The Sunday News
Pofela Ndzondzi
While the annual Intwasa Festival koBulawayo tickled the city to a festive mood, I was also rejuvenated by the launch and publication of the short story anthology by Ericah Gwetai — a veteran writer who needs no introduction.
Dr Khuphukile Mlambo, the RBZ deputy governor, who was the guest of honour, inspired the title of this literature review when he articulated the other side of Zimbabwe’s fiscal predisposition.
His articulate illustration of our fiscal policy which was a plural supplementation to the popular monetary narratives, prickled the environment into considering the other side of the story.
Hence, this review becomes another story to the book, The Other Side, as seen through the lens of a youthful reader.
My continued interaction with books has brought with it an epiphany trail of how reading provides lens of twittering into universes of the mind, at the same time unconsciously engaging one with diverse anthropological interfaces. In other words, books open curtains to that innermost appreciation of the society and the human being.
The extensive storytelling ability that Ericah Gwetai shows through her books, to me, has been a testimony of the vast amount of knowledge through lived experiences, that ooze profusely in the issues she chooses to tackle in her stories. It may be important to note that, I say this confession after, not only interacting with her writings, but with the author, as a mother.
I read the book simply out of my undeterred love for literature, but after a few hours glued to it, I closed the last page as a youth that has mentally lived the experiences dating from the pre-Zimbabwean independence to today. The book, The Other Side is a gallery tour of African social struggles as seen by a voice that not only melodiously dramatises it, but also instils an affection that leaves you learned.
The prologue narrates the grotesque realities of the non-being constructions of blackness before independence. Ericah Gwetai, through a voice of a child narrates a typical African family struggling to belong to the modern realities in the story Touch Me. Key, the father and an uncle character does the worst jobs to sustain his family.
Through the unfortunate accident of his child that lands him in hospital, it became the moment his dream of a better job was answered — to be a cleaner at the hospital.
Among the many rules that Key, as a black man, had to follow was to never touch a white man — at that time, it was a punishable offense.
The highlight of the story is when Key first touches a white man in an accident that occurred during a massive strike of white hospital staff members.
The day became brutally-worthy to him, to the extent that he sat down all his family members to tell them of the blessed hand that touched a white man.
The plot in Gwetai’s anthology reminds me of Chenjerai Hove’s representation of Mucha’s experience with the native administrator who chose to touch cow dung than to touch a black man.
In 2017, most writers often focus on themes that are labelled as more current, and by that, rendering unfashionable to write on pre-independence struggles.
The rethink, through a veteran writer should highlight to the populace, the density of the struggles and how in most cases, what we call crisis today, emanates from then. Even the most seemingly acute foreign currency deficit crisis of today dates back to the 1960s. The rethink, as presented by Ericah Gwetai, and broad research, leads to the conclusion that most of our challenges are borrowed, hence, a constant rear viewing of the then, while we seek to correct the now, may be imperative.
In the story, The Other Side, the author elaborates cultural conflicts. It also brutally questions certain practices that lead to breakaway families rather than to build. It manifests perfectly, the Ndebele adage — ungalahli umntwana lamanzi ngoba amanzi sengcolile.
Rachel chooses to get married to Victor, of a different ethnic group, and finds herself having to sleep with Victor’s father, with absolute consent of Victor’s mother (as that was the culture). The sad turn of events led her to live her life with questions on the paternity of her child with Victor. She ends up telling Victor, of that dreadful night, who ended their marriage, throwing their baby (Thomas) in a blazing fire and hurting him.
Ericah Gwetai takes us to the post-independence experiences of teachers in the story Yellow River. How, in particular, teaching in rural areas, which was and is still seen as glary, is in fact an experience filled with re-livable memories. Joyce and Yellow are deployed to Ludo Primary School in Matshakayile District.
The innocence of the students give the two a sense of pride and nurtures creativity that sees them carry pieces of tarred road to the school, just to illustrate what a tarred road is to their students.
This illustration talks to what Micheal Mhlanga, a colleague of mine who is bent on believing that the Zimbabwean predicament is hinged on the lack of a sense of ownership among citizens. If all teachers inhibit the character of Joyce and Yellow, by going an extra mile to ensure their students understand the basics, we may as well be doubly educated than we already are. Think of the same psychology in handling all national assets, a sense of belonging would even stop you from tossing a paper instead of binning it.
Doctors and The Pensioner take a twist to highlight the sad experiences that make you rethink how we treat the old in the society. In these stories, Ericah Gwetai creatively combines reality and humour as she becomes the voice of the voiceless.
Eunice who begs the question, what is the point in going to see a doctor when you return home worse from the negative information the doctor tells, fascinates me. She and her mother are often told, “As you grow older, those are challenges you come across” after ordinary physical examinations by doctors.
In Pensioner, Gogo Mabhena is harassed twofold, at his son’s house by MaNcube when she comes to collect her pension money, and the queues at the bank that leads other pensioners to even sleep on the pavement in pursuit of the queue to get their pension money.
Chipo’s lobola payment is also an awe, and a reflection of the now in financial terms. On paying the lobola money, Nobert uses his bank card, while the traditional wooden plate is replaced with a point-of-sale machine. The whole transaction is done through plastic money. The story highlights the positive side of the alternatives that we find in the current financial “crises.”
While I also look forward to such modern in-laws . . . I am saddened by people who abuse children such as Toolate in the story Peanuts, who would give peanuts in return for young girls pulling up their skirts and smoking little boy’s pipes.
The innocent souls only enjoyed the peanuts that were always well done and would happily pull the skirts higher and let their pipes be smoked until they drip urine.
Perhaps what has created mental pictures in my mind from my encounter with the short story anthology is how the author’s effortless struggle tells a hard-hitting social misnomer in a story that can be read by anyone. To those who understand the value of literature, The Other Side will itch you to rethink the daily norms, giving you an impressive, yet a knowledge-valued perspective.
I look forward to her next writing.
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