The Waterman cometh
More excerpts from In Search of rain & Harvest (a novel, unpublished)
From the Deathwatch Journal
Entry: 31/12/99
10:30 p.m.
Here we stand at the gates of the new millennium. I don’t see what it is exactly that we, as humanity, have done to deserve this renewal. Perhaps the prophets of doom are right to predict Armageddon. Nothing like a bit of fire and brimstone for thorough and effective cleansing. Read more
The Keresenzia Effect: The child killer in Chirere & Tagwira’s stories
When a society’s structures fall, when its economy crumbles and there are high levels of unemployment and unimaginable suffering, its children face the highest levels of danger such a society of presents. The whole fabric of this society is endangered, and its future plunges into uncertainty. This has been true to the Zimbabwean situation, whose effects have begun to reverbrate through the country’s new literature, which shows how the children are responding to the woes of their environment. The works of Memory Chirere and Valerie Tagwira shed some light on this issue, which this study presents as the Keresenzia Effect.
In 2007, Valerie Tagwira shocked us with “Mainini Grace’s Promises”, a powerful story about the ravages of HIV/Aids, in which the child character kills her aunt at the end. The reader can see the frustration in the girl, her anger at the broken promise of Mainini Grace, whose betrayal to the family is that she has fallen victim of the pandemic that has killed other members of the girl’s family. If Mainini should be the source of hope, why has she allowed herself to be a victim? In a fit of rage, her niece pushes her to the ground, killing her in the process. Read more
Sadza paChimanimani
Zvinoita sadza! Takangoti tichiburuka bhazi paChimanimani Town Center kwava kuchimhanyira kwaibva munhuwi waro. Ipapo ndanga ndabva mukusangana neumwe murume wechidiki seni, uyo anga andiona ndichidzedzerekera kumusuwo webhazi ndokuti, “Manangepi ishe?”
Ini ndokuchitiwo, “Tisu maticha matsva ekwaNdima.”
Akabva asimuka ndokunangawo mukova seni, apo bhazi ranga rozhamba rananga musika.
“Zvatoita tawandirira. Neniwo ndakananga kwaNdima; ndiri kunotanga basa paprimary.” Read more
A woman in rebirth
In the beginning is a word, and the word becomes a voice shut up in her bones; in a whisper, it weaves itself into her loins telling her to burst forth like a bud from her self-made cocoon.
She hurries away from the word wearing a resolve to find her lost seed. But her heart thickens within cobwebs hanging inside the crevices of her being. The voice groans inside her. With her left toe, she scribbles a note on the ground for her grandmother, and another for herself, and then she drags her feet, shoulders clumped as if she is carrying a heavy load. Read more
Echoes of Young Voices short story competition
Young writers up to the age of 25 years are invited to submit short stories and poems on any theme for a young writers’ book publication. The short stories should be between 1500 and 5000 words and in English only. Poems can be of any length. An unlimited number of entries may be submitted. Please include personal details in all of your entries. Handwritten and typed entries are accepted. All submissions to be made at British Council, 2nd floor, Zimdef House, west wing, Bulawayo on or before the 30th of September 2008.
For more details on the competition contact Butholezwe Nyathi on 0913 017 831 or alternatively on the following email address: kgosinyathi@yahoo.com.
