Books Archives - Fired Rock

6Feb

By Onai MushavaNo Comments

Books, History

Stanlake Samkange Bibliography

Stanlake Samkange Bibliography Stanlake Samkange was Zvimba’s and Mashonaland’s first graduate. He obtained his B.A. degree in English and History at Fort Hare University College in 1947. A Professor of History, he has taught at Fisk University, Nashville exas, Havard, and North Eastern University, Boston Mass. He is the founder of Nyatsime College. By Mukoma Onai, December 14, 2025 Samkange, SJT. (1994). “Nyatsime African College”. New Rhodesia. 23 (19). pp 19. Samkange, SJT. (1994). “When Sir Godfrey Huggins Goes – A Survey of the Possible Successors to Sir Godfrey Huggins as Federal Prime Minister”. The New Commonwealth, 28. pp 667-668. Samkange, SJT. (1959). “Crisis in Central Africa: How to be a Partner. Part One”. Twentieth Century, 165 (4). pp. 365-368. ...

Andrew Chatora on the Faultlines of Nation-Building

1May

By Onai MushavaNo Comments

Books

Andrew Chatora on the Faultlines of Nation-Building

Andrew Chatora on the Faultlines of Nation-Building Andrew Chatora’s 2023 novel, Harare Voices and Beyond, interrogates land, race and nationhood in Zimbabwe. Mukoma Onai picks apart the allegorical layers of the book. By Mukoma Onai | May 1, 2024 Andrew Chatora is a storyteller who hides his stakes in plain sight. The UK-based Zimbabwean novelist gives away the combustibles of his story at the earliest convenience but only names them as they go off in the endgame. Chatora’s books end with a twisted insight that questions our sense of detail and reflows what was already in our face from the beginning. In his debut novella, Diaspora Dreams, we cycle back from the kicker to make sense of the revelation, somehow hinted all along, that the narrator is writing from a menta...

Zimbabwean Writer Andrew Chatora Awarded for Land-Themed Novel in New York

5Feb

By Onai MushavaNo Comments

Books

Zimbabwean Writer Andrew Chatora Awarded for Land-Themed Novel in New York

Zimbabwean Writer Andrew Chatora Awarded for Land-Themed Novel in New York Andrew Chatora was recently awarded the Anthem Award for championing diversity, equity and inclusion in his work. Chatora’s winning novel, Harare Voices and Beyond, interrogates Zimbabwe’s land reform discourse as well as drug abuse, mental health crimes, crime and corruption. By Mukoma Onai | February 5, 2024 Zimbabwean writer Andrew Chatora was silver recipient at the Anthem Award for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion held in New York on January 30. A noted crusader of African immigrant literature based in the UK, Chatora was recognized for his 2023 novel, “Harare Voices and Beyond”. Chatora’s novel interrogates landreform discourse and race relations in Zimbabwe. Hollywood no...

Tsitsi Nomsa Ngwenya Revisits a Past under Erasure in “A Portrait of Emlanjeni”

3Aug

By Onai MushavaNo Comments

Books

Tsitsi Nomsa Ngwenya Revisits a Past under Erasure in “A Portrait of Emlanjeni”

Tsitsi Nomsa Ngwenya Revisits a Past under Erasure in "A Portrait of Emlanjeni" The idealised landscape of Tsitsi Nomsa Ngwenya’s new novel, A Portrait of Emlanjeni, is animated by the spirit of the people, their community ties and abiding regard for tradition. Ngwenya brings the indigenous and official justice systems into conversation, broadening them to make space for women. By Mukoma Onai | August 3, 2023 Tsitsi Nomsa Ngwenya’s fourth book, A Portrait of Emlanjeni, was recently published by UK-based Carnelian Heart Publishing. The novel, Ngwenya’s first in English, pays homage to an idealised landscape, its community ties and abiding attachment to tradition. Ngwenya’s teenage protagonists, Khethiwe, a survivor of sexual violence, and Zanele, who falls pregnant ...

27Sep

By Onai MushavaNo Comments

Books, Music

Onai Mushava, God and Hip Hop

Onai Mushava, God and Hip Hop Onai Mushava is a Zimbabwean poet and journalist, noted for his intertextuality and pro-poor themes. In 2018, he won a National Arts Merit Award (NAMA) for Outstanding Fiction Book. He has also been nominated in the poetry and journalism categories. Mushava's debut book, Survivors Cafe (2016), combines themes of love, politics and religion, while Rhyme and Resistance (2019) falls within the protest category, as well as exploring the poet's psyche. In this interview, poet Tafadzwa Chiwanza (TC), whose debut book is due for release next month, interviews Mushava (OM) on the role of religion in his work. By Tafadzwa Chiwanza, September 26, 2020 TC: Your early writings were mainly Christian in context, I observed. Why the change? ...

27Apr

By Onai MushavaNo Comments

Books, History

Bill Saidi Was a Renaissance Man

Bill Saidi Was a Renaissance Man Bill Saidi was a proud and free spirit. He maintained a bare-knuckle approach to journalism, paid occasionally for standing in the way of power but became a presence wherever he turned. By Mukoma Onai, January 10, 2017 Bill Saidi was a proud and free spirit. He maintained a bare-knuckle approach to journalism, paid occasionally for standing in the way of power but became a presence wherever he turned. The black-and-white columnist mugshot with a Stalinist moustache arched above a stubborn smile had its day from Zimpapers to Modus Publications, ANZ and AMH. His stylish op-eds occupied real estate across the main stables as he pompously hopped from newsroom to newsroom like a journalism equivalent of Moses Chunga. Saidi had lost his ...

Charles Mungoshi, Through the Eyes of His Peers

6Mar

By Onai MushavaNo Comments

Books

Charles Mungoshi, Through the Eyes of His Peers

By Onai Mushava If Oliver Mtukudzi is singing with the angels, it is not hard to tell which song the winged orchestra is performing these days. 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; and his physical address, the habit-forming bottle. He stars in memories of young love, and artist encounters in Zengeza and Kambuzuma shebeens as a man of disarming charm and a writerly ego only outsized by his wit and grit. Mungoshi, who died on Saturday, February 16, after suffering from a neurological condition for almost 10 years, is, however, chiefly remembered as the writer who emptied himself to tell the s...

Tsitsi Dangarembga Opens up on Being Raped, Challenges “Callous” Mnangagwa

6Mar

By Onai Mushava1 Comment

Books

Tsitsi Dangarembga Opens up on Being Raped, Challenges “Callous” Mnangagwa

By Onai Mushava Zimbabwean soldiers allegedly raped 17 women and brutally assaulted many others on sensitive organs during the state crackdown on protests against a 150 % fuel price increase last month. Government has denied the claims of the women, who are currently in NGO safe houses, citing that only one of them has made a police report. Legendary writer and filmmaker Tsitsi Dangarembga has weighed in on the side of the alleged victims, while opening up on her own experience. Dangarembga has opened up on being a rape victim, as she challenged President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s denial of rape allegations against members of the security forces. The feminist firebrand considers her unreported experience of sexual abuse in 2004 as having emboldened her resolve to be a socially relevant filmma...

What Does Onai Mushava Want? (Interview)

6Mar

By Onai MushavaNo Comments

Books

What Does Onai Mushava Want? (Interview)

Below, Phillip Chidavaenzi (PC) interviews award-winning author and journalist Onai Mushava (OM) about Mushava’s creative methods and about his forthcoming poetry collection called Rhyme and Resistance. His first poetry collection, Survivors Café won The Outstanding Fiction NAMA award in 2018. PC: How does you creative process work? OM: I start with a feeling. Let's say love, sadness or settling scores with the system. Once I am aware of the feeling I want in ink, I become restless until it's captured. I am picturing Genesis 1:2. All the elements are in place but out of alignment and the Spirit of God is sweeping over the chaos, gathering beauty and order out the mess. That chaos, that's the cultural energy spread across my head which I must channel into a creation. P...

Bishop of Bohemia – Onai Mushava on Living the Poet’s Life

13Nov

By Onai MushavaNo Comments

Books

Bishop of Bohemia – Onai Mushava on Living the Poet’s Life

Bishop of Bohemia – Onai Mushava on Living the Poet’s Life Onai Mushava is one of the rising stars of Zimbabwean literature. He opens up on his influences, writing rituals and living the poet’s life in a wide-ranging interview with Givemore Manyenga. By Givemore Manyenga | November 13, 2019 I find him sitting outside his office at the National University of Science and Technology (NUST), a laptop carelessly balanced in his lap. You needed not ask who this light-skinned young man is, if only because his white t-shirt advertises him with the cover of Survivors Café the poetry collection book that landed him a National Arts Merit Award (NAMA) for Outstanding Fiction Book in 2018. As he notices this writer come towards him, he stretches his hand and wryly smiles, simu...