adminLiberty Dube Post Correspondent
MANICA Post guest columnist and educationist, Morris Mtisi will today (Friday) launch his much-awaited debut two novels at Turner Memorial Library in Mutare.
The two books — Studying for The Grave (223 pages) and Nhava yeBenzi (244 pages) were simultaneously published and will be simultaneously launched. Provincial Education Director for Manicaland, Mr Edward Shumba, who was supposed to be the guest of honour will be represented by Mrs Kanoerera, Deputy Provincial Education Director.
The launch will be attended by school heads, mainly from the hosting Mutare District, Shona and English language teachers and students from various schools, friends and well wishers.
“If you have taught yourself Literature for more than 30 years and you are not inspired to write one book of your own, you are a dead learner. All these years of teaching give me more that enough experience and skill to become an author given the space, and here we have come.
“I don’t believe a good teacher can only teach within the four walls of a classroom. I find these two novels larger than classroom space. I have seen enough to write a book every day, on what is good, what is bad and what is ugly about life,” Mr Mtisi said.
The well-known educationist is an old time school teacher and a private consultant for students and teachers of English Language and Literature. He is also a regular educational materials writer and columnist in The Manica Post and Head-to-Head with MM talk show host on Diamond FM radio.
He is the only writer known in the eastern border city, if not in Zimbabwe to publish two books – English and Shona at once.
“Studying for The Grave” is a riveting novel that explores the university life of three brilliant female students at Northwood University, Wendy, Batsy and Caroline who grapple with the reality of vulnerability and abuse.
Consequently, all of them, each one, a victim of different circumstances, fail to graduate. The story is an emotionally gripping and sad reflection of brave sinning and inevitable student prostitution.
The academic institution, Northwood University, which was supposed to be an educational paradise, turns out to be lawless hell of moral decay and friendly abuse. In the plain words of the characters, the truth about what goes on in their innermost conscience reveals a frightening depth of self-searching.
In the words of Mr Moses Mukoyi, the St Faith’s High School headmaster, himself a Literature and English Language guru who reviewed the novel, “the novel is a chilling portrayal of the vulnerability of the girl child to sexual abuse and the grave consequences that result from loose moral behaviour that is rampant in institutions of higher learning.”
Said the veteran educationist: “Mr Mtisi spares no-one in his scathing criticism. The gross social malaise that bedevils Northwood University (in the story) is spawned not only by the deplorable social conditions that prevail, but also through endemic poverty, crisis governance, national financial and political crisis as well as serious flaws of personality across all sections of society, rich and poor.”
Mr Mukoyi said the story line unfolds through Mr Mtisi’s powerful linguistic abilities and apt choice of words….Through Literature and Language, Studying for The Grave crosscuts or traverses into other curriculum disciplines including Guidance and Counselling, History, Culture Studies and related learning areas.”
On the same launch, the major critic and analyst, Mutare District Schools Inspector, Mr Zachariah Chikwangwani, himself also an English Language and Literature specialist had the following to say during his speech: “From Mr Mtisi’s pen emerges a powerful thought-provoking narrative which explores the rarely talked-about side of University life with force and precision. Characters are caught up in vicious dilemma as they fight for survival in a predatory environment. The devastating consequences spare no one, not even the morally upright…..very much in the mould of Armah’s The Beautiful Ones Are Not Yet Born.”
Nhava yeBenzi is a story about the benefits, challenges, joys and consequences of diasporan mobility.
Both Ms Judy Manzou, a lecturer at Mutare Teachers’ College (Department of Humanities) who reviewed Mr Mtisi’s novel and Mr Chikwangwani who also read the Shona masterpiece, concurred that Mr Mtisi’s Shona pen is as powerful as his English pen.
And that his two novels both crafted in beautiful literary craftsmanship have added a wealth of value to the richness of both Shona and Literature in English.
Mr Chikwangwani and Mr Mukoyi’s extraordinary appraisals of Mr Mtisi’s outstanding literary achievement and bravery to stand and be counted among the big names in Zimbabwean literature can be read in a forthcoming exclusive coverage of this monumental launch. Watch this space!
Online Reporter