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Africa and the Testament of the Gods

Africa and the Testament of the Gods

VUSI MAVIMBELA IN the 1960 film Inherit the Wind, there is a court dramatisation where defence lawyer Henry Drummond says: “I am trying to establish whether Howard or Brady or Charles Darwin or anybody sitting around this court, or you Sir, has a right to think”. The presiding officer intervenes and says: “Mr Drummond, the right to think is not on trial here”. Drummond retorts: “Well, with all due respect to the court, the right to think is very much on trial here and it is fearfully in danger in the proceedings of this court room…A thinking man is faced…
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Tsitsi Dangarembga and writing about pain and loss in Zimbabwe

Tsitsi Dangarembga and writing about pain and loss in Zimbabwe

ROSEMARY CHIKAFA-CHIPIRO, Lecturer, University of Zimbabwe TSITSI Dangarembga has made a name for herself as a writer, filmmaker and activist in Zimbabwe. She gained international acclaim with her debut novel Nervous Conditions (1988), which became the first published English novel by a black woman from Zimbabwe. The BBC named it one of the top 100 books that have shaped the world. Now, over three decades later, Dangarembga’s latest novel – This Mournable Body, the third in a trilogy that began with Nervous Conditions and the subject of this review – has been placed on the longlist for the 2020 Booker…
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Remembering Zindzi Mandela, the writer

Remembering Zindzi Mandela, the writer

NTOMBIZIKHONA VALELA ZINDZI Mandela comes from a family of writers. Although her parents were not writers by profession, this craft was a crucial way of keeping their family together. Mandela was barely 18 months old when her father, Nelson Mandela, was arrested on 5 August 1962 after being a wanted man for his role in South Africa’s liberation movement. His life sentence following the conclusion of the Rivonia Trial in 1964 was served on Robben Island, which meant he could only communicate with his wife, freedom fighter and social worker Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, and children through writing letters. These initial circumstances…
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