Gwadamirai...
Gwadamirai...
What inspires you to write?
I love people and believe in listening to people, because everyone has a story to tell. I have been fortunate to have met many amazing souls in my life who have made such an impact in me, and each time I meet or think of some of these people it inspires me to write and celebrate them. Being African, we sadly don’t invest enough in documenting our own stories and celebrating our everyday heroes. This is evident in that even though my children are decades younger than me, they still do not have enough books that they can relate to, books that talk about streets they know and meals they have eaten. So, I also draw my inspiration of the need to contribute so that my children can see more and more of themselves in books and films and believe that heroes do not live in New York or England. They live among them.
Do you think there is a difference between
a writer and an author?
Yes absolutely! With the advent of social media and microblogging sites such as Facebook, a lot of people can be considered writers. The world has evolved so much that there is an information overload with content being originated at a very fast pace and in high volumes. An author, however, is someone whose work has been published. This means for you to graduate from being a writer to an author, you have to get your work published.
How does it make you feel to be part of a published anthology?
I have always wanted to be an author and to get some of my work published. So, to be published in this anthology for me has been a long time coming and something I have had on my vision board for so long, but never got round to doing. Being part of this published anthology makes me feel extremely excited and like I once said to a friend, we all need that moment where you say “…and then the curse was broken” with a lot of things in life. So, this is one of those amazing moments in my life where I strongly believe that the wheels of change and progress have started moving in my life.
Do you face any challenges as a female Zimbabwean writer?
The greatest challenge I have faced as a Zimbabwean living in the diaspora broadly is that a lot of things come down to survival. Life revolves around putting food on not just your table, but that of family you left at home. When life’s focus is around survival and paying bills and making do with your limited social networks for survival, it often takes away the privilege of being able to sit down and put all your thoughts down. It becomes worse when you are female and also have so many other hats you have to wear that range from being a mother, a wife, and a homemaker. The ripple effect is that most people’s writing dreams then just get stillborn.
Briefly describe your writing journey, from how you started to where you are today.
A few years ago, my mother called me and told me that she had finally decided to let go of all our junk which she had kept in trunks in our rooms, but she had paused a moment because she had spent almost a day reading the amazing letters, short stories and yes – my old diaries. She wanted my permission to dispose some of the content. Long story short, I have been writing for a very long time and even took up a semester long course at university to try and understand the art of creative writing. It is however only now that I have gathered the guts to start letting more people into my space and get my thoughts and perceptions of the world out there.
How do you want your work to be remembered?
I attended a workshop once with a lot of journalists and we were asking them why the media was so negative. One top South African journalist present responded by saying, “If you call us to cover a story about a man and the man is not burning or being stabbed it will not sell the news and so why should I cover it?” I remember thinking, damn this is why I should write. I would like my work to be remembered as that writing which gave hope in a world flooded by news and information of a lot of pain, anger and distress. I want to be one of those authors who said this is how we dust ourselves up and heal from it all.
Would you like to share anything about yourself to help your readers connect with you?
I am a firm believer in investing in the underdog. I tell you, the world is so much poorer today because we judge and listen to people based on their resource base and not their wisdom and what they have to offer the world.
Who is your favourite writer and why?
My favourite writers are quite a number and for various reasons that range from their ability to break down political and social issues and bring then to life. I will just list them here
- Tsitsi Dangarembga
- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- Memory Chirere
- Modecai Abenia Hamutyinei
- Chinua Achebe
What are your future writing aspirations?
In the next year I would like to publish my first book, which will contribute to the healing the world narrative I want to champion.
What is your biggest dream?
I don’t want to jinx it, so I won’t mention it here. All I will say though is watch this space!
***
TURQUOISE DREAMS Editor's note:
Her dilemma
was a welcomed change up from the stories of men abusing women. In this delicately presented piece, we get to see a woman in power who is killing it at work, but unfortunately her children are suffering with both parents not being home often. It is clear from this account, that the burden only falls on the wife and not the husband, as in most patriarchal societies.
She is not my type
is a well-written suspenseful story where the scene is set in an Uber in South Africa. It was refreshing to see that a woman played a role in a man’s life that led him to shift his consciousness, from superficial wants and needs, to things that are more valuable in life.
Looking to the spirit
is a lovely switch up in the book, with more of a positive outcome after Fari struggles financially and mentally in the middle of her life, due to societal judgement and shaming in a marginalised community. The themes of culture, religion and mental health are refreshingly explored in this story.
