Caine Prize Research Articles

What to Read Now: Zimbabwe

What to Read Now: Zimbabwe Brian Chikwava Asked torecommend three titles that would provide greater insight into Zimbabwe today, Brian ChUcwava turned toboth fiction andnonfiction, listing a novel, a memoir, anda collection of stories. Together they span Zimbabwe's pre-independence through the contemporary moment, including the new diaspora.|L j] t jy / I ■iM- - # I Boms Chenjerai Hove (Baobab Books) A powerful, poetic novel(1998)that more or less capturesthe entire gamutof theRhodesianpeasant's experience, thisstory informed and inspiredthe movements pushing for thebirth oftheRepublic ofZimbabwe . AMEMOIR OFZIMBABWE mm DOUGLAS ROGERS nfrTheLastResort : AZimbabwe Memoir Douglas Rogers (Harmony Books) WhileHove'sBones delvesintopreindependence Zimbabwe, Rogers's wry memoir-cum-travelogue is a deft account ofthelater years'of die newrepublic. TheLastResort (2009) is one ofthebestbooksaboutthe Zimbabwe ofrecent years. AnElegy for Easterly Petina Gappah (Faber&Faber) An outstanding and eclectic shortstory collection (2009)encapsulating contemporary Zimbabwe.Humorous and poignant,the collection toucheseverylevel of societyas wellas theexperience ofthesmall nation's newly emergent diaspora. AZimbabwean writer, Brian Chikwava isthe author of the novel Harare North and winner of the 2004 Caine Prize for African Writing for his story "Seventh Street Alchemy." His essay "Free Speech inZimbabwetThe Story of the Blue-Stomached Lizard* appeared in the September 2006 issue ofWW. 61 World Literature Today ...

A new generation of African writers: migration, material culture & language

There is a new interest among publishers in New York and London in books by writers of African origin. These authors have often grown up or passed their early adult years out of Africa. The Orange Prize for Fiction was awarded in London 2007 to Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie's 'Half of a Yellow Sun', and the Caine Prize for African Writing has introduced new writers such as Leila Aboulela, Biyi Bandele and Chimamanda Adichie herself to agents and publishers. This examination of the extraordinary work which has recently appeared is therefore very timely. Migration is a central theme of much African fiction written in English. Here, Brenda Cooper tracks the journeys undertaken by a new generation of African writers, their protagonists and the solid objects that populate their fiction, to depict the material realities of their multiple worlds and languages. The book explores the uses to which the English language is put in order to understand these worlds. It demonstrates how these writers have contested the dominance of colonising metaphors. The writers' challenge is to find an English that can effectively express their many lives, languages and identities. BRENDA COOPER is Director of the Centre for African Studies and a Professor in the Department of English Language and Literature at the University of Cape Town. South Africa: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press (PB)