/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/BOOKS-ZIMBABWE: Author Becoming a Household Name

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Hilary K. Siyachitema

HARARE, Jun 11 2002 (IPS) - Acclaimed writer Vera Yvonne is becoming a household name in Zimbabwe.

The 38-year old writer, whose books are recommended for reading in Zimbabwe, completed her secondary schooling in the southern African country before moving to Toronto, Canada.

Yvonne, who is a holder of a doctorate degree in English, is currently based in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second city, where she is the director of the National Art Gallery.

Her latest book ‘Stone Virgins’, which won the Macmillan Award for Africa, was launched in Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, on May 16.

“In this book, Vera evokes the passion that people feel for their country as they seek to balance personal histories against national and conflicting ones,” says Weaver Press, which published ‘Stone Virgins’.

Yvonne has written, among other books, ‘Why Don’t You Carve other Animals’, ‘Nehanda’, ‘Without a name’ and ‘Under the Tongue’, which received a Commonwealth Award in 1997. Her book, ‘Butterfly Burning’ was also chosen in February as one of Africa’s Best Books of the 20th Century.

The plot in ‘Stone Virgins’ is set in pre-independent and independent Zimbabwe. It is narrated through the encounters of two sisters, Nonceba and Thenjiwe, who went through life during the dissident war of the early 1980s. The two sisters also experienced life during the liberation struggle of Zimbabwe in the 1970s.

Thenjiwe and Nonceba saw and experienced the horrible deaths, rapes and confusion that affected the people of Matebeleland in southern Zimbabwe where the fighting between black government soldiers and dissidents took place.

The freedom fighters, who have just returned from war — as heroes — are bitter with their government, the hostility tows in the people of Kezi, who have to live with the misery that surrounds the village.

Zimbabwean poet, Chirikure Chirikure describes Yvonne’s work as “not at all formal in its structure and choice of word. Yvonne basically presents us with that free flowing Zimbabwean rhythm, but doing it with lyrical dignity and emotional grace.”

The ‘Financial Gazette’, one of Zimbabwe’s independent weeklies, describes the book as “a must-read: a book that will help many to deal with the turmoil of the independence struggle, the dissident war and the current political violence. It is a book of pain but it is also a book of hope.”

The judges of the Macmillan writer’s competition for Africa say the book is a lyrical narrative with an original voice that blurs separation between poetry and prose.

“The writing is unique in the way it combines a powerful lyricism with a strong narrative. It is both a lament and a stringing together of a people’s history,” the judges say in a statement.

Lily Hudson, who lives in Harare and has read ‘Stone Virgins’, says “the language used in the book takes some getting used to but the book is a unique portrayal of how women were treated and what role they played in the fight for liberation.”

She says the book provides the reader an insight into Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle.