EDITORIAL
Zimbabwean writers remember and celebrate the late legendary African writer, Ngugi wa Thiong’o
Ngugi wa Thiong’o
NGUGI WA THIONG’O, the genius of African literature who became but an international icon, died on May 28, 2025, aged 87.
Soon after his family announced his death, the world of literature was shaken and overwhelming tributes we read in different forms in and on different journals and social media platforms, thus turning the moment of grief into a celebration of a life well lived.
Ngugi’s stance on decolonising the African mind via the indigenous languages did not spare Zimbabwean literary scholars of his generation and the next. Hearing of his death, readers of Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s books here in Zimbabwe also poured out their memories of how his thoughts spurred their minds to be critical and creative, and enlightened particularly on subjects of identity and originality.
On May 31, 2025, the official opening day of the resuscitated Zimbabwe International Book Fair (ZIBF), the few local book industry stakeholders who gathered at the Harare Gardens observed a minute of silence in honour of the late great writer. We bring you some more interesting scenes from this year’s ZIBF.
We shall always remember Ngugi wa Thiong’o, after whom we know many positive things will follow.
Join us in celebrating the man whose pen was mightier than the sword!
WIN
***
OUR LIVES ARE A BATTLEFIELD
“Our lives are a battlefield on which is fought a continuous war between the forces that are pledged to confirm our humanity and those determined to dismantle it; those who strive to build a protective wall around it, and those who wish to pull it down; those who seek to mould it and those committed to breaking it up; those who aim to open our eyes to make us see the light and look to tomorrow […] and those who wish to lull us into closing our eyes.”
– Ngugi wa Thiong’o, (taken from an African Arts Initiative Birthday Calendar)
GO WELL, SON OF THE SOIL
Ngugi wa Thiong’o
(Photo: BusinessLIVE)
TRIBUTES
A SONG AT DAWN
(First appeared in her second book Mother Tongues (Northwestern UP, 2019)
Tsitsi Jaji
Grain-scatterer, we too have shed our apostolic alias
and followed you into the shade to hear our voices
bloom. Here rapoko, here chibage, here zviyo, here
nzungu, here nhanga, here sweet, sweet nhopi.
Here a name we call ourselves.
Here a thing we will not do: steal, red-handed.
Grain-distributor, we trade words with you. We
give an mbeu here for a buried seed there. We
mark up the goods by candlelight, in blue or red
ink. We shrink with doubt from a place called
Nation. One thing we can say for sure: We will never be
a colony again. Need the obvious be stated this way?
Gainsayer, what would you ask us to ask now: What is dying
below the topsoil, that dusting of iron will, nitrous rage,
pot ash? What birthright is traded when a crow
takes cover in a crocodile’s nest? What will translate this
long century into a new election cycle, a conference
of women, men, young visionaries, old dreamers
debating under Wangari’s forest of green umbrellas?
We will plough your plot, furrow its surface, burrow in the
tunnels of language. Our dismay is our hope, present at
every meeting. In simpler times the answers might have
slipped off our tongues. Now family feuds erupt into wars.
It seems these devilish thorns and eroded rock are also our
inheritance: these lands, these languages, these mother tongues.
You have left us no choice, O stubborn prophet of Gĩkũyũ,
but to try our tongue, and listen as silence softly
breaks.
“ALL I WOULD HEAR UP AND DOWN THE CORRIDOR IN OUR HOUSE WAS NGUGI THIS, NGUGI THAT…” - JESESI
Mrs Jesesi Mungoshi
“Hona ziBhaibheri iri,” he joked showing me Mr. Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s book saying that it was as big as the Bible. Indeed, it was/is a big book but if there was one man I knew could do justice translating into Shona, all the words, time and sweat Mr. Ngugi wa Thiong’o had put into his book, then Charles was the man.
And during that time, all I would hear up and down the corridor in our house was Ngugi this Ngugi that, it started feeling as though this man was living in our house. In 1987, ZPH published Mr. Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s A Grain of Wheat in Shona, Tsanga yeMbeu translated by my husband, Dr Charles Mungoshi.
To Mr. Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s family and friends, our brothers and sisters in Kenya, though we have never met, our paths have always crossed because we belong to the same soil and mother, my deepest condolences on the passing on of this African Legend. But like all legends, their works live on.
#restinpeace #NgugiWaThiongo.
I FELT I WAS ON THAT KENYAN TERRAIN IN ‘THE RIVER BETWEEN’
Memory Chirere
In Ngugi I mourn the man who made the idea of being a writer be something that flowed like music. It was in my early high school days at St Albert’s Mission in Centenary District, Northern Zimbabwe when I first came into contact with the Kenyan writer through his iconic novel, The River Between. My soul was immediately touched.
Our teacher of English, Mr. O. Chinyemba, may his soul rest in peace, used Ngugi’s book for our supplementary reading for English language. My imagination was fired. The hills, the rivers, the elders in Ngugi’s Kenya were reminiscent of nearly everything in the northern part of my country.
My teacher held The River Between and read from it, pacing up and down the classroom. The opening chapters were especially tickling:
“The two ridges lay side by side. One was Kameno, the other was Makuyu. Between them was a valley. It was called the valley of life. Behind Kameno and Makuyu were many more valleys and ridges, lying without any discernible plan. They were like many sleeping lions which never woke. They just slept, the big deep sleep of their Creator.”
My teacher read on, excited:
“A river flowed through the valley of life. If there had been no bush and no forest trees covering the slopes, you could have seen the river when you stood on top of either Kameno or Makuyu. Now you had to come down. Even then you could not see the whole extent of the river as it gracefully, and without any apparent haste, wound its way down the valley like a snake. The river was called Honia, which meant cure, or bring back-to-life. Honia river never dried…
When he came to the river, my teacher’s voice became deeper:
“Honia was the soul of Kameno and Makuyu. It joined them. And men, cattle, wild beasts and trees, were all united by this life-stream.
When you stood in the valley, the two ridges ceased to be sleeping lions united by their common source of life. They became antagonists. You could tell this, not by anything tangible but by the way they faced each other, like two rivals ready to come to blows in a life and death struggle for the leadership of this isolated region.”
I felt like I was on that Kenyan terrain, seeing the similar valleys and ridges of our land through the classroom window. The familiarity was exhilarating. Listening to the African Gikuyu names; Kameno and Makuyu rang a bell because Gikuyu strangely felt like Shona, my mother tongue.
My classmates and I were mesmerized too by the proverb: “Kagutui kamucii gatihakago ageni” (the oil skin of the house is not for rubbing onto the skin of strangers). We sang out the proverb in the titillating Gikuyu in the school yard at break time, just for the fun of it!
We were simply happy to have discovered a writer who came from a faraway place that, nevertheless, felt and smelt like ours.
I began to read more from Ngugi’s works on my own and through the syllabus, as I went further in my own schooling career. I recall that I easily related with the set up in Ngugi’s play with Micere Mugo, The Trial of Dedan Khimathi. I related easily especially with characters from the guerilla war of Kenya in the 1950’s captured in this play. It was easy because I grew up seeing guerrillas interacting with the peasants in Northern Zimbabwe during our long war of independence from colonialism.
The scene in which the colonial soldier searches a Kikuyu woman who is actually on her way to feed the Mau Mau guerrillas in the forest was very familiar to me as I had seen women in my family hiding food in baskets in order to feed the guerrillas in the late 1970’s.
MAIBABO!
Edwin Msipa aka Black wã Mampara, The Poet
Hon'o!
Africa yabatwa nenyon'o,
Kumabvazuva, nyika yasvika pamugonyo,
Tose ikoko meso dzvondo,
Vakwanisa hendeko,
Ikoko titi rongondo.
Idi rakawa Gomo!
Handizive kuti kuri kuimbwa, 'Kasongo?'
Nokuti waenda Ngŭgí wa Thíong'ó.
PaKenya,
Bhuku dzake hadzina kudzika nyikadzimu kuti ny'a,
Rinoramba rakati tsva-a rinoraya pazviredhi gwenya.
hokwadi rufu haruna hany'a.
Kutoita haro zvokutikanya.
Imbiru ine mbiri!
Yairwa nemumwe vari vaviri,
Umwe akati nzve-e, handingamiri!
Ndokunge soko muKenya rati hiriri hiriri!
Hoyo, muDzimbahwe jiti!
Akagoimutsa NTO,
Huye ikoko akange asingamiri.
Ndiye sahwira wakabvunyaidzwa pamwe naNgugi wa Thíong'ó, imi!
Idi timurangarirezve mumwe wake, mushakabvu Ngŭgí wa Míríí.
Charles Mungoshi,
Yvonne Vera,
Chimusoro,
Solomon Mutswairo,
Mordecai Hamutyinei,
J. C Kumbirai,
VaChingono, 'Vana vaani avo?'
Masitela Lilian,
Paul Chidyausiku,
Dambudzo Marechera,
William Chivaura,
Herbert Chitepo,
Patrick 'Garandichauya' Chakaipa,
Nathan Shamuyarira,
Willie Dzawanda Musarurwa,
Pazvinyorwa vaisasarura,
Dzimbahwe rainge rakagujuchira ukuzungu.
Varwi ava!
Vanyori vakakosha,
Vakarwa rwaamai vakasimbisa,
Vakadyoredzera dzekwedu tsika!
Vachiti zveavo zvisatipaza,
Vachiti nhaka mutambidzanwa.
Vakomana isu vana tasiiwa takanaka.
Tosimudza Africa!
Tosafuririka!
Togocha dzatavhima togaka,
Torega mucheka dzafaka!
Tocheka mweya yemichina inonyoranyora zvisi zvayo,
Heyo inongokopakopa nezvevafi,
Takangoyeva,
Tichingovhevhwa.
OVERVEIW
Maibabo!' symbolises our cries as Africans. Tribute to one of Africa's greats. He was a luminary and a visionary yet simple literary arts practitioner. We celebrate the life of Ngŭgí wa Thíongo. His long-time late partner, Ngŭgí wa Míríí, who later stayed in exile here in Zimbabwe, was a great teacher too. We miss these two giants. As we remember these great luminaries, let us also reflect on our fallen Zimbabwe's heroes and heroines. As we mourn them why should we allow piracy to divide the book industry? Who shall bell the cat? These late greats shall one day rise and switch of all photocopiers which are short-changing the sweat and pen of the writer. Aluta continua! - Black wã Mampara, The Poet(c) 29.05.25)
NGUGI WA THIONG’O MADE ME CRUSADER FOR MY LANGUAGE – PETINA GAPPAH
Petina Gappah
“Reading Ngugi decolonised my mind so fundamentally that I became a Crusader for my language. Meeting him was a sublime joy because not only did I meet a writer I adored, one of his sons Mukoma became a dear friend. Thank you Ngugi wa Thiong’o, for lighting my life.”
Read More HERE
NGUGI wa THIONG’O – DECOLONIAL ICON, MWALIMU AND WRITER: A VOICE SILENCED BUT NEVER FORGOTTEN
Andrew Chatora
“We grew up with Ngugi, Achebe, Mungoshi as our staple literary diet in Zimbabwe. As a little boy growing up in Dangamvura, Mutare, I ravenously devoured a plethora of Ngugi’s gems, among them; the classics: The River Between, Devil on The Cross, The Trial of Dedan Kimathi, Decolonising the Mind, among others. I may have been living in Mutare, Zimbabwe, but already I was transported to the world and ridges of Kameno, Makuyu and Nyeri! Who can forget Waiyaki, Mwalimu, the teacher in The River Between, Ngugi’s enduring protagonist?”
Read More: ANDREW CHATORA
HE LEFT A MARK, I WANTED TO MEET HIM
Tinashe Muchuri
I met Micere Mugo in Harare at the Zimbabwe International Book Fair, She taught at the University of Zimbabwe, I missed the lectures in lecture theatres but enjoyed her speeches and critical thoughts in conferences and at Indabas.
Ngugi wa Miri became a Zimbabwean with a theatre club at Warren Park D kwaPfukwa township.
At Kenzim, patrons and fans were treated to sonic theatre, Kenyan and Zimbabwean culinary. Hifa and Book Cafe at Fife Street Shops became the most interactive spaces we enjoyed each other's artistic expression. He left us coming from a Hifa show, the man who revolutionised theatre with ZACT.
I missed wa Thiongo the year he landed in the House of stones, I was still sharpening my penpoints at the village, but I heard about it, he left a mark, I wanted to meet him, my African writer whom I first met together with Mugo in the play The Trial of Dedan Kimathi. My grade three teacher Mr Silas introduced me to him and them, may his soul rest in peace my great teacher, then wa Miri became the food that nourished my intellect with his penpoints that were sharp and didn’t miss their targets. They decolonised the mind, my mind is free! Ndinonyora, ndiri kunyora uye ndichanyora. Lala nqokuthula umlobi wethu wa Thiongo. Munyori weZimbabwe, munyori weAfrica, munyori weZendereka rose.
Matigari tinomuda nhasi namangwana.
FORTHCOMING EVENTS
OFFICIAL OPENING OF THE L. RON HUBBARD HOUSE
By invitation!
The official opening of the L. Ron Hubbard House OFFICIAL OPENING will be happening on June 28, 2025, in New Alexandra, Harare, Zimbabwe. The house, meticulously restored to its original splendour, showcases the life and works of L. R. Hubbard, a distinguished author and founder of Scientology, who had the pleasure of residing in Zimbabwe.
For more information, visit: L. RON HUBBARD
PERFORMANCE-BASED SEMINAR
BOOK REVIEW
MENTAL HEALTH: A THEME RISING FROM OBSCURITY IN ZIM LITERARTURE
The notable rise of new poetry and fiction dealing with mental health in in Zimbabwe in the past two or three years clearly indicates the matter now needs urgent action before it quietly and completely destroys individuals, families and communities.
Read More:
ZIBF BREAKS SILENCE
[Winzim Online]
Consultus Publishing Services (CPS) at this year’s ZIBF Reconnect Book Festival
The usually week-long Zimbabwe International Book Fair (ZIBF) returned this year for two days from May 30 to 31, at its well-known venue Harare Gardens.
The event ran under the theme “Reconnect Book Festival 2025”.
Last held in 2020, its conspicuous absence on the literary scene stole the common international book reading funfair in Harare. Although there are now other local upcoming book festivals which are providing an alternative, book lovers missed the ZIBF during its four-year quietness. However, as the Reconnect Book Festival showed, something was happening backstage.
Speaking on behalf of Prof Ruby Magosvongwe who is the ZIBFA General Council Chairperson, writer Memory Chirere said a caretaker committee drawn from the last board has been established to champion the move to reignite the Book Fair.
“We invite publishers, authors, educators, librarians, policymakers, and literary enthusiasts to note that we have put together a caretaker committee made up of the willing few members from the last board who have volunteered to champion the move to reignite our fair. From there we have to make substantive strides in the actual restructuring. During this mini book festival, we invite you to give the committee your ideas on how we should reignite the book fair. From there we shall come back to you on the next stage,” he said.
This year the book festival didn’t come with its major attractions such as the international Indaba Conference, the Children’s Reading Tent, Writers’ Workshop, and Live Literature.
In a separate interview, Chirere, who was the ZIBF Executive Board Chair in 2020 when the book fair was postponed, said that the comeback would be as slow as a seed.
“All things grow slowly. Even the original ZIBF grew from a small start. We just wanted to entertain people. After this, we may go to Bulawayo and other places for similar festivals so that the whole country can feel we are back and trying to find our feet,” he said.
Furthermore, by holding such an event on a zero budget, Chirere said this could encourage fans and sponsors of the ZIBF.
“We just wanted a reconnection through entertainment, exhibitions, friends reunions,” said Chirere, who is also one of the striking University of Zimbabwe lecturers.
The book sector in Zimbabwe has been going down, with some major publishing houses closing shop. While writers have shown resilience by self-publishing, book piracy remains the vampire sucking their energy up.
Chirere said that all that Zimbabwean writers are calling is a safe present and future for their creative works.
“Sometimes when you see authors self-publishing, it is because of resilience. The self-funding heavily draws from their family budgets and that is why they are the most bitter about book piracy in Zimbabwe. They want a safe present and future for their works,” said Chirere.
Apart from the exhibitions which were but few, visitors to the book festival were treated to soulful music by Seke Teachers’ College, spoken word vibes by poets Edwin Msipa aka Black wa Mampara, Webster Mangachena Pasipanodya aka Wabah, and Professor Nqobile Malinga.
Poet Tinashe Muchuri read a passage from Matigari at a free session held to honour the late giant of African literature Ngugi wa Thiong’o.
SCENES FROM THE RECONNECT BOOK FESTIVAL
Textbooks on display at the CPS stand
Mangachena Pasipanodya Webster, performing his poem
Ishmael Penyai holding his books and displaying some of his works at his stand
Edwin Msipa, popularly known as Black Mampara, performing his poem
College Press
ZCTU Regional officer Patience Jongwe (l) and organiser Patricia Chikukuza (r) interacting with visitors
Seke Teachers College issuing out melodies
PRIMROSE DZENGA ON AFROFUTURISM: CELEBRATING OUR PLACE IN THE WORLD
Primrose Dzenga
In this interview published online in the Munyori Literary Journal, Zimbabwean writer Primrose Dzenga shares her thoughts on Afrofuturism which was the 2025 NAMA Awards theme.
An AI-illustrated front cover of Dzenga’s 2025 NAMA Award winning children’s book
CLICK HERE: AFROFUTURISM
PENYAI'S DEEP LOVE FOR HIS MOTHER LANGUAGE
Ishmael Penyai seen here at the 2025 ZIBF Reconnect Book Festival
Ishmail Chemusina Kureyainyore Penyai is a well-known Ndau writer born in Chimanimani, Manicaland province, in eastern Zimbabwe. To date, he has self-published about forty books, most of them in his mother language Ndau, others in English.
His deep love for Ndau language, one of the sixteen officially recognised languages in Zimbabwe, prompted him to start a publishing company Dzekanyi Publications based in his home area. Apart from publishing his own works, Dzekanyi Publications has also so far published four other writers.
In a brief talk, Penyai said his vision is to promote Ndau language, preserve it as part of Zimbabwean heritage.
He said that he has grown the habit of ‘writing like a mad man every day’, often sharing his pieces on social media platforms such as WhatsApp and Facebook, before compiling them.
Of all his books, five have been put together from the fragments which he freely shares on social media.
Penyai’s works have gained the support of literary legends, one of them Musaemura Zimunya who, commenting on Penyai’s book Ndau – Quotable Quotes (2024, Dzekanyi Publications), said it ‘remind us that art is a living heritage everywhere we go, in all of humanity ….”
Penyai was one of the exhibitors at the 2025 book festival.
ZIMBABWEAN WRITER GRABS 2025 AFRITONDO AWARD
Gift Nyoni
Congratulations to Zim writer Gift Nyoni for winning the 2025 Afritondo Short Story Prize with his story ‘Heat’, described by the judges as a ‘compelling narrative’.
For more information:
EUROPEAN FILM FESTIVAL [ZIM] CELEBRATES 10TH ANNIVERSARY
AMA GLORIA (2023, France), a family drama, one of the entertaining films shown at the festival
The European Film Festival (Zimbabwe) celebrated its 10th anniversary this year with an interesting mixed-bag of programs running from May 30 to June 1, 2025, in Harare and from June 6 to June 8 in Bulawayo.
The festival ran under the theme ‘She Means Business’, acknowledging the women making big strides in the film industry. At Mbare Art Space in Harare the festival had its own interesting moments such as screening of selected European and African films, music performances, acting and documentary film-making workshops, competitions, conferences and lot more.
SHIMMER CHINODYA'S BOOKS AVAILABLE
Shimmer Chinodya reading from his book at an event some time ago
Harare-based publisher, Secondary Book Press, has recently bought the rights to nearly all of celebrated Zimbabwean writer Chinodya's books and simultaneously republished nine of his titles as follows:
1. Dew in the Morning
2. Farai's Girls (in production)
3. Harvest of Thorns (novel)
4. Can We Talk and Other Stories
5. Tale of Tamari
6. Chairman of Fools
7. Strife
8. Chioniso and Other Stories
9. Harvest of Thorns (Classic: A Play)
Contact details of the publisher:
Address: Secondary Book Press Pvt. Ltd, 4th Floor Cabs Centre Building, Cnr Jason Moyo & 2nd Street. Harare, Zimbabwe
Tel: 263 242 771 406/ 263 242 753 201
Mobile: 263 712 560 870/ 263 788 954 870
Email: sales@secondarybookpress.co.zw
Website: www.secondarybookpress.co.zw
Branches: Mutare, Masvingo, Gweru, and Bulawayo.
SIMBARASHE KAVENGA NEW OFFERING
Front cover of a new children’s book by Simbarashe C Kavenga, published by Essential Books.
💚
THANK YOU VERY MUCH
FOR READING OUR NEWSLETTER; FEEDBACK IS WELCOME, FEEL FREE TO CONTACT US
___________________________________________
