Moving On bristles with the talent of writers from Zimbabwe. This collection brings together twenty of Zimbabwe’s finest storytellers, from within the country and without. Many of the characters in this anthology are themselves moving on: from the chains of the past, from the loss of loved ones, from long-held beliefs. Some from life itself and others to a brighter future. Between the covers the reader will encounter the father who uses his take on democracy to name the family dog, the villager who desperately waits for shoes and salt to ward off witchcraft, the young man who flees with the book, the boys who hide from the big noise, and a host of other characters. The featured writers are: Togara Muzanenhamo; Mzana Mthimkhulu; Bryony Rheam; Thabisani Ndlovu; John Eppel; Melissa Tandiwe Myambo; Raisedon Baya; Donna Kirstein; Christopher Mlalazi; T.L. Huchu; Patricia Brickhill; Tariro Ndoro; Christopher Kudyahakudadirwe; Ignatius Mabasa; Barbara Mhangami-Ruwende; Bongani Kona; Adrian Fairbairn; Murenga Joseph Chikowero; Gamu Chamisa; and Blessing Musariri
The writing in this collection, at times dark, at times laced with comedy, is set against the backdrop of Zimbabwe's 'lost decade' of rampant inflation, violence, economic collapse and the flight of many of its citizens. Its people are left to ponder - where to now? ... In these pages you will meet the prostitute who gets the better of her brothers when they try to marry her off, the wife who is absolved of the charge of adultery, the hero who drowns in a bowser of cheap beer and the poetry slammer who does not get to perform his final poem. And many more."--Back cover
SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2020 BOOKER PRIZE A searing novel about the obstacles facing women in Zimbabwe, by one of the country’s most notable authors Anxious about her prospects after leaving a stagnant job, Tambudzai finds herself living in a run-down youth hostel in downtown Harare. For reasons that include her grim financial prospects and her age, she moves to a widow’s boarding house and eventually finds work as a biology teacher. But at every turn in her attempt to make a life for herself, she is faced with a fresh humiliation, until the painful contrast between the future she imagined and her daily reality ultimately drives her to a breaking point. In This Mournable Body, Tsitsi Dangarembga returns to the protagonist of her acclaimed first novel, Nervous Conditions, to examine how the hope and potential of a young girl and a fledgling nation can sour over time and become a bitter and floundering struggle for survival. As a last resort, Tambudzai takes an ecotourism job that forces her to return to her parents’ impoverished homestead. It is this homecoming, in Dangarembga’s tense and psychologically charged novel, that culminates in an act of betrayal, revealing just how toxic the combination of colonialism and capitalism can be.
Saving Zimbabwe is the gripping story of a group of extraordinary black and white Zimbabweans who lived together forming ‘The Community of Reconciliation’. They chose love over hate and integration over segregation. They believed in harmony over discord and that loving your former enemies was a higher way of life. Against all odds they succeeded in transforming a region of the nation in to a life-giving community. By example they demonstrated that the course of Zimbabwe could be changed, and provided a working model for the road ahead. Tragically on 25 November 1987, the sixteen white members of the Community made the ultimate sacrifice and were martyrd. Their killers thought they were ‘liberating’ their people but in fact drove the black community back under the oppressive forces of poverty. Why did they die? This book takes you on a journey to discover the answer to that haunting question and more. With the current political and economic uncertainty in Zimbabwe, the message of Saving Zimbabwe is more relevant than ever. The country needs transformation which should start in the heart of her people. The destiny of a nation and millions of lives are at stake.
This is the Story of Five Marriages and One Gun A British couple wonders at the unknowable city beyond their guarded compound while building walls between themselves. An American suspects his new home is having an insidious effect on his Zimbabwean wife and their young daughter. An enthusiastic young intellectual follows his wife to the city and finds only danger and disillusion. An intelligence officer loses a crucial piece of evidence. It will cost him his marriage, his mistress, and maybe his life. An impoverished taxi driver and his wife find a gun in the cab. From this point on, all their lives are tied to the trigger. In C.B. George's Zimbabwe, the betrayals and conspiracies of the corrupt world are nothing compared to those of marriage.
Thrilling, heartbreaking, and, at times, absurdly funny, The Last Resort is a remarkable true story about one family in a country under siege and a testament to the love, perseverance, and resilience of the human spirit. Born and raised in Zimbabwe, Douglas Rogers is the son of white farmers living through that country’s long and tense transition from postcolonial rule. He escaped the dull future mapped out for him by his parents for one of adventure and excitement in Europe and the United States. But when Zimbabwe’s president Robert Mugabe launched his violent program to reclaim white-owned land and Rogers’s parents were caught in the cross fire, everything changed. Lyn and Ros, the owners of Drifters–a famous game farm and backpacker lodge in the eastern mountains that was one of the most popular budget resorts in the country–found their home and resort under siege, their friends and neighbors expelled, and their lives in danger. But instead of leaving, as their son pleads with them to do, they haul out a shotgun and decide to stay. On returning to the country of his birth, Rogers finds his once orderly and progressive home transformed into something resembling a Marx Brothers romp crossed with Heart of Darkness: pot has supplanted maize in the fields; hookers have replaced college kids as guests; and soldiers, spies, and teenage diamond dealers guzzle beer at the bar. And yet, in spite of it all, Rogers’s parents–with the help of friends, farmworkers, lodge guests, and residents–among them black political dissidents and white refugee farmers–continue to hold on. But can they survive to the end? In the midst of a nation stuck between its stubborn past and an impatient future, Rogers soon begins to see his parents in a new light: unbowed, with passions and purpose renewed, even heroic. And, in the process, he learns that the "big story" he had relentlessly pursued his entire adult life as a roving journalist and travel writer was actually happening in his own backyard. Evoking elements of The Tender Bar and Absurdistan, The Last Resort is an inspiring, coming-of-age tale about home, love, hope, responsibility, and redemption. An edgy, roller-coaster adventure, it is also a deeply moving story about how to survive a corrupt Third World dictatorship with a little innovation, humor, bribery, and brothel management.
Describes the lives of two very different Zimbabweans--Nigel Hough, a wealthy white farmer, and Aqui, his poor black nanny--from the 1970s to 2002, focusing how both were affected by Zimbabwe's brutal civil war and its aftermath.
Dot Bekker was born and raised in Bulawayo in the south-west of Zimbabwe. After thirty-eight years away ¬- twenty of those in Europe - she decided to return to the country of her birth; however rather than hop on a plane, Dot chose to drive there: all by herself at the age of sixty, in a twenty-year-old 2WD Ford Transit van that she converted into her home. Dot spent eight and a half months covering 20,000km of some of the toughest overlanding routes in the world, through West and Central Africa. This is her story.Follow Dot's extraordinary 20,000km adventure in her first book, Going Home to Africa, where she describes the ups and downs she faced over the course of her grand expedition: the countries, the people, insane traffic, corrupt borders, marriage proposals, perilous potholes and good old Africa Roadside Assistance.Her fascinating journal also highlights the varied landscapes and cultural history of Africa that she discovered along the way, the strange, funny and sometimes terrifying situations that she encountered, and the numerous challenges that she and BlueBelle endured - all the while navigating her own personal internal journey.At the time of writing Dot still lives in and travels with BlueBelle whenever possible and can be seen out and about meeting people and making things happen in her beloved Zimbabwe. Since her return to Bulawayo, Dot has been tirelessly seeking ways to improve the future for rural communities in Zimbabwe. Her twenty years of business coaching experience is helping to enhance their traditional lifestyle with 21st Century technology in order to actively encourage sustainable development. Another of her passions is giving vulnerable and disadvantaged girls access to education, to which end she created the non-profit organisation, Kusasa. She very much believes that making progress in the gender equality/equity agenda through education is vital for her country.She is also already working on the sequel to Going Home in Africa, which will detail the experience of returning to her homeland and the many joys and challenges she has faced since her return, it will be titled Being Home in Africa.Alongside all this, she has also decided to encourage more women to visit Africa and will be running small women-only group tours from 2022 in Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa. Watch her Facebook page for details of Going Home to Africa Tours.To find out about Dot's journey as it continues, look at @goinghometoafrica on Facebook and Instagram or on the website www.goinghometoafrica.com for blogs and updates. To find out about the girls' education fund, look at @kusasa.africa on Facebook and Instagram or on the website www.kusasa.africa.
A powerful, moving, and revelatory novel set in nineteenth-century Africa--the captivating story of the loyal men and women who carried the body of explorer and missionary David Livingstone from Zambia to Zanzibar so that his remains could be returned home to England. Dawn, 1 May 1873, on the outskirts of Chitambo's village, near Lake Bangweulu in modern-day Zambia. The Scottish explorer and missionary David Livingstone has died. He had been heading south in the African interior on an increasingly maniacal mission to penetrate the greatest secret of Victorian exploration. He wanted to find the source of the world's longest river, the Nile. Instead, on an isolated and swampy floodplain, Dr. Livingstone found his death. How Livingstone is to be buried will be decided by his African companions, a group of sixty-nine men, women, and children. They decide that come what may, Livingstone, his papers and maps, must all be carried to England. They bury his heart and other organs under a tree and dry his flesh like jerky in the sun. Over nine months, battling severe illness and hunger, hostile chiefs and unknown terrain, all while taking a tortuous route of more than 1,000 miles to the coast to avoid marauding slave traders, they march with Livingstone's body and the evidence of his explorations. Their journey has been called "the most extraordinary story in African exploration." In this novel, their story is retold anew in the distinct, indelible voices of Livingstone's sharp-tongued female cook, Halima; a repressed, formerly enslaved African missionary named Jacob Wainwright; and the collective voice of the retainers. The result is a profound and tragic journey--an epic like no other--that encompasses all of the hypocrisy of slavery and colonization while celebrating resilience, loyalty, and love. In Out of Darkness, Shining Light, Petina Gappah has created an ambitious and artful masterpiece.
