Zimpapers Logo

Cover of Tatenda Munyuki 2016 NAMA-nominated novel ‘Mystery of the Waterfalls Thief’

Bookshelf : Beaven Tapureta

Young writer and publisher Tatenda Charles Munyuki is in a class of his own. Not only has he brought a fresh dimension to publishing new writers in Zimbabwe but also written his own stuff, including what could be one of the longest novels in the history of Zimbabwean literature.His 2013 novel “The Chosen Ones”, published by Harps Books International, an imprint of his publishing company named after him, Tatenda Charles Munyuki Publishing, is 694 pages long.

The novel is one of three other novels in the Xclusive Zone Series which, the author says, altogether total more than 2700 pages.

What draws attention to Munyuki is his fecundity, both in publishing and writing. His small publishing ‘empire’ leaves one wanting to know exactly where the young man takes his wisdom from!

Founded in 2013, the company has published more than twenty titles so far by authors from various countries. In Zimbabwe, he has netted in the new breed of writers and poets the likes of Catherine Magodo-Mutukwa, Kelvin Mangwende, Lloyd Machacha and many others in different anthologies.

Initially, Munyuki says, the company was intended to publish his own works but later he felt sympathy for the many new writers who were getting weary with rejection slips from the local mainstream publishers.

“The ideals of the company became to try and solve the challenges dozens of both young and mature first time writers face in getting their works published, especially in Zimbabwe,” says Munyuki.

The publishing company encompasses three sub-divisions, namely Pen Featherz Media, Darling Kind Publishing which published his NAMA-nominated book “Mystery of the Waterfalls Thief” and Harp Bookz International which specializes in “huge volumes, mature work and novels by foreign authors”.

Yet with so much to give as writer and publisher, Munyuki says the local publishing industry is as tricky as the entertainment industry.

“The book industry is far even worse mainly because the reading culture is near extinct from down up. People are now less inclined to have the desire to read a book.

They just wait for the movie to come out, if possible. But I think it’s mainly because those in positions to promote local books are too selective or too ignorant, resulting in the case where only a few get recognition when there is so much talent out there being frowned upon,” Munyuki says.

He calls for Zimbabweans to begin to like creative works written by their sons and daughters and not only wait to recognize them when foreign countries like America bestow honor on them first.

Munyuki’s own works have a special edge to them, a distinct appeal to young girls. He unbundles the mysteries of growing up.

He breaks silence on the intellectual and physical changes that overwhelm teenagers or those slightly below that age.

“My books appeal to the youths, mainly female because basically that is my target market,” says Munyuki.

His novel “NACH: Mystery of the Waterfalls’ Thief” (2015, Darling Kind Publishing) which in February this year was NAMA-nominated for the Outstanding Children’s Book Award has that power of narrative drive and an inspiring portrayal of discipline and duty in children attaining puberty.

Home and school are interlinked but the role of children outside the school as innocent overseers is overlooked. Often restricted to the academic setting is the talent-search left in the hands of teachers.

Parents have their view of their children yet children have their own view of their parents, of themselves and what things ought to be.

“Mystery of the Waterfalls Thief”, set in Waterfalls, a suburb in Harare, captivates in the same way Samantha Chihuri’s NAMA award winning “Chaotic” does; there is always a mystery to be solved and the onus naturally falls on the young characters. It becomes a test of courage for them, mixed with adventure.

All fiction, particularly children’s stories and teen fiction, would be dull without an element of mystery powered by the author’s narrative drive.

Deep character exploration or too much inventiveness of language hardly concerns authors of young readers. The page turns to the next once you know the main characters’ names and their tiny backgrounds established. In this novel the reader no doubt falls in love with how the author uses ‘coincidence’ in the story.

Four eleven year olds, all Grade Seven pupils learning at different schools and coming from different backgrounds are driven towards a certain convergence by the need for truth about bicycles being stolen from the schools on a regular trend.

Nathan Brown is made head boy at his Herald Green Primary School where the mystery thief has recently stolen his friend Tonde’s bike. On the day the bike is stolen, Chenai Masunze is stationed at her mother’s Musika near the school.

She comes into contact with the thief as he buys a cigarette from her, but something makes her capture some weird detail about this buyer. On the same day, Amanda, on her way home from her school, St Phillips Primary, is almost hit by a careless man riding a brand new bike.

Sometime later on the same day, Hama, a pupil at Prospering Primary School, also on his way home through a path in the bushes, discovers a cottage tucked a short distance away in the shady area.

At the cottage, the thief is dismantling brand new bicycles and Hama wonders why. Although all the characters one way or another come into contact with the mystery thief, they dismiss further thought about him until Nathan, the think-tank, is motivated to dig deep into the matter.

The author then uses the characters’ memory, making use of the simplest recollection that they have of the thief. It is like going back to pick up pieces of a broken vase and try to bring it up to some shape.

At their young ages, they have begun keeping secrets from parents. They like to ‘fly to the moon’ in the new world of adventure they have suddenly found themselves in.

The same happens to characters in Samantha’s “Chaotic” – teenagers seem not to trust adults but their own explorative instincts.

In “Mystery of the Waterfalls Thief”, Nathan, Chenai, and Amanda, later after some chance meeting at Chenai’s musika and a subsequent meaningful connection of memories about the thief, design a secret meeting to think and plan how they can catch the thief. At some point they use their parents’ phones to communicate on Whatsapp behind their parents’ backs! Amy, however, finding Nathan’s proposal to catch the thief weird, withdraws from the group. It happens that there is a Sports Day at Hama’s Prospering School – a day on which various schools, including the other three main characters’ schools, meet to compete in different sports. In such a twisted situation, the day becomes a time set for resolution. Amanda re-appears, re-ignited and raring to participate in solving the mystery.

How Munyuki ends the story makes the reader extremely want to read the other books in the NACH series. The story ends with, “Standing at a distance from them was the man, the tall thief.” “Mystery of the Waterfalls Thief” is the first of the four books in the NACH series by the same author.

The other three, in their order, are “The Clue of the Musika”, “The Mainway Meadows Cottage” and “The Mutomato Crew”.