Artikel
Crossing Borders: poetry and young writers in Zimbabwe
18 januari 2006
Led by writer Graham Mort, the initiative is managed by the Department of English and Creative Writing at Lancaster University and a range of partners across Africa.Crossing Borders is funded by the British Council, drawing upon the expertise and resources of the Department of Film and Literature.
How Crossing Borders Began . . .
In February 2001, the British Council invited writer and lecturer, Dr Graham Mort, to take part in a writing residency at the University of Makerere, Uganda. His research and analysis of the Ugandan literature infrastructure recorded a lack of access to education for young writers, a lack of publishing opportunities, limited access to contemporary literature in English, and a desire for contact with other writers. In 2001, a pilot distance learning scheme, Crossing Borders, was developed to address these issues by linking Ugandan writers to a multi-cultural group of mentors in the UK. Consultation and writers’ visits began to show that similar restrictive conditions prevailed in other English-speaking African countries in which the British Council was active. The initiative was significantly extended in 2003/4 into another eight African nations.
Despite the huge economic, social and education difficulties of many African nations, there is much to celebrate in a creative energy and idealism that places literature in the vanguard of social change. (…)Crossing Borders is about creating a new international community of writers from African states who can communicate through the development of new writing, sharing knowledge and experience. We aim to help each writer realise their true potential.
Graham Mort, Project Leader
Working Together in Partnership
Writer and mentor work together through on-line tutorials that encourage and enable each African writer to develop a portfolio of new work. Mentors represent a wide range of cultural backgrounds and writing practice, creating a project that enriches their literary and cultural experience as well as helping new writers to develop practical strategies for writing development. In each participating African country, the British Council office provides induction to IT skills and acts as an electronic postbox for participants work. Live workshops and readings are hosted by the British Council‘s African learning and resource centres across the region. The initiative aims to enthuse and support a new international community of African writers.
The Selected Poems
Below is a selection of work by some of the Crossing Borders participants from Zimbabwe. Having worked with a number of other young Zimbabwean writers yearning to take their writing skills to a higher level, I must say I have noticed disturbing trends which have nipped promising talent in the bud. Generally, young writers in Zimbabwe do not read – yet reading works by other writers broadens one’s horizons and is the yeast that enables a writer with potential to develop. If one tries to have a conversation with young writers beyond the very few literary works they studied at school, one will be disappointed.
Another disturbing feature is the amount of effort made by young writers to be complicated, or to employ rhetorical flourishes prompted more by an idea of ‘the writer’ than a wish to convey a heartfelt idea or perception. The end product is something that is too mechanical, lacking creative sensibility, empathy and meaning. I could say more regarding these challenges, ones which confront every teacher as they do every young poet, yet this is not the right platform to do so. Instead, I will refer you to the ten selected poems below. The ideas reflected by these ten writers are significant because they are a departure from the norm. In part this is because they have real talent, genuinely wish to write, do read, and have been nurtured on the Crossing Borders programme.
The poems selected here capture something about the state of people’s minds and conditions in Zimbabwe today. These are summed up in Stanley Mupfudza’s poem, ‘Zim life’, written before the recent elections:
The poets depict the overwhelming emotional anguish of trying to survive, to remain dry in a drenching thunderstorm. One cannot help but notice the disillusionment of the young Zimbabwean writer. The poems paint a graphic, vivid, almost tangible sense of uncertainty, emptiness, pain, fear and a subtle awareness of a kind of madness – a reaction to issues and events which are confronting most Zimbabweans today.
The concerns that run through these poems are to do with the struggle to survive, to earn a living against all odds, destitution, the pain, fears and psychological scars of living with Aids in an Aids ravaged society. Life is painful and these views are complimented by the metaphorical way in which Blessing Musariri looks at in the routine that is life in her poem ‘Citizen Quartz’.
On reading through these poems, one may be tempted to think that the poets connived to write about the challenges of life in modern day Zimbabwe, yet that is not the case. While there is still much to celebrate in Zimbabwe today – any such celebration may be viewed as a temporary escape because the disillusionment painted by the poets here is the current reality.
As one of Julius Caesar’s murderers said when he stabbed the Roman politician – “Speak hands for me” – I will say let these poems speak for themselves.
Ignatius Tirivangani Mabasa is one of the most powerful emerging literary voices of post-independent Zimbabwe. He is a performing poet, novelist and storyteller. He has become a household name in Zimbabwean literary circles with his trendsetting debut satirical novel, Mapenzi (fools). Mapenzi won the Zimbabwe Book Publishers’ Association award in 1999 and was recently nominated as one of Zimbabwe’s 75 Best Book of the 20th Century by the Zimbabwe International Book Fair. Mabasa mainly writes in Shona and is currently finalising two novels in Shona and also working on a translation of one of Zimbabwe’s leading and celebrated female writers, Tsitsi Dangarembga’s groundbreaking novel, Nervous Conditions.
Crossing Borders is a pan-African literary project, providing online creative writing support for African writers in Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Southern Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe. Over 100 African writers are enrolled each year linked to a multi-cultural group of 30 mentors in the UK – professional writers and experienced writing workshop leaders.
Crossing Borders is the first project of its kind and aims to break the isolation of emerging African writers, promoting writing development, creative reading, cultural exchange and a greater knowledge of contemporary literature. Led by writer Graham Mort, the initiative is managed by the Department of English and Creative Writing at Lancaster University and a range of partners across Africa.Crossing Borders is funded by the British Council, drawing upon the expertise and resources of the Department of Film and Literature.
How Crossing Borders Began . . .
In February 2001, the British Council invited writer and lecturer, Dr Graham Mort, to take part in a writing residency at the University of Makerere, Uganda. His research and analysis of the Ugandan literature infrastructure recorded a lack of access to education for young writers, a lack of publishing opportunities, limited access to contemporary literature in English, and a desire for contact with other writers. In 2001, a pilot distance learning scheme, Crossing Borders, was developed to address these issues by linking Ugandan writers to a multi-cultural group of mentors in the UK. Consultation and writers’ visits began to show that similar restrictive conditions prevailed in other English-speaking African countries in which the British Council was active. The initiative was significantly extended in 2003/4 into another eight African nations.
Despite the huge economic, social and education difficulties of many African nations, there is much to celebrate in a creative energy and idealism that places literature in the vanguard of social change. (…)Crossing Borders is about creating a new international community of writers from African states who can communicate through the development of new writing, sharing knowledge and experience. We aim to help each writer realise their true potential.
Graham Mort, Project Leader
Working Together in Partnership
Writer and mentor work together through on-line tutorials that encourage and enable each African writer to develop a portfolio of new work. Mentors represent a wide range of cultural backgrounds and writing practice, creating a project that enriches their literary and cultural experience as well as helping new writers to develop practical strategies for writing development. In each participating African country, the British Council office provides induction to IT skills and acts as an electronic postbox for participants work. Live workshops and readings are hosted by the British Council‘s African learning and resource centres across the region. The initiative aims to enthuse and support a new international community of African writers.
The Selected Poems
Below is a selection of work by some of the Crossing Borders participants from Zimbabwe. Having worked with a number of other young Zimbabwean writers yearning to take their writing skills to a higher level, I must say I have noticed disturbing trends which have nipped promising talent in the bud. Generally, young writers in Zimbabwe do not read – yet reading works by other writers broadens one’s horizons and is the yeast that enables a writer with potential to develop. If one tries to have a conversation with young writers beyond the very few literary works they studied at school, one will be disappointed.
Another disturbing feature is the amount of effort made by young writers to be complicated, or to employ rhetorical flourishes prompted more by an idea of ‘the writer’ than a wish to convey a heartfelt idea or perception. The end product is something that is too mechanical, lacking creative sensibility, empathy and meaning. I could say more regarding these challenges, ones which confront every teacher as they do every young poet, yet this is not the right platform to do so. Instead, I will refer you to the ten selected poems below. The ideas reflected by these ten writers are significant because they are a departure from the norm. In part this is because they have real talent, genuinely wish to write, do read, and have been nurtured on the Crossing Borders programme.
The poems selected here capture something about the state of people’s minds and conditions in Zimbabwe today. These are summed up in Stanley Mupfudza’s poem, ‘Zim life’, written before the recent elections:
We’re haemorrhaging as a nation
Take a leaf out of the zim-dream
And its texture will be a nightmare
Our hopes ooze down sewer drains
Falling like the zim-dollar
Crumbling into a fist-full of dust
We walk down the street
Clutching our dreams
In a wad of lotto tickets
Counting the hours
Until Saturday comes
Dreams are sweet in the midst of the nightmare
Till it all evaporates with the announcement of the results
The poets depict the overwhelming emotional anguish of trying to survive, to remain dry in a drenching thunderstorm. One cannot help but notice the disillusionment of the young Zimbabwean writer. The poems paint a graphic, vivid, almost tangible sense of uncertainty, emptiness, pain, fear and a subtle awareness of a kind of madness – a reaction to issues and events which are confronting most Zimbabweans today.
The concerns that run through these poems are to do with the struggle to survive, to earn a living against all odds, destitution, the pain, fears and psychological scars of living with Aids in an Aids ravaged society. Life is painful and these views are complimented by the metaphorical way in which Blessing Musariri looks at in the routine that is life in her poem ‘Citizen Quartz’.
On reading through these poems, one may be tempted to think that the poets connived to write about the challenges of life in modern day Zimbabwe, yet that is not the case. While there is still much to celebrate in Zimbabwe today – any such celebration may be viewed as a temporary escape because the disillusionment painted by the poets here is the current reality.
As one of Julius Caesar’s murderers said when he stabbed the Roman politician – “Speak hands for me” – I will say let these poems speak for themselves.
Ignatius Tirivangani Mabasa is one of the most powerful emerging literary voices of post-independent Zimbabwe. He is a performing poet, novelist and storyteller. He has become a household name in Zimbabwean literary circles with his trendsetting debut satirical novel, Mapenzi (fools). Mapenzi won the Zimbabwe Book Publishers’ Association award in 1999 and was recently nominated as one of Zimbabwe’s 75 Best Book of the 20th Century by the Zimbabwe International Book Fair. Mabasa mainly writes in Shona and is currently finalising two novels in Shona and also working on a translation of one of Zimbabwe’s leading and celebrated female writers, Tsitsi Dangarembga’s groundbreaking novel, Nervous Conditions.
© Ignatius T. Mabasa
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