EDITOR — I AM an avid reader of African literature and my bone of contention is that there seems to be a dearth of creative writing and publications by Africans.
There was a time we used to be treated to offerings from the likes of the late great Dambudzo Marechera, Charles Mungoshi and Archbishop Patrick Chakaipa, among others.
Now there is little or no new publications coming our way. At a recent launch of The Herald political editor Tichaona Zindoga’s book The Death of the Commissar, a timely and poignant point was made by a certain presenter.
The presenter asked: Where are the creative writers of our time?
I remember in Marechera’s The House of Hunger, our wretched state of affairs under colonial rule being brought to the fore.
The suffering of our people being a fundamental feature of the book.
In Mungoshi’s Waiting for the Rain, the Old Man raises a serious issue that still applies to our situation today. The Old Man talks about us beating other people’s drum.
This is the situation we find ourselves in today, where we cannot tell our own story.
The disappointing is the fact that we tell other people’s narratives as if they were our own.
And how do we come up with our own narrative when we do not know our history?
Will the real writers stand up!

Samson,
Chinhoyi Coldstream, pamuZimbaaa