Shimmer Chinodya unveils yet another scintillating novel

Prominent Zimbabwean writer Shimmer Chinodya has published yet another scintillating novel for young people, entitled Tindo’s Quest. In this story, a 12-year old boy slowly realises that perhaps the woman whom he calls mother is not his real mother!
Sadly, nobody in the family is prepared to tell him the truth. He pieces together scanty information and sets out on a solo and unauthorised search for his real mother. His resolve is unbreakable as it is nearly self destructive.
The journey takes this gangly boy across Zimbabwe. First he goes to Chegutu, to pick very vital information, and back to Harare. He does not go back home because he is now very inspired. He hitchhikes to Kriste Mambo and Bonda High Schools where his mysterious mother could have attended, and back to Harare. He does not go back home because mother must be found. Finally he goes to Bulawayo by train.
The search becomes a fight!
The search for one Maybe Mhlanga takes Tindo through light and darkness. He eventually learns that both his real mother and his foster mother are women who have little choices in this life. His father, Shingi has made many mistakes in his life, one of which being not being able to tell the truth to the right people at the right time.
But because all this happen during the period of Zimbabwe’s recent economic meltdown, Tindo’s quest takes him to the depths of a society torn apart and characterised by deep ironies. Once in a while one’s luck runs low and sometimes one is helped out, ironically by street people, shebeen queens and women of the night. In this story suffering unites people and, strangely, love separates people.
This is a book for ordinary readers and for those into family law, culture, anthropology and history. It is not easy to search for a woman whose identity continues to shift as you come closer and closer to her. Sometimes you are taken to the wrong woman. Then you begin to meet people who tell you that your description fits a certain woman across the road but her name is not Maybe Mhlanga!
You come across people who say they saw the woman you are talking about a few days ago, but when you meet her, you discover that this is not Maybe Mhlanga! So the search continues and people in the Bulawayo townships get to know you “as the boy who is searching for his mother” and your story touches all the gamblers, pimps and the police and the whole community joins in the search with you.
Shimmer Chinodya has been one of the most outstanding writers from among those who became prominent after Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980. His writing tends to dwell on the young individual in the family in the fast changing times in Zimbabwe.
The literary community of Harare gathered at the Zimbabwe-Germany Society early last year to launch Shimmer Chinodya’s German translation of his 2007 Noma Award winning novel, Strife. The German version is called Zwietracht and was translated from English by Dr Manfred Loimeier under the Afrikawunderhorn series.
A veteran educationist, Chinodya is close to children’s issues and is also an author of schools textbooks. His series called Step Ahead: New Secondary School English Course is read in nearly all-Zimbabwean schools. In 1995-1997 he was Visiting Professor in Creative Writing and African literature at St Lawrence University in the USA. He also holds an Honours Degree in English from the University of Zimbabwe and an MA in Creative Writing from Iowa. Tindo’s Quest will surely add a feather to Chinodya’s growing plumage.

Chivi Sunsets: a preview by Memory Chirere
I can announce that Monica Cheru’s collection of short stories; Chivi Sunsets: Not for Scientists has finally been published by Diaspora Publishers in the UK. In my view, these stories are in the league of Wonder Guchu’s very fascinating, My Children, My Home published in 2007. Where other contemporary short story collections from Zimbabwe are largely concerned, in various ways, about the socio-political breakdown, Chivi Sunsets and My Children, My Home are about matters located beyond and above this decade of crisis.
In Guchu and Cheru’s short stories, the individual fights perceived enemies and rivals using extra realist actions like sending familiars and curses that harm physically. In “On the Road to Damascus,” from Chivi Sunsets: Not for Scientists, a new teacher, a Mr Muti is very keen on corporal punishment, hitting his pupils for every little mistake they make. The rural community is very annoyed but the proud Mr Muti continues to brutalise his pupils. One day, as he cycles to his school from the nearby shops where he is apparently in love with one of the shopkeepers, a whole baboon appears from the bush and jumps onto his carrier.
Mr Muti cycles on, heavily terrified. The baboon asks him: “Mr Muti, why do you beat the children so?” and Mr Muti does not reply because he is shell-shocked. The baboon continues: “To make them pass? Should they fail, what concern is it of yours, as the children do not belong to you? Anyway, since you started your floggings, how many of them have passed? Ponder on it my wise fellow.” Having delivered its message, the baboon nimbly jumps off the bike and saunters into the tall grass on the roadside!
Eventually Mr Muti flees the school and in his next school, he never raises his hand to beat up any school child. He has been changed indeed by this “Road to Damascus” event. Just like in Wonder Guchu’s ‘Garikayi’, this story uses a familiar in the form of a baboon. Equally, where there is a conflict and circumstances do not allow it for people to meet and converse, such things happen. The community considers Mr. Muti way above admonishing because he is far more educated and “sophisticated”. In fact, before the baboon incident, other familiars like the bat and the owl had been sent to him but he does not heed.
The narrative is on the side of the community and the baboon because when Mr Muti leaves: “a new teacher comes along and is told the tale of Mr Muti so many times that he keeps his hands to himself. Eventually the community realises the value of education and the children begin to pass their exams. Rods reappear but any over-zealous teacher is reminded of the baboon. No one ever claims to have sent the baboon to Mr Muti. The baboon is never seen by any other person.”
Even in his new station, Mr Muti never assaults any pupil. He has learnt through the shock that he has received. In addition, he may not be able to narrate this story and be believed. He has been isolated in his new knowledge and that is enough punishment.
This kind of writing (from Cheru and Guchu) as Flores Angel says, helps the writer “to reach beyond the confines of realism and draw upon the energies of fable, folk tale, and myth while maintaining a strong contemporary social relevance” and that “the fantastic attributes given to characters in such stories – levitation, flight, telepathy, telekinesis – are among the means that magic realism adopts in order to encompass the often phantasmagorical socio-political realities of the contemporary world.”
Monica Cheru’s title for her short story anthology, Chivi Sunsets: Not For Scientists is a mouthful. The word “Sunsets” assumes that these stories happen during the night or that they are associated with darkness and maybe more specifically, these stories explore the machinations of evil. The second part of the title, “Not For Scientists” suggests that these stories break all the rules of our real world.
These stories “defy physical laws, including the laws of gravity” as George Kahari says about the romances of prominent Shona writer, Patrick Chakaipa.