adminTitled “Mis-Remembering Marechera”, Mushakavanhu said it was a befitting title since most people who talked about Marechera had not read his books, but would
use excerpts or ascribe things that he never did.
“Dambudzo’s legacy lives on. He is the figure Zimbabweans use to project their fears or courage to interact with the body politic or social power structures.
“Marechera’s legacy is that of a man trying to be a professional writer and believing in the integrity of art and artistes.
“We should do more work to build our literature: publish more, have conversations as Zimbabweans.
“It’s an industry, we have to publish more, have more professors,” he said.
“If Marechera had not existed, we would have invented him,” he said.
The PhD holder from the University of Kent, UK, bemoaned the fact that Marechera’s books had not been used as set books in Zimbabwe.
“While the largely European scholarship that has grown around Marechera in recent years characterise him as a ‘madman’, a writer with ‘no message’, I argue that the evidence of his literary works show that he had desires to challenge and reform his society’s attitude.
“A novel such as ‘House of Hunger’ can be used as A-Level literature set book.
“It’s historical, almost about the decade prior to independence. It can help us to understand things that have continued to plague us.
“It is a lie that students would not understand Marechera’s work. Academia in Zimbabwe is conniving to undermine Marechera’s legacy by not teaching him.”
He said Marechera had now been commercialised, just like Bob Marley, Ernesto Che Guevara, among other icons.
“Zimbabweans do not own Marechera, he has become an object that we are given to admire but not necessarily identify with him, that is, his vision and issues he raised in his books.”
Active Marechera scholar and University of Zimbabwe lecturer Memory Chirere said that Marechera was made by other people.
“Marechera is usually presented a as loner, but that is not entirely true.
“He was made by others, there are people who would compile his manuscripts into books, and publish them,” he said.
Virginia Phiri lashed out at young people who are trying to be “young Marecheras” by trying to imitate his lifestyle, not drawing inspiration from his work
Other people who attended the book club include Jerry Zondo, a former classmate of Dambudzo Marechera at the then University of Rhodesia, author Ethel Kabwato, performance poets Mbizo Chirasha and Batsirai Chigama.
Online Reporter