Why you should read Chirere's "Bhuku Risina Basa"

by Editorial

I have had the opportunity to read snippets  of some of Memory Chirere's post on social media extracted from Bhuku Risina Basa Nekuti Rakanyorwa Maskati. Even though i have not had the chance to grab a copy, this read promises to be mind blowing as it is presented in both a comic and witty way. Composed in the mother tongue, the thrill of secret things that Chirere has come to realise both about life as a writer and an individual who is growing up and watching the river of life pass by unravel themselves to the reader.

Here is an extract from one of his rants on social media:

Mune iyi, ndainge ndichangozvarwa
ndakaradzikwa mubhasikiti zvaJesu chaizvo.
Ivo vachitoitawo saJosefa naMaria!

Mune iyi, takasimudza mawoko tagohwesa bhora.
Tarisa kushama kwatakaita kunge zvigatawa!

Mune iyo, mukuru wechikoro ari kunyemwerera achindikorokotedza.
Ndainge ndawana mubairo wechiRungu chandaisataura kumba.

Mune iyi, ndainge ndakakugukuchira tiri mupaki, Sekai.
Ndaisaziva kuti rudo rwemukadzi rwunonaka nekuvava zvese.

Pane iri pakavha yebhuku rangu rekutanga,
ndainge ndakatarisa mberi ndichifunga kuti ndini Soyinka.
Ndaisaziva kuti bhuku haripere kunyorwa.

Mune iyi, ndakatarisa mwana wangu wekutanga
ndichitya kuti achararama here?
Asi nhasi ave kukwira ega bhazi achienda mativi mana.

Mune iyo, vana vandaiticha vakasimudza maoko
asi nhasi vazhinji vavo vave kutonga nyika.
Ndinovaverenga mupepa ndoseka zvangu.

Mune iyi, ndakasunga tayi
ndiri pedyo chaizvo negurukota rehurumende.
Vari kumusha vanoti ndinodya namambo.

Apa, ndiri parufu rwaFarai
ndakakotamisa hope yangu pabhokisi rake
ndichiti, “Famba zvakanaka Fatso, ndichatevera.”

Mune yanhasi, ndiri pamunda wangu.
Ndini here uyu akapfeka kabudura kemurimi
achiteerera zvake kukura kwechibage?

Vasikana ava handichaziva mazita avo.
Asi uyu mutsvuku ndakamushaira mukana tiri pachikoro.
Kwaari ikoko Mwari ngaandichengetere.

Mune iyo iri pamusoro pesofa, mai mwana
tiri pamuchato wedu tichitsvodana tatumwa namufundisi.
Uchazvigona here izvi pazere vanhu? 

From Bhuku Risina Basa Nekuti Rakanyorwa Maskati

For more information regarding this text follow the link below: 

memorychirere.blogspot.com/2014/08/bhuku-risina-basa-now-in-harare.html

www.scribbledn.blogspot.com: Pansiwaa...

www.scribbledn.blogspot.com: Pansiwaa...: A goddess who struts in rocking beads Ah! So do you think the lizard prostrates for nothing? My Nubian queen of cinnamon delight, fl...

The Enemy Within:A review of Masingaidze Gomo's "A Fine Madness"

By Tawanda Zanamwe

Reading A Fine Madness by Mashingaidze Gomo has put a lot of things in perspective. Things that I had long forgotten thanks to the many distractions that are around me. The book is a fine read but it left me with a lot of questions. The most important being why we spend so much time circling the wagons against the Whiteman and his ilk and yet the true enemy resides within the laager. This is the enemy who makes it easier for our mortal one to win. The enemy I am referring to is the one the protagonist refers to as "the pride of race". 

These are men and women who are in positions of power who exploit and extort their own people for personal gain and ridiculous amounts of wealth. They are the people who see Africa get raped by the West (and now the East has joined too) and instead of murderous rage, like it and see it as an opportunity to make a quick getaway to wealth. These are the very same pimps whom the narrator mentions- that continue to peddle Africa to the highest bidder. These individuals must be dealt with before a truly successful war can be waged against the hegemony that is the West.

The narrator aptly names one of his chapters "the wasp is corrupt". He goes on to tell the reader how a wasp that was building her nest used all the resources around her including the food which was an innocent caterpillar that she killed with her venomous sting. The narrator equates her behavior to that of the white settlers in the colonial era and in "these times of neo-colonialism." As much as it holds true for the settler, the same can be side of the Africans in power and those like them who are going to one day step up. Theoretically, the settler and the mother country ceased to be such evil the day South Africa got her independence. In the case of Zimbabwe, it was seen to it that they were nova to soar to such heights by the Third Chimurenga. Today the wasp is the hero and heroine, the teacher and the businessman, and the civil servant and the politician who in their entire splendor, have sold the masses downriver for their gain. These are the people who must be dealt with first before we go fighting western economic and political hegemony because so long as these individuals are around, no true victory can be attained.

The narrator at times spends too much of his anger on the white racists and their vestiges in Africa. He seems to forget that in each victory the settler had over the African, an African had a hand in it. Individuals like Lotshe, the narrator's dead uncle and African members of the Selous Scouts come to mind. This bad seed has lived through the ages and has led to many false starts in the narrator's country and in Africa as a whole. They are the ones on whom the continent must focus their attention as a whole because at each turn they weaken the cause and the resolve of the continent. Their actions at each turn give the supremacists greater fervor and openings to exploit. Their actions vindicate the white humanitarians who come in with aid that has strings attached to it. Africa’s blows against neo-colonialism are weakened by these people who grow a conscience that favors the Whiteman. In any struggle sellouts are either totally eliminated or silenced till victory is achieved. Such must be done before we start facing our more illustrious white enemy.

One might say that the white man still has a monopoly over many African minds and African economies and worse still; their politics and those we must continue the good fight. Africa thus has precedence. If history is anything to go by, it shows that after the initial reactions to colonialism, Africa has always come back stronger and managed to dethrone the white colonialists. In essence, the Whiteman has been defeated once; it can be done again (chisingaperi chinoshura). Adding on to that we have home advantage, only the people with true roots get to win the majority of the time. The Whiteman has no true roots in Africa. He has to rely on the weak, the myopic and the willing to get a foothold on the continent. Furthermore, when one looks at the big historical picture -something the narrator neglects half the time- the presence of this Whiteman in our land becomes a mote in God's eye. We are essentially free were it not for the sellouts amongst us.

If the narrator and many others like him were to manage to liberate us from white supremacy and economic hegemony one problem still remains. The problem is the fact that our land is still a whore eaten to the core by the syphilis of the white man's coming. Our land can never be whole so long as we as its people do not take care of that syphilis. It is an ailment that has generally caused corruption, greed, and subservience to white ideas and the man behind them. Africa must vast the medicine man first before it goes fighting the Whiteman who in the book is represented by the West. She must visit the medicine man because if she doesn’t the west will use her weakness to their advantage. Africa can never be truly free until she is rejuvenated and has a clear cut goal. Right now all she does is win battles but never the war.

www.scribbledn.blogspot.com: STOLEN INNOCENCE (part one)

www.scribbledn.blogspot.com: STOLEN INNOCENCE (part one): (broken) I can't express my torment   every thought i fear the story i hold has taken years to unfold i can't change what i know...

www.scribbledn.blogspot.com: MY AHA MOMENTS

www.scribbledn.blogspot.com: MY AHA MOMENTS: My aha moments are not the extraordinary things in my life. Rather they are the simple things suddenly came alive in my heart. My ah...

www.scribbledn.blogspot.com: In the melting pot of your words - The man and his...

www.scribbledn.blogspot.com: In the melting pot of your words - The man and his...: P. I. M. P! I drink the finest I pick the tightest And I walk with the sweetest They've made me. Pimp They've known me for my pro...

a libation to the most high-"We are tired of this sadness We too yearn...to be showered with your grace"

We are tired of this sadness
We too yearn to live a life devoid of worry like everyone else

To be showered with your grace

www.scribbledn.blogspot.com: We too deserve happiness: At times I question the existence of a Deity When some of us languish in poverty Rejected by life kicked out to the periphery of society ...