Chinongwa by Lucy Mushita is a timeless story. It is beautifully written and an easy fluent read. An extraordinary book This is quite a statement to make about the story of a skinny, snotty nine-year-old girl child called Chinongwa who lives in a remote village in Zimbabwe as her family become subject to colonialism in the early 1900s. Fundamentally, however, […]
Poetry and people and the place of women
Poets are an elite species Where did the idea come that poets are a separate kind of human that is more aesthetically refined, sensitive, better educated and therefore part of an elite? Where did the idea come from that we can’t sing unless taught how to do it? Is this why some of us avoid trying to write poetry and […]
This Mournable Body, Tsitsi Dangarembga
Imprisoned minds in colonised bodies Tsitsi Dangarembga and Julie Barnes were arrested on 31st July 2020 for walking down a street in Harare carrying placards that simply said “We want better. Reform our institutions.”. They were convicted on 29th September 2022 and given suspended sentences and fines for inciting violence. Dangarembga is a writer and filmmaker who has worked with […]
Climate change poem
Falling sky Who thought this could happen? Who thought that the sky would fall on our heads? It’s not what they said. We’ll be drowning they said. We’ll be swimming they said In sobbing seas with the flavour of tears. In oceans of wavelets lap-lapping our heads. Look what’s happened instead. Its not what they said. When the ice caps […]
Goodreads, dry gardens, and a visit from Trinity
A delightful visitor – the best of my readers and reviewers I had an unexpected and delightful visit yesterday from Trinity. She arrived holding my book Dust and Rain. She is busy reading it and wanted to ask me some questions. Let me tell you that this is one of the best things that can happen to a writer. We […]