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Beaven Tapureta : Bookshelf

Daniel Hwendaenda is one of the best elderly “modern” writers in Shona literature. The issues in his works are thought-provoking in their investigation of society and culture. “Makakatanwa” (College Press), Daniel Hwendaenda’s third novel published in 2007, captures the unresolved differences between domestic workers and their employers.While the Zimbabwe Domestic and Allied Workers Union have made progress in addressing the plight of housemaids and garden boys, they seem to get a raw deal everywhere. And because most of them have a poor educational background, they are often perceived as thieves, untrustworthy and usually work under difficult conditions.

With the current economic conditions it is hard to imagine how most of them survive.

In Hwendaenda’s novel, the silence is broken and domestic workers are given a voice and occasion to vent their feelings on the injustices they endure daily in the realms of their employment.

But not every employee is bad and this is attested to by Mbuya Nyevero, a veteran house-maid and Christian prayer warrior who in the story has worked for Peggie or Mai Brutus for quite a long time. Mbuya Nyevero has a house constructed for her in Budiriro 5 as gratitude for her long service.

Set in the low-density suburb of Bluffhill, the story in “Makakatanwa” is mainly about Tambudzai – also known as Mai Goredema — who has a history of hiring and firing her maids at freewill.

Mai Goredema is also in bad books with her patients at the hospital where she works as a nurse.

Tichaona, her husband, is a considerate person. Tichaona’s friend, Madzima, unlike Kanengoni the other friend, is just as misinformed about the predicaments of domestic workers that he (Madzima) constantly disagree with the move by the Zimbabwe Domestic and Allied Workers Union to conduct door-to-door evaluations of their workers’ working conditions.

Tichaona warns his wife about risks of ill-treating her maids but she stands her ground.

After kicking away Dadirai the seventh maid, Mai Goredema phones her mother to help her look for another maid in their rural home in Murehwa.

Tsitsi, a school drop-out living in the same village with Mai Gore’s mother, agrees to work for her in Harare. At first they are like sisters but one day Mai Goredema, as usual, loses her temper over a small incident at home involving her child Kudakwashe; accusations, insults, dishonour forces Tsitsi to secretly leave Mai Gore early the next morning.

Tsitsi’s disappearance causes conflict between Mai Goredema’s mother Mai Munetsi and Tsitsi’s mother Mai Nyikadzino who lives in the same village in Murehwa.

The effect of a strained relationship between Mai Goredema and her maid and clients at work reverberates in a series of events following the disappearance of Tsitsi.

Beneath this broken social fabric of domestic relationships in “Makakatanwa” and the effect it has upon families, one surprisingly finds humorous descriptions and a mature handling of Shona language. Hwendaenda’s writing makes the book worthwhile to read anywhere.

Other novels by Daniel Hwendaenda are “Mubairo” (1993) and “Chiedzo” (2003), both published by College Press. The author is also one of the contributors in a Shona poetry anthology titled “Tipeiwo Dariro”.