Month: April 2024
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The History of Jah Prayzah… As Told through His Best Albums
Click or not: The History of Jah Prayzah… As Told through His Best AlbumsA roaring and smoking mbira song, one for the party animals, a Nollywood pity party to confuse the crush outside your league, and a two-season coup soundtrack – Jah Prayzah created the future by commanding the past. We look back to the career-defining moments of one of Zimbabwe’s greatest artists. …
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OBITUARY| Cont Mhlanga Was Relentlessly Committed to Arts Development and Free Speech
Click or not: OBITUARY| Cont Mhlanga Was Relentlessly Committed to Arts Development and Free SpeechZimbabwean dramatist Continueloving “Cont” Mhlanga died in Bulawayo on Monday (1 August), aged 64. The highly regarded theatre director also made his mark as screenwriter, actor, arts manager and broadcaster. Banned and arrested by Robert Mugabe’s government, he was also fearlessly committed to free speech. …
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BOOK REVIEW| Mukana Press’s Old Love Skin
Click or not: BOOK REVIEW| Mukana Press’s Old Love SkinOld Love Skin, a pan-African poetry collection, finds new voices summoning divinity where they please, and turning history pictures to the wall to fill in the blank negatives with ambivalence, impiety and intrigue. Poetry is, here, voice and breath, medicine and blood, origin and trace, unresolvedly tangled in a witching combat. …
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INTERVIEW| Musaemura Zimunya and Marshall Munhumumwe – When Blood Is Thick as Ink
Click or not: INTERVIEW| Musaemura Zimunya and Marshall Munhumumwe – When Blood Is Thick as InkA year after Munhumumwe’s “Makorokoto” won him Radio 2’s first independence-era number one song, his cousin Zimunya published “And Now the Poets Speak”, co-edited with Mudereri Kadhani, and set the tone for new Zimbabwean poetry. Few years later, he had written well enough to be considered Zimbabwe’s foremost poet. What did it mean for Zimunya… …
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Zimbabwe International Book Fair Flexes Proof of Life After Covid-19 Break
Click or not: Zimbabwe International Book Fair Flexes Proof of Life After Covid-19 BreakZimbabwe International Book Fair (ZIBF) came to town last week (from 30 September to 1 October) after a two-year COVID-19 break. The book fair did not live up to its international billing as it was poorly attended and short on sponsorship. Organisers are sending a message that they are still out here and need more… …
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Dave Houghton Effect Praised for Zimbabwe’s T20 Progress
Click or not: Dave Houghton Effect Praised for Zimbabwe’s T20 ProgressZimbabwe cricket legend Dave Houghton is in charge of the Chevrons for the second time. His golden-age aura has rubbed off to the youthful squad as Zimbabwe made progress in a T20 World Cup for the first time in Australia last week. …
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Drunken Piper – King Kwela Spokes Mashiyane
Click or not: Drunken Piper – King Kwela Spokes MashiyaneKwela pennywhistler Johannes “Spokes” Mashiyane (1933-1972) is one of the most influential names in African music. Sitting atop the loose genealogy of South African movements from kwela and mbaqanga to kwaito and amapiano, Mashiyane is also an old head in the township music renaissance of Zimbabwe, Malawi, Lesotho and other scenes. …
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King Mswati III’s Government under Fire for the “Targeted Killing” of People’s Hero Thulani Maseko
Click or not: King Mswati III’s Government under Fire for the “Targeted Killing” of People’s Hero Thulani MasekoThulani Maseko (1 March 1970 – 21 January 2023) was fatally stopped in his tracks as he campaigned for electoral reforms in Eswatini. The assassination has attracted global attention on the extent of repression in Africa’s last absolute monarchy. Calls to hold King Mswati III’s government to account for the “targeted killing” are getting louder. …
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BOOK REVIEW| Tsitsi Nomsa Ngwenya’s “Portrait of Emlanjeni”
Click or not: BOOK REVIEW| Tsitsi Nomsa Ngwenya’s “Portrait of Emlanjeni”The idealised landscape of Tsitsi Nomsa Ngwenya’s new novel, A Portrait of Emlanjeni, is animated by the spirit of the people, their community ties and abiding regard for tradition. Ngwenya brings the indigenous and official justice systems into conversation, broadening them to make space for women. …
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BOOK REVIEW| Chigozie Obioma’s “The Fishermen”
Click or not: BOOK REVIEW| Chigozie Obioma’s “The Fishermen”Although he has already been called the heir of Chinua Achebe, Obioma’s mastery of the questions of the day and rich blend of influences uploads into the African canon a mythic feat uniquely his own. An undercurrent of tragedy courses through the novel, several layers of memory foreboding loss and destruction. …