Death of the Commissar
by Tichaona Zindoga
Published by Underclass Books and Films (2017)

RENOWNED Nigerian author Chinua Achebe wrote: “The last 400 or 500 years of European contact with Africa produced a body of literature that presented Africa in very bad light and Africans in very lurid terms.
“The reason for this had to do with the need to justify the slave trade and slavery.”
Volumes of literature with the diluted version of Africa’s story have found their way in local bookshops.
It is always a distorted version of events.
The whiteman is not backing down any moment.
Sadly, it is this literature, coming generations will be reading.
Letting the whiteman tell Africa’s story spells doom for the blackman.
After all, who better to tell Africa’s story than her children.
It is their birthright.
Through song, poems and literature, Africans have and should continue to tell their story.
It is commendable, but more still needs to be done.
With more African writers coming to the fore, whites have devised other methods to ensure the African story remains distorted.
The ‘carrot and stick’ strategy has been adopted.
‘Reward writers who paint a gloomy picture of Africa and shun those who celebrate being African’.
This is one of the issues tackled in the book Death of the Commissar, penned by Tichaona Zindoga.
The book is a collection of poems which deal with issues affecting daily lives.
Poems in the book include ‘The War’, ‘Big Shoes’, ‘The Prophetess’, ‘Native Genius’, ‘The Young Woman’ and ‘A Law of Power’.
In the poem ‘Prostitutes with a Pen’, the poet takes a swipe at writers being ‘paid’ to write falsehoods.
Zindoga highlights how some writers ‘wait for the highest bidder’ before putting pen to paper so they advance the agenda of their paymaster.
“Prostitutes without conscience,
To soil and kill,
For pieces of silver,
In a brown envelope.
No original ideas,
Too timid to express opinions,
Because, on the morrow,
They can be waved out,” reads part of the poem.
In the poem ‘The Young Woman’, Zindoga explores the issue of death: “Then one day we did not find her in her place,
“They had taken her to another place,
For she had grown weaker and worse.
Her family and friends grew hopeless,
And pinned hopes on miracles,” reads part of the poem.
The young woman in the poem could be taken to represent innocence and purity which is taken away abruptly.
The young woman could symbolise an African culture that has been corrupted by Western ways.
The West has taken it upon itself to sway Africans from their culture.
It is their culture that used to bind them together.
Without a common culture and belief system, Africans are weakened and emasculated.
Africans should be wary.
In the poem ‘Death of a Monarch’, the poet explores the issue of colonisation and the liberation struggle.
He paints a picture of how whites came and invaded Zimbabwe.
“Poor monarch,
Born at a cruel moment in history,
When powerful enemies,
Were on their way:
To steal, rob and plunder in these parts,” reads part of the poem.
Zindoga celebrates the role of freedom fighters but raises concern of how their legacy is under threat.
“You put a good fight
To stop the invasion,
But the fight was not enough
To stop the plunder and the rape
That followed conquest.
It must have been worse
To suffer ignoble death
In the forests……,” writes Zindoga.
Through the poem ‘The Prophetess’, the poet celebrates the life of Zimbabwe’s heroine Mbuya Nehanda.
Zindoga raises issues of African religion and the role of ancestors in the lives of indigenes.
It did not take the coming of the whiteman for Africans to realise there was a Higher Power whom they referred to as Musikavanhu.
Musikavanhu was the basis of their existence.
“She could see beyond her time.
To warn of troubles and wars ahead:
Of great famines and want,
So people knew beforehand
What the future held,” reads part of the poem.
The poem is a reminder local heroes and heroines deserved a special place in the country’s history.
“This woman was killed,
But she saw her bones, parched and white,
Rising again:
And a land that was crying
Comforted and healed again,” writes Zindoga.
The poem ‘Hero Who Never Came Back’ remembers lives lost during the liberation struggle.
“We know the hero that went away,
Never returned
The captors happily gave away a poor excuse
Of the hero:
A man devoid of fire and passion,
Waiting for an inglorious end,
Like a sheep led to the slaughter,” writes Zindoga.
With more writings that speak to Africans about their dreams, aspirations and the future, they will be inspired to own their story.
It is their story.
They must tell it.