WIN Newsletter, Vol 2, Issue No 4

EDITORIAL

 

Celebrating new talent: Nothando Cindy Usayi, young author of a thrilling short novel Dreams Under The Noonday Sun

We welcome you all to our latest issue as we celebrate with writers and poets who made it to the 18^th NAMA Awards either as nominees or winners. You inspire a generation more than you know it! We are happy to say writers Mimi Machakaire and Tinashe Muchuri are back with their regular contributions in the WIN Newsletter, while other writers Aleck Kaposa and Freedom Gengezha have come on board to share their different insights and literary experiences. Muchuri’s column Ngatinyorei will resume in our next newsletter. In May, there were also some writers’ events such as book launches (e.g. official launch of Under My Skin) which Winzim Online did not manage to cover but we are glad writers are still writing and publishing despite the prevailing economic challenges. We respect the new writing talent emerging in Zimbabwe. Ona sad note, in the same month of May, WIN learnt of the passing away of Mr. Barnaba Katsande 0f Best Books. May his soul rest in peace. Are you ready for the Bulawayo Book Fair? More news in our next issue!

WRITERS SHINE AT NAMA AWARDS

The 18^th edition of the National Arts Merit Awards is now gone but the memories will live with us forever and more deeply in the hearts of the artists who made it as nominees and winners. In the poetry and literary categories, NAMA honored both new and established talent, while the greatest honor went to the late Dr. Charles Mungoshi who was posthumously awarded the   Lifetime Achievement Award. Winzim Online managed to talk to some of the nominees and winners in the poetry and literary sections, and below are their responses about how it felt to be among the country’s rising stars. 

Batsirai Chigama

Photo: Pasil Media

Poet Bastirai Chigama (pictured above) won the Outstanding First Creative Published Book NAMA award for her anthology Gather The Children (2018, Ntombekhaya Poetry)

“I feel ecstatic and encouraged,” she said.

 

Beloved Maridzanyere aka Beloved Poet

Maridzanyere was nominated for the Spoken Word award which eventually went to Likhwa Ncube aka Likhwa okaNcube. However, the nomination was an open confirmation of his dream. 

“God being my ultimate inspiration through the society that raised me, I am speechless on this hallmark achievement especially as it comes when I am young. I feel so much humbled and honoured to reach the NAMAs, one of the major goals in every artist’s journey. I extend my sincere gratitude to my parents and everyone who supported me. This marks not the beginning or the end in my poetry world but the it is an endless ripple that will positively effect Zimbabwe, spreading globally.”

Daniel Mutendi

Daniel Mutendi’s Shona novel Mazai Emheni won the Outstanding Fiction award. This is his second NAMA award, having previously won the Outstanding Children’s Book award with Tsuro naGudo (Misi Yese Haifanani).  

“For me it feels awesome to win a NAMA and to do it for the second time, I feel really honoured. It means I have got the right formula. It feels good to be recognized for the effort that I put into my writing. My hope is that many people shall get access to my books and benefit from the content that I write.”

Victor Zivanai and Telmore Mutiwazuka

 

Victor Zivanai (left) and Telmore Mutiwazuka, co-authors of the NAMA nominated novel Kwaisava Kuda Kwangu. The book was nominated for the Outstanding First Creative Published Book award.

“As co-author of the book Kwaisava Kuda Kwangu, I was happy for such an honour to be among other nominees. When I submitted the novel at NACZ offices for the awards and discovered the shelf fully packed with other anthologies, l lost hope but l rejoiced after the nominations. My classmates at University of Zimbabwe, my fellow high school colleagues, my mentor Oscar Gwiriri, other writers who know me, and not forgetting my Mom and Daddy, I thank you very much. I thank Almighty God for his Grace. Being nominated has inspired us to believe and work hard,” Zivanai.

Elisha July

Elisha July won the Outstanding Children’s Book NAMA award for The City Girl.

“I have been used to prose writing and never thought I would write any creative poetic work. Through interactions with fellow writers Aleck Kaposa and Brenda Dzangare, I got the inspiration to attempt writing in creative work. Last year, I wrote five children’s books which I published through my company Pass-Point Publishers Pvt Ltd. I submitted two of my five children’s books for the NAMA awards. My first surprise was the nomination of one of the books, The City Girl, and as if that was not enough, the subsequent winning of the book as the best children’s book in the 18^TH NAMA edition. I was really encouraged by the winning and it made me feel like I have been baptized and adopted as a writer! My morale has been boosted and I am looking forward to participating again in the 19^th NAMA awards.”  

CELEBRATING BIRTHDAY THE WRITE WAY

  

Cover of The Writers Birthday anthology

An anthology of poems and statements compiled as a dedication to the new writer Prosper Njeke’s last year’s birthday is now published and available. Writing friends produced poems and messages for Njeke on his birthday and the young author could not help but preserve the memories in a wonderful book that features thirty-eight poetic and prose compliments. The book will indeed be a memorable asset for Njeke and the contributors and will be a timeless present for his birthdays to come.

Speaking to Winzim Online, Njeke said he is happy that he celebrated his birthday in a ‘writeful’ way and thanked friends who wished him well.

“I thank all fellow writers and poets for wishing me a happy birthday. I give you a special love for celebrating my birthday with me in a ‘writeful’ way. Many thanks to those who recited poems for me,” he said.

Njeke is the author of a Shona novel titled Dura Rematambudziko (2018).

HARARE CITY LIBRARAY RECEIVES BOOKS

 Winzim Online Media

 

Some of the books donated by Book Aid International

Last month, the Harare City Library received book donation from its long-time friend Book Aid International which has continued to support libraries in Zimbabwe.

The books donated are mainly academic and will benefit medical students.

In an interview, HCL Librarian Mr. Tariro Dube thanked Book Aid and called upon colleges and universities to link up with the library and make use of these books.

“We are actually happy, especially as we are a not-for-profit organization which survive on donor support and subscriptions. We are indebted to Book Aid International for this donation,” said Mr. Dube.

HCL is the secretariat to the local chapter of the Book Aid International and is the distribution center for Harare.

According to Mr. Dube, Book Aid International has in the past supported the HCL with books and also played a major role in the refurbishment of the Children’s Corner, also known as the Petina Gappah Children’s Library. As it is said in the Bible, blessed is the hand that gives, HCL is blessed because it has also donated books to schools and organizations such as WIN.

In Zimbabwe, Book Aid International has been a force to reckon with in the promotion of reading culture and support of higher education.

“By supplying relevant, specialist and up-to-date books to university and higher education libraries in Zimbabwe we are able to support a great many students who would otherwise have little access to books and the information they need to pursue their studies,” it says on its website.

Book Aid International is UK’s leading international book donation and library development charity. Its vision is a world where everyone has access to the books that will enrich, improve and change their lives.

 NEW KID ON THE BLOCK

By Beaven Tapureta

Nothando Cindy Usayi

Arundel School student Nothando Cindy Usayi has announced her arrival in the literary world with a thrilling novel that traverses the fantasy and sci-fiction genres.

Written mainly with the teenage reader in mind, the story in Nothando’s first novel “Dreams Under The Noonday Sun” is highly imaginative, action-packed and takes place both in the real and the mysterious, unreal worlds.

A certain foreigner who is a drug dealer comes to Zimbabwe conducting illegal cocaine research which somehow goes wrong, but the ‘wrongness’ is, in some way, right for a girl named Ruzivo who falls victim to the research and what follows is a psychological shift from reality to an unknown world.

Fifteen-year-old Nothando displays an unusual use of captivating language and suspenseful, sometimes complex scenes that even as the story begins, the reader is carried in the flow of the plot.

While this is fiction, there is in the author’s introduction an attempt to back it up with an actual neurological research on the existence of a ‘peculiar realm’ in the human brain. And only those in the jaws of death are able to experience it. The author fictionalizes that soldiers who were on the verge of dying in war have claimed to have seen this strange world.

The background of the story in “Dreams Under The Noonday Sun” is the origin of this realm which, because of its complexity, researchers simply gave it the scientific name ‘Chemical9’, and one of the character’s past experience of the realm compels him to do a backdoor research about it. Yet his project, localized in Zimbabwe, triggers Ruzivo’s journey into the unknown.  

Ruzivo is stung by a wasp which injects a drugging chemical in her arm and while those around possibly think she has fainted, a new world is suddenly revealed and she transforms into one its supernatural inhabitants. The young author’s gift of description, albeit overdoing her genius at times, vividly paints Ruzivo’s new world in which there is serenity and beauty.

In this world, about which Ruzivo at some point says, “there was no need for a sun as everything was luminescent, radiating energy in and around itself”, there are also chaos. Would the irony be that Edenic places we dream to live in are but places of wars, anti-human wars? Are peace and beauty illusions?

However, within this fantastic world, Ruzivo meets a friend and real juvenile friendship is acted out in the cascading events, well-portrayed as the author’s favorite theme. The novel, from another viewpoint, seems to address the issue of mental health and illegal drugs in Zimbabwe. What the author has offered is an imaginative tip off, the rest is left to the responsible adults to investigate.

The novel contains some bonus poems. Nothando is a two-time receiver of honors grade in the NIAA prose competition and is currently studying at Arundel School in Harare. Nothando plans to officially launch her novel on her mother’s birthday soon.

MINISTRY APPROVES NYAMADZAWO’S MOTIVATIONAL NOVEL

Simba Nyamadzawo

Author Simbarashe Nyamadzawo’s motivational novel Tatenda (2018, Gumiguru Incorporated) has been approved for publication and use in secondary schools by the Curriculum Development and Technical Services, a department in the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education.

According to the evaluators, the novel Tatenda is “relevant to learners… and conform to the literature syllabus expectations”. Furthermore, the evaluators were happy with the storyline, language register and content of the novel. The Ministry’s approval now gives Nyamadzawo an opportunity to freely market and distribute his book in Zimbabwean schools.

Nyamadzawo is planning to translate the book into other languages to reach more readers. He said he is overjoyed and hopes that the book completes its final journey into the schools.

“I am delighted that my book has been approved by the Ministry of Primary and Secondary education. It is my hope that my book will be read by each and every student in secondary school. When I wrote the book I had a single goal, that is, to inspire readers. The endorsement by the Ministry means that my book is informative and academic as well. I am even motivated to translate the book into Shona and other vernacular languages so that readers can enjoy the story in the language of their choice,” said Nyamadzawo.

Born in Domboshava, Zimbabwe, Nyamadzawo is a dedicated inspirational author, speaker and management consultant.

CHILDREN’S LITERATURE CORNER

With

Aleck Kaposa

Children’s Literature in Zimbabwe Today

What literature are Zimbabwean children reading today in both English and indigenous languages? The question begs for an answer. What they read today makes what they become tomorrow, hence it is very important to select carefully what our children read.

Today, a visit to most bookshops in Zimbabwe shows shelves teeming with hundreds of beautifully designed and expensive books for children by foreign authors and sadly, a dearth of books penned by Zimbabweans for the Zimbabwean child. Many a parent, due to ignorance or colonial mentality of self-hate, proudly picks a foreign book, one about witches and wizards in some castle or European fairy tales, or cartoons as a birthday present for their child. Some do not even bother to scan through a book by a local author on the same shelf, though the local book could be less glamorously packaged. Foreign books tend to instill foreign ideals in children, thus alienating them from their own culture and indigenous systems.

There are several local books for children being written today which tell good local stories. For example, the late prolific writer Stephen Alumenda was a trailblazer in children’s books and left an exciting list for them. Memory Chirere’s Tudikidiki is a small Shona book a child would not put down. We need plenty of such books in Ndebele, Tonga, Barwe, Venda, Chewa and all our other local languages as well, books which tell our own stories in our own languages as well as in English.

Moreover, we need books written by children, children telling their own stories. These could start from the Early Childhood Class (ECD) and Grade One learners, stories in brightly captioned pictures. As the children develop, more and more words are added to the pictures. Perhaps a collaboration between children and adult authors could add some flavor too.

The new or updated competency-based education curriculum has come at the right time when serious efforts must be made to promote both reading and writing of local books. Great results can be achieved through writing competitions, book festivals and other activities by all stakeholders in the book industry. However, it is gratifying to note that some new authors and small publishers have taken the challenge and are pioneering in that direction.     

                                

(Aleck Kaposa is a teacher, writer and entrepreneur who has written and published children’s books, including the NAMA-award nominated The Magician. He has also contributed to local newspapers and is founder of Norton Education Centre, a private school. Last year, he founded and held the inaugural Norton Children’s Book Festival and Business Expo. Kaposa is also a Board member of WIN-Zimbabwe.)

       

SNIPPETS FROM ‘THE ARTS GATHERING’ FESTIVAL

Last month, an exciting two-day arts festival dubbed The Arts Gathering was held at different venues in Harare with activities like workshops, poetry showcases, theatre, music and dance.

The festival, a collaborative endeavor of three arts organizations namely Afrikera Arts Trust, Music Crossroads Zimbabwe and Zimbabwe Theatre Academy, was held under the theme And still We rise, a powerful line adapted from an unforgettable poem by Maya Angelou.

2019 NAMA award winner Lloyd Nyikadzino, Soukaina M L Edom, O Mangoma Moyo, Peter Lenso and N Mzingayi facilitated workshops covering topics such as physical theatre, ballet, and traditional dance.

Elizabeth ‘Zaza’ Muchemwa (pictured below) performed her three poems and Maya Angelou’s poem And Still I Rise, in a collaboration with fashion designer Collin Ratisai of CeeZRat Designs. She was one of the festival performers who exhibited touching renditions in their different art genres.

Zaza (above) performing her poetry with the accompaniment of mbira music being played by Jonathan Daniel at the Afrikera Dance Theatre Hub, Harare (Photos: Bev Mathison)

LEGALIZED PILFERAGE - DEMISE OF AN INDUSTRY

  

By

 

 Freedom Gengezha

It makes me too self-conscious when I walk in my village in Guruve and some people point at me and say, “There goes the fool who thinks books are everything.” I would blame them not one bit, but only wish they knew that I am that fool, who went to school when Fay Chung was the Minister of Education. That fool, who read books by the candlelight and slept as dawn broke. That fool who grew up when Mambo Press, Longman, College Press, Baobab Books and Zimbabwe Publishing House, among others, were still acclaimed publishers and a youth could walk into Kingstons and use pocket money to buy a Pacesetter or a Structures and Skills book for leisure and education. These are days of bliss now gone and left a trail of educated fools like me.

Back then, writers were known by their works in the shelves of bookstores, not strewn on pavements by hawkers or in the author’s satchel waiting to be taken out conveniently at parties and gatherings for a chance purchase. Writers had dignity and were highly looked upon by a society which devoured their works for knowledge which was believed to be the ultimate power. They were not disregarded as they are today. They are now nonentities whose profession no parent wants a child to regard as a career and called fools as they pass by.

Technology might have adversely affected the book industry, but its impact was tolerable had there not been other factors ganging up to hit this industry to smithereens. What went wrong was so great that not long ago, renowned author, Memory Chirere, was reported to have observed that the book industry is dead in Zimbabwe, that what remains is a mere book sector. But on whose watch did this demise occur to an industry so paramount to any country’s education and culture?

When independence came, it brought with it an emancipation of the mind and Zimbabwean writers flourished as people shifted from colonial literature to stories about themselves written by their own.  Dambudzo Marechera, Charles Mungoshi, Stanley Nyampfukudza, Musaemura Zimunya and Chenjerai Hove are a few among a host of names that went on to become household names in the book industry. Their works were published and sold locally and the nation was entertained and educated. Not once would one meet a photocopy of Nyampfukudza’s Non-Believer’s Journey or Marechera’s House of Hunger. These are books one went into a bookshop for, and they were affordable. Now one finds Chirere’s Somewhere in this Country or Shimmer Chinodya’s classic play, Harvest of Thorns, all over street pavements in town, being sold for measly amounts which not even a cent goes to the author whose intellect is peddled shamelessly without an ounce of conscience. So who would blame this author when he carries around a bag full of his books to sell at gatherings, knowing fully well the money goes straight into his pocket to feed his own children from his sweat?

The scourge that has led to the annihilation of the book industry is none other than piracy. It is a big racket that has been tolerated for a long time with no regard to a simple fact that piracy is theft. The art of writing, as painstaking as it is, involves a lot of things. Chief among these is passion, a dedication to the cause of writing, which is then supplemented with research and intellectual input. The result of the whole process is an intellectual property, something registered as belonging to the author who now the nation has connived to rob without fear or shame.

Sometime ago, it was rewarding to have a book chosen to be in the school syllabus. Schools and students purchased these books from bookshops and authors were sure to get royalties for the books, but now even government schools buy photocopied books in the name of cutting costs. It is a wonder if these institutions would not be aware that they are committing an offence. Or it is the reluctance by government to put strict policies pertaining to the purchase of ‘stolen’ intellectual property which has exacerbated the situation. One popular author had a confrontation with one of the biggest high schools in the Glen View area of Harare over the use of pirated copies of his book which was then a set book. It is needless to say that the author did not have muscle enough to receive justice over his cause, but point remains that society is so naïve that they would point a finger that this writer does not own a car, forgetting how many cars they have robbed him through selling and buying of his pirated works.

…To be continued in the next newsletter.

(Freedom Gengezha is a published author and product of the now defunct Budding Writers' Association of Zimbabwe and a member of the Writers' International Network (Zimbabwe). He is the author of the Get Ready Go... English textbooks series which comprises the Advanced Level Guide to Poetry Criticism, Comprehensive Ordinary Level English Study Pack and the Junior Certificate English Practice Book. He has published a novel, The Day After Yesterday, a play and poetry anthologies.)

   

THE YOUTH PERSPECTIVE

With

Mimi Machakaire

Why are we so lazy to read?

 

Many times when I talk about my passion for literature and writing, I am irked by the tone of voice in others when they say they would rather wait for a new movie to come out instead of reading the book I would be suggesting they should read. It makes me wonder why we are so lazy to read but more eager to watch a movie in this generation!

Growing up as a kid I always preferred to read stories from the authors I loved before I could even think I could watch a movie one day. It always worries me when someone says they would rather wait for the movie to come out, thinking the adapted story will still be the same and yet it’s usually not.

There is always more detail in the book than in the movie because the producers take out the best parts that are in the book and use material that is screen friendly and within their budget. There might not always be a movie version of that book but you will be missing out on a good story.

I will give the example of the Fallen Series by Lauren Kate. The entire series is a collection of four books based on 17-year-old Lucinda who falls in love with a gorgeous, intelligent boy, Daniel. This happens while at her new school, the grim, foreboding Sword & Cross, but only to find out that Daniel is a fallen angel and that they have spent lifetimes finding and losing one another as good & evil forces plot to keep them apart.

She dies after every 17 years, only to be reborn in a different lifetime and still fall in love with the same boy, not knowing his origins but he finds her in each lifetime they spend together and fall in love all over again. The Fallen books were published between 2009 -2012 but the movie of the first book came out in 2017. By then, I had already collected and read all four books, not even interested in watching the movie but only focusing on the story that I knew was beautiful from the first chapter. 

Another example is the Harry Potter Series by JK Rowling. It came out as a movie by the time I was 10 years old, so I watched the first four movies thereafter not knowing there were already books. I discovered there were books by the time I was 13 after I watched the fourth movie and I was confused by the direction the movie was taking compared to the previous three movies. I decided to read the books thinking I would understand the plots better while watching the movie and I did.

By the time I finished all seven books, the last movie had not even arrived yet. I was more interested to read the books because I found out that it adds more fun when I later watched the movie, knowing the hidden chapters behind the film, noticing episodes that had been changed and if the characters matched the description of the author.

In this day and age, more and more people are stepping away from reading and it makes me sad to think that the only reason is that we are too busy. There are brilliant stories out there that do not need movies or pictures and are just more beautiful as books than a movie. There are times I honestly am scared that fil-makers who adapt stories from published books will destroy the true authenticity behind the story that they are attempting to portray. No one knows a story better than the one who wrote it and others can try as much as possible to adapt it into new forms but it will never really be the same. That is why we need to appreciate the good stories as much as possible when we do discover them and recognize that the story is better on its own than on the screen.

READING WILL HELP PROFESSIONALIZE DOMESTIC WORK

Mendy Lerato Lusaba

Social entrepreneur Mendy Lerato Lusaba believes that encouraging domestic workers to read books will help professionalize their job and have respectable standing in society.

To prove her point, Lusaba has published a simple but comprehensive “Domestic Workers Practical Handbook” which she hopes to officially launch and translate into more African languages soon.

Lusaba is the founder of the Domestic Workers Association of Zimbabwe (DWAZ), a membership-based growing network of maids working in and out of the country and has vast experience in the labor sector. The association aims ‘to professionalize the important but marginalized domestic work industry’.

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