WIN NEWSLETTER VOL 2, ISSUE NO 5

 

EDITORIAL

Baby Dambudzo

Welcome to our June issue of the Win Newsletter.

June 4, 2019, was the late Dambudzo Marechera’s 67^th birthday anniversary. We continue to remember and celebrate one of Zimbabwe’s remarkable writers who were born to the world, for the world, to give voice to the voiceless. “I am against everything/ against war and those against/ war. Against whatever diminishes/th’ individual’s blind impulse” is one of Marechera’s most quoted pieces. There was a quest in him for freedom of the mind, a plea to the world to respect the writer as a professional worker. One occasionally comes across the isolated writer-character in some urban-set pieces in the posthumous publication Scrapiron Blues (1992, Africa World Press). Even today, three decades after his death, the full-time writer is yet to be respected or accepted in our society. In this issue, we publish the last part of Freedom Gengezha’s article and he makes a reference to this aspect of the neglected writer. And we welcome back Muchuri the storyteller with his column Ngatinyorei. Enjoy!

ANOTHER BOOST FOR THE HARARE CITY LIBRARY

Mr. Takwana Masunda, HCL Assistant Librarian shows some of the books recently received from the Embassy of Brazil in Zimbabwe

 

Many of the books donated were in Portuguese language, making it a beautiful cultural exchange

  

INVITATION TO A POETRY WORKSHOP

BOOK REVIEW

By Beaven Tapureta

Novel Honors Loving Spirit of Missionary John Bradburne

Olivia Christian Paarsche, author of ‘The Next Of Kin’

The Next Of Kin (Second Edition, 2018, Reach Publishers, South Africa), written by Zimbabwe-born author Olivia Christian Paasche, is a highly spiritual novel, that is, with its engrossment with events happening in a pattern beyond ordinary human understanding, it appeals to the spirit.

The novel is a celebration of John Bradburne, a popular missionary and martyr who long ago harbored so much love for the lepers at Mutemwa, in Zimbabwe. His life story provides the essential background to The Next Of Kin, which is an enjoyable, uplifting five-part novel with love tucked at its centre of narration. The tale carries in its flow God’s care for His people and the reason why he sends ambassadors to represent His love in the whole world.

‘Part One’ takes place in Rome, with primary focus on the ordination of Angelo, the main character, and the unfortunate event that follows. It is this unfortunate event and others that herald Angelo’s continued search for Truth, even when he comes to Africa.

Although the Roman Catholic tradition is apparent, so motivating is the story. Some people, because of their innocent nature and submission to God's will in their lives, are blessed or privileged spiritually to converse with God. They hear the call of God, and follow it.

Angelo, who is so deeply inspired by John Bradburne to whom the novel is dedicated, is one such person who devoted his life to God from a tender age when he decided he would be a priest.

Yet trials and tribulations haunt him from the day of his ordination and in his missionary work in Mozambique, Africa, up to the end. He makes a decision today and soon afterwards, the spirit of God responds in very revealing visions or dreams either to remind him if he has made a wrong choice or a right move.

This is very well illustrated in ‘Part Three’ of the novel when Angelo is brought to Zimbabwe's St Michael's Hospital, half-dead. Having recuperated some days later, Angelo decides, perhaps for the umpteenth time, to give up his priesthood and marry Nicole; so drawn to her he is, and she too could not resist the power of love blooming between them. Nicole, loving and kind, is the embodiment of “the girl with a white rose” he had been seeing in most of his dreams. The novel is in some other ways about spiritual struggle and ultimate victory. In the choices we make, God is speaking through various ways.

The tale moves with a flowing, musical, dreamy style. The language of a gifted storyteller does not let you put the book down. In The Next Of Kin, it is musical, simple but deeply captivating, especially when the author describes the correspondence between the landscape or nature and the ‘human drama’ with such vividness, such beauty.

That the novel needed this updated edition is no doubt a successful decision the author made. The reader can feel the inspirational story of John Bradburne, who cared for the lepers in Mutemwa and was subsequently martyred. ‘Part Two’ of the novel, happening seven years after Angelo becomes an ordained priest and has been in Africa as a missionary, does bring Bradburne alive through the characters’ conversations especially when Angelo is admitted at St. Michael's Hospital (Zimbabwe). 

“He was a dear friend, mystic and prophet, poet and talented musician,” a nurse tells Angelo.

Missionary work in African countries faced cultural and various kinds of resistance in its initial stages until it began to be accepted. Bradburne lived through those hard times, fighting and eventually dying for the lepers who were his best friends. Likewise, Angelo finds himself ‘at the heart of the jungle’, fighting for the poor, enduring the bad winds of resistance, illness, etc. In the middle of all this, love blooms.

‘Part Three’, happening 14 years later in Mozambique, is a sad. But no matter how sad the story continues to drift in ‘Part Four’, the reader is comforted in ‘Part Five’ by the gripping letters Angelo wrote and never delivered to Nicole who only gets them later from Carlos, a close friend of Angelo. The enlightenment after reading the novel, that Nicole is but ‘the next of kin of the world’, that love triumphs, is indeed comforting.

According to writer Olivia, the novel was born out of a promise she made to Bradburne's friend, biographer and priest Father John Dove who died in Zimbabwe in 2014. She promised Fr Dove who was also very much involved in the leprosy centre in Mutemwa, that she would spread the word about Bradburne.

But thirteen years passed and something happened that reminded her of her promise.

"Interestingly, after 13 years, one day a picture fell from my wardrobe and landed face up in my hands! And who says the dead don't speak! So as you can imagine I was quite shaken. The cause of Bradburne's beatification is quite strong in the Vatican. There is quite a lot of excitement, even anticipation that if the cause for his sainthood goes through, Pope Francis will visit Zimbabwe," said Olivia.

The novel is indeed part of her spiritual life's story. Telling by her extensive nursing background, the reader could see her in the character Nicole – an incarnation of loving kindness, proud of her Zulu and Scottish roots.

Born in Zimbabwe, Olivia went to Moffat Primary and did her secondary education at Morgan High School. She trained as a nurse at the Parirenyatwa Hospital where she won several nursing awards. She was also a fashion model, featuring in magazines and was a familiar face on the advertising billboards.

Olivia travels extensively on pilgrimages to sacred places. Recently, she has been to Croatia on one such pilgrimage. The mother of five, blessed with three grandsons, says her passion is art and spending time outdoors with nature. She lives with her family in London where she works as a part-time nurse and wherever she is, she utilizes her nursing skills to assist the disabled.

         

 

NATIONAL PRIZE FOR YOUNG WRITERS LAUNCHED

Poet Philani Nyoni, who is administering the Prize

A new national writing prize that will promote female budding writers in high schools has 

been launched

For contest guidelines and more information, contact:  

submissions@queenlozikeyi.co.zw or visit www.queenlozikeyiprize.co.zw     

 

 THE YOUTH PERSPECTIVE

With

Mimi Machakaire

“I Still Appreciate The Smell Of New Ink And Fresh Pages”

We are living in the digital era where everything can be accessed via the internet. Whatever inquiry into any topic, one can always find it through a simple URL search on the world wide web. this means that all novels, short stories, poetry and scripts can be downloaded with a simple click of a button.  

So what happened to the luxury of going to an actual bookstore and buying a paperback book from the new releases aisle, finally getting the book after months of anticipation from the day the author announced his/her latest works? Not only that, but where are the days of just stumbling on new books from Steven King (or local writers), knowing that he has been quietly writing from his home and thus gifting the world with his genius?   

The sad part now is that hardly anyone likes to collect novels anymore. In this millennial time, where we find books online, suddenly there is no time to look for a paperback, to buy it, and then read it. It is almost as if we have forgotten what our authors gave us from the very beginning. Words written with ink on pages, to create one big story and then stitched together, fashioning what we now know as books. 

I still appreciate the smell of new ink and fresh pages, the feel of a novel in my hands as I pack it with me on a journey to a new country. In a plane, a car or a bus, wherever the wind takes me, if you look closely, you will find a novel of some kind, from the fantasy world, or literary worlds, sitting in my rucksack.  

 However, with these new age electronic books, there is no emotion because you are holding onto cold technology. There is no connection, no warning, that you are about to sink into a different world. Whereas, when you opened a thick, hard cover novel, you could sense that you are no longer living in your own reality but that you are now entering someone else’s imagination. 

These new age books called PDFs or e-Books, while they offer some benefits, like leisure reading for the working class human, it is not wise to stare at a glass monitor for long hours at a time. Doing so can actually damage the eyes or develop unwanted headaches. 

Many people do not realize that the longer you stare at a bright screen, without taking breaks, the more it can lead to difficulty in focusing, eye discomfort, blurred vision, dry eyes, and itchy eyes. This happens because looking at a screen for extended periods of time causes you to blink less, which deprives your eyes of moisture, that is why scientists suggests it is wiser to take a break after every 20 minutes to avoid long term problems with one’s eyesight and overall senses. 

It is thus healthy to opt to read from paperback stories rather than from electronic books. Whether you are reading, 30 minutes or two hours each day, the key is to get some (book) reading in every single day. The benefits are well documented and are known to improving both intelligence and emotional IQ and will further reduce one’s stress levels. In other words, there are more benefits to one’s overall health taken from reading paperback stories than there is from using e-Books or PDF files.

Therefore, I have to ask: why are people running away from all these health benefits and choosing to damage their eyesight, among other things instead?

While books are heavier to pack or carry around and using a tablet device or a phone is lighter for convenience, it still does not change the fact that one’s health is more at risk using technology, than that of paperback stories.

Children of today need to see the children of yesterday, still enjoying the touch and feel of a novel as it will encourage them to learn more about sentence structure, theme, character development and paragraphs because the longer they read the more it is going to improve their vocabulary, enhance their memory skills and develop their mental stimulation.  

Recent studies have shown that through reading paperback stories, this can help your mental stability stay stimulated and can further slow the progress of (or possibly even prevent) Alzheimer’s and Dementia, since keeping your brain active and engaged prevents it from losing power. Just like any other muscle in the body, the brain requires exercise to keep it strong and healthy, so the phrase “use it or lose it” is particularly relevant when it comes to your mind.

The same analysis goes for those who are still active in doing puzzles and playing games such as chess, which is helpful with cognitive stimulation.

While it is understandable that it is hard to get into the habit of reading paperback stories everywhere, we go but for the sake of our mental health and keeping our traditions intact, I say we should not forget where all these stories once originated.

We once had a childhood filled with borrowing books from huge libraries with our very own library card that had our names on it. These were buildings, which stored rows and rows of knowledge and that which also fed us stories from beyond the world of television and electronic devices. The joys of finding your favorite stories or encyclopedias sitting in a sea of books in a store or a library is still there, all we need to do is just search for the books that will help us feel that joy again.   

           

NGATINYOREI

Na Tinashe Muchuri

Joyous memories: Muchuri dancing to sweet mbira vibes issuing from an Epworth-based mbira group at the ‘Win 2011 Writers End of Year Get-Together’ held at the Book Café, Harare. 

Tigashire vanyori nevaravi vanodiwa muchikamu chino cheNgatinyorei naTinashe Muchuri, tiri muno mudariro ratapiwa kuti titandare pamwe chete neveboka revanyori veWriters International Network Zimbabwe.

Muchikamu chino icho chichange chichibuda mugwarodandetande reWinZim tichange tichitandara mumwe musi iri hurukuro nemunyori, kana munyori wenziyo anozonzi muimbi kana munyori wenyaya nemuvezi wemitambo, kana kuti munyori wemitambo yemudariro kana mafirimu, uye muverengi uyo akanakidzwa nezvinyorwa zvevanyori zvinotapira. Chinangwa cheNgatinyorei ndechekuvandudza pfungwa, kunyandura pfungwa, kutandadza pfungwa, kutsiura pfungwa, kusimbisa nekusimudzira pfungwa nekudzisekesa pamwe nekudzisekenyedza.

Dariro rino nderedu tese vanyori nevaverengi. Zvichida mangwana ndiwe unenge uri vavariro yechikamu chino, saka huyai mese titandare muno tichizevezerana, tichiimba, tichiseka, tichisekenyedzana, tichivaraidzana, tichinakidzana, tichivindurana, tisingatyi kana kusvoda zvedu mudariro rino ratapiwa kuti tivandudzane maonero, mafungiro, maitiro nemanyorero.

Ngatinyorei Hapana Chinotimisa Tinokunda

Zvino muchikamu chino chinova chekuvamba tati regai tivambire kutandara nevanyori vanonyora vari kumaruwa takangana nematambudziko avanosangana nawo. Semunyori uye mupepepti wezvinyorwa zveChiShona ndatandara navanyori vakawanda vanonyora vari kumaruwa. Nerimwe gore ndakabatsira muhurongwa hweBhabhu Books hwekuunganidza zvinyorwa zvenyaya pfupi dzakazoumba muunganidzwa wenyaya pfupi unodaidzwa kunzi Makore Asina Mvura. Ndakatandarawo nevanyori vanonyora vari kumaruwa mukupepeta zvinyorwa zvavo senzira yekuti zviwane kukwenenzvereka kuti zvitsikiswe zviwane kusvika kumarudzi ose epasi rino.

Vanyori vazhinji vezvinyorwa zveChiShona vanofunga kuti vanonyorera varavi vemuZimbabwe mega vachifungidzira kuti ndivo varavi vezvinyorwa zvavo, uye vanonyora vakanangana nekuti zvinyorwa zvavo zvigashirwe muzvikoro zvigoshandiswa muzvidzidzo nevadzidzi. Asi hazvo hazvina kumira sekudero. Zvinyorwa zvinoraviwa pasi rese. Zvinyorwa zvinodzidzwa pasi rese. Zvakanaka kuti vanyori vazive kuti pavanenge vachinyora nyaya dzavo vari kunyorera pasi rese. Pasi rese rine chidokwadokwa chekuziva mazano, tsika, magariro, zvikoshwa nehunhu hwavaShona. Izvi vanogona kuzviwana kubudikidza nezvinyorwa zvenyu vanyori. Ndiyo iya inonzi arava chinyorwa ashanya.

Nguva zhinji panoverengwa zvinyorwa tinoona kuti zvinokoshesa kutaurwa kweupenyu hwemumaguta. Upenyu hwemumaguta hunenge ndihwo hwakakosha kupfuvura hwekumamana. Hupenyu hwekumamana hunoratidzwa sehwakasarira sure zvikuru. Zvinonzi munhu anonyora zvakanakisa kana achinangana nekunyora izvo zvinhu zvaanozivisisa kana zvinhu zviri pedyo pedyo naye zvakanyanya. Izvo zvinobva zvawirirana nechinangwa chechinyorwa chino chinova chekukurudzira vanyori vekumamana kuti vasimbise upenyu, magariro, zviitiko zveko izvo zvinozoita kuti kana nevanhu vari mumaguta vazivewo zviitiko zveupenyu hwekumamana. Zvinganaka sei kuona bhuku rinotangira kwaGutu saRevai rakanyorwa naRopofadzo Mupunga richitiratidza kusimuka kunoita mweya yavakafa vachirwira vapenyu vavakasiya, ko idzo nyaya dzefungidziro yehuroyi, ko iyo nyaya dzematubura anonzi arura kumamamana achitora mhumba dzevanhu kuendesa Joni uko matubura anozodzoka ava nedzimotokari dzinotakurisa vanhu dzerudzi rwemakombi?

Varavi vobvunza kuti ingava sakiso here mabhazi nemakombi achisakisa njodzi zhinji mumigwagwa dzinoteura ropa rakawanda? Kuti idi here kana kungokonewa kwevachairi verudzi rwezvitakuravanhu urwu?

Kana kusangana nenovhero rakaita saPaakabva Parefu rakanyorwa naModern Tavarwisa, mudzidzisi kumana rekwaNembudziya, iro rinobata nyaya yemukondombera weHIV neAIDS wazezesa vanhu pasi rino richitseketudza nyaya dzedambudziko iri zvichifambirana nemukore uno wemakereke eminana ekuti zvirwere zvinorapwa neminana, upfumi hunounganidzika neminana, mhuri dzinoumbwa neminana, mabhizimisi anoitika neminana, richiuya nemubvunzo wekuti zvine chokwadi here? Iwo mukondombera unoparadzwa neminana here? Ko, vawanani vakave mumwe ane mukondombera mumwe asina zvinoraramika sei?

 Ndaimbokurukura naJohannes Mupisa akanyora Shukukuviri inova nyaya ine chekuita nezvemaporofita, minana, mashiripiti, midzi nemweya yengozi maererano nekunyora nyaya refu ingazova iya inonzi nyayanyorwa/nganonyorwa kana kuti novhero kuti munhu anofanira kurangarira nguva dzese kuti paanenge achinyora pamusoro pezvimwe zvinhu zvinoitika kana imwe tsika yekumana kwake neverudzi rwake anyatsotsetsenura zvinogutsa, zvinoita kuti kana zviya vanhu vasingazive nezveupenyu hwekuMwenezi kwaanobva vazive kuti iyo Mwenezi idunhu rakamboita sei, rine vanhu vakamboita sei, vanorarama sei. Zvinofadza kunzwa kuti novhero rake ririkutevera anenge achikurukura naSekuru vake Jandura maererano neupenyu hwemumana make.

(To be continued in the next newsletter…)

CHILDREN LITERATURE CORNER

  

With

Aleck Kaposa

Let There Be Reading: A Case For Story Books

Children must be introduced to reading books from the earliest age possible. Once the children are hooked to books, they will not depart from them when they grow up. Fortunately today, there are all sorts of reading materials which are readily and cheaply available to cater for all ages in both hard and soft copy formats. However due care must be taken to ensure that only suitable, age-appropriate reading materials are availed to the children as they embark on the life-long reading journey.

Reasons for reading  

There are many reasons why it is critical for children to read books and other reading materials from an early age. Here we look at only four. All children must be encouraged and guided to read books for the following reasons, among many others.       

Reading for enjoyment or for leisure

Firstly children need to be encouraged to read books for enjoyment or for leisure. This opens their young and fertile minds to endless possibilities and serves as a seed to stimulate creativity in different endeavors. Every child should be given a challenge to read a certain number of books for a given period, say three or four books per month. The same should be encouraged to love and care for the books and to develop an intimate relationship with them. This is where the hard copy comes in handy and advantageous over the soft copy.     

Reading for academic purposes

Secondly children read books for academic purposes, to prepare for their academic courses and examinations. If they are already used to reading books from an early age, they will not find this cumbersome or boring.   Reading for personal development Another reason is that children, like adults, should be encouraged to read books for personal development. The conventional diploma or degree programmes offered by tertiary institutions do not necessarily cover everything one needs in life. A great deal of tips on how to do this or that comes from books not prescribed for any particular curriculum. The internet is awash with personal development tips, some of which stuff is pretty useful. A child can read books in order to develop in areas such as English spelling and grammar and composition.   

Reading to assist others

Yet another reason children should read books is for them to be able to assist their struggling peers at home and at school. Children who read are mostly ahead of their peers academically. These able readers can assist their peers who do not read. This in turn builds a strong bond and friendship between the helper and the helped.       

What books to read?

Children in Zimbabwe must be encouraged to read books from their home country before they venture to books from other African countries as well as Europe and America. Local children should not shun books written by local authors as these reflect the society in which they live. Local books are a repository for local culture and customs. Buying and reading original, local books as opposed to badly visible and badly bound, illegally photocopied books helps the local economy as it creates employment for the author, the printer, the publisher and the bookseller, not to mention the paper and ink supplier. Buying and reading mainly or only foreign books is not only detrimental to the local economy but tends to give the young readers an outlook that is foreign as far as real life is concerned. This may cause the children to end up shunning or looking down upon their own literature while appreciating that which is foreign. There are several good, new books for children today in this country. However, the creative writer today should do more to satisfy this huge market for books out there. There should be plenty of picture as well as other reading books, creatively written for children of all levels, books that reflect who we are, the way we live as well as our aspirations. Educators should not just be purveyors of educational content found in reading books created by others but should themselves be creators of new, exciting and original books for children.   

Stakeholders in the reading matrix    

In order to build a lasting reading culture in today’s children whose life is more than cluttered with entertainment and social media, all the stakeholders in the reading books matrix should play their part. These are government, which provides an enabling environment, the writer who writes the right reading book, the publisher who publishes the book, the parent or school that buys the book and the learner willing to read the book and derive all the benefits associated with reading. That recipe will surely revive and strongly establish a lasting and lifelong reading culture in children.

BOOK REVIEW

By Beaven Tapureta

When Family Means Sorrow

Ashley Ropafadzo Tome, author 

In the dramatic novel ‘Knell. Ashes. Seppuku’ (2018, Langaa Research and Publishing, Cameroon) by 22-year old Ashley R Tome, one gets the feeling that what others call family is to some nothing but an entrapment from which they are continuously trying to free themselves.

In one family, a couple are desperate to bear children, in another mother and son are at crossroads, yet in another a sister revenges against rapist brother,  and all the drama is captured in fifteen chapters of brief, interlocking scenes of conflict.

What Tome has provided in fiction, others have provided in motivational writing, that is, the subject of the modern family and /or extended family and human behaviour. From the beginning, the reader notes in the novel the clash between the present and the past, notes how gradually the situation becomes uncontrollable as family secrets are revealed and others covered up but not for long.  

Cephas, a young man, is the center of attention. To him family means a daily shouting-match with his mother Margaret, and home is home only if he could incessantly obtain his mother’s money and car, and nothing close to human compassion. His membership to a criminal gang is clearly a psychological make up for the absence of family love.

Yet, like other young people in the novel except a few who innocently pursue their dreams, Cephas is the embodiment of ‘pay-back time’ for the adults or parents whose sins can no more remain covered in secrecy.

In ‘Knell. Ashes. Seppuku’, parents fail their children by letting the past overhang unresolved or rather, un-forgiven. The author, through an episodic unraveling of events, portrays this cruel split of generations.

Margaret cheated her late husband and her punishment seems to have come in the form of a rebellious son and her death. Elvis Jones, another parent in the story, raped his sister Erica in the past and his punishment is double-folded, that is, a gangster-son born from the rape and his (Elvis’) death.

Erica sums it up when she says in a certain scene, “A bad past should be burned to ashes my dear. It is not meant to live…but to die.”

The metaphors of ashes, the knell, and the Japanese seppuku, are very well played around with in the novel. In fact, the compound emotion which the reader is immersed in while reading the novel is that of “the absence of laughter”. Nihilistic could be too extreme a word to describe the mood in Tome’s debut novel.

Where hope and innocence exists, it is crushed as, for instance, we see another young character Tinashe, a relative of Margaret, humble and ambitious, gets imprisoned for a crime he did not commit. Tinashe is naturally the kind of son every parent would be proud to have.  

Not only do the adults harbor secrets or have dark pasts affecting their children, but also at some point, their way of handling issues is put under the microscope. For example, Tome shows us how much a parent’s absurd behaviour bears on the happiness of others.   

Nomagugu is Nyasha’s mother. Nyasha and his wife Charity long to have a child of their own. Although Nyasha and Charity have backgrounds they are not open about to each other for some time, not having a child is seen from a cultural perspective by Nomagugu. It is not bad to consider culture in marital issues, but how Nomagugu handles it in the story is questionable.

Imagine your mother popping up in the morning with a sixteen year old girl from the village for you to marry. Your mother pushes your wife and when you try to condemn your mother’s manners, she says to you, “Heede! You call that a wife, she is not a wife, that woman is a man my son. Look at her womb, it’s stuck inside kuita kunge kamwana keku (…) karohwa nenzara. Do you know the pain and humiliation that I am going through Nyasha because of this faggot you call a wife? …”

In ‘Knell. Ashes. Seppuku’, Ashley Tome displays her talent in weaving together a thriller-paced story with characters embodying different themes in a world of broken family and relationships. Notwithstanding the missing letters in some words so visible in the last chapters, this book is one of the ‘unputdownable’ works of fiction being issued by the emerging generation of Zimbabwean writers.

Born in 1997 in Gweru, Tome attended Thornhill, Cecil John Rhodes and Redcliff Primary Schools. She then did her Ordinary and Advanced Levels at Loreto and Harare High Schools respectively. She is currently studying Social Work (Honors Degree) at the University of Zimbabwe.

RESOURCES FOR WRITERS

AFRICA BOOK LINK

 

Visit the website

LEGALIZED PILFERAGE - DEMISE OF AN INDUSTRY

Freedom Gengezha

(Final part of article, first part appeared in the previous newsletter)

The beast which writers are facing is as complex as it includes all stakeholders in the book sector and those individuals who see nothing wrong in the pilferage of one’s intellectual ideas. Could there be some at the top echelons who have either connived intentionally or otherwise, and turning a blind eye on the plight that has befallen this industry, besides the thousands who buy the ‘stolen’ property as it is peddled in the streets? The later group’s complicity is mainly due to ignorance and the biting economic conditions. An original copy of a school textbook costing sixty dollars in the bookshop can be purchased in pirated form for half the price in the streets. Common sense says one would obviously buy the pirated version and save a few dollars, for what it contains is the same.

A talk with writers reveals that some publishing houses are at the forefront in giving them a raw deal. Scripts are no longer safe in the hands of these opportunistic publishers. Some books one find on the streets have a quality that shows that they are not photocopied versions but copies of original scripts. Then it boggles the mind how hawkers would have gotten hold of them in the first place. Moreover, for those sold in the bookshops, it takes ages for authors to receive their royalties and at times, periods of five to ten years lapse without getting a cowry from the publishers. One then wonders if the writing profession has become charity work for a few to ride in cars from the sweat of these ‘fools’. This is what has turned many writers into self-publishing which is seeing many artists selling their own books, and to be brutally frank, this has seen the quality of books out of this nation drop drastically.

The government, surely, can do something to free the book sector from the beast of piracy. Through tough legislative policies, the government can save this sinking Titanic. To begin with, pirated books should have no place in education institutions. Secondly, artists should be protected like any other citizen when a report of theft has been made to the police. If someone reports that his television set has been stolen and he has seen it on the market being sold, the reaction is different from when a writer reports that his books have been pirated and are being sold in the street. What makes this theft of intellectual property to be tolerated? The police themselves should have an anti-piracy taskforce that grabs these pirated books from the streets. Or is someone more powerful benefiting from the status quo?

When the President announces the Ministerial positions, writers and their colleagues in other forms of art always have an interest in the Minister of Arts, Sports and Culture with the hope that this individual would be one who might take their plight seriously. The arts industry always hopes one day it shall become a top priority for the persons filling this position.

Artists have followed the changing trends and with everybody else they have also embraced technology. They have also diversified to suit the global demands through the availability of their works on e-platforms such as Amazon, eBay and YouTube. But the curse of piracy has followed them there and their works are not safe from this plague. A single download is shared among thousands and with some of their innovations, when they take them to big corporations for sponsorship, their ideas are pilfered and altered and the original innovator remains on the losing end.

The artist remains the ‘fool’ who does not have medical aid and has no funeral policy, needing well-wishers to bury him after a life of entertaining and educating the nation. Why does the writing profession seem to be the most unrewarding to many Zimbabweans?

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