The modest working title of Memory Chirere’s forthcoming poetry anthology, Bhuku Risina Basa, loosely translated, useless book, belies a range of genius.
Chirere, an internationally renowned author, academic, editor and literary critic told Literary Outlook that he has decided to come out of his closet with more than 100 poems authored over 20 years as private exercises.
Bhuku Risina Basa is being trimmed for press with the help of Chirere’s editor and friend, the veteran poet Ignatius Tirivangani Mabasa and will be released by Harare-based Bhabhu Books during the last quarter of this year.
Chirere’s current inventory includes Somewhere in This Country (2006), Tudikidiki (2007), Toriro and His Goats (2010) and Charles Mungoshi: A Critical Reader (2006), co-edited with Prof Maurice Vambe.
Arguably, one of Zimbabwe’s foremost literary figures, Chirere’s work features in No More Plastic Balls (1999), A Roof to Repair (2000), Writing Still (2003) and Creatures Great and Small (2005).
Arguably, one of Zimbabwe’s foremost literary figures, Chirere’s work features in No More Plastic Balls (1999), A Roof to Repair (2000), Writing Still (2003) and Creatures Great and Small (2005).
“These are poems about my relationships with family, friends and country. I noticed I have over hundred such poems from a period of twenty years,” said Chirere.
“I am not writing this book to make an impression but it is a way of putting together so many things that I have said to myself and others for the past twenty years so that they do not get lost,” he said.
The project is Chirere’s first poetry anthology and fourth solo project.
“Ibhuku risina basa because when writing them, they were initially not intended for publishing. They were also written in between chores and in between studies and in between what I thought were more serious
engagements.
engagements.
“The anthology is being edited by my friend Ignatius Mabasa and we are targeting bringing it out before the end of the year.”
Bhuku Risina Basa, a vernacular offering, comes at a time when established writers are shying away from local languages.
Quizzed on whether he is signing up for Ngungi WaThiongo’s local languages crusade, Chirere chose to take to the middle of the road.
“I haven’t involved myself in that debate as yet. I write in both Shona and English,” Chirere said.
Chirere denies influence from liberation war hero Hebert Chitepo’s closely titled epic Soko Risina Musoro: “My inspiration is Aime Cesaire’s book: Notebook of a Return to My Native Land.”
“I am inspired by Cesaire, especially his style that brings, dream, history and hallucination together,” he said.
Chirere says his offering comprises of experimental pieces hence the unassuming title.
“My last poetic offering was way back in 1994 with Tipeiwo Dariro. Since then I had almost become a private poet,” he said.
“I have read some of these poems like Kasvosve, Tadya Shuga, Mukuru Wekuchechi Kwedu, Bhavhadhe Rangu and Madhare Edu to various audiences at home and even before non-Shona speaking audiences in places like German, Malawi, Namibia and Botswana.
“Sometimes I go for the sheer musicality of the Shona language. Sometimes I am grappling with personal anxieties, sometimes I am trying to make the Shona language deal with issues that others like
Diop and Cesaire have grappled with.
“I like Jose Craeverinha of Mozambique especially his poem I Want to be a Drum.
“I also enjoy the shorter poems of Langston Hughes because he is torn between mourning and celebration. I like poetry that works with various emotions in one single breath because I think that when one laughs, one is very close to crying as well,” he said.
Chirere declined to blow his own horn: “I cannot foretell the impact of Bhuku Risina Basa because readers are always unpredictable. However those that I have read have been very well received.”
Chirere is also a prolific blogger and far-and-away the most media-savvy authority on Zimbabwean literature. He lectures literature at the University of Zimbabwe.
