The eulogy of the late Dr Yvonne Vera, read at the Memorial Service at St John's Cathedral, Bulawayo, on Saturday 23rd April by Mandivarira Taruvinga, Yvonne's oldest friend.

"I speak this afternoon in memory of my dear friend of 23 years, Yvonne, whom I affectionately called Voni.

A doctoral graduate of York University, Yvonne was born on 19 September 1964 and died on 7 April 2005. While we mourn her passing we are hear to celebrate her life. Oh what a life!

Her outstanding work and achievements as a multiple award-winning writer has been extensively and eloquently documented in Zimbabwe, Africa, Europe and America. I will refer briefly to some of the highlights of her illustrious life and work.

Dr Yvonne Vera taught at York University and was a visiting scholar to many universities in Europe, but writing and not lecturing was her passion. It is self-evident that she was a determined, disciplined, committed and prolific writer publishing a collection of short stories, five novels and editing an anthology of stories by women writers within a decade. At the time of her death she was writing her sixth novel Obedience. Her works have been translated into more than nine languages and her books are being taught at universities throughout Africa, Europe and America.

As the first woman Director of the National Gallery in Bulawayo, Yvonne created a site and space for cultural and intellectual for the community, turning the arts into the lived experience. Terry Ranger comments on “her strong visual imagination combined with the sense of vitality of urban culture, to create a sense of memorable exhibition – of Township photographs, ---decorated township bicycles, a projected exhibition to recreate the atmosphere of Bulawayo’s western frontier and market in Lobengula street.”

It is also evident that Yvonne “had successfully crossed the great divide that separates the purely academic world from the broader cultural sphere.”

I stand here today to pay tribute to this Bulawayo woman, a towering intellectual giant, a patriotic Zimbabwean and an internationally acclaimed writer. I also pay tribute to the city that nurtured her. Although Canada anchored her academically, it is Zimbabwe and Bulawayo in particular which evoked her creative imagination, hence her return to her roots. Yvonne and Bulawayo were inextricably linked, for it is here where her umbilical cord lies. I am sure I speak for all when I say she will stand tall in the Bulawayo, Zimbabwe and international halls of fame alongside other great luminaries whose distinctive and distinguished contribution to humanity can not be doubted or wished away.

In a letter Yvonne wrote to me on 2 September 1993 she asks, 'Have I ever told you of my love for Bulawayo? It is the longest love affair I have had – landscape. I love Bulawayo. In fact I find it very difficult to relate to Zimbabwe in any meaningful way without having Bulawayo as the centre of that definition. I suppose it is the idea of having grown up there, and bonding with it from an early age. .... I live for the moment when I shall be on my native earth once more – a retreat to my roots.' She went on to say, 'I have heard all kinds of discouraging reports about the economy etc., but to live here is to know the negative of cultural isolation and exile! ... As a writer I have learnt to love my country more. Learning can take all kinds of subtle forms. I don’t regret having been away this long but I also know more clearly who I have become. I see only a blue sky grazing my forehead, I see long necks of giraffes majestically grazing, I see the stripped backs of zebras sauntering into the bushes. I see me.' It was not a blind and unquestioning loyalty for everything Zimbabwean. She did not passively accept the status qou? She questioned it, critiqued it and challenged our silences while giving us a voice on the most taboo of subjects.

Yvonne was different things to different people. She had a special personal and unique relationship with every person she related with. She left an indelible mark on those who engaged with her or her ideas. She was a woman of vision, of many words, sometimes few words and she was a woman of many ideas, a woman with spiritual wisdom. Even in her silences she communicated a lot.

Her gaiety, gracefulness, style and strong sense of purpose was anchored in sound values and beliefs that sought to give and restore human dignity, hope, justice and freedom among the marginalised, oppressed and exploited women and girls. Yvonne could engage with the academic elites and authors of this world, yet she remained simple and humble remaining inspired and connected to ordinary people from the townships and rural villages. These inspired her more. Her most distinguished contribution was to the development of young budding writers and artists. Her simplicity and accessibility made her connect with budding artists. She turned the gallery into a workshop of ideas through the actual creation of art works She seized each moment to learn, to teach, to enjoy and to reflect.

On the 2nd of September 2001 it was my daughter Chiedza’s fifteenth birthday, Yvonne took us on a visit to Lobengula’s Old Capital at Kwa Bulawayo where she often spend time. After emerging from the hut that belonged to Lobengula’s sister, Yvonne gave Chiedza a new and additional name, Mcengence, as a birthday present and an honour to this woman whose hut had allowed to go back in time to the 1890s. We call Chiedza by this honorary name, Nini, from time to time, which is the nickname of the rather tongue twisting Mcengence whenever we have thought and missed aunty Yvonne. Such was Yvonne’s ever-present sense of history, how that history defined us and her reverence for women historical figures.

Utilising multiple perspectives from multiple disciplines and using her inimitable poetic – prose, she interrogated the multiple realities of our existence across gender, ethnic, religious, race and class categories.

She lived many lives as an author, academic and artist but like us she was also a child, a sister, a wife, a cousin, a granddaughter and a friend. The family will sorely miss her compassionate, considerate and understanding ways. She was a source of joy, pride, a mentor and a role model to all of us. Oh how we will miss Voni’s laughter, humour and playful ways!

Yvonne lived a very public life and also a very private one though very often society and indeed humanity would like to convolute the public and private in a very intrusive manner. I am aware it is a matter of great debate whether the two can be dichotomised.

Yvonne’s biography is “the story of a thought, a work in progress ”for even up to her death she was writing and the world is busy translating, analysing and critiquing her works – “hinting a deeper relationship between author and text.” She lives on and let us celebrate this life for are we not a part of what has been written about?

As will all mourn and as the world mourns I will admit that the public sense of loss converges with the private loss and I cannot say one surpasses the other. However, for the family and for Zimbabwe it brings our loss into sharp relief.

Yvonne spoke to us in may ways and I hope that you can have a chance to listen to two of her most favourite songs, Nina Simone’s To be Young, Gifted and Black and Bob Marley’s Redemption Song. She had an enduring belief in the possibility of individuals, especially the young, attaining their fullest potential and finding their purpose in life regardless of the challenges.

I cannot find enough words to celebrate this illustrious daughter of Zimbabwe, a humble but profounder thinker, and a creative doer. Indeed a speech of a few minutes cannot adequately capture the diversity, sophistication of Dr Vera’s short, but full life.

I leave you with her own thoughts on death as quoted in a letter she wrote to me on 27 August 1992, after hearing the news of the death of someone who was close to both of us. She wrote, 'These are terribly trying times indeed and the capacity of our humanity is being tested. It is as though we have arrived at the very edge of our being, and though it is possible we might survive, we will be thoroughly transformed. Perhaps we will be stronger, but there is no doubt we have been thoroughly wounded.' Indeed we are almost fatally wounded.

Hamba kahle, Famba zvakanaka, farewell Voni. You lived the good life and like an eagle your spirit soars high alongside that of Nehanda, for there shall be a new beginning, perhaps an arrival. This African literary legend, Yvonne Vera will return, again and again like Nehanda."

© Mandi Maodzwa-Taruvinga