Disir
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Acclaimed Zimbabwean novelist Charles Mungoshi died on 16 February 2019 after a 10-year fight with a neurological condition. Fellow writers and publishers share their encounters with the African literary giant whose many accomplishments included works of translation, breaking the colonial chokehold on education and co-founding the Zimbabwe International Book Fair.
If Oliver Mtukudzi is singing with the angels, it is not hard to tell which song the winged orchestra will be performing these days. After all, Neria has lost her husband, the foremost Zimbabwean writer Charles Mungoshi, and her loss is shared by the nation he taught and the writing community he inspired.
To hear fellow writers tell it, Mungoshi’s first language was laughter, while his physical address was the habit-forming bottle. In fond recollections telling of young love and artist encounters in Zengeza and Kambuzuma shebeens, he stars as a man of disarming charm and a writerly ego only outsized by his wit and grit.
Mungoshi, who died on Saturday, 16 February 2019, having suffered from a neurological condition for almost 10 years, is, however, chiefly remembered as the writer who emptied himself to tell the stories of the least regarded with the greatest compassion. Whereas his degreed peers were “writers’ writers”, Mungoshi was “the people’s writer”.
The co-founding director of the Zimbabwe International Book Fair (ZIBF) has been laid to rest in Manyene, Chikomba district, where his story began on 2 December 1947. From there it branched out to mission schools, office jobs and dial-shifting accomplishments as a novelist, poet, playwright, editor, publishing director, translator and storyteller.
Charles Mungoshi, through the eyes of his peers - This Is Africa
I read non-fiction but I might check his stuff out.
If Oliver Mtukudzi is singing with the angels, it is not hard to tell which song the winged orchestra will be performing these days. After all, Neria has lost her husband, the foremost Zimbabwean writer Charles Mungoshi, and her loss is shared by the nation he taught and the writing community he inspired.
To hear fellow writers tell it, Mungoshi’s first language was laughter, while his physical address was the habit-forming bottle. In fond recollections telling of young love and artist encounters in Zengeza and Kambuzuma shebeens, he stars as a man of disarming charm and a writerly ego only outsized by his wit and grit.
Mungoshi, who died on Saturday, 16 February 2019, having suffered from a neurological condition for almost 10 years, is, however, chiefly remembered as the writer who emptied himself to tell the stories of the least regarded with the greatest compassion. Whereas his degreed peers were “writers’ writers”, Mungoshi was “the people’s writer”.
The co-founding director of the Zimbabwe International Book Fair (ZIBF) has been laid to rest in Manyene, Chikomba district, where his story began on 2 December 1947. From there it branched out to mission schools, office jobs and dial-shifting accomplishments as a novelist, poet, playwright, editor, publishing director, translator and storyteller.
Charles Mungoshi, through the eyes of his peers - This Is Africa
I read non-fiction but I might check his stuff out.
