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Beaven Tapureta Bookshelf

Local writer and motivational speaker Tinashe Chimuriwo, aka “Chief”, last week simultaneously published two books, “How To Pass In High School” and “Why not?”, a progressive act which led Bookshelf to also backtrack to the author’s other previously published works.

The number of young Zimbabwean authors writing in various fields — fiction, poetry, motivational, autobiography, religious and general literature — has increased and they all have worthy inspirational ideas some of which this column have shared with you in past reviews.

Having started as a poet and fiction writer, thirty-three year old Chimuriwo has included how-to-do-it and motivational writing in his literary domain. His small but diverse output arouse some curiosity to dig up, try to knit together his pieces and possibly find out who really is this young ‘‘chief’’? The overall ‘‘texture’’ of his writing glows with the motivation and innovation spirit. He exudes the disposition to dip his pen in various forms of writing but with particular interest in motivating young people.

The years 2014 and 2015 were very crucial in Chimuriwo’s writing career as this was the time when the springboard for his growth was set. He featured in the Shona poetry anthology “Dzinonyandura: Svinga ReNduri” (2014, 263Nhetembo) which was edited by rising writer Tinashe Muchuri. Chimuriwo contributed four poems in the anthology which became a school set-book for Advanced Level for the period 2016 — 2019. This was like an endorsement of his and other poets’ writing talents. Being read and academically criticised by literature students around the country must be a cool feeling for all the contributors indeed. His four poems in the anthology, ‘‘Hakuna’’, ‘‘Maropafadzo’’, ‘‘Usashora’’, and ‘‘Paradhiso’’, sing of different themes, among them the amazing beauty of Zimbabwe, loving-kindness, and the need to support and not despise hard-working dreamers. In 2015 he was again part of an English poetry anthology “Flowers of a Dry Season” (Forteworx Press) in which he has two poems titled ‘‘Empty Jungle’’ and ‘‘Murderer’’. In ‘‘Empty Jungle’’ he sees development if young people become entrepreneurial and the other poem ‘‘Murderer’’ condemn an aimless lover who decides to unnecessarily terminate a pregnancy. The social issues which the poet is concerned with are those that affect young people today. Unstoppable as he is, the same year Chimuriwo featured in “Fighting for Success”, an anthology of English short stories, and published a booklet for students titled “Shock the Nation” (Forteworx Press), which aimed at providing tips for academic achievement. In producing this booklet, he drew much of the wisdom from his teaching experience and observations he made while a student at high school and university.

He took a three-year publishing break possibly to re-strategise and the results from this writerly silence are the two non-fiction books he issued out last week. And as for now, we leave “Why Not?”, a motivational book, resting among the others in the bookshelf and  we will come to it later! “How To Pass in High School” (2018), a guide for students especially before and during examinations, is an expanded version of the 2015 booklet “Shock The Nation”. Chimuriwo says that the first edition was “an apple seed” which has now grown into this “full and ripen apple”.

This type of writing for students using a motivational slant is growing. There is in the bookshelf lying peacefully another new writer Trust Mugari’s “Top Student: A Guide to Academic Success” (2017, DOMY Press).