12-year-old Nama winner does it again
THE youngest National Arts Merit Awards (Nama) award-winning author Onald Gwiriri has published another book.
The 12-year-old is a Macheke Government Primary School learner and resides in Damview Park suburb, Macheke.
Reviewing the book, University of Zimbabwe’s Professor Francis Matambirofa said the budding writer was going places.
“Onald is already making history on the creative narrative canvas of Zimbabwe. He has once again showed his superb writing prowess by publishing yet another highly promising book ‘Kurwara kwaGudo’, published by Secondary Book Press.
“This second book demonstrates beyond doubt that his Nama Award-winning debut book,
‘The Cursing Tortoise’, was not a fluke,” he said. Onald started writing books at the age of eight and it is assumed that, with proper mentorship and possibly a scholarship, the boy can be one of the greatest writers of all time.
Secondary Book Press management wrote: “Onald, we are really impressed by your talent at such a young age. Your passion for writing is evident in your pieces and your dedication to perfecting your craft is inspiring.
“‘Kurwara kwaGudo’ is a piece that shows your creativity and passion. It will help readers of your age to develop language skills, imagination and problem solving, among other benefits.”
His father, Mr Oscar Gwiriri, said Onald’s story was a writing prompt inspired by a picture he saw in a Friends of the Environment (Nyaradzo) magazine.
“A listening child is like dough, which you can mould into any shape of bread you want.
Being a writer myself, I think Onald has just done what the late Dr Oliver Mtukudzi sang: ‘Kana kuri kukopa, kopa dhoiri rakanaka.’
“The boy lives in an environment of books, hence he inherited a writing culture. Children learn better by seeing, rather than listening. If a child is in a violent environment, the child also learns violence.
“In fact, being an artiste as I am, all my children have become artistes too. The elder boy is into music and the sister is an established writer too. I am very proud of Onald and I bless him to be a writer of recognition,” said Onald’s father, who is a seasoned writer.
The young writer’s mother, Mrs Feni Gwiriri, is a teacher.
“I am very happy with my son’s zeal and achievement. It is great. I look forward to seeing him as the greatest writer from my family,” she said.
Onald’s brother Onashe and sister Natasha expressed their gratitude over their sibling’s continuous achievement.
Onald has made the Macheke community proud.
Macheke Government Primary School head Mr Peter Kadzviti encouraged the learner to keep the fire burning.
“This is wonderful and great work. The school is highly favoured. May God bless you!” he said.
The schools’ inspector, Murewa district (Junior), Mr Dougmore Makumbe, added: “I have read Onald Gwiriri’s publication several times with an analytic perspective. The book depicts typical children’s literature.
“It is rich and has mature vocabulary, which is an indicator of research and intensive consultation from other sources by the young author. The accuracy of the totems to specific animals should be credited to the young author for effective and accurate citation. ‘Kurwara kwaGudo’ has some important moral tutelage.”
The young author provided graded comprehension questions at the end of the book to test readers’ retention.
Through the vehicle of the tried and tested folklore genre of yore, Onald, skilfully weaves a children’s story in which Warthog encounters Baboon, who is sick and sadly carrying her baby.
Empathetic, Warthog takes pity on her and offers to carry her and her baby on his back. Warthog seeks help from three practitioners and healers, namely, Leopard, Raven and Jackal.
After what turns out to be worthless theatrical tricks in the name of healing, Baboon remains unhealed and perhaps gets even worse. The story basically addresses the issue of false prophets and traditional healers while also looking at the options of modern and traditional healing methods.
“I normally keep my hands off from his writings and rather give them to other people to edit because I do not want to instil my writing styles into the boy. I want him to discover and explore his own ways of expressing himself. This is a child writing for other children, so I let it be so,” said Mr Gwiriri.
However, he said, there are times he disagrees with editors when they try to twist his stories with an adult vocabulary.
“My influence is much on encouraging him to continue writing and balancing his writing hobby with school activities.”
Onald is expected to publish more books.