Dear Dambudzo Marechera… The letters Zimbabweans wrote to a literary star
TINASHE MUSHAKAVANHU, Post-Doctoral Fellow, University of the Witwatersrand THE writer Dambudzo Marechera, who died on 18 August 1987, remains a popular figure in Zimbabwe. He is heralded by a young generation as a radical and counter-culture figure. Marechera became an instant star when his first book The House of Hunger was published to critical acclaim in 1978. The novella tells of growing up in colonial Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in raw and exquisite prose, a harrowing portrait of lives disrupted and young disillusionment. The rumour is that he wrote it in a tent or squat, but then perhaps he did not,…
