A 28-YEAR-OLD disabled Murehwa man, Shupikai Whisky, who wrote a Shona novel using his left foot, is currently seeking $5 000 to have his work edited and published by a leading local publishing company.
BY JAIROS SAUNYAMA
Whisky, who is holed up in the poverty-stricken Maruta village in Murehwa West, was born with a disability, but has pursued his dream of writing a novel.
NewsDay recently witnessed the author adding an extra paragraph to the last chapter of the novel, Chivi Chakadya Mwene Wacho, with a pen “held” between two of his toes.
Although the book is now complete, Whisky has failed to secure $5 000 to have it edited at a leading publishing company.
“I am hurt each time I think that I won’t see my novels on the shelves in bookshops. But I pray everyday that my God-given talent will be exposed and felt in this country. I completed my first novel and there was an organisation that promised to assist me, but the cost scared them away,” he said.
“I’m currently working on a novel titled Disability Not Inability. I will continue writing and piling the books because writing is my strength,” Whisky said.
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“There is nowhere I can get money in a rural set-up like this, and given my physical nature, I can only do light jobs to earn a few cents.”
The Shona novel has 22 chapters and tells the story of a prominent pastor who impregnated his own daughter and the effects the heinous act had on his congregants.
Whisky began writing the novel in 2009 and completed it four years later, but a lack of funds stalled the publishing of the book.
What is most striking is how the author wrote the book.
“My hands are very weak, so I use my left foot. I use the toes to hold the pen and start writing,” he said.
