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Chipo Musikavanhu

Beaven Tapureta Bookshelf
Zimbabwean writers and publishers have been unstoppable as can be seen from the mid-year moment which is blessed with a near-avalanche of new books.

Only a month or so ago, readers were still licking their lips, enjoying the sweet after-tastes from reading David Mungoshi’s recent poetry collection “Live Like An Artist” (Bhabhu Books) when another poetry collection “Death of the Commissar” from a young poet and journalist Tichaona Zindoga hit the shelves and was last week officially launched in Harare. The ‘just arrived’ titles have not ended with poetry. Nomsa Tsitsi Ngwenya has done it again, this time giving us “The Fifty Rand Note and Other Stories” (Royal Publishing House), a different genre in a different language from her first publication “Izinyawo Zayizolo”. The collection has fourteen short stories and Bookshelf is curious to read the words within.

Some new authors have experimented with the novel in English and Shona languages. Chipo Musikavanhu’s “Dews From The East” and Victor Zivanai’s “Zvinoita Hupenyu” which finally came out this month, promise some great reading pleasure. From this new generation of writers we had only read the novel in its short form (the novella), “The Broken Chalk” (2017) by Edwin Msipa. Catherine Magodo Mutukwa who a few months ago rendered the “words that sing, feelings that speak” in her poetry anthology “Rendition of The Soul”, is expecting to launch her new novel “The Broken Vessel” in Harare before end of year. The novel deals with issues affecting girls and women in Zimbabwe.

Bookshelf notes that the new writers and publishers have taken it upon themselves to also fight for girls and women rights through fiction or to motivate them through writing. Yet such an obsession with single theme is detrimental as readers need variety.

One publisher who has explored further this girl child theme is Tatenda Charles Munyuki who has been producing the “Paida and Patie” weekly series of booklets showcasing writing talent by young female authors and letting them speak out. Newly published this month in the series is the third booklet titled “I am Female” by two young women Clara Norman and Shamiso Mbiriri.

Munyuki seem to have put his house in order after he had “contractual brawls” with some of his authors a few months ago. Although this new booklet is a continuation of the girl child leit motif it represents a certain worthy testimony of talent especially in the authors’ style.

“I am Female” falls under the self-help/motivational form of writing but what makes it outstanding, apart from the common theme, is the knowledge it imparts through enticing language.

When young or new authors technically start treading on new grounds, Bookshelf is convinced more readers will be drawn to the bookstores and libraries!

The title “I am Female” sounds imperative but inside the pages is an important motivating message for the young girls told in a non-fictitious way but a way that borrows from the tenets of storytelling. Reading this booklet is like listening to a great auntie disguised as Paida with some Shona background.

The elderly narrator comes in the open and gives the expected female reader the “secrets” of growing up physically and spiritually. Although some of the little facts tackled have been told before, the narrator is interesting to listen to as “she” critically focuses on her life as Paida, a character who changes her point of view skilfully.

“I am Female” is conscious of the both positive and negative forces in the life of the girl or young woman in Zimbabwe or Africa at large. It shows how girls can achieve their dreams if only they realise that humble beginnings are not a waste a time.

“Your age does not discredit you from authentication,” girls are told. This is vital advice especially to a girl in a society that believes in the “you-are-too-young-to-dream-this-or-that” mantra. However, girls are required to listen to their elders regardless of whether their type of mentorship is friendly or harsh because it is backed by experience.

The Tatenda Charles Munyuki Publishing says it is supporting the girl child through writing, creating and maintaining a reading culture among the girls. In the next few months it says it will publish two short story collections featuring primary and secondary school girls from different schools.

There is also a new book by Alvin Nyika called “Success Climate” which carries some useful daily devotionals. Bookshelf is really overwhelmed with the number of new 2017 titles it continues to receive and would be “going fishing” into pages of those books mentioned here.