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Elliot Ziwira Senior Writer Today, as has been the case since 1889, workers across the world converge to celebrate International Workers Day, also known as May Day, amid an onslaught on global economies and a shift in what constitutes work owing to technological advancements, which combine to threaten their jobs. In the new normal that […]

Elliot Ziwira At the Bookstore Independence Day is upon us once again as we celebrate the coming of age of an African ideology and sensibility next Tuesday. For the 43rd time, our nation takes to the podium to dance to the African tune, imbibe from the African calabash and respond to the heartbeat of the […]

Elliot Ziwira Senior Writer In our last instalment we discussed the essence of speaking, not only as a component of learning as outlined in school curricula, but also as a life skill required for everyday interactions with fellow citizens. There is a great speaker subdued in all of us; crying out to be heard. The […]

Elliot Ziwira Senior Writer There is something about examinations that is rather puzzling; in that the closer they get the less prepared we feel, and the more panicky we become. The panicky mode is exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic which has disrupted traditional classroom interactions. Much ground has been lost, yet June examinations are just […]

Elliot Ziwira Senior Writer The reading culture appears to be in recession and this reflects on the dearth of creativity across all interactive spheres. Writers do not seem to engrave our realities as they used to do, artistes do not chant and charm as they did in days of yore and journalists have lost their […]

Elliot Ziwira Senior Writer It is every citizen’s right to live the life he desires both for himself and his children. However, that right, recognised in the constitution of his country as valid, should not infringe on the rights of others. The world would be a better place if every citizen exercised his/her right to […]

Elliot Ziwira At the Bookstore “SONGS of Ourselves” (2005) is a compilation of poems done by the University of Cambridge International Examinations to capture more than 400 years of poetic vision. More than a 100 poets from the length and breadth of the English speaking world converge to tell the unequivocal story of toil, love, […]

Elliot Ziwira Senior Writer “We can start with housing, the sturdiest of footholds for economic mobility. A national affordable housing programme would be an anti-poverty effort, human capital investment, community improvement plan, and public health initiative all rolled into one,” so reasons sociologist Matthew Desmond. As a basic need, housing is a necessity which is […]

Worn out by poverty in the periphery of an opulent household, whose fat cook is deaf to their pleas to spare them bowls of leftovers; preferring instead to throw them into the rubbish bin, pitting them against vicious and marauding dogs, the miserable occupants of the camp trudge on to the Utopia of their dreams.

Life itself loses lustre if all that one can think of is one’s demise, as if death is not borne of life. Death drives life in the same way it is derived from it, therefore, one can only decide how not to live not so much as how to live or die, which is circumstantial.

In Chinua Achebe’s Anthills of the Savannah (1987), the central character, Sam has power thrust upon him unexpectedly, when what he only has is Sandhurst military training that prepares him “rather in the high tradition of proud aloofness from politics and public affairs.”

Elliot Ziwira @the Bookstore In a world where exhibition of skills and competencies are in vogue, aided by the proliferation of technologically enhanced platforms, with everyone chasing after receding dreams and individual concentration span not going beyond 10 minutes, speaking becomes not only an art, but a way of life. Oftentimes we are called upon […]

Elliot Ziwira@ The Book Store As you read this instalment from the shelves of the Bookstore today gentle reader, spare a moment for the brave sons and daughters of the Motherland, who put their lives, limbs and blood on the relentless blade of the colonialists’ machinery of brutality and plunder. It is such selfless sacrifice […]

Through assimilation, France sought to create a black man who would think of himself as French first and African second; a black Frenchman, who is educated in the French ways and sees everything through the eyes of a Frenchman.

The paralysis, malaise and claustrophobia that weigh down on familial, communal and national discourses leading to despondency, frustration and dispiritedness is told in such a way that the reader cannot help locating himself or herself in the different sites that the poets open up.