Weaver Press

http://www.thestandard.co.zw/entertainment/22955-strife-is-entertaining-educative.html

Standard: 24-30 January, 2010

Book Review: Strife is Entertaining, Educative

Strife by Shimmer Chinodya. Published by Weaver Press.

Reviewed: Desmond Kumbuka


In Zimbabwe, not having physically participated in the liberation struggle carries with it a stigma of sorts. War veterans and nationalists who sacrificed their lives by taking up arms to fight the colonial regime are the heroes of our time while those who did not cross the border into Mozambique or Zambia to join in the struggle are viewed as somewhat cowardly and lacking in the substance of patriotism.

This is a consequence of our contemporary political history where the dominant ethos is nationalist militancy against colonial and neo-colonial domination.

This, whether we like it or not, has tended to colour the way we think and behave. The inevitable consequence of this is that profound struggles of ordinary men and women who led ordinary lives unrelated to the liberation struggle have been somewhat relegated to obscurity.

While no one can or should attempt to downplay the significance of the liberation struggle with all its tragedies and brutalities, a large segment of the Zimbabwean population that may not have gone into the battlefront, nevertheless played a crucial role in providing rearguard logistical support to the liberation forces.
These were the families of the Chimbwidos and Mujibhas, many of whose lives were disrupted or destroyed during the war but who remained steadfast in their belief that the struggle was ultimately for a just cause.

But perhaps what is even more tragic is that the story of these unsung heroes may never be told because their lives became overshadowed by the more captivating exploits of the freedom fighters. Strife, a novel for which he won the 2007 NOMA award, is a valiant effort to capture the lives of an ordinary Zimbabwean family struggling to survive in the throes of a brutal war.

This is a story of a typical Zimbabwean peasant family leading a dual existence where they easily switched from vinyl tile floors of the African locations to the cow-dung smeared floors of grass-thatched huts in rural villages.
Chinodya has produced a novel that is not only entertaining in its use of idiomatic nuances, but also captures vividly a bygone era when a new age of knowledge and enlightenment battled for supremacy against forces of fear, ignorance and superstition.

Strife is a story about the Gwanangara family’s trials and tribulations in the 60s and 70s on to the time of Zimbabwe independence in 1980.
Although 224-page novel is presented as a work of fiction, it is quite evident that many of the characters and settings of the novel are derived from actual experiences of the author.
So vividly portrayed are the characters in this captivating novel that one may find real life individuals that fit the mould of Chinodya’s fictitious family if indeed it is a fictitious family.

The “Moon Huntress,” is mother Gwanangara, the typical woman in an African township devoted to her role of raising children.
In those olden days, the more children in a family the more prestige such a family enjoyed in the community. Mother Gwanangara has seven children and Strife is the story of their disparate lives told with disarming poignancy.

The father of the house, Dunge Gwanangara is the epitome of African simplicity — a down-to earth shop assistant who has spent a lifetime selling shirts and trousers in an Indian’s store.
This is a character easy to identify with millions of Zimbabwean men in those bygone years when careers for uneducated men were limited to menial jobs like being gardeners, drivers, shop assistants or construction labourers.
Like most large families, there was strife and death in the Gwanangara family. A chronic illness of one of the Gwanangara sons is shrouded in suspicion and superstition but life must go on.
There is intrigue and deception as members of the family try to outdo each other over the control of family assets. The family has its own bright spots and black sheep, fame and misfortune. The ancient and the modern weave together into complex tapestry of human endeavour.

When I first offered to review the book, I immediately regretted this decision, convinced this would be another of those turgid, dreary, boring and poorly researched books where the author tries impress, not with substance but masterly knowledge of the English language.

I was wrong. This is an entertaining and educative book which I would recommend to any student of contemporary social history of Zimbabwe.