The Sunday News
Richard Mahomva
Last week Bulawayo celebrated her mosaic of talents in the arts and culture sector courtesy of the Roil Bulawayo Arts Awards. This initiative is certainly rising to be the country’s mega and prestigious front for talent recognition. While there was a dozen of award categories, my keen interest was on the literary component of this grand awards gala. It turned out that a book I had reviewed here two weeks ago sailed as one of the best. The book emerged as the Outstanding Non-Fiction work and it’s titled; A Student’s Eye; Perspectives on Campus Culture. The editor of this master-piece is none other than Pofela Ndzozi — a colleague and a budding literary enthusiast. I took advantage of my proximity to him just to parade his highly reserved personality through the interview below. So meet Pof, the award-winning curator of words.
RM: Who is Pof?
Ndzozi: Before anything else, I am an African. I belong to the renascent crop of the continent’s patriots determined to build the African dream. I appreciate being a citizen of the post-colonial world largely characterised by more questions than answers. I appreciate the experience of being an African with the mandate to re-asserting a people’s lost dignity. So my mind frequently grapples with obscurity of colonial objectification of my people and how a liberating alternative to the given can be sought. So I can safely say I am in the path of finding myself as an African while appreciating ideas of being emanating from outside of my locale. Therefore, I find issues of identity and self-recovery quite healing and comforting and that is what defines me.
RM: What motivates Pofela’s love for literature and why literature, not clubbing or just being outgoing?
Pofela Ndzozi: The joy that comes when you pip toe through epochs of a writer’s mind and bouncing those ideas with your own world-view is particularly satisfying. Literature, unlike popular entertainment allows one to travel even beyond what the author envisioned. To quote Dambudzo Marechera, he said his first encounter with Europe before his Oxford experience was through the work of English writers and poets. So literature permits one to mystically reach certain destinations. Indulgence with the work of men and women of letters gives one an anthropological frenzy of the worlds outside their world. Once you experience that climax of joy in the borderless world of literature, anything else becomes mediocre. There is a symbiotic relationship between literature and power; hence, those who participate in literature participate in social power relations. It is only through literature that a meaningful social change can occur. Ultimately, being a fanatic of changing the world, me and literature are in for a “death do us part” arrangement.
RM: What is the background of your love affair with words?
Ndzozi: Perhaps the starting point was when my Grade One teacher would make us repeat dialogues in books we used to read then. We would sing them to any high level delegation that graced our rural school. I still recall reciting the poem “Kha kha go go, ngumsindo ovela ngaphansi kwesihlahla esikhulu . . .” it is always an informatively fun memory. I also recollect times I would ask myself unending philosophical questions like, How do we know we have choices in this world? No one gave me satisfying answers to the point that I concluded that literature is my only teacher in the context. This motivated me to read more, and the more you read, the more you discover worlds that have not been explored yet. So, I would write whatever is on mind and just bank it somewhere until I thought it was too mediocre that I had to write more. This routine has always repeated itself. It was only during my undergraduate studies that I found comfort and joy in what I wrote. One of the priorities I had soon after graduating was to get myself published. I did, in a chapter contribution to the book The Post 1980 Chimurengas Explained as co-authors with Micheal Mhlanga. That ushered a new era of writing and reading more. Many people that I can mention have been amazing mentors; some do not even know it. I always remember them as my village, and that is what it always takes to raise an African child.
RM: 10 years back did Pofela imagine himself to be what he is now?
Ndzozi: Not at all. It had always seemed like a distant dream.
RM: Besides literary advocacy what other socio-political engagements is Pofela engaged in?
Ndzozi: I like to think of myself as an eternal student and a slave to the ever evolving interpretation of ideas, hence my engagements are only limited to experiences that inspire those thinking points. With a background in university debating, I have also been extensively involved in mentoring a new generation of speakers and writers.
RM: What is this award-winning book all about?
Ndzozi: A Student’s Eye; Perspectives on Campus Culture is an attempt to give a voice to the popular, yet unsaid issues that affect tertiary students within campuses in Zimbabwe. Importantly, it was to speak not from a disconnected space and time, hence the short stories that were contributed by exceptional students, telling a story they have had an experience with, be it directly or indirectly.
The publication speaks to a multi-audience that include, aspiring tertiary students, tertiary students, the alumni and guardians of all groups of individuals I refer to. In speaking about these experiences, it establishes what is termed “Campus Culture” and more so, it raises questions on that culture: where does it emanate from? Can we place a constant identity to it?
Is it a telling of being liberated of radical liberalism? In that matter of speaking, it is an attempt towards rethinking a new line of debate and ideologies that architecture the status quo.
RM: One person once described the book as a publication that decriminalises orthodox thoughts on sexuality. Do you agree with that claim?
Ndzozi: The selective nature of the discussions on sexuality push me to agree with that claim. Sexuality is often only a part of health debates and beyond that, it is silent. The silence should however, not be interpreted to mean non-existent of points of discussions. I also think that even within the university, the discussion is limited. The lack of such discussions is however, an opportune to guide it as open and liberal as it gets.
RM: Is our society ready for open conversations on sexuality or you must export the university’s liberal thinking into the public sphere?
Ndzozi: I think the university as a blurb of the broader society is a mere reflection of the ideals of that society. Perhaps the university becomes that space that allows you to try it out openly. In that thinking, the society thinks it is not ready and requires a jump-start of such discussions. Moreover, that gap forever yelps to creative thinkers.
RM: Beyond the Zim audience do you see this book being relevant outside our context? Does it resonate with the experiences of university students outside Zimbabwe?
Ndzozi: As my submission to this question, allow me to borrow from Ngugi’s incomparable wisdom when he says that there is no work that is only understood by a certain community. If ever there is, then that art is bad in itself. Readers from all over the world can easily informatively enjoy this book. What would rather be more interesting is the interpretations that each reader brings.
RM: As a budding editor and publisher do you think the book industry is gaining relevant public attention?
Ndzozi: I think a black and white response to this question would rather be provincial thinking. I like to think the growing number of young authors is hop in itself . . . more so with the realisation that in most instances writers make up the most avid of readers! An increase to self-publishing is, to me, an equal to political democracy, it means less monopoly and in principle, ease of access to books by the public. That is however, anchored on the depth of creativity that the writer brings. I also think consolidated efforts like the Roil Bulawayo Arts Awards are doing an amazing effort that begs public attention.
RM: What needs to be done to renovate the structure of the publishing sector?
Ndzozi: I think the ongoing natural democratisation of the sector is a welcome feat as accelerated by the digital age. The historical golden trio of the government, the writer and the publishing house should now be rethought in view of the amazing potential to creativity that self-publishing has initiated.
RM: After this award-winning book; what else should we expect from Pofela Ndzozi?
Ndzozi: In my appreciation post on social media, I mentioned that this award be a budding men of letters to all the young people who aspire to take the same path. I am also part of those young people. I aspire to do more and already there are other projects that I am involved in with exceptional minded colleagues at Leaders for Africa Network and the LSU Alumni.
