adminElliot Ziwira At the Bookstore
Good poetry should be therapeutic, astounding, engaging, evocative, thought provoking, addictive and challenging. Poetry should transcend limitations of geographical and social boundaries to capture universal aspirations of both the common man, and the man of means alike.
It is that and more which the anthology “Flowers of a Dry Season” (2015) published by Forteworx Press, edited by Beaven Tapureta and Brian Tafadzwa Penny (T.P Brian), aptly does.
The collection is a product of the convergence of 14 infectious voices that hilariously, scathingly and soothingly yearn for hope, as the African dream, or pertinently the Zimbabwean story, is under threat from a blazing internal and external inferno.
The contributors to this moving collection are Monica Munashe Rupazo, Tinashe Chimuriwo, Owen Kambanje, Audrey Lindani Mutinhiri, Leonard Mutsa Makuya, Gloria Murindi Dangah, Brian Tafadzwa Penny, Jubilant Ncube, Tendai Noreen Sadziwa, Edmond Shonhiwa, Taurai Vincent Sekenya, C.J Mylton, Patrick Mahlasera and Yeukai Mapingure.
Oozing the ebullience of youth and seemingly inexperienced, yet well- schooled in the voyeuristic nature of Man, the poets articulate their own experiences in a world that places so much emphasis on material acquisitions as milestones to glory. In such a setup scanty considerations are given to familial, communal and national ethos that shape the individual.
Caught up in the race, the individual struggles to locate himself or herself in the national discourse as a result of hardships, toil, deceit and avarice.
Notwithstanding their different garbs as they hone their individual voices, and take them to their own separate crescendos, the poets’ clairvoyance leads them to a cirque which resonates with shared hope.
Since the poets are still seeking their individual tunes, discord cannot be ruled out here and there, but the sweet melodies of their unique voices remain top drawer, as they blend their strengths to give a rhapsody that lingers on in the reader’s ears even after the music would have long since stopped playing.
The universal tale purveyed is captured through discarding of contrived poetic forms, use of conventional symbolic elements, varying of styles and purveyance of a plethora of thematic concerns that cut across social boundaries.
Paralysis, malaise and claustrophobia that weigh down on familial, communal and national discourses leading to despondency, frustration and dispiritedness are told in such a way that the reader cannot help locating himself or herself in the different sites that the fictional experiences open up.
Through the yearning voices, Man is implored to own up to his eccentricities, so as to redeem society from the jaws of the monster that creeps from its belly — an orgy of its own creation.
Society has become a deathbed; and a crucible where dreams are set ablaze, and the nostalgia of a gleeful yesterday attempt to throttle today’s aspirations, as in T.P Brian’s “If Today were Yesterday”.
The artists are aware of their crucial role as truth’s defence, the voice of the voiceless as well as their custodianship of the mores and values that shape their people.
The dream transcends geographical boundaries, as the African story is under siege. The problems that the Motherland faces seem to be orchestrated by its progeny as a result of avarice, corruption, deceit and individualism.
Like David Mungoshi in “Live like an Artist” (2017), Edmond Shonhiwa in the title poem “Flowers of a Dry Season” emboldens his fellow artists to rise to the occasion in defence of their people’s cake.
He rallies them:
“Arise, authors and book lovers! . . . Be a rock
An oasis of this generation
Spring in this arid era
Let your pen and paper save us.”
The poems “The Inferno Echoes”, “Can we have one Africa?”, “I am African” and “Are they yours Africa?” by Edmund Shonhiwa, Audrey Lindani Mutinhiri, Tendai Noreen Sadziwa and Leonard Mutsa Makuya, respectively, implore the African to be wary of the Western apparatus which seeks to emasculate the African’s dream.
In “The Inferno Echoes”, Shonhiwa takes a swipe at the xenophobic tendencies of South Africa (Azania), leading to the imaginary existence of foes among fellow brothers, forgetting that Africans were “nurtured together . . . brawled against imperialistic regimes” as one family.
The persona implodes: “I saw my children burn in flames of your anger/ I saw other neighbours burning too,” remonstrating the wayward sibling:
“This Africa is our mamaland
But you cast my children into the inferno
Where they diminish into ashes
Why, brother Azania, why?”
The death of social morality, trivialisation of the sanctity of life, debilitating injustices and egregious voyeur at the heart of the African discourse culminating in the metaphorical dry season, emaciate the Motherland’s brood.
It is this that makes the poets ponder: “I wonder if they are indeed your seed/I wonder/Africa, are they yours?” (Leonard Mutsa Makuya in “Are they yours Africa?”); “What happened to oneness among Africans?/What happened to humanity?/What has led to the division among Africa’s children? . . . What has caused social immorality?” (Audrey Lindani Mutinhiri in “Can we have one Africa?”)
The artists go beyond gender restrictions in expressing their contempt of the vices inherent in Man, which prompts him to derive excitement from trauma and hardships faced by others.
There is no feminism or chauvinism in the poets’ call for the redemption and nurturing of the seeds of the dry season for the purposes of regeneration and progress. They simply give praise where it is due and put disdain on its course.
The young and upcoming contributors take up their postures on the valley of the national consciousness, taking up their roles as artists are wont to.
Gloria Murindi Dangah admonishes, lashes out, implores and reins in, in the fashion of the aunt of yore; C.J Mylton and Jubilant Ncube are the spiritual intercessors, reminding their fellows of the role that spirituality plays in the metaphorical journey of life.
Monica Munashe Rupazo reminds one of the nature poet William Wordsworth, and the rather masochistically sceptic poets, Katherine Philips and George Meredith: so much imbued with nature, pain and suffering, as past hurts always find their way to impede today’s joys.
However, Rupazo’s mastery of language and symbolism raises her head and shoulders above her contemporaries.
It is not all gloom and doom though, as she espies hope in the valleys yonder, to replenish her pains into blossoming flowers that defy the dry season.
“Flowers of a Dry Season” (2015) is, indeed, a powerful collection of individual episodes that interact and merge into the national psyche to relay a tale of hope and shared vision.
Peter Tanyanyiwa
Online Reporter