This timely volume brings together a series of articles, which have previously appreared in his weekly column in The Zimbabwe Standard. Hove, publishing in Zimbabwe, believes the voices of the nation's politically engaged writers - in tune with the mood of the people and the times - are crucial in the current climate of political violence and censorship. To outside media and observers trying to ascertain the truths of the political situation, his writings offer insights from a black Zimbabwean writer and critic. Hove writes for and about Zimbabwe from a perspective that acknowledges recent history, and debates around culture, tradition and democracy. His criticism is uneqivocal, his portrayal of Zimbabwe's politics, damning and unforgiving. His case is that Zimbabwe is a police state, which has inherited pre-indepedence totalitarianism; members of the Government are in politics for reasons of personal gain - they are unsophisticated, poorly educated and have no notion of public office. He believes that the army and police - whom he compares with those of apartheid South Africa, are the politicians' personal weapons, committing acts of crime and terrorism in the President's name and in their own.
About the author
Chenjerai Hove was born on February 9, 1956 in Mazvihwas near Zvishavane, Rhodesia. He attended school at Kutama College and Marist Brothers Dete, in the Hwange district of Zimbabwe. After studying in Gweru, he became a teacher and then earned degrees at the University of South Africa and the University of Zimbabwe. He also worked as a journalist, and contributed to the anthology, And Now the Poets Speak. He became a well known poet, and novelist writing in both English and Shona. His titles include: Up in Arms, Red Hills of Home, Bones, Blind Moon and The Keys of Ramb. She also won several awards including Guest Writer, Yorkshire and Humberside Arts, Second Prize, Zimbabwe Literary Award, for Ancestors, and International Writers Project Fellow at Brown University. Chenjerai Hove died on July 12, 2015 of liver failure in Norway.
Author Chenjerai Hove
ISBN 1779220014, 9781779220011
Format Paperback
Pages 88p.
