“THOUSANDS pack the stadium, singing and dancing. It is a joyous occasion… It is the arrival of our dignity, freedom, a new self, a new nation, a fresh many of our destiny written in our own ink, even if that ink may be our blood… The dancing! Oh, the dancing! The eating! The music! The orderly chaos!”
BY DAVID MUNGOSHI
These vibrant words that almost practically kick at you from off the typeface were written by Chenjerai Hove in 1980 soon after the new nation of Zimbabwe had come into being following years of armed struggle. These few lines not only define but also depict the man that Chenjerai Hove was — lively, sincere and explicit almost to a fault.
Above all, Hove was a lover of life and of people and always said about others exactly what he thought about them, their work and their doings. In one of his last chats with me on the internet, this is what he said about Charles Mungoshi: “Ndaigara ndichiseka varume vekuEnglish Department ndichiti Chorosi wakaverenga mabhuku kupinda ivo even if iye zvake asina madegree. Chorosi waiverenga zvebasa! I remember him coming into my office aine zivolume reHaiku poetry muchibhegi chake, and then he had just finished reading Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude. Vose vana Pablo Neruda wakanga apedza navo kudhara chose. He was a reader, philosopher, and thinker before he fell ill.” (I used to laugh at the lecturers in the English Department saying Charles was more well-read than them although he did not have a degree. He was a serious reader).
Hove’s sense of humour and his keen ability to latch on to interesting phenomena stands out quite vividly here. I can almost hear him chuckle as he said these words and in one gigantic stroke of his pen he makes it all so clear why Charles Mungoshi deserved the honour that was awarded him by the University of Zimbabwe. In the same breath, he also gives sound advice to all writers and perhaps more particularly to aspiring ones: A serious writer is a serious reader. We live and learn.
One day in 1998, Oliver Mtukudzi was playing solo in the garden of the Terreskane (Now ZimCafe) in Harare and Hove, Steve Makoni and I as well as a few others were in the audience and Tuku was at his lyrical best. Never one to hold back praise, Hove enthused: Murume uyu unozvigonegwa! (Guys, it doesn’t matter what you may say or think; this man is undeniably good!)
Hove loved his music, much as he loved his pool and his snuff! I remember him playing Hugh Masekela and saying to me that this was what he called music. And he was an avid Thomas Mapfumo fan, appreciative of the mbira, the yodeling and the earthy lyrics. These are some of the many things that I remember him for, now that he is gone and gone so suddenly. I also particularly remember him for the lively parties at his Chadcombe house. In those days, Hove, Musaemura Zimunya and Davison Maruziva used to throw these huge parties that we all enjoyed so much. Each party was like a “Who is Who?” parade. The man was generous and accommodating and very energetic in the things that he believed in.
There are many things that many now take for granted, which, however, are some of the direct contributions of Hove, the Zimbabwe International Book Fair (ZIBF) and the Writers Workshop included. The eventual establishment of ZIMCOPY, the reprographic rights organisation of Zimbabwe is something else that Hove as Chairman of “The Zimbabwe Writers Union” (ZIWU) helped pave the way for. He was also there at the formation of The Pan-African Writers Association (PAWA) soon after the congress of Afro-Asian writers held in North Korea soon after Zimbabwe’s independence.
- Chamisa under fire over US$120K donation
- Mavhunga puts DeMbare into Chibuku quarterfinals
- Pension funds bet on Cabora Bassa oilfields
- Councils defy govt fire tender directive
Keep Reading
Hove received apt recognition by Africa and by Zimbabwe when his iconic novel Bones made it into the two lists of the best books of the 20th century. I trust that the ZPH Publishers will publish as a matter of urgency Hove’s Love and Other Echoes, a great anthology in its own right. Hove gave them the manuscript in 2014, after some discussion with me. I can hardly wait for its publication.
Long may his written works last! Rest In Peace Musaigwa.
