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Tendai Maduwa

Stanely Mushava Literature Today
January disease is still several festive stopovers away but many Zimbabweans are already drowning in debt. According to recent reports, an overwhelming majority is dicing with debt, stretched out of means, into mortal fear of the next phone call. Around these poor folks, the vicious web is forever twisting and swelling because using a fox to chase out a hyena, for many, means finding a new creditor to ward off another. Relationships, that China section of the plastic economy, are becoming collateral damage, inexorably combustible between default and desperation.

Regular faces are becoming scarcer at snooker than Benjamin Franklin’s green mugshot, skipping church because creditors are normally not as forgiving as God, and going incognito unless they are developing clickbait for a potential shark on WhatsApp.

But, friends, debt is also a Janus-faced phenomenon, cold and austere on one side, sunny and smiley on the other. While the less frugal among us have already been hung out to dry before January, our enterprising comrade, Tendai Maduwa, is actually cashing (and Ecocashing) in on debt.

No, Maduwa is not the new loan shark in town, basking by the fairer side of Janus. Rather, the youthful poet and motivational writer has just authored a timely self-help book titled “Chains of Credits”.

Maduwa recently launched the book, a biblically themed manual on getting out of debt, at Bread of Life Church, formerly Innov 8 Bookshop at Joina City.

Whereas self-help writers have occasionally been put on the spot for writing on things outside their horizon like Twitter MBAs, and sounding “young enough to know everything”, Maduwa said his new book welled out of his own experiences.

“I was motivated by the debts I got myself into which bled in my life and suffocated me almost to death,” Maduwa told Literature Today moments before his book launch.

Steps he took out of the vicious cycle are the material of his new book.

“We are living in a time where almost individual, organisation and the nation are suffocating in debt one way or the other. ‘Chains of Credits’ addresses the implications of debts in our lives, its effects of it in our spirituality, marriages, health, emotions, business and relationships,” Maduwa explained.

“I look at how debt keeps on pulling our lives back among other issues. The book also answers the frequently asked question on whether God allows Christians to take debts or not. It also gives practical steps on how to get out of every shouting debt without affecting any of the above-mentioned areas,” he said.

Donald Kanyuchi provided the soundtrack for the book launch while LitFest (International Literature Festival) Harare organiser Chirikure Chirikure and fellow poet Tinashe Muchuri joined Maduwa on stage.

Marabi king Kireni Zulu, who now double-crosses music with creative writing, with ZPH Publishers playing midwife for him and his newfound concubine, also performed at the launch.

The fairer half of Mafriq, Pauline Gundidza, did not turn up as previously billed. However, there was no shortage of entertainers in the house. Budding writer Tatenda Tafarirepi and Eunice Kapandure performed on the night.

From the screen side of things, the greatest living Zimbabwean comedian Lazarus Boora (you can quote me) and Mafumhe Mutasa, better known by his screen name Dapi, went all out for a few broken ribs at the launch.

Gringo’s mantle for posing as a debt management expert is, however, stained beyond all earthly detergents. His good friend John Banda (peace be upon him) went to rest with his fathers before Gringo had returned the dollar he owed him.

Not only that. Each time the co(n)median is on set, he is either evading one money trouble or creating another, meaning he may have carried a substantial pile of debt into the freshly pressed bond era.

Logically, therefore, the king of comedians left Maduwa and his dignitaries the task of giving serious counsel to the audience of the night. Guest of honour Ambassador Humphrey Mushili challenged banks to consider Maduwa’s counsel and clergyman Duncan Manyonda urged churches to follow suit.

First Pack chief executive officer Langton Chikukwa and motivational authors Rabison Shumba and Arthur Marara also spoke highly of Maduwa’s book. Prudence Madzadzavara, Silas Mukono and Varayidzo Dube tabled a panel discussion which gave the audience of the night a foretaste of the book.

Maduwa waxed romantic on stage, thanking his wife Nobuhle for being a pillar in his career. “I love this lady because she is a very rare gem of a woman in our generation.” He went on like a page out of Song of Songs: “She makes sure every dream inside me gives birth. She really is a strong woman because marrying an artiste is something else.”

He also thanked his creditors: “If it was not for you and your insults, I would not have downloaded this book to the world.” It is not clear, though, how creditors inspired this book. There are usually two ways this happens for writers.

In “Alfred and Emma”, the Cuban mafia hangs a debt-tangled author by the shoes outside his apartment and warn him to finish a novel in 30 days so he can pay his creditors. Sure enough he delivers a novel which mirrors his own struggles with the vices of debt and gambling.

The movie, co-starring Kate Hudson, actually recalls the tribulations of legendary Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky who was forced to write novels to ward off his creditors. “The Gambler”, in particular, had an impossibly close deadline so that the novelist had to employ a stenographer who (lucky for him) later became his wife.

Could this be a book Maduwa wrote in mortal fear of the Cuban mafia? Apparently not. In his case, debts had been settled, rifts healed and lessons learnt. That leaves us stuck with the second lead, that is, the book proceeded out of the real estate of Maduwa’s hindsight. All experience is useful. Inverted misadventure is the ultimate travel guide.

Whether Maduwa dishes out Polonius, Solomon, Largade or his own peculiar brand of debt advice, Literature Today will advise in a subsequent review. A noted spoken word poet, Maduwa is the author of motivational book “Nuggets of Success” and poetry collections “Mary my Language” and “The Mirrors Back and Other Poems”.

He contributed to “The Enchanted World” and “The Isles” published by Guntur University in India and co-authored “Success Within Reach” and “Nhava yeNduri”.

Maduwa is currently working on a children’s book titled “Makwizha and the Black Mouse”.

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