RADAR: Read This

Percy Zvomuya’s new book, When Three Sevens Clash, is a collection of reminiscences mainly about the rise of Zimbabwean music legend Thomas Mapfumo, but also about those wondrous decades before Zimbabwe’s independence, with a couple of personal essays thrown in. The great Mapfumo is still with us, and this anthology gives him his flowers in a lovely celebration of his life and work.

In the foreword, editor Zvomuya honours Mapfumo’s younger brother and bandmate, Lancelot, who passed away in 2022. Farai Mudzingwa (you can read an extract from his new book Avenues By Train in the View section of this magazine) gives us the history of the almost mythical Seven Miles Hotel, where Mapfumo was a fixture for some time. Brian Chikwava ponders the reasons for Mukanya’s exile to America. But it is Musaemura Zimunya’s instructive piece, “Thomas ‘Tafirenyika’ Mapfumo And The Zimbabwean Music Revolution” that explores Mapfumo’s musical journey, and locates it in the liberation history and formation of the nation of Zimbabwe.

Rutendo Chabikwa’s moving “Only Daughter” explores a sliver of gender in Zimbabwe through a portrait of her somewhat gender-fluid uncle. American historian Brooks Marmon brings us the story of Daniel Madzimbamuto and Herbert Munangatire’s Cultural Syndicate’s 1958 All-African Music Festival. It was, perhaps unfortunately, the first and last event of its kind, and Marmon explains why it succeeded and failed. Attiyah Khan’s essay on the band the Beaters in Rhodesia grabbed my attention for a young Sipho “Hotstix” Mabuse. “Adatshona” by Marko Phiri is deeply moving on the pre-Independence dislocation of Malawian migrants to Zim.

There are photo essays: by KB Mpofu on artisanal miners, and Rafs Mayet on Amnesty International’s Human Rights “Now!” concert, held at Harare’s National Sports Stadium in October 1988. Tawanda Mudzonga’s personal essay on identity skewers Zimbabweans’ unfortunate obsession with how people sound, a classist and elitist consequence of colonialism. “Musakanene” is Geraldine Mukumbi’s tribute to her sekuru, lost to COVID. And last but certainly not least, is a regrettably short graphical entry by another Zimbabwean legend, Tony Namate, on his time at Zimbabwe Publishing House, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Charles Mungoshi, Chenjerai Hove, Dambudzo Marechera, Lewis Nkosi, Nadine Gordimer and Nuruddin Farah.

In all, When Three Sevens Clash is a lovely and eclectic collection of memories, evocative of the heady days of the formation of Zimbabwe, with personal memories from younger Zimbabweans also thrown in the mix. Zvomuya has collected many gifted minds and voices together in this wonderful volume.

When Three Sevens Clash by Percy Zvomuya is out now.

Jacqueline Nyathi

By Yvette Lisa Ndlovu
(University Press of Kentucky)

In this rich collection, Ndlovu draws from Zimbabwean experience: hyperinflation, power cuts, fuel shortages, the liberation war and the country’s troubled political history. Disappearing homes, a shape-shifting praying mantis, njuzu, ngozi, wife-locking and women in winnowing baskets add Afrosurrealism.

Ndlovu also explores social issues: Black Tax, widows deprived of marital property, amakorokoza, and the traumatic experiences of girls and young women. In “Home Became A Thing With Thorns”, Zimbabwean migrants in South Africa lose parts of themselves to gain official recognition. Finally, Operation Murambatsvina is the focus of the title story, “Drinking From Graveyard Wells”.

By José Eduardo Agualusa
(Archipelago Books)

Borges wakes up in heaven, or hell — an endless banana plantation — but finds consolation in possibilities. A man offers to teach a party guest levitation. A pensive despot shares his musings. “Open To The Breeze” is a beautiful story about a place that’s trapped in time. Laughing lizards, offensive baobabs, a story about butterflies and Queen Nzinga and another about Jonas Savimbi round out the collection.

Agualusa’s treatment of Angolan history is always slightly farcical, very humorous, and also quite sad, which seems appropriate to post-Independence Africa. His boundless imagination and particular brand of the surreal is on full display here.

By Magogodi oaMphela Makhene
(Atlantic Books)

There’s a touch of the fever dream about this book by author oaMphela Makhene. In these stories, characters are relating, remembering or rambling. Some narrators are unreliable, impacted by poverty, trauma, war and oppression — from Apartheid and more.
oaMphela Makhene lays bare the ugly, steaming viscera of lives. There is little in this book that is pretty or light; this is the grim stuff that most people would rather not see. But in that grimness is the unmistakable ring of reality.

Actual innards are sometimes considered food of the poor, but in southern Africa, they are seen as a delicacy. Just like this, the book Innards disturbs and delights in equal measure.

By Kasia Avery
(Quarry Books)

Mixed-media journalling can be intimidating, and it may be hard to know where to begin. Creative Wanderlust, from Kasia Avery, the co-founder of mixed media company Everything Art, shows where and how to find inspiration for art journalling, presented here as the foundation of creative practice.

There are lots of great prompts and tips, and guidance on tools and resources — mainly, to use those you have to hand. You’ll learn about substrates and their preparation, composition and techniques for combining mediums. Creative Wanderlust is also filled with encouraging words for creatives: how to practise mindfulness and self-care, and how to let go of perfectionism.

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