Elliot Ziwira @ The Book Store

A gifted story teller is one who retells an old story in such a way that the events become a new experience

He may tell you about your grandmother — the one that you may have known for years — and leave you aghast, wondering how little you knew about your sweet granny. A seemingly mediocre story in the hands of a competent story teller assumes such a gargantuan posture that leaves a lasting impression on the audience.

Such is the essence of story-telling embraced in the African folkloric tradition. Story-telling was not only a pastime, but it was a vital cog in the machinery that drove societal norms and values.

The story-teller, who was usually a woman past child bearing age, had the responsibility of imparting her knowledge of the world to explore the voyeur inhering in man, through contrived use of metaphor, symbolism and song. Characterisation, setting and satire which tapped into the animal kingdom, gave the stories a flair that was inhuman and yet humane in all essence, which made it easier for her young audience to relate to. Human characters were also used, though sparingly, as a way of creating a realistic repertoire of societal expectations on the individual.

Today’s story-teller has the inevitable task of communicating with an unseen, cosmopolitan and detached audience, which he believes will be drawn into the world of his creation. Whatever he may be communicating may not evoke the intended reaction. But if he is worth his salt, he may effectively use metaphor, symbolism, imagery and song to implode on the audience with such an impact that may even surpass his expectations. One such story-teller is Charles Mungoshi.

Commenting on the writer’s use of metaphor to capture the void that exists in a society that loses hope in itself, and the glee that comes with expectation, Kanengoni and Chipamaunga have this to say respectively: “I sometimes identified myself with the maze of Mungoshi’s stories. The frustration was so real,” (Veit-Wild, 1992:73), and, “The author immediately won my admiration for capturing the spirit of the time. The willingness and perched yearning souls and ambition that matched so well the expectancy of independence,” (Ibid).

Such is the role of the competent story-teller, who does not only draw inspiration from the folkloric tradition, but also inspires it. No new themes have emerged since literature replaced folklore, so the gist is not so much in what inheres in man, but how he can be challenged to own up to foibles. Man has remained ensconced in his brutal, violent, deceitful and selfish cocoon.

“Walking Still” (1997) is a collection of short stories that capture the poignant nature of redundancy, pain, deceit, hypocrisy and expectation, at the personal, family, community and national platforms. Mungoshi’s prowess manifests itself in the way he captures a plethora of old issues besotting the family, community and nation, through sustained use of metaphor and symbolism which freely mingle and merge with characterization and setting to give new meaning to ancient woe. He also examines how the family, through culture, oppresses the individual, and how it is used for self-justification. Societal woe can really not be told in any other way.

In the story, “The Hare” the writer examines how family and culture burdens the individual as he struggles to locate himself in the sites of a home he is no longer able to sustain due to lack.

It is the story of a conservative, responsible and loving husband and father, Nhongo, who struggles to accept the change of roles obtaining in his family. Having been retrenched due to the economic turmoil prevailing in the country, he finds himself having to rely on his wife, Sara who is a cross-border trader.

Having worked as a manager, and being culturally aligned to the patriarchal nature of his society, he finds it difficult to stoop so low. His wife’s penchant for the good life and her rather carefree attitude as she goes about her sojourns to South Africa with her female and male friends, aggravates the situation. Using realistic setting, Mungoshi uses the journey motif to expose the claustrophobic nature of marriage and the family unit as Nhongo decides to go to his rural home in Chivhu to see his parents; and his wife goes on one of her trips to the land of gold.

The hare that he hits along the way is symbolic of the vulnerability of his marriage and the precarious nature of his condition. His vain attempt to save it — his caressing of it and his subsequent decision to drop it into the boot — an effort of hope that it may not die, exonerates him from blame as the marriage faces its inevitable demise. The combination of visual and tactile imagery used through Nhongo’s endurance of the pain caused by the new shoes that his wife bought him, and the way he takes them along with the hare, epitomizes the burdensome nature of marriage as they are symbolic of his problems, which he feels he should take to his parents. However, upon arrival he realizes that Ella, their maid, is their choice to replace the wayward Sara.

Feeling betrayed by the evident conspiracy, he decides to leave, but when he opens the boot and finds the hare dead, it dawns on him that his marriage is irredeemable. Events take a twist as Ella defends Sekai by holding his hand so that he could not take his frustration and ire on the child, for questioning him why his hand was on Ella’s lap. It is at this point that he realizes that Ella has stolen his heart.

Hope seems to be restored as a heavy downpour drenches the maid who has decided to disembark from the car, and Sekai fallows her yelling: “Mummy! Mummy!” As is the case with Mungoshi’s stories, the story is left hanging, leaving the reader to bring it to an amicable conclusion through inference. Suspense and surprise are the artist’s forte.

The writer lambasts lack of tolerance and compromise which seem to be the bane of the institution of marriage, especially when parents decide to take sides.

This rationale also obtains in “The Empty House”. Although the main thrust in this story is to expose the folly of inter-racial marriages, Mungoshi explores how individualism driven on my materialism causes the break-up of the family unit as the individual feels alienated because of lack of support.

Gwizo’s dream is to become a world class painter but his father who is a businessman thinks otherwise. Culturally he believes that his son should pursue the academic path so that he inherits his business when he dies. Gwizo’s dream is finally realized through Agatha, a white girl from America, who puts him on the international foray and he becomes a success story overnight. However, their subsequent marriage fails to get family and societal sanction which burdens it.

As Gwizo has grown up in a disjointed family where everyone is left to his/her whims as they take residence in an “empty house”, he fails to sustain his own marriage. Losing himself in drink, he becomes bibacious as he attempts to escape from his problems. As a result, he does not only succeed in destroying his career but his marriage also succumbs.

Having failed to get love and a child from her husband, Agatha finds both in Mark, her father-in-law, who impregnates her.
Betrayal, conceit, violence, intolerance, hypocrisy and homosexuality are issues that are effectively highlighted in the stories “Did you have to go that far?” “Of lovers and wives” and the “Singer at the Wedding”. What is common in these stories is how the family plays a significant role in moulding the individual. Without the support of the family, the individual is doomed.

This is especially so in “Did you have to go that Far?” which explores the bane of extremism and hypocrisy through children.

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