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Rabison Shumba

Literature Today With Stanely Mushava
Rabison Shumba credits social media as a bouncing board for the creative energy captured in a new poetry anthology, “Dzinonyandura: Svinga Renduri.” The varied collection, featuring 16 mostly new poets, is an inadvertent outcome of Shumba’s “a poem a day challenge” on Facebook early last

year.

A sustained response to the challenge facilitated the creation of “263 Nhetembo” as a central platform for the takers to share their work and appraise each other. The poems harvested from months of activity on the page became “Svinga Renduri,” a significant statement by the cultural tendency of Zimbabwe’s digiterati.

Erroneously, the “obituaries” for Zimbabwe’s reading culture often tag the social network as one of the killer phenomena, observing that as the world revolves faster, powered by high end technology, Zimbabweans have less time to bother with books. “Svinga Renduri,” a graceful return to the tradition of Shona poetry anthologies, however belies this opinion and demonstrates social media’s facility in cultural midwifery.

Shumba argues that instead of allowing free pass for mediocrity, the social network enables instantaneous feedback from multiple channels, hence is an even more exacting crucible for creative writing. The title “Svinga Renduri” (Bundle of Poems) speaks to the general drift of the anthology. The book is a new bundle with which to stoke up the dying fire of Shona poetry.

It is encouraging to note that young people are engaged in the quest to enrich and expand their language with new modes of expression using the trending implements feared to endanger it. “A language streamed online will co-exist with other languages there,” the editor of the anthology, Tinashe Muchuri (Mutumwapavi) extols the essence of 263 Nhetembo.

“It is often said in debates about writing on the Internet that Africans merely eat from other people’s hands without meaningfully contributing the content themselves,” he said. “The creation of “263 Nhetembo” came about as a great initiative to ensure that we can also be the creators instead of just receipients,” Mutumwapavi notes.

Although the poets have a lot of familiar social diaries and life lessons to share, they do so without the predictable sequence which has become so pervasive in the unimaginative writing rolling off most presses these days. “Dzidzo” (Education) by Catherine Mapanda, is a fitting theme piece for this “year of learning.” Mapanda redirects her audience from conventional modules to the school of life.

Mapanda urges the reader never to disengage from the learning mode because no lesson is ever too small. I am not sure, though, whether Mapanda’s word to obsess with every detail in the vicinity, including friends, makes one wiser or paranoid. Mapanda makes free with scriptural nuggets, good thing still because they are gracefully grafted into the pieces one may not notice.

“NdiMandishamise” is a psalmist’s libation to the God of all creation while “Tinoti Makorokoto,” like “Dzidzo,” is a call to appraise all that life brings our way with magnifying lenses. Sharon Ngomani is one of the exciting new voices in this collection. The first anthologised appearance of the Zimtravel correspondent who started writing poetry at thirteen and broke into print four years later in The Sunday Mail’s Bridge section exudes a cultured taste and matchless profundity.

All her four offerings, “Zvinondivhundutsa,” “Gombo Rakarimwa Ngoda,” “Pasvomhu Yacho” and “Wakandijaidza” show the marks of durability; one can read them on repeat and savour the images and punchlines mastered into Ngomani’s argument. “Gombo Rakarimwa Ngoda” (Field of Gems) is the lament of a young woman to God for making her the target of male trophy-hunters. The poem is a plea by a vulnerable persona for power and enablement to live up to God’s demand for chastity.

In “Pasvomhu Yacho” (The Equation), Ngomani reiterates Solomon’s observation that “beauty is vain.” She condemns girls who think that beauty is an all-sufficient asset which can get them all they want and reiterates in every stanza that beauty is ultimately out of the equation. She warns young women away from “the fallacy of Mandivhaidze who roasts/ corn in a plastic bowl./ Friend, let virtue match your beauty./ Eat from your sweat and do not flinch away from others./ This beauty can draw you to the grave,/ And remember beauty is ultimately a dish for moths.”

I consider Ngomani the contemporary equivalent to earlier notable Renias Mashiri, if only on account of the parallels in her last poem “Wakandijaidza” and Mashiri’s “Wakambondikoderei?” Although the latter deploys more complex metaphors, Ngomani’s more accessible poem maintains equal force and texture. The persona levels a demand against the seeker to live up to the high promises by which he enticed her.

Rabison Shumba’s occassional rhymes also evoke earlier Shona poets. Shumba needs no introduction being a profilic motivational author and mentor to younger writers. He recently published his solo project “Showers of Inspiration” and his labour of passion made “Svinga Renduri” a reality, ensuring space for new flowers to bloom.

“Ziva Siyano,” a reprint from Poetry International, is my favourite offering from Shumba. The poet contrasts seemingly similar attributes and tells his audience “Failure to distinguish/ landed us in the forest/ You will mistake this for that/ and take that for this/ then you will take a snake and call it a rod/ and guzzle poison to quench your thirst…”

Conarth Macheka’s “Misodzi” (Tears) is an indictiment on responsible authorities for their failure to curtail piracy. The poem is dedicated to “Gringo” director Enoch Chihombori who famously cried on his acceptance of the Nama 2014 accolade for the best director, confessing that the project for which he was being recognised had not rewarded him financially but had sunk him into debt, thanks to the pirates.

Macheka criticises government for its loud silence on piracy. “Long we have roast nuts for who have teeth, as though we have none;/ who regard their bellies, as if we have none;/ we are wriggling in the desert; no one spares a thought./ Where are your tears, if you say you care?” Edwin Msipa (Uncle Sipet) weighs in with impassioned pleas against violence and hypocrisy in the poems “Rufaro,” “Dai,” “Havasi Vose” and “Ndakuona.” In the last poem, he settles for a “retired horse” against popular advice and is cut to heart when she reverts to sending to the devil just to share every stranger’s wallet.

“Dai” reproves the instigators and attack-dogs of political violence and insists that if we esteem Zimbabwe foremost, then there is everything to be won from fraternity, tolerance and dialogue. Sipet ends on a messianic note, calling on Zimbabweans to enthrone Jesus in their hearts and land. Tinashe Muchuri (Mutumwapavi) is one of the most exciting writers at the moment. Those who attend literary festivals might be accustomed to his trademark whistle piece “Kazwi” and restless antics on the stage.

Mutumwapavi is also doing Shona a notable service by maintaining an arts blog in the language. In “Rwendo,” outsider Mutumwapavi denounces Valentine hype: “I have no day for love in my love,/ the celebration of love cannot be fitted into a single day,/ for us the celebration of love is a life marathon,/ that ends with death the finishing line.”

“Right of Way” is a case for defensive driving as an overdue answer to carnage on the roads. “To those who did not learn the language of the road,/ Do not insist on your ‘right of way’, lest you die for that ‘right of way.’” The hilarious Chenjerai Mazambani (VaSadza) is another regular performer at literary festivals. In “Rusununguko” he deploys Ignatius Mabasa’s eccentric repetiteveness in “Kuziva,” warning his child to be “free in freedom” unlike a swine which prides itself in “the fat that will fry it tomorrow.”

New poets Rodwell Harinangoni, Rutendo Tapiwa, Brighton Muponda, Brian Tafadzwa Penny, Proceed Manatsa, Mildred Jaricha, Davison Mudzingwa, Idzai Iris Mushayabasa, Evidence Makuni and Tinashe Chimuriwo have also brought their logs to this bundle to stoke up the fire of Shona rennaisance.

• Stanely Mushava blogs at upstreamafrica.blogspot.com