Harare Voices and Beyond

REVIEWS FOR

HARARE VOICES & BEYOND

“Daring. Harare Voices & Beyond is full of intrigue and brutality. An unflinching portrait of broken families and a broken society.”

- Paida Chiwara

In this his third novel, fire brand Zimbabwean novelist, Andrew Chatora, demonstrates that every man understands the complexity of his crime and the subsequently unsuitable punishment. This is a rare story about loss and strife in post independent Zimbabwe.

This is a detective story with no detectives. It is more like Doris Lessing’s The Grass is Singing and Ngugi wa Thiongo’s A Grain of Wheat in that the guilty is always in your midst, helping you solve the crime but making sure the criminal is not easily found. In the end you appreciate both the crime and the cause of the crime. You see that the criminal is an ordinary man who is driven over the precipice by irreparable generational loss. This is a deft work of art.

- Memory Chirere, University of Zimbabwe

Chatora expertly deals with unresolved trauma, psychosis, identity politics, citizenship and nationhood issues through the portrait of both white and black Zimbabweans’ lived culture.

- Malvern Mukudu, Writer & Journalist, Rhodes University, South Africa

A powerhouse writer who brings dynamic conversations to the table.

- This is Africa.

Harare Voices & Beyond takes us on a journey through the dark recesses of the human psyche.

- Sue Quainton, Bicester, United Kingdom

Told through multiple perspectives of young adults and grownups, Harare Voices & Beyond offers a masterful exploration of what happens when family bonds become frayed, society fails its citizenry coupled with a hegemonic class bent on primitive accumulation at the expense of its citizens. It is a poignant read which poses difficult questions.

- Naomi Wheeler, United Kingdom

Harare Voices & Beyond demonstrates successfully how the lack of employment opportunities and previous traumas can mentally push victims of the illicit drug industry over the edge. Harare Voices also provides a fresh view of the effects of Zimbabwe’s Land Reform Programme.

- Stan Onai Mushava, Writer, Poet

A Worthy Contribution to Post-Colonial Literature

Harare Voices & Beyond offers a nuanced examination of race relations and the land reform programme in a post independent African nation Zimbabwe which becomes microcosmic and a wider metaphor of other African nations yet to deal with this contentious issue.

The land question continues to hog many African countries, South Africa being the latest to join the fray and for a black author to tackle such an issue and bring it under the literary gaze is nigh remarkable.

This could be the first book of its kind by a black Zimbabwean author to deal with this contested terrain. Equally pertinent sub strands come to the fore in the narrative like Harare’s burgeoning crystal meth rampage and its devastating impact on Zimbabwean youth and adults. These are important questions the author feels deeply about as a schoolteacher that they ought to be rightly critiqued and interrogated for the greater good of posterity. Through this book, Chatora brokers uncharted territory in post-colonial literature and it stands to make a worthwhile contribution to this great tradition.

- Gift Mheta, Writer, Durban University of Technology, South Africa

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