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Beaven Tapureta Bookshelf
A Great Zimbabwe University academic and researcher in feminism and literature has published her own book of critical observations of a shift from the narrative of victimhood to the narrative of resistance as depicted in the new fiction by Zimbabwean women writers.

Dr Salachi Naidoo, whose interest largely falls in post-colonial studies, post-colonial feminism(s), women and gender, could have wittingly or unwittingly timed the publication of her book “Distilling Their Own Brew: Narrating Gender Violence and Resistance in Zimbabwean’s Women Fiction” to come out just a few days before Zimbabwe joined this year’s edition of the global campaign “16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence” running from November 25 to December 10.

“Distilling Their Own Brew”, important as it is for students engaged in gender studies, also will surely inspire an ordinary reader to look for these less talked about novels which she critically reviews in a non-didactic language, using her “eclectic approach” to avoid falling in the dirt of a single-minded or over-theoretical feminism. In her book, fiction becomes rational, and how it (fiction) provides new modes of knowing is exceptionally displayed.

Dr Naidoo has a shining academic background which makes her an iconic woman whose knowledge is vital to the building of a well-informed society.