adminElliot Ziwira @ The Book Store
THE Mungoshi siblings are to African literature, or pertinently, Zimbabwean literature, what the Warner brothers are to motion pictures – simply irresistible. A case of talent seeping through the family, one might say. When the name Mungoshi is mentioned, what crosses the minds of most people is Charles, of “The Waiting for the Rain” (1975), “Coming of the Dry Season” (1972) and “Makunun’unu Maodzamoyo” fame; and seem to sideline David, whose pen also spews honeycombs and has been doing the same since the 1960s.
Although they are made of the same form, the Mungoshi siblings are quite distinct in their interpretation of reality, notwithstanding the enthralling presence of metaphors and symbols pervading their works.
Born in 1949, David Mungoshi’s poetic touch found voice around 1965-6 when he wrote lyrics for a friend who played in a Bulawayo band called The Earthquakes. Always driven by the quest to cut a niche for himself on the literary landscape, the young artiste published his first short story in the African Parade’s January issue of 1967, when he was 18, although it was written two years earlier.
Thus setting in motion a rollercoaster voyage spanning five decades of literary and academic prowess, which saw the immensely talented artiste publishing masterpieces like “Stains on the Wall” under the pen name Mugango Musandireve, “The Fading Sun” (2009), “Broken Dreams and other Stories”, as well as a short story in “The Old Man and His Bath”. Mungoshi also has poems in “The Living Dead: A Group Portrait” in the Kizito Muchemwa edited “Zimbabwean Poetry in English” (1976), “Real Life: An Interpretation” (1976) and “Ghetto Diary and other poems” (2012) published by ZPH.
David Mungoshi purveys that in life we live with death, for death, a necessary end, is the beginning of life and that same life ascertains death; such is the nature of things. As unfathomable and vain as it is, life still needs to be endured through its seasons, perchance a fruitful one avails itself. However, to some there are more winters than summers and to others only summers, so it seems.
It is this realisation gentle reader, that the words hurt, suffering and pain, could have been invented just for you and I, which will hoist you as you engross yourself in David S. Mungoshi’s “The Fading Sun” (2009) published by the Lion Press (Ltd), and his upcoming anthology of 200 poems “Live Like An Artist” which will be published in two parts in February 2016.
“The Fading Sun” is a touching and thought-provoking rhapsody of a yearning heart that derives solace in the rising sun which totters towards the western rim where everything seems to end, and yet it is here that all is said to start. At the peak of it all fruition appears to be in the offing, but then the sun begins to fade again and abeyance sets in.
Marriage has never been known as a bed of orchids, and Mungoshi does not pretend that it is such, but he articulates the strains that kills or kindles it. It is possible, yes that two people can fall in love, marry and remain lovebirds even in the face of adversity, as long as they are tolerant to each other’s foibles, supportive of the divergent dreams that may shape their destinies and remain true to their hearts’ desires no matter what Time brings to their doorsteps.
The institution suffers as a result of deceit, on both parties. Everything seems to be choreographed to suit the pervading set up of social strata which somehow tilt in Mary, the tragic heroine’s disfavour. Moth, her better half, is more of a clown than a responsible husband who only honours promises when it suits him. Mary, on the other hand, takes to feigning everything, even in the bedroom as a way of getting back at her husband’s ego.
A woman, whose resilience outpaces that of the queen bee even when everything is skewed against her, is the woman that dies in Moth’s arms on the eve of the Victoria Falls trip that could have rekindled the embers of their dying love. Such is the story of famished hope, love, marriage and death that David Mungoshi skilfully relates in “The Fading Sun” (2009).
Although the use of natural symbols and metaphors persist in “Live Like An Artist”, Mungoshi takes a new trajectory that threatens to eclipse his earlier efforts both in content and style. The transcendental poems invite the reader into the writer’s space, which makes it possible for interfaces to be drawn, as the story ceases to be an individual’s, but one that cuts across the national discourse of toil, hurt, frustration, hope and aspiration.
Mungoshi’s poems in this collection are cathartic, therapeutic and soothing to the soul, even though the body may be burdened through the inevitable passage of time, and death which always larks in the hoods of one’s dreams, giving one impetus in the hope that even in the grim ripper’s cold fingers one can still fashion his/her destiny.
The evocative and thought-provoking repertoire of interactive episodes takes the reader back memory lane, jolts him or her out of the present stupor and catapults him/her into the imaginary and fruitful future that only the adept poet can muster and envisage for his/her people.
In “Live Like An Artist”, Mungoshi highlights the enervating nature of life on the body as age and affliction take their toll, for we all are “In a Doctor’s Waiting Room”, where expectation is always punctuated by the inevitable and unknown, but the spirit is always in exuberance and raring to go, lending a new lease of life to the emaciated body.
In the anthology, which covers a plethora of thematic concerns, the poet fractures form and style through his tapping into several types of poems, from the ballad, through the haiku to the narrative, descriptive and villanelle, which makes the reading of each of them a new and refreshing experience.
The scorcher has received plaudits galore from such luminaries like Memory Chirere, who has edited it, Professor Robert Muponde, Emmanuel Sigauke and Ignatius Mabasa. Memory Chirere has this to say: “’Live Like An Artist” is something else! The poems flow like that D. H. Lawrence poem about a snake at the drinking place … In this collection David Mungoshi transposes his current body pains into poetry, giving you an amazing state of contemplation and observation of life, family, nature.”
Despite his bodily burden, the poet reflects on vision and memory to give a critical albatross of life as both a bird of prey, and the quarry itself as it succumbs to death — the leveller. Ignatius Mabasa, whose Bhabhu Books is set to publish the book, says the poems are great tales that hoist David Mungoshi to the levels of the reknowned poet Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), or even surpass him.
On the significance of the artiste and the need to emulate him/her as espoused in the title poem “Live Like An Artist” Mungoshi intimates: “It is my humble submission that if the world lived like an artist, such things as graft, avarice and crime would be things of the past. Artistes live in hope sustained by their dreams and the dreams become roadmaps for aesthetic harmony and excellence. Artistes both see and create new realities many of which become fact.”
The sizzling, therapeutic and soothing collection “Live Like An Artist” is a must have for those with a keen eye for a good read. Indeed the best of David Mungoshi is still to come, as his purple patch illuminates the literary landscape.
Online Reporter