FORMER Standard Style editor, Prudence Muganiwah, on Wednesday evening launched her debut novel, Letters from Beyond, at a colourful ceremony held at The Volt in Harare.
BY KENNETH NYANGANI
Prudence said she was “extremely overwhelmed” by her latest achievement and touched on her lifelong “love affair” with books, particularly Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, which she said had a profound impact on her.
She said her studies in Anthropology, while doing her degree programme, helped to give her an understanding of the real life experiences of people living under a heavy yoke of abuse.
Responding to questions during the review session Muganiwah said the book served as a mouthpiece for women who felt they had no voice to speak out about their heartrending experiences.
“This was a collective story that covers issues from various women I have come across all my life, most of them the stuff they have taken is too much, but they cannot say it out because of society or culture,” she said.
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“I wanted it to speak out on religion and societal dictates so deliberately or not those issues were tackled in a way or the other because I only got some issues that I raised when I read in retrospect.”
The book tells the story of a young woman who dies at the hands of her husband, but relays the story of her abuse in retrospect from the grave.
Tariro Tandi of the Zimbabwe Women Lawyers Association commended Prudence for touching on issues around the abuse of women and children, which are usually swept under the carpet.
Having spent several years working with women and children, Tariro said Letters from Beyond is a replica of what women go through in life. She described Prudence as “a voice of the voiceless.”
She said this is just the beginning for Prudence because she is a proficient story teller.