, being the only Rastafarian in my wide circle of friends and family, my way of marking this occasion remains something of an enigma. I get many cards, and presents, but I never return the gesture. I also decline to attend Christmas parties. Then, in the first week of January, those of my people that are online get e-cards with the Amharic Greeting, Inkwan lalidätu baal badahna adarrasaw (lit. “Congratulations, to the Birth of Him the feast in safety He has brought you”)
And so, it emerges that Rastafarians do celebrate the Birth of Christmas, except that it’s not called Christmas and it’s not celebrated on the 25th of December. It is called Lidät, an Amharic word meaning “Birthday”. Because the Amharic language has its own alphabet, you will sometimes find this spelt as Ledet or Lidet as there is no standard transliteration in Western letters.
Already, it is clear from the name that the origin of this custom is Ethiopia, the spiritual home of Rastafari. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church, one of the oldest Christian Churches in the world, has been celebrating the Birth of Christ on the 7th of January long before European Christendom even came up with its own version of Christmas. In the light of the on-going controversy about the exact date, let me hasten to mention that the Orthodox Church does not claim that this was the day Jesus was born. Rather, the Feast was instituted by the Three Kings who arrived in Bethlehem on this day and paid homage to the Infant Christ.
“Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him,” Gospel of Matthew 2:1-2.
Further testament of the particular importance of Lidät is found in a prophecy of the visit if these Three Kings, dating from the time of the Patriarch Adam, who was given their gifts as a consolation after his expulsion from Eden. Read more
One Cause for One Nation- with Leander Kandiero on PowerFM
Filed under: Health & Well Being, How Zimbabwe can be better, News you won't find elsewhere
One Man.One Day. One Station. One Cause for One Nation- with Leander Kandiero on PowerFM
http://zimaidsday.blogspot.com
Log on for all the interviews and emails from Leander Kandiero’s One Man 24-Hour Marathon Broadcast…
For the first time ever in Zimbabwe, and indeed in world history, a 24-hour marathon broadcast on HIV and AIDS!
The brainchild of POWER FM, a musical station wholly owned by the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings, the 24-Hour marathon broadcast to be aired on Power FM presents Zimbabweans with an opportunity to reflect, talk about, question as well as map the way forward regarding the country’s responses to HIV and AIDS.
Zimbabwe: Queues of Despair
Filed under: General & Common, News you won't find elsewhere, Opinion, Analysis, Advice
If a Martian landed in Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital today, he would certainly be taken aback by the length and number of human queues.
Like garden worms, the human queues twist and turn throughout the city, blocking traffic as people wait to get a chance to get money from their bank accounts.
The queues start early in the morning and last well into the night. As long as people think there is a faint chance to get a hold of their cash, they remain huddled in the queue.
If anything, human queues have become an additional indicator of the collapse of the Zimbabwean nation state, in particular, the financial system.
Due to a multi-billion percent inflation, the Zimbabwean government is no longer able to meet the paper money needs of its citizenry. Read more
ZIFF hosts Brazilian Focus
Filed under: Entertainment, Arts & Culture, News you won't find elsewhere
Marcel Izidoro (Photo: fungaijames.com)
In collaboration with the Embassy of Brazil and Brazilian filmmaker, Marcel Izidoro, the Zimbabwe International Film Festival (ZIFF) will present a Brazilian Focus characterised by a series of screenings and masterclasses to be held at the Zimbabwe German Society and the ZIFF offices.
Setting the tone for the Focus are the masterclasses starting on August 28 with topics covered being various technical aspects of filmmaking, including, film directing and script writing, film editing, cinematography and sound.
Selected participants will be mentored by four film practitioners, Paolo Gregori, Azul Serra, Andre Soler and Eduardo Izique. Read more
ZIFF 2008- the reels are rolling
Filed under: Entertainment, Arts & Culture, News you won't find elsewhere
Nakai Matema
Friday evening saw the launch of the 11th edition of the Zimbabwe International Film Festival at a function held at the 7 Arts Theatre in Harare.
Over 300 people attended the opening ceremony whose highlight was the screening of the American film “The Visitor” starring Zimbabwean actress Danai Gurira.
This year’s festival is themed “The Art of Film, Film as Art.”
Festival Director, Nakai Matema, explains: “This year we acknowledge how film incorporates every other genre of the arts, from the literary, to music, to visual and to the performing arts. Film encompasses and relies on all these forms of art, and so this year we celebrate and show our respect for our fellow artistes.” Read more
