happiness Chikwanha
Beaven Tapureta Bookshelf —
The story of a young gifted writer Tinotenda Stewart Sai’s life will forever be a sweet inspiration to many people in Zimbabwe and beyond. Although born with an incurable condition known as muscular dystrophy in 1990 in Harare, Tinotenda, or Tino as friends and family called him, lived as a determined young scribe whose gift with words was beyond telling.
His trademark bio on each of his books says he went to St. Giles Primary School and later to Prince Edward High School and Mt. Pleasant Academy for his secondary education. At Prince Edward his performance showed the signs of a genius. In 2009 he acquired his G.E.D and a certificate in Computer Studies — Electronic Data Processing. His first poetry book “Poems for God” was also published while he was at Prince Edward High School.
He is quoted on the book cover saying, “These poems were written to praise God for his love and mercy. I also wrote them for those who want to know the true power and love of the Lord.”
Tino passed on last year a few months before his 25th birthday, with seven books to his name. Muscular dystrophy is defined as “any of several hereditary diseases of the muscular system characterised by weakness and wasting of skeletal muscles” or “a group of diseases that cause progressive weakness and loss of muscle mass.”
According to some online health sites, in muscular dystrophy, “abnormal genes (mutations) interfere with the production of proteins needed to form healthy muscle.
“There are many different kinds of muscular dystrophy. Symptoms of the most common variety begin in childhood, primarily in boys. Other types don’t surface until adulthood. Some people who have muscular dystrophy will eventually lose the ability to walk. Some may have trouble breathing or swallowing.”
This means Tinotenda was wheelchair-bound most of his time and yet as one comes to know that in his short life he produced more than five books of poetry and some fiction, truly what remains in our minds are the wonders of God on his people. Despite certain challenges associated with his disability, Tino wrote and published seven books!
Last week, family, relatives and friends held a tombstone unveiling ceremony for the late Tinotenda and celebrated his great writing talent by launching all his books. There were readings of poems from some of his anthologies, pieces which left echoes of unusual, mature messages in the ears of all listeners.
All in all, Tinotenda’s books were printed and published by a generous Harare-based company Felixco Commodities, and the books are the poetry anthologies “Poems for God” (2006), “God is Watching From Above” (2009), “Dawn of A Poet” (2009), “A Poetic Dawn” (2013), “Lost in My Fantastic Dream” (2014), and fiction stories titled “Phantom in the Black Forest of Reincarnations” (2014) and “Mabwe’s Roar” (2015).
At the book launch, speaker after speaker described Tinotenda as a genius, a hero, and the launch was indeed a befitting honour for one who believed in the power of his creative imagination despite some inescapable challenges which his life brought along.
Writer, literary critic and University of Zimbabwe lecturer Josephine Muganiwa was the guest speaker for the book launch which took place at the family house in Vainona soon after the tombstone unveiling function at Glenforest Cemetery. She gave a touching review of Tinotenda’s books, laying bare the gift that Tinotenda possessed like a sent African angel.
“The books reflect that they were written by an avid reader and keen observer of nature. As one reads them, the lessons from nature are so glaring and are reminders of what we lose in our manacled existence in the cities drifting between our workplaces and what we call home,” said Muganiwa.
Although he was disabled, Muganiwa said Tinotenda did not see disability as a stoppage to his imagination and/or powers of observation mingled with his ultimate gift with written words. Muganiwa said Tinotenda knew that muscular dystrophy is a terminal illness that has no cure but nowhere in his works can one pick a sense of self-pity or despair.
“Instead one senses a passion for life and a great sense of humour at the ironies of life. I would like to thank his parents who made sure he had the best exposure to nurture his talent,” said Muganiwa.
About Tinotenda’s 2015 novella titled “Mabwe’s Roar”, Muganiwa said it is a good romance centred on the Zimbabwean experience.
“The history of Great Zimbabwe is fictionalised, couched in the rivalry for power and that is why it qualifies to be called a saga as well,” she said.
An experienced critic, Muganiwa stressed that the quality of Tino’s work is so good that she hopes some of the work will find its way in schools someday and he (Tino) shall proudly stand in the Zimbabwean hall of fame of authors which include the equally poetic Yvonne Vera, Chenjerai Hove, Dambudzo Marechera, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Cynthia Marangwanda and others.
Tinotenda’s editor A Mtepfa and Felixco Commodities owner Felix Maponga also hailed the young author Tino as being a true testimony of rare writing talent.
“I would say Tino was seeing life through a divine eye, experiencing what he did not see through the natural eye. With his condition, there’s not far he went but he wrote about distant places using his powerful imagination. His vocabulary was very rich,” said Mtepfa.
Maponga said he first came into contact with Tino in 2006 when his company Felixco Commodities printed and published Tino’s first book of poetry titled “Poems for GOD”.
“That’s when I started understanding Tino especially in terms of deadlines. He was a very demanding person and he had access to me twenty four hours. He was a blessing, a fighter and entrepreneur. People should copy Tino’s courage in life,” said Mr Maponga.
In a brief interview, Tinotenda’s father Peter Sai who works at the University of Zimbabwe said the family was very excited when it learnt about Tino’s writing skills.
“We were very excited. As he was growing we saw him coming up with some literature. He showed us his works and we were very excited at the same time greatly amazed at his talent. We understood him, especially when he published his first two books of poetry which were very inspiring,” he said.
Academically, Tinotenda’s performance was exceptional. At Ordinary Level he passed five subjects and proceeded to Advanced Level to study Economics, Geography and Commerce. However, as his health deteriorated, Tinotenda devoted most of his time to writing.
In recognition of Tinotenda’s life and works, the family announced at the book launch that a foundation will be formed based on values which Tino stood for, namely, that disability is not inability, hard work, creativity and entrepreneurship. The foundation will be responsible for publishing at least one young disabled writer every year.
“Tino’s mental faculties were not disturbed because he was wheelchair bound. He had a great vision and wisdom. The foundation endeavours to accomplish those values through working with disabled persons with gifts in writing,” said a family spokesperson.
Online Reporter