Top poet takes out sjambok
IN June 2023, Carnelian Heart Publishing in the United Kingdom released Zimbabwean poet Memory Chirere’s much-awaited new collection of Shona poems“Shamhu yeZera Renyu”. Most of the pieces had been shared through social media over the past years and a few people thought they would come out in book form.
Chirere writes Shona poetry that is not necessarily adorned with the usual idioms, proverbs, rhyme schemes, rhythm and big vernacular words. However, he still gets to the heart of the matter in a very simple and startling way. Going through his work is like seeing poetry reinvented. Chirere went into poetry in 1994 through an anthology called “Tipeiwo Dariro”. It eventually became a school setbook. Later, he independently published a Shona poetry collection “Bhuku Risina Basa: Nekuti Rakanyorwa Masikati”, which won a NAMA in 2014. Chirere writes mainly short stories, and some of them were published in “No more Plastic Balls” (1999), “A Roof to Repair” (2000),
“Writing Still” (2003) and “Creatures Great and Small” (2005).
He has published individual short story books, among them “Somewhere in This Country” (2006), “Tudikidiki” (2007) and “Toriro and His Goats”(2010).
Beyond his creative work, he has compiled and edited many short story books, including poetry anthologies by local writers.
Alongside Maurice Vambe, he compiled and edited the first critical book on Charles Mungoshi called“Charles Mungoshi: A Critical Reader”. He also runs an active literary blog and lectures literature and creative writing at the University of Zimbabwe in Harare.
Last week, The Sunday Mail Society Correspondent MOSES MAGADZA (MM) caught up with MEMORY CHIRERE (MC) for an interview. Below are excerpts from the meeting.
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MM: What is your identity when you wield the pen?
MC: I listen to the demands of the day: Is it a lecture that is awaited today? Is it a poem that is kicking through my head or is it the cryptic and the sullen voice of the short story?
Something like that. I write in-between lectures. I write as I walk home after work. I write in-between the dreams at night. I write as I watch television. I write when the bosses are not looking.
Back then, I used to write when the cattle lay down to rest in the afternoon shed. I write when the babies have fallen asleep.
I write as I wait for the kettle to boil. I often write when a friend is talking to me over a drink.
MM: I was flipping through “Bhuku Risina Basa”and the latest one,“Shamhu yeZera Renyu”. Breathtaking! For you, what is a good poem?
MC: A good poem is something that one wants to read over and over in all seasons. It should evoke multiple forms of delight through its wit, word-play, thought and depth of feeling.
You must want to cry and laugh at the same time when you read a good poem.
MM: What do you consider the place of poetry in Zimbabwean literature?
MC: Poetry remains crucial in Zimbabwe and Africa as it has responded all the time to social movements — resistance to colonialism, war of liberation and understanding the post-independent era.
The place of poetry in Zimbabwe is just like the place of song, dance, sculpture and so on. I tend to agree with Chidi Amuta when he says every historical epoch writes its own poetry, or words to that effect.
MM: Of all things that you have been doing recently, why did you settle on doing these poems in “Shamhu yeZera Renyu”?
MC: When I published“Bhuku Risina Basa” (2014), I wanted to take a break from Shona poetry because that book had taken me nearly 18 years to write. I was spent. I was humbled. I was overwhelmed.
But then suddenly, people most dear to me started to die, one after the other, more frequently than I could handle.
Many other least-expected events happened all over the show and I started to respond through writing Shona poems. The leftover momentum from “Bhuku Risina Basa”spurred me on until I published “Shamhu yeZera Renyu” in June this year.
I felt I was going through probably the most ultimate things in my life.
I felt the urgency to spell out my metaphysical and scientific experiences. “Shamhu” was written without the hope of a second reading. I did not think I would be around to reread it.
“Bhuku Risina Basa” is my multi-tasking book with themes from a long period, but “Shamhu” was written at the spur of the moment.
It is my involuntary work of art, if there is such a thing.
MM: “Shamhu yeZera Renyu”, page 43, reads:
“Tiri mukanwa mechinhu chiri kutitsenga zvishoma nezvishoma.
Zvishoma nezvishoma nezvishoma. Chombomira pachinenge chamhoreswa:
“Makadiiko Mhukahuru?” Chobva chatanga kutitsenga zvakare. Zvishoma nezvishoma nezvishoma. Chombomira . . . chichipfekedza mwana wacho bhurukwa
Chotanga kutitsenga zvakare. Zvishoma nezvishoma nezvishoma.” Kindly explain how you got to this level of wording and observation?
MC: That is a poem about suddenly realising that while you ought to have agency in life, there are certain people and social setups that set out to annihilate the individual.
I was at my lowest point. I meet people who are excited about that poem but they do not know how smitten I was at the time of writing.
MM: The title of this book (Shamhu yeZera Renyu) is quite punitive and active. Shamhu as in sjambok. Who do you want to sjambok?
MC: If you look from a high place, each vision that you have depends on the height of the pedestal on which you perch.
You see according to the dictates of the pedestal. Your circumstances — historical, economical and spiritual — produce the man or woman you are. That is your sjambok. At least this is how Dr Robert Masunga explains the title on the blurb. I agree with him.
◆ Next week, Chirere explains some of the poems in his latest publication, why he published a Shona book in the United Kingdom and also shares his views on politics.