Shimmer Chinodya

Mention outstanding Zimbabwean male authors and many aficionados of African literature will reel out the names of Dambudzo Marechera, Charles Mungoshi, Chenvrai Hove – but a fair amount will of course plump for the excellent writer, Shimmer Chinodya.

Chinodya who was born in Gweru had his tentative studies at Mambo Primary School. He was the second child in a large, happy family. He went on to read English Literature and Education at the University of Zimbabwe.

After a spell in teaching and Curriculum Development he proceeded to the Iowa Writers’ Workshop (USA) where he earned an MA in Creative Writing.

Remarkably, he developed an early interest in writing and reading. He was soon writing vigorously and passionately. His first novel, Dew in the Morning, was written when he was 18 and later published in 1982. This was followed by Farai’s Girls (1984), Child of War (under the pen name B. Chirasha, 1986), Harvest of Thorns (1989), Can we talk and other Stories, Tale of Tamari (1998), (2004) Chairman of Fools (2005), and Strife (2006) -the latter work garnered him the 2008 Noma award for literature.

Chinodya’s work appears in numerous anthologies, including Soho Square (1992), Writer’s Territory (1999), Tenderfoots (2001), Writing Still (2004), Writing Now (2005) and Laughter Now.

Chinodya, who won the 1990 Commonwealth Writers' Prize, Africa region has also written children’s books, educational texts, training manuals and radio and film scripts, including the script for the award-winning feature film, Everyone’s Child. He has also won other awards for his work, including the Commonwealth Writers Prize (Africa Region) and a Noma Honourable mention for Harvest of Thorns, a Caine Prize shortlist for Can we talk.

Speaking about his creative works, Chinodya says: “My fiction seeks to explore and extend the borders of reality, to question and tease matters of identity, class and culture, the past and the present; to explore the human condition in the most interesting and sensitive way possible.”

He ponders further: “Every time I put pen to paper I ask myself, ‘What can my writing do for me and for the world? How can I refine my voice? How can I shock my reader into reflecting on the subject of existence? What is existence anyway, and what is the truth, perceived and otherwise? Can I grab my reader by the collar and make him or her gasp: Gosh, I didn’t know it was possible to do this in a story, to write like this. As a black writer I obviously and primarily seek to portray an African worldview, but I want my literature to speak to the world as a whole…”

This fine author has been revisiting the age-old conundrum relating to whether African authors think in their mother tongues or in foreign mediums. He says: “Do I think in Shona or in English?” I’m not sure. I don’t know whether I think in ideas or I think in words, but I grow from two linguistic cultures — my Shona culture and my English culture and I cannot think without some kind of language, for me the language problem is not a problem. It’s an act of hybridization…"

Chinodya’s published works:

•        Dew in the Morning. Mambo Press. 1982.; Heinemann, 2001, ISBN 978-0-435-91206-2

•        Farai’s Girls (1984)

•        Child of War (1986)

•        Harvest of Thorns (1989)

•        Can we talk and other Stories (1998)

•        Tale of Tamari (2004)

•        Chairman of Fools (2005)

•        Strife. 

•        Tindo's Quest,