Harare Voices and Beyond

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This story is based on the troubled lives of a white commercial farming family who dramatically lose both their very active father and their farm in Mazowe to jambanja. The term jambanja means fast and sometimes dramatic activity, which became the other term for the recent occupations of white farms. This story is based on the troubled lives of a white commercial farming family who dramatically lose both their very active father and their farm in Mazowe to jambanja. The term jambanja means fast and sometimes dramatic activity, which became the other term for the recent occupations of white farms.

In reality most of my ilk in our downtown Harare gang had similar lives like me stemming from broken homes devoid of a father figure. Those who ran away from home, living on the streets. Ben was one such fellow, he was brought up without a father, his mother struggled to make ends meet, so he used to do anything for a living. As I think about that, I realise that perhaps, a big take away from this novel is the author’s ability (which may surprise Muponde) to skillfully showcase and dramatize to the reader that the land reform in Zimbabwe has its sharp and irreconcilable contradictions.There are many versions of the land reform story of Zimbabwe, depending on who is telling which part of the broad story, where… and who is listening! Harare Voices and Beyond gets me to a point where I say to myself, “No one has the right to really judge another’s actions.” Because, when it comes right down to it, while Julian easily lends himself to judgement for hurting himself, his brother, still holding on to his dignity, is hurting others for his own profit. When you judge the two, it turns out not to be what it seemed. 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 Told through multiple perspectives of young adults and grownups, Harare Voices and 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 KingdomA drunken confession exposes a dark family secret. Rhys appears to have it all. A white Zimbabwean living in the affluent Borrowdale Brooke area, he gets involved in a freak traffic accident. Therein unfolds a confession which unleashes a cathartic chain of events in the family’s hitherto well-choreographed life, a family whose lived experience becomes microcosmic and an eye opener to Zimbabwe’s seemingly closed, forgotten, white minority community.

Harare Voices and Beyond is an enlightened piece of literature, significantly beyond what we are currently reading about race relations. Finally, a book comes in which all points of view are shared, where the question is presented, “What do we do to rehabilitate race relations?" This is it for me and mother. Are we going to die. There’s no other way the courts will let us off for the murder of my brother, Julian – Mother’s youngest son gone rogue. I think this book would be a good fit for you if you like experiencing parts of other cultures. I don’t think you should read it if talks of abuse or drug use or self harm will trigger you. David Chasumba’s The Mad Man of First Street and Other Short Stories heralds the emergence of a refreshing and pertinent voice on the Zimbabwean and diaspora literary landscape. A wonderful read Chasumba’s prose is engaging with its empathetic charac David Chasumba’s The Mad Man of First Street and Other Short Stories heralds the emergence of a refreshing and pertinent voice on the Zimbabwean and diaspora literary landscape. A wonderful read Chasumba’s prose is engaging with its empathetic characters.Harare Voices and Beyond gets me to a point where I say to myself, "No one has the right to really judge another's actions." Because, when it comes right down to it, while Julian easily lends himself to judgement for hurting himself, his brother, still holding on to his dignity, is hurting others for his own profit. When you judge the two, it turns out not to be what it seemed. 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.

When the worst comes, this family is caught up in a wave of loud misunderstandings amongst themselves and in the subsequent melee, the mother and one of the boys allegedly kill the younger of the boys by accident and in fear, they secretly bury his body in their home, until it is eventually discovered. A white Zimbabwean family in post-independence Zimbabwe is turned upside down when a dark secret comes to light. Masterful in style and form, the narratives in Andrew Chatora’s Where the Heart Isare intensely provocative. Daring. Harare Voices & Beyond is full of intrigue and brutality. An unflinching portrait of broken families and a broken society.”Andrew Chatora presents a layered look on Zimbabwe's turbulent 2000s, from the perspective of the super-rich and/ or wildly corrupt to the disadvantaged and disenfranchised. Harare Voices and Beyond tells the stories of the predator, the prey and everyone else in-between. Andrew Chatora’s debut novella, Diaspora Dreams (2021), was approvingly received and nominated for the National Arts Merit Awards (2022). Fari’s reverse trip is a story about the human body, a tight memory test and a duel between geography and anticipation… 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.

I also found some of the chapters confusing because it would switch between characters’ POV without always putting the name of the character at the top of the chapter so that you would know who is telling the story now. So you would think you were reading the mom’s story, Doris, POV but then you’d actually be in Rhys’ POV. As Chatora wrote this story, he showed all sides of Julian’s addiction, highlighting the circumstances that often lead to drug use and abuse in Zimbabwe, which is an important theme as drug abuse in Zimbabwe is on the rise owing to youth unemployment and poverty. As one of Julian’s drug dealers note: Harare Voices and Beyond delves into the racial politics and turmoil that consumes life in Zimbabwe. It explores the drug addiction, abuse, grief, and loss that festers due to the political chaos that influences a majority of the characters’ life’s and decisions. As I think about that, I realise that perhaps, a big take away from this novel is the author’s ability (which may surprise Muponde) to skillfully showcase and dramatize to the reader that the land reform in Zimbabwe has its sharp and irreconcilable contradictions. There are many versions of the land reform story of Zimbabwe, depending on who is telling which part of the broad story, where… and who is listening! Harare Voices an Harare Voices and Beyond takes us on a journey through the dark recesses of the human psyche.Harare Voices and Beyondgets me to a point where I say to myself, “No one has the right to really judge another’s actions.”Because, when it comes right down to it, while Julian easily lends himself to judgement for hurting himself, his brother, still holding on to his dignity, is hurting others for his own profit. When you judge the two, it turns out not to be what it seemed. Julian a white Zimbabwean, who becomes one of the addicts, turns to substance abuse after his family loses their Mazowe family home, stolen under the guise of political retribution. His hopes for a family, wife, fatherhood, any claim to clean living, are dashed. Dejected and despondent, he remarks: “We white people in Africa have to repay what history had offered us. What can I say? What can I see?” And herein lies the problem, how do you repay for the past? Do you give up the life you have based on what those who previously lived did to others, with the same color skin, did before you? How can you pay for the actions of others, really? Is it fair to ask anyone to do that?’’ This opens up the broader conversations surrounding addiction in Zimbabwe as many young people are recruited into drug rings early. Another ugly aspect of the drug trade is the way in which it tears apart families as addicts care less and less about the people around them as they chase the next high. Chatora capably describes Julian’s downward spiral into stealing from his family to feed his meth habit: