HomeOld_PostsUnderstanding the purpose of literature

Understanding the purpose of literature

Published on

I RECENTLY came across an article titled ‘Autobiography, Memoir and White Zimbabwean Literature’ in a local paper by an anonymous book reviewer who goes by the name Bookworm.
There are some aspects of the column that one has to agree with, for example, the fact that local white people view themselves as the wronged race both by the black government and by the empire.
Although some of the white authors were quite young to have participated in the atrocities of their forefathers, but they still enjoyed the stolen legacy.
They enjoyed the economic advantage for years, because of the stolen legacy their children would never know what poverty was about. In fact, most of these white writers perpetuate settler myths and writing traditions which only serve to justify their presence in the country and reinforce a distinct Rhodesian identity that they were hard working and innovative compared to the lazy nannies or houseboys.
The writer, who reveals his black identity, struggles to contain his admiration for unrepentant racists like Peter Godwin and somehow will not accept that rabid white supremacist like the revered English writer Joseph Conrad’s works shaped white opinion and still does.
Africa in Conrad’s book is depicted as a jungle, the very Heart of Darkness and unredeemable which is the impression that many Europeans and Westerners like to keep.
One just needs to look at the pictures and video clips that the West likes to portray on Africa, while they ignore all forms of development, pictures depicting children with flies in their eyes and noses and dirty littered streets.
It makes it easier for them to ignore genocides, usually funded by them, like the Baga Village in Nigeria where 2 000 were reported dead while they focus on 17 white people who were gunned down in Paris, France.
One will also note that it was not really the taking of land by blacks during the land reform programme that upset the West and Europe; it was the image of the white farmers beaten and bruised that had many countries impose sanctions on Zimbabwe.
This is what it took for the likes of Doris Lessing and Terrence Ranger to abandon the black cause, a movement they had spent more than half of their lives seemingly defending.
Many human rights organisations were embarrassed to note that for decades they were so focused on the few whites that they had totally forgotten about the black farm hands that had mostly died trying to protect the white farmer.
It has always been about ‘them’ versus ‘us’, we will always be the ‘other’ despite Bookworm’s attempt to burrow into their world with pseudo tales of a shared understanding in this case, their hatred of President Robert Mugabe.
Fundamentally, there is no difference between Conrad and Godwin.
The difference is Godwin lies that he is with us while Conrad is honest enough to tell us we are sub-human.
It takes a different kind of lens to understand Rhodesian writers especially lawyer-cum-journalists like Peter Godwin who understand the subtleties of language, which in this case the Bookworm apparently does not see. For he writes, “real racism is hard to find in these works, and where one suspects it, like in Joseph Conrad, it mostly appears to be reflective of racial relations rather than a direct hit from the author but a salvaging ‘white pride’.”
Godwin has the ability to insult you and play philanthropist without one realising it.
He once wrote in his books that it is rare to find old blacks in Zimbabwe or Africa.
According to Godwin, many die by the age of 50 of HIV and AIDS while white people die of natural diseases.
How does one not see the blatant racism? Even fanatical defenders of the white cause like Petina Gappah cannot help, but agree, as she once highlighted at the Book Café that Godwin’s attempt to write Shona leaves a lot to be desired.
Bookworm is especially thrilled that they are able to share the stage with Peter Godwin and some other old white man at some festival in Wales where they discuss ‘Whiteman in Africa’.
As the only black individual attempted to question the white writers representation of black characters, which from the looks of the whole column Bookworm was convinced, after the debate an elderly woman approaches the author and says, “thank you for your courage to speak, but don’t take these things too personal. Accept the world as it is.”
Accepting is a luxury for those who have already established themselves as the dominant class, white people like Africa the way it is, ‘slowly’ developing and the chaotic the better.
The Bookworm blames the shortage of black voices in Zimbabwean literature typically on the black government.
The Bookworm should know by now that when an economy collapses as ours did so does the publishing industry with it.
International book dealers are only willing to publish books whose agenda and ideology they agree with.
This then brings us to publishing houses like Ama Books and Weaver Press who offer lucrative book deals to black writers albeit with a controlled content.
The Bookworm naively attempts to separate their literature from their politics.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Latest articles

The contentious issue of race

 By Nthungo YaAfrika AS much as Africans would want to have closure to many of...

Musician pens seven books

By Fidelis Manyange CHITUNGWIZA-based musician, known in music circles as Gaban Kufemamoto Chebani Chedondo Chegwenzi...

A successful first quarter

THE first quarter of the year is done. As a people, we have not been...

FOZEU’s call for strike…an attempt at provoking anarchy

By Elizabeth Sitotombe IN an attempt to sow anarch across the country by calling for...

More like this

The contentious issue of race

 By Nthungo YaAfrika AS much as Africans would want to have closure to many of...

Musician pens seven books

By Fidelis Manyange CHITUNGWIZA-based musician, known in music circles as Gaban Kufemamoto Chebani Chedondo Chegwenzi...

A successful first quarter

THE first quarter of the year is done. As a people, we have not been...

Discover more from Celebrating Being Zimbabwean

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading