SPIWE Nancy Mahachi-Harper has returned home for her new novel Footprints in The Mists of Time.
croydonguardian.co.uk
The author reflects on her own childhood in a mining village in Zimbabwe as inspiration for her new book.
The Shirley-based novelist’s third book tells the story of the migrant labourers of Southern Africa who were recruited under the Witswatersrand Native Labour Association, from Mozambique, Zambia, Malawi and parts of Zimbabwe, known then as Rhodesia.
The story follows five people spanning three generations of the same family.
Harper, who moved to the United Kingdom in 1998, said although the novel is historical fiction, the story was a familiar one for many families in Zimbabwe.
She explains: “The patriarch leaves his home country to go and seek his fortune in the gold mines, and hopes to be back after a year or so, but like most immigrants the world over, he is unable to go back. It was more difficult for most of the migrant workers to return to their countries of origin because the journey of several hundreds of miles (to Southern Rhodesia) was undertaken on foot.”
The trip was fraught with danger, although many survived it to go on to the mines and farms to work for a meagre wage.
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The book touches on two major historical events, the Burmese War and the Hwange Colliery disaster of 1972 which saw more than 400 killed, to demonstrate how the family, and the country was shaped.
