THE UNIVERSITY OF HULL

From Rhodesia to Zimbabwe via Oxford and London. A Study of the Career of

Dambudzo Marechera

being a Thesis submitted for the Degree of

Doctor of Philosophy

in the University of Hull

by

David Pattison, BA (Hons. ) (Humberside), NIA (York)

September 1998
 Acknowledgments

I am grateful to the following for their help and encouragement

The British Council (Harare), The Dambudzo Marechera Trust, The Sir James Reckitt
Trust (Hull), Professor Ann Barton, Michael Bott - Librarian, University of Reading, Dr
Alan Bower of the University of Hull, Dr Alan Chennells, James Currey, Wendy Davies,
Dr Robert Fraser, Dr Liz Gunner,, Lady Iris Hayter, George Holmes of the University of
Humberside, Thomas Mandigora, Jack Mapanje, Dr Alastair Niven, Stanley

Nyamfukudza, Dinah Pattison, Martin Pattison, Tomas Pattison, Drew Shaw, Irene
Staunton, Mark Stein, Robert Sully of Heinemann International, Vicki Unwin, Professor
Norman Vance, Dr Yvonne Vera.

Special thanks go to Professor Flora Veit-Wild who has always been unstinting and

enthusiasticin her encouragementof my efforts.

I am particularly grateful to James Booth of the University of Hull, not only for his

careful and constructive criticism, but also for his good humour and his energetic and
generous support.

Above all others I am grateful to my wife, Pauline. Her belief in me has never faltered.
 FROM RHODESIA TO ZIMBABNVE VIA OXFORD AND LONDON

Contents

Introduction
Scum of the Empire Page I

Chapter One
Career and Critical Reception
1.1 The House ofHunger Page 14
1.2 The Black Insider and Black Sunlight Page 26
1.3 Mindblast Page 39
1.4 Scrapiron Blues Page 44
1.5 Summary Page 46

Chapter Two
Theoretical Perspectives
Introduction Page 52
2.1 The Psychology of Art Page 53
2.2 Biography into Art Page 59
2.3 Drink and Drugs Page 63
2.4 Madness Page 68
2.5 Political Commitment Page 81
2.6 Nationalism Page 87
2.7 Universalism Page 94

Chapter Three
The House of Hunger: Marechera and the 'postcolonial situation'
3.1 'Havoc in the College' Page 102
3.2 The House of Hunger Page 107
3.3 The Other Stones Page 121
3.4 'A counter-culture of the imagination' Page 125
Chapter Four
The Black Insider and Black Sunlight: Neurosis or Art?
4.1 The London Years Page 142
4.2 'Help! ' Page 147
4.3 1 somethingintensely personal...' Page 169
...
4.4 'From the heart and mind of the artist' Page 181

Chapter Five
Mindblast: Return to Zimbabwe
5.1 '... like a bloody tounst' Page 193
5.2 The Stimulus ofScholarship Page 195
5.3 Mindblast Page200
5.3.1 Mindblast Part One Page 201
5.3.2 Mindblast Part Two Page 213
5.3.3 Mindblast Part Three Page 220
5.4 From the Journal Page 223

Chapter Six
Scrapiron Blues
A final word Page 234
6.1 'like a rat in a comer' Page 237
6.2 'Tony Fights Tonight - Pub Stories' Page 240
6.2.1 'There's no room for a Norman Mailer' Page 242
6.3 'First Street Tumult - More City Stories' Page 244
6.4 'When Rainwords Spit Fire' Page 249
6.5 'The Concentration Camp' Page 252
6.6 'Fuzzy Goo's Stories for Children' Page 258
6.7 'Then that's how it is' Page 263
Chapter Seven
Marechera and the Zimbabwean Literary Scene
7.1 'Quarrying for literary treasures' Page 271
7.2 'The tormented figure of Marechera' Page 274
7.3 A Utopian Vision Page 277
7.4 'From sickness to death" Page 280
7.5 A Dystopian Vision Page 284
7.6 A 'Wizard of the written word'? Page 286

Appendixes Page 297

Bibliography Page 301

 VA

DAMBUDZO MARECHERA 1952-1987

 INTRODUCTION

Scum of the Empire

'Theycalled me scum.But ifI am scum,I am the scumthat Empire "

created.

Dambudzo Marechera was bom on June 4th 1952 in Vengere Township near

Rusapein the then British colony of SouthernRhodesia,the third child of Isaac

and Masvotwa Venezia Marechera.Although he was baptised in 1965 with the

Christian namesCharles William,, at birth he was called Tambudzai.Dambudzo

is a different version of the same name which means(appropriately enough in

view of his short but eventful life) 'the troubled one' or 'the one who brings

trouble'. He died from AIDS-related pneumorua on August 18th 1987 in Harare,

Zimbabwe,,as the former colony had been renamedfollowing the official end of

British rule in April 1980.

Some little time after the funeral Michael Marechera,,one of Dambudzo's

brothers, told an astonishing story which began, 'When we buried Dambudzo I

was an angry man. For some years I had been aware that there was a family

secret that people wanted to keep '

hidden'. That secret concernedthe onset of

madnessin their to
mother and related what many consideredmadnessin her

Dambudzo.
son,, Advised by a n'anga' in 1969 that she could only get rid of her

by to
madness passingit on one of her children she had chosenDambudzo(then

seventeen years old) as the recipient. Evidence of severe psychological

disturbancein Dambudzo Marechera emergedin 1971 when he beganto suffer

from delusions and attacks of extreme paranoia,4 conditions which persisted

1
throughout his adult life.

During his life Marechera published a collection of short stories, The House of

Hunger (1978), which won for the writer the 1979GuardianFiction Prize (shared

with the Irish writer Neil Jordan), a novella, Black Sunlight (1980), and

Mindblast (1984), an eclectic mixture of poetry, plays and poetry. After his death

the Dambudzo Marechera Trust was establishedwith two main aims: to collect

the unpublished work of Marechera so as to promote its publication, and to

honour Marechera's memory by encouraging young writers. ' By August 1994 the

first phase had been completed but the second phase,that of assisting young

writers,, was still in the very early stages of development. Since its formation in

1988 the Trust has published a novella, The Black Insider (1990)', the collected

poetry, Cemetery ofMind (1992), and finally to complete the canon of published

work, a miscellany of short stories, children's stories and plays under the title

Scrapiron Blues (1994). The launch of ScrapirOn Blues (in Harare, July 1994)

was greeted enthusiastically by young Zimbabweansto whom Marechera has

becomesomethingof a cult figure.'

Such indications of a sustainedand growing interest, not only in the work but

also in the life of the writer, suggeststhat Dambudzo Marechera will eventually

enjoy a more permanent place in Zimbabwean and African literature,, and

possibly on a wider , international scale, than looked likely in the difficult years

that followed his return in 1982 from 'exile' in England. Opinions on the quality

of his work have polarised between 'potential genius' and 'pretentious r-ubbisW.

One of the aims of this work is to offer an alternative reading, revealing that

2
although Marechera's 'fiction' is often autobiographical it is surprisingly

accomplished in a variety of genres. As well as a highly talented novelist

Marechera was also a fine short story writer, a very effective dramatist, and a

perceptive and moving lyric poet. The quality of the writi ng is reasonenoughin

itself to read Marechera, but in addition to being a rewarding experience,his

work also offers a unique and invaluable record of pre- and post-independence

Zimbabwe. Having said that it should be concededthat his work can be difficult

to follow at times. The longer works in particular would have benefited from the

writer's co-operation with a sensitive programmeof careful editing. However as

some critics have compared Marechera to Franz Kafka, it is appropriate to quote

Albert Camus on Kafka as his comment has a certain relevance to the

Zimbabwean vmter, 'The whole art of Kafka consists in forcing the reader to

rere

Now that it is possible to take an overview of Marechera's literary output,9 what

do we see? All the posthumousworks were edited before publication and the

editors also decided that some minor fragments should not be published.

Nevertheless the published works offer a guide to the progression and

developmentof the writer. With the exception of The Black Insider (1990), the

manuscript of which is dated June 1978, the writing of the prose fiction has the

samechronology as the publication. (Black Sunlight although published ten years

before Black Insider was in fact written somemonths afterwards,as an attemptto

revise the latter after rejection by ")

Heinemann. The collected poetry, The

CemeteryofAllind, coversthe period of the writer's adult life.

3
 I intend in this introduction to provide
a backcloth against which to view
Dambudzo Marecheraand his work and to confront the
questionsof who he was,

what he wrote and what influenced that writing. But, before going into detail it
,
is useful to establish the grand scale of political movements that influenced

Marechera'slife. (A summary chronology of major

eventsin Marechera'slife is

given in Appendix One.)

In 1888 Lobengula, the Ndebele" ruler, signed the Rudd Concession

giving

mineral rights to the representativesof Cecil Rhodes who formed the British

South Africa Company. A Royal Charter was obtained 1889

in and the following

year 200 pioneer settlers and 500 troops arrived to establish a settlement which

they called Salisbury, now renamedHarare. In 1894 the country was given the

name of Rhodesiain honour of Rhodes.The Ndebele and the Shonainitially put

up fierce resistanceto the encroachmentof the settlers in a series of battles

which became known as the First Chimurenga ". But white supremacy was

firmly established by 1897. The British South Africa Company actively

encouragedwhite settlementand ran Rhodesiauntil 1923 when it becamea self-

governing colony folloWing the 1922 referendum. A series of legislative acts in

the Nineteen-Twentiesand Thirties increasedthe social, political and economic

dominance of the white minority and weakenedthe position of black Afticans

by denying them, among other things, access to the best land and to skilled

employment. By the Nineteen-Forties and Fifties, and from a position of

nil..
power, some moderate leaders were prepared to make limited
absolute

concessionsto the black Africans to encourageeconomic growth and to gain

some African support. "

4
In October 1953, some sixteen months after Marechera!s birth, the British

Government established the Central African Federation following long and

difficult negotiations. This consistedof SouthernRhodesia,Northern Rhodesia

and Nyasaland. The declared aims behind the formation of the CAF were to

promote economic development and to create a multi-racial partnershipto ease

the path to independenceas the movementto disbandthe British Empire gathered

pace with impetus from "

Westminster. The move to Federationwas resistedby

white supremacistswho rejected any notion of power-sharing, and by black

leaderswho dismissedthe arrangementas little more than a sham,due in part at

least, to the complete failure of the British Governmentto consult with any black

Africans.

It is now a matter of record that the Federation never developed meaningful

multi-racial co-operation, although massive benefits did accrue, principally to

whites. Most of the black population in the self governing colony of Southern

Rhodesiawere further impoverishedas tariffs increasedthe price of goodswhich

grew at a faster rate than "

wages. Against this background black resistance

hardenedand took shape,generating black nationalism and culminating in the

leaders: Hastings Banda in 1961 in Nyasaland, and

election of nationalist

Kenneth Kaunda the following year in Northern Rhodesia. The Central African

Federation was officially disbanded in 1963 and the independent republics of

Malawi (Nyasaland)and Zambia (Northern Rhodesia) in

were recogrused 1964.

Britain refused to grant independenceto SouthernRhodesiauntil the Rhodesian

5
Goverm-nentaccepted the principle of majority rule. As the Rhodesian Front

Party had successfully contested the 1962 elections on a ticket opposing

concessions to the blacks, negotiations were protracted and acrimonious, and

inevitably broke down. In November 1965 the RhodesianPrime Minister Ian

Smith dispensed with the pretence of further negotiations and proclaimed a

Unilateral Declaration of Independence, (UDI). Most of the international

community (including Britain) regardedthe Smith Governmentas illegal, refused

to recognise it and imposed sanctions. This tactic was aimed at the courifty's

economy but the resulting isolation had a devastatingeffect on the intellectual

development of black Zimbabweans," who were excludedfrom the intellectual

freedom beginning to be expressedand enjoyedby other black Africans."

To a rather limited degree sanctions were effective and did exert economic

pressure.But the greatestdifficulties for the Smith regime came from within the

accurately from across its borders as ZANLA ( the

country itself, or more

Zimbabwe African Liberation Army), the military wing of ZANU (the Zimbabwe

African National Union), based itself firstly in Zambia and then in Mozambique

black became and increasingly militant. ZANLA, first

as opposition organised

formed in 1963,and secretlytrained in China, announcedthe arrival of the armed

launchedthe SecondChimurenga at the Battle of Chinjoyi in April,

struggle and

1966.However,,as Kevin Foster points out, black Oppositionwas not united.

The Unilateral Declaration of Independence not only locked

...
Rhodesia's blacks into an essentially apartheid system,, it also
fierce battle for the cultural and political soul of the
sparked a
between the two parties of black resistance. From
nation main
bases in Zambia and Mozambique Joshua Nkomo's ZAPU
[Zimbabwe African Peoples Union] and Robert Mugabe's ZANU
Rhodesiaýs security forces, farms
prosecuteda guerilla war against
and infrastructure ."
6
In 1976 ZANU and ZAPU combined under the leadershipof Ndabaningi Sithole

and then, after less than one year, Robert Mugabe, to form ZANU-PF (Patnotic

Front), the party that was to securean overwhelming victory in the March 1980

elections.

Twelve years of sanctionsand increasingly bloody internecinewarfare seriously

weakened Smith's Government and after an ill-judged arrangementwith Bishop

Muzorewa and other African bishops which led to the short lived Muzorewa

Government, Prime Minister Smith renouncedUDI and acceptedthe Lancaster

House Agreement in late 1979." Under the supervision of the British

Government,,representedby Lord Soames,a rapid transition to African majority

rule was undertaken. In 1980 ZANU-PF secured a majority in the pre-

independenceelections and Robert Mugabe was electedPrime Minister. On 17th

April 1980 Zimbabwe became independentand gratefully gave up its statusas

the last colony in Africa.

At this point Dambudzo Marechera was twenty-seven years old, unemployed

living London. In view of the turbulent times into which he was

and in a squatin

bom it is not without significance that the first and third sentencesin his first

'I things and left. ' and 'I couldn't think where to go.'
published work read,, got my

(The House of Hunger, pl), expressinga physical and psychological dislocation

to become a strandrunning throughouthis writing.

which was

The son of a truck driver who was killed when Marecherawas thirteen years old,

turned to prostitution as a meansof supportingthe

and an alcoholic mother who
7
family on the death of her husband,Marechera neverthelesswas able to attend

several mission schools, including the prestigious St. Augustine's school at

Penhalonga,before entering the University of Rhodesiain 1972to study English

Literature. In 1973 he was sent down with other studentswho were involved in

student demonstrations against the Smith Government. In 1974, having been

awarded a scholarship by the World University Service he went up to New

College, Oxford. Unable to settle, or to accept the rigours of acaderniclife, he

was sent down in 1976. He then lived precariously as a free-lance writer of no

fixed abode in Oxford, Cardiff and London with a brief spell as writer in

residenceat Sheffield University, before returning to Hararein 1982.

Apparently written on leaving Oxford in 1976 the collection of stories that were

to become The House of Hunger was submitted to Drum magazine in mid

1977ý," and although there is no reliable record as to when they were actually

to assume that some at least were written in 1976, or

written it is reasonable

"
even earlier. Certainly the readiness with which Marechera encounters and

life the township and the assurancewith which he develops his

exposes in

that the experiencesdescribedare of recentdate.

characterssuggests

Neither Black Sunlight nor The Black Insider show the same purpose and

touch a feature evident in much literature written in exile -

certainty of and reflect

loss to frame the work. I intend to treat The

an increasing of context within which

Black Insider and Black Sunlight almost as one work on the grounds that,

Sunlight of The Black Insider. The latter,

initially, Black was another version

before Black Sunlight, was published only after careful editing

although written

8
by Flora Veit-Wild 22removed the more obvious duplicated
material. I also argue
below that the grounds for publishing Black Sunlight the first
in place were less

than convincing and seem to include a large measure of desperationfrom a

beleagueredand Marechera-harassedJamesCurrey (SB p216)." Mindblast

was

written in Harare on the writer's return from 'exile' in 1982 and will be examined

separately.The final prose collection,,Scrapiron Blues, followed offering further

evidenceof an incandescent
but only partially fulfilled talent.

In my first chapter I will offer a review of Marechera's reputation and the

critical reception given to his work, both during his life and since his death. In

Chapter Two I Will outline the major theoretical issues raised by Marechera's

work: Art versus psychological catharsis; the artist-as-communal-spokesman

versus the artist-as-Romantic-individualist; nationalism versus literary

universalism. ChaptersThree, Four, Five and Six will then considerin sequence,

the work produced in Oxford, in London and in Harare, tracing the writer's

physical and psychological deterioration through his evolving prose style. Each

of these chapterswill also focus on a major relevant critical issue. Thus Chapter

Three will examine The House of Hunger, written following Marechera!s arrival

in Oxford, in the context of 'culture clash', 'the African herItage' and Post-

colonialism which so preoccupied its original reviewers. Chapter Four will

examine Black Sunlight and The Black Insider, written while the author was

destitute in London in tenns of Jung's 'neurosisor art' debate.Chapter Five will

,
Mindblast and Chapter Six will examine Scrapiron Blues, both
examine

containing material written after Marechera!

s return to Harare, making reference

to the historical and socio-political context of post-colonial Zimbabwe and to the

9
 writer's unsuccessfulattempts to establish a role with the
nation builders. I will
conclude in Chapter Seven by discussing Marechera's
place within the
Zimbabwean literary canon,24the current
relevanceand influence of his work and
the implications this holds for the ftiture of Zimbabwean
writing.

This is essentially a biographical-critical

study, intertextual. and contextual,

relying on Freudian, post-Freudian,,

" FredericJamesonian,postcolonlal
and other
theoretical perspectivesbut not attempting a 'Marxist' or 'postcolonial'
version of
Marechera. Rather I wish to focus on the subject himself his
and allow own,

sometimes contradictory and often changing presentationsof hiimself to dictate

the direction of my analysis.

Notes

1 Kirsten Hoist Petersen, An Articulate Anger (Sydney: Dangaroo Press, 1988),

flyleaf (attributed to Marechera).
' Flora Veit-Wild Dambudzo Marechera: A Source Book on his Life and Work
(London: Hans Zell5 1992), p53. (Hereafter SB.). Flora Veit-Wild is the only
person to have written extensively on Marechera. Inevitably I have drawn heavily
on the Source Book; when necessary,wherever possible, however, I have checked
with the original material or interviewee.
'A n'anga is a type of traditional healer able to communicate with the spirits of
the ancestors.
' This is confirmed by Father Pearce of St. Augustine's, Penhalonga. During his
last two years here [1970 & 1971] Marechera developed symptoms of a
...
psychological disorder or mental illness. He started having hallucinations. He
heard voices or imagined being persecuted by someone' SB p68.
' The Dambudzo Marechera Trust was established in 1988 with Michael
Marechera (the late writer's brother), Flora Veit-Wild and Hugh Lewin as founder
trustees. The Trust can be contacted at Box 6387, Harare, Zimbabwe. However as
Michael Marechera died in 1995, Veit-Wild accepted a permanent post in
Germany in the same year and Hugh Lewin has also left Zimbabwe, the Trust has
10
an uncertain future.
6 The Black Insider was published in Harare by Baobab Books, (1990)
and in
London by Lawrence and Wishart, (1992). Throughoutthis
work referenceshave
beentaken from the 1992 edition.
' See "ý4n Outsider in my own Biography" From Public Voice Fragmented
- to
Self in Zimbabwean Autobiographical Fiction' an by Flora
, unpublished paper
Veit-Wild. Veit-Wild refers to Marechera as 'the mouthpiece
of the "lost
generation"of Zimbabwean intellectuals [in] the 1970sand a cult figure amongst
oung Zimbabweans after his deathin 1987'.Seealso SB pp 310,382 392.
and
Camus,Albert. 'Hope and the Absurd in the Work of FranzKafka', Ronald
Gray (ed.) Ka)ka (New Jersey:PrenticeHall, 1962),p147.
'I refer to 'literary output' rather than oeuvrenot only becausethe has been
work
selectively edited but also becausea number of works have been lost. I am also
aware of the difficulties identified by Michel Foucault 'The establishmentof a
complete oeuvre presupposesa number of choicesthat are difficult to justify or
even to formulate: is it enoughto add to thosetexts publishedby the authorthose
he intended for publication but which remained unfinished at the time of his
death? Should one also include all his sketchesand first drafts,,with all their
corrections and crossings out? Should one add sketches that he himself
abandonedT (Michel Foucault, The Archaeoloýy of Knowledge (New York:
Pantheon,,1972), pp23/24, as quoted by Edward Said, The World The Text and
The Critic (London: Vintage, 1991), p179.) Marechera'slifestyle was so erratic
that even the most diligent researcherwould be unableto establishthe complete
oeuvre.
" According to Heinemann'sfiles three novellas, TheBlack Insider, A Bowl For
Shadows and The Black Heretic were offered to them by Marecherabefore he
submitted Black Sunlight which was following a request to him to rewrite the
manuscript that was eventually published as The Black Insider. In spite of
intensive efforts by the Dambudzo Marechera Trust and others A Bowl For
Shadows and TheBlack Heretic havenot beentraced.
" Two branches of the Bantu peoples form the indigenous population of
Zimbabwe; the Shona (Mashona)have about 80% andthe Ndebele(or Matabele)
about 20%,, Europeans and Asians account for between 1% and 2%, (1991
estimates). Dambudzo Marechera was of the Shona people.
" Chimurenga,a Shonaword meaning'battle for liberation'.
" None of this widely reported history of Rhodesiais contentious.I have been
largely guided by John Grace and John Laffin, Africa Since 1960 (London:
Fontana, 1991).
" The hidden agendaof the British Governmentwas to nd itself of its foriner
to
colonies as quickly as possible in order concentrate resources in the UK and to
consolidate the world order which had begun to emerge afterl945. As early as
1942 Prime Minister Churchill's thoughts were turning away from Empire and
towards Europe. In a note to Anthony Eden his Foreign Secretary he stated 'I
must admit my thoughts rest primarily in Europe in the revival of the glory of
, Europe
Europe, the parent continent of modem nations and of civilization .... must
be our prime care.' (Michael Charlton, The Last Colony in Africa (Oxford:
Blackwell, 1990), p156). The eagerness with which this task was engaged -
Sudan was the first colony to receive independent status in. 1956 followed by
Ghana in 1957 and Nigeria in 1960 - reflected the desire of the British

II
Government to rid itself of its obligations rather than
satisfying any idealistic
notions about independencefor the colonies.
15In this study I do not intend to delve into the
economicstructuresof the CAF. I
have been guided by David Birmingham and Terence Ranger, 'Settlers
and
liberators in the south.' History of Central Africa, Volume Two, David
Birmingham and Phyllis M. Martin, (eds). (Harlow: Longman, 1983); A. J.
Wills,, An Introduction to the History of Central Africa, Fourth Edition (Oxford:
OUP 1985); and John Grace and John Laffin, Africa since 1960 (London:
Fontana, 1991).
" Not only were black Zimbabweansexcluded from international discoursebut
the initial actions of black leaders had a similar divisive effect within the
country. As Veit-Wild, among others, including Kevin Foster (op cit), argues
'African intellectuals split into two groups radical nationalists, such as
-
Ndabaningi Sithole, Herbert Chitepo and Robert Mugabe, who took militant
leadershipof the struggle for liberation, and more moderatenationalistsincluding
[Lawrence] Vambe, [Stanlake] Samkangeand Solomon Mutswairo, who went
to
into exile pursue their academicand literary careers.Thus a split also opened
between the political and literary movements.' Teachers, Preachers, Non-
Believers (London: Hans Zell, 1992),p 107.
17The isolation of Zimbabweansobviously becamean issuefor Marechera.'The
black girls in Oxford - whether African, West Indian or American - despised
those of us from Rhodesia. After all, we still haven't won our independence. '
'Black Skin What Mask', The House of Hunger, p97,;also from The House of
Hunger p146: 'Fucking Rhodesians- get independencefirst, then perhapsyou'll
learn how to fight. '
" Kevin Foster 'Soul-Food for the Starving: Dambudzo Marechera'sHouse of
Hunger.' Journal of CommonwealthLiterature, Vol 27, No I(London'. Bowker
Saur.,1992), pp 58-70.
" The LancasterHouse Agreement was drawn up in London in December1979;
it was agreed that Rhodesia/Zimbabwe would renounce UDI and become a
British colony again; it was also agreed that, under the supervision of Lord
Soames a cease-fire would be effected, free elections would be held, a
Governmentelectedand independencegranted.
20See the Foreword to the Source Book in which Hugh Lewin refers to his first
Marechera in 1977 when the writer turned up at the Drum editorial
meeting with
demanding payment for his stories, which Drum had no intention of
office
publishing.
21In the Source Book (p25) Marechera confirms that he wrote The House of
Hunger after being expelled from Oxford in March 1976, nevertheless because
the book is in fact several loosely connectedstories the possibility exists that
Oxford, ie before March 1976, or even while he was still in
some were written at
Zimbabwe. '... The The House of Hunger deals with the house of
main section of
hunger itself [Zimbabwe]. All the stories in the same book I wrote long
other
before I had been expelled'(SB p25).
22it should be noted that Veit-Wild's apparent inclination to ignore the more
has left her open to accusations of bias. Preben
critical comments of others Veit-
Kaarsholm casts doubts on Veit-Wild's impartiality, and she comments on
'...Such [on fellow literary
Wild's position as a critic aggressive statements
fulfilment' Teachers
historians and their alleged European ethno-romanticwish
12
p288] are strangely inappropriate on the part of a Germanscholar hailing from
Harare's northern suburbs.' Journal of SouthernAfrican Studies Vol 20 No.2
(Abingdon: Carfax Publishing, 1994), p328. Additionally, Kevin Foster (1994)
has expressedreservationsabout Veit-Wild's performanceas a literary critic (see
below).
21JamesCurrey was Editor of the HeinemannAfrican Writers Seriesduring the
period of Marechera'sinvolvement with the publisher.
24Though there is still a tendency in some quartersto lump together all African
writing as 'African literature' there is a growing awarenessamong writers,
critics and readersthat intelligible fields of national literaturesdo exist. It is not
inappropriate to refer to a Zimbabwean literary canon,,as Michael Chapman
confirms in the preface to Southern African Literatures (London: Longman,
1996).
25Post-Freudianism as developed by, among others, Erich Fromm, arguesthat
some of Freud's theories offer too small a basis for the understandingof man.
'Instead of centering on sexuality and the family, it claims that the specific
conditioning of human existence and the structure of society are of more
fundamental importance than the family, and that the passionsmotivating man
are essentially not instinctive but a "second nature" of man, formed by the
interaction of existential and social conditions'. Erich Fromm, The Art of Being
(London- Constable,,1993),p64.

13
 CHAPTER ONE

Career and Critical Reception

1.1 The House of Munger: A 'Premature Success'

Opinion is divided as to whether The House of Hunger is a collection

of short

stones or a novella and I consider the opposingviews below.' Certainly there are

strong thematic links throughout the book inevitable perhapswhen so much of

,
the material appearsto be biographical: growing up in a divided society; life in

the townships - 'thoseurban disasterareasthat surroundthe lush white cities';' the

effect of the guerilla war on the civilian population, but particularly on young

black males; the emasculationof the individual and the family by the pressuresof

colon1sation and white minority rule; student life in Salisbury (Harare) and

Oxford and the divisive nature of a 'European'education.The author said of The

House of Hunger '.41t] is about the brutalisation of the individual's feelings,,

instincts,, mental processes - the brutalisation of all this in such a way that you

come to a point where, among ourselvesin the black that

urban areas, is ordirtary

reality.... I based The House of Hunger on fact... " The initial response to

but
publication was mutedý, slowly The House of Hunger beganto attract critical

attention, although from the outset opinion on its merits was, and remains,

divided.

In 1980 George Kahari's The Searchfor a ZimbabweanIdentity was published

14
by the Mambo Pressin Zimbabwe. At that time Kahari
was a senior Lecturer in
the Department of African Languagesat the University
of Zimbabwe and his
work purported to be the first comprehensiveexaminationof prosefiction
written
in English by black Zimbabweans.Kahari featured six writers ' but,
surprisingly
in view of the attention he had attracted
with The House of Hunger, Dambudzo
Marechera was not included. In a letter to me dated29th December1994Kahari

offers as explanation, 'The Searchfor Zimbabwean identity was written in 1977,,a

year before House of Hunger was published and, although the book
was
published in 1980, there was no way that I could have addedHouse of Hunger

since the publishers were not very keen on having additional work appendedto

it. '

This was corrected two years later by Musaemura ZImunya in Those Years of

Drought and Hunger (Mambo Press, Gwelo, 1982). Referring to '-strong

evidence of serious African fiction in English in Zimbabwe' (p2) Zimunya, in his

critique designed to '...make a modest contribution to the study of African

literature...' found evidence of a 'cultural drought' (p3), reflecting this in the title

of his work; the 'hunger' relates directly to the House of Hunger which was

included by Zimunya along with works by Ndhlala,

Samkange, Mungoshi and

Wilson Katiyo. ' In The House ofHunger Zimunya finds some features to admire

but his final analysisis highly critical, evencondemnatory.He writes:

In Marechera Zimbabwe literature achievesconfirmation at birth.

Unfortunately, the vision is preponderantlyprivate and indulgent.
The social and moral undertaking is cynically dismissed at the
expense of the aesthetic motive. The artist curries favours and
succumbs to the European temptation in a most slatternly
exhibition. But, perhaps,the naivete and narcissism will wither and
the African become lessEuropean. (pl26)

15
Here Zimunya is making huge assumptions
about the role of the writer which are

challenged below. The comment about 'naivet6'and narcissism'

may seem well
made, prescient even in the way that Marechera'slater wriiting failed to fulfil the
I
expectations raised by his early work. But the hope that '...the African become

less European' suggestsan unsophisticated

view of what constitutes'African' and
'European' aesthetics and smacks of the Zimunya found in
very naivete
Marechera. It was a view that Zimunya tried to rewrite in Marechera's
obituary
recalling,, with disregard for the writer's well publicised views on nationalism,,

that 'Marechera had a great sense of national commitment' (Dambudzo

Marechera 1952-1987, p15)

Twelve years later Kevin Foster rebutted Zimunya's criticism in a powerful

defence of Marechera,, claiming 'Marechera's treatment of the House of Hunger

[Zimbabwe] not only offers a searing critique of the spiritual, moral and
...

cultural starvation imposed on blacks by minority rule, it also nourishesthe very

ideals of self apprehensionand cultural regenerationwhich Zimunya accusedhim

of rejecting. " Foster's argument appeared in 1992 thus demonstrating that interest

in The House of Hunger remains strong and indicating that it may well hold a

permanent place in Zimbabwean literature as a personalrecord of the turbulent

pre-independenceyears.Of the narrator'sdevelopment

Fostercomments,

Marechera's rejection of the controlling structural norms

... ideological impulse, but from the
originates not in an external,
inherent nature of the narrator's development, such as it is, and
Marechera'sdesire to offer a faithful portrait of it. Had Rhodes4s
minority government permitted the narrator anything resembling a
complete formative experience, Marechera might have written a
more traditionally structuredaccountof his development. (p 66)

A counter argument might be that if Marechera had had a 'complete formative

16
experience'then he would have written a different book, or perhaps not felt the

need to write at all. It is of course difficult to define the nature of a 'complete

formative experience',or more precisely to define the

nature of an 'Incomplete
formative experience'.Foster is using a term that does
not bear closeanalysisas it

could be argued that any experienceis 'complete' and 'formative' by definition

The argumentwould be better framed if it was aimed at an

understandingof how

and why the black experiencewas manipulatedby the white minority so that the

socio-economic and political status of black Zimbabweansremained vastly

inferior to that of their white counterparts.

Presumably Foster's point is that the individual was renderedincompleteby his

experience. But the term 'Incomplete' is value-laden and needs a comparative

context: 'incomplete' compared with What,,or whom? It also appearsto deny that

the intention (of the coloniser towards the indigenous population) may have

possessedthat limited, and limiting, ambition, and was therefore a complete

experience. Whichever argument is followed an 'experience' must be regarded as

complete in itself I am referring to experience as a socio-psychological

phenomenon and my aim is to indicate how this phenomenon affects the

production and or interpretation of any given text. In that it

context,, is clear that

or the sum total of any number of is

experiences,, at
understandingan experience,

the core of interpreting a text. This be

can either the totality of experiencesof the

the author or more probably, an acceptanceof both.

reader or

But such experiencesmust be seenin context. As Jamesonarguesin discussing

the nature of interpretation, '-such semanticenrichment and enlargementof the

17
inert givens and materials of a particular text must take place within three

concentric frameworks...';' it is within those frameworks,,which Jamesonclaims

hold the 'political unconscious' that we can examine the formative

nature of

experience. The centre circle (according to Jameson)holds the chronicle-like

sequenceof happenings in time that is political history. Surrounding that are

social influences, a:

less diachronic and time bound senseof the tension and struggles
between classes, which in its turn is surroundedby a senseof
history in its broadest form, holding the 'vastest sense of
...
succession and destiny of the various human social formations
from pre-historic life to whateverfuture history has in store for us.
(p 75)

From that great well of history, socialising attitudes, cultural expectations,

assumptionsand conditioning, political and economic influences plus whatever

resides in the 'collective 8

unconscioust emergesthe individual, complete with

formative experiences,into what Philip Larkin, perhapsrecognisingthe infinite

possibilities of socio-psychological evolution, called 'the million petalled flower

of being here' 9 and Marechera recognising the same random nature of the

development of the individual psyche wrote ( with reference to the period

following death): 'There you will meet all the versionsof yourself that did not

the with you. It is of them I write. ' (my emphasis) The Black
come out of womb

Insider (p 144).

I have referred to the turbulence of the period of Marechera'slife both in his

his internal environment. The House of Hunger was a

external environment and

to
largely successfulattempt record those influencesand to reflect them within a

fragmented form. Later work showedthat his ability to

probably unintentionally

fragmentation did develop, indeedthe discontinuity becamemore

enclosethat not
18
prevalent, leading some critics to form the opinion that Black Sunlight
and The
Black Insider were incomprehensible.However, despite Zimunya's
attack, the
consensusof the critics was that The House of Hunger was a highly
promising
and significant work. But the promise was not fulfilled in that The House
of
Hunger remainedthe apogeeof Marechera'sachievements
as a writer.

Although it is common practice to refer to The House Hunger

of as a novella , it

takes the fonn of a loosely linked collection of short stories.Indeed it was first

submitted to Heinemann in February 1977, under the collective title of 'At the

Head of the Stream'," asjust that. With someadditions(seebelow) and a change

of name the collection was published in December 1978. As Marechera and the

truth were often strangers it is no surprise that confusion exists over the genesis

of the stones that make up The House of Hunger. At times he would claim,

if
romantically somewhatimplausibly, that they in
were written a tent pitched by

the Isis " and at others that he wrote at the kitchen table of somefriends called

Peter and Shelagh (SB p25). The eponymous story is the longest in the book,

37,,
000 words. All the others are much shorter and their brevity sits
anbout

uneasily with the notion of a unified piece. Marechera's letter makes plain that he

did not consider his first submissionsto be linked and it was at the requestof his

future publisher that more stories were produced,to be 'bolted on' in order to

produce a total work long enoughto publish.

Two points are of interest here. One is the role of the Heinemann African Writers

Series and particularly the personal involvement of James Currey who, in

the 'extra' a pattern of publishing material from

accepting six stories established

19
 Marecherawhich had the flavour of hastily worked fragments.Few
of the shorter

storiesmatch the quality of the title story, with severalof the publisher'sreaders

expressingstrong misgivings. The relationship thus formed betweenCurrey

and
Marechera reached an odd climax in 1980 with the
publication of the badly

received Black Sunlight - again publishedby Currey againstthe advice of others.

The second point is Flora Veit-Wild's claim that The House Hunger
of is a
coherent whole, a novel in its own right (SB p187). It was not Marechera's

intention to write, nor his contention that he had written,,nor Heinemann'sview

that they had published, a novel. The work is termed on the title page 'Short

Stories'. Veit-Wild's contention, though no doubt well-intentioned,may be seen

as an attemptto createsubstancearoundthe Marecheramyth.

On the face of it Veit-Wild has a powerful ally in the white Zimbabweanwriter,

Dons Lessing who in her review of The House of Hunger (see above), said '...it
,
hasthe consistencyand coherenceof a novel and I would not disagreeIf -pruned

a little- (my emphasis) it had been described as one'. She then goes on to

'There
concede,, is difficulty here as if the engine had been fed too powerful a

mixture of petrol. One can also make criticisms... that the book is bursting at the

seams,,and uneven.' However her comments are best remembered for her

observations:

It is no good pretendingthis book is an easyor pleasant read. More

like overhearinga scream.... The book is an explosion... The House
of Hunger is not polemical writing, far from it: and what a miracle
But book are both of the -nature of miracles.Hard
it isn't. writer and
for anyone to become a writer, but to do so against such
handicaps?...Marechera has in him the stuff and substance that go
to make a great writer.

Such praise (Lessing even makes hints of 'genius') is perhaps qualified by the

20
faintly patronising 'against such handicaps' and the
nagging suspicion that,

anxious for the emergenceof a Zimbabwean Soyinka,Achebe or Ngugi, Lessing

"
and others, notably JamesCurrey, becameso fulsome in their praiseas to give

Marechera an inflated view of his statusas a writer, with consequentlydisastrous

results.

In more temperatevein, although neverthelessdrawing comparisonswith Beckett

and Kafka,, T. 0. McLoughlin" refers to the breakdownof the narrator(and here

in The House of Hunger as in Marechera's other works it is impossible to

'a
separate writer and narrator) as severance of psyche and language' in which

'The image of home invadedby colonialism derangesthe mind of the narrator.He

becomes a victim of spiritual starvation, of deracination and alienation.' No

doubt making full use of his personal knowledge of the writer (McLoughlin

taught English Literature at the University of Rhodesia when Marechera was an

undergraduatethere) he continues 'Adrift from society, he communesonly With

himself, hence the centrality of the interior monologue and the inclination to

fragmented by diffuse memories of the '

past. 'Adrift from
write a narrative

he himself is a very effective description of the

society, communes only With

comment on the Marechera who

narrator; it is also a remarkably perspicacious

to produce The Black Insider and Black Sunlight.

was

" 'a double edged alienation' resulting from

Elsewhere McLoughlin writes of

to 'new' as a European education attacked the very roots of

exposure a culture

colonial mores denied black

traditional native belief and value systems while

by that education. Although

Africans entry into the world represented

21
McLoughlin was writing of Mungoshl's Lucifer (Waiting for
the Rain) and
Sarnkange's Muchernwa (The Mourned One) he could equally have been

referring to Dambudzo Marechera; but not, apparently,to TheHouse Hunger

of
which McLoughlin asserts:

is not about the process of alienation the dynamics

... or of
opposing cultures and traditions.... Marechera...is so preoccupied
with violence that the social dimensionof his storiesfragmentsinto
a kaleidoscope of personal protestations.[Marechera]... writes a
fiction in which the assertionof feelings becomesthe
substanceof
the narrative. Hence the varied modes of his fiction are more
obtrusive and telling than those found in other Zimbabwean
writers. The political dimensions of experiencein Zimbabwe are
taken for granted."

McLoughlin is arguing that The House of Hunger is existential rather than

historical since Marechera eschewsthe socio-historicaland political locating of

his narrator's personal difficulties, preferring insteadto explore the nature of the

psyche. He then argues, 'At one level The House of Hunger illustrates the

devastating effects of growing up in colonial Rhodesiabut the vision of that

devastationis not presentedin social realist terms. Here the black narrator is left

almost speechlesswhile in the internal world of his consciousnessthere is a

hyperactive verbal iconoclasm that leavesnothing standingbut its fictions about

itself (pI 11). McLoughlin then suggeststhat future analysts of pre-Independence

Zimbabwean literature would look to Mungoshi rather that Marechera.But there

is powerful argument to support both. Mungoshi bleakly commentson the war

and describes the devastating effect on individual and family, unfortunately

familiar to a great many. Marechera demonstrates

that the mindless brutality of

forrn of madnessthat gave rise to the double alienation:

colonialism was itself a

but of the individually dislocatedpsyche.R. D. Laing

of a people certainly, also

having reacheda point of psychological disequilibrium then the way

arguesthat

22
forward is via an understanding and acceptance
of the current situation rather
than a peq)etual examination of the ills and misfortunesthat first brought
about
the disequilibrium. "

This is, at once,,the strength of The House Hunger

of and its Achilles heel.
Marechera'snarrator acceptsthe excessesof colonialism,,
acceptsin the sensethat

past events cannot be changed,as determinantsin his developmentand attempts

to understandthe 'here and now' without recourseto a historical cataloguing

and

condemning of white violence, such violence being an acceptedfact of life and

something that can be taken for granted in Marechera'sworld. Implicit in The

House of Hunger is an acceptance of past excessesand a refusal to indulge in the

comfort of a black historicity. Quite obviously, given the nature of Marechera's

writing and of the man himself a passive acceptance is not implied - as he

remarked in an interview with Veit-Wild, '...history is simply a nightmare from

which I am trying to wake up' (SB p219). Rather he is advocating a redirection, a

channelling of energy into the pursuit of self-understandingand self-knowledge,

in order to build a 'new' individual capableof surviving in a 'new' society.

Of course this sanguineview is heavily qualified by the Marecheranconviction

that the level of psychological dislocation is so high that recovery is an

impossible dream and the best his narrator, and arguablyMarecherahimself, can

hope to achieve is the day-to-day maintenanceof a bleak and hopelessexistence.

(A view he still held towards the end of his life, as he demonstrated

in one of his

last works,,'Rainwords Spit Fire', Scrapiron Blues). This nihilism is pouncedon

by his detractors as anti- African. As Marechera'shistory indicates, advice or

23
criticism alike merely fuelled his senseof paranoia,,and the accusationsof being

anti-African only drew from him the scornful response,'I would questionanyone

calling me an African writer. Either you are a writer or you are not. If you are a

wTiteT fOT OT
a specific nation a specific TaCe,then fuck you' ( Dambudzo
Marechera 1952-1987, p3).

How that directness contrasts with the ambiguity of Mbulelo Mzamane " who,,

after noting in approving terms 'an almost total absence of celebration,.

romanticising the African past or glorifying the African personality', then sits

firmly on the fence with the hesitant ' Marechera could try to write within the

"Aftican tradition"... Marechera could strive to be even more ingenious by

delving deeper into his environment,,especially for his images and metaphors.'

Marechera could be even more ingenious? Well, yes, I supposein theory at least,

he could; but a different book would emergeand a different writer. Although he

describes The House of Hunger as 'Marechera'sown crusadefor freedomof self-

expression'and calls the book a 'quasi story'

auto-biographical Mzamanefalls to

grasp the existentialist core which quite simply he does not understand,as his

closing commentsreveal when he qualifies his praise of the writer with unsubtle

'His [Marechera's] is
voice a significant addition to African literature.
sarcasm,

His avant-garde experiments with form are proving very Interesting - and

increasingly unintelligible, as his latest work, Black Sunlight,, '

illustrates.

Despite the urgings of JamesCurrey Marechera'smanuscriptwas receivedwith

Ros de Lanorolle suggesting'careful editing would help'

muted enthusiasm with

'there be difficulties for '.

readers. Another Heinemann
and may of accessibility

24
reader, Henry Chavaka, found the stories 'most intriguing... [reminiscent ofl La

Gurna, Mphalele, Kwei Armah, Kafka, JamesJoyce' but suggeststhat 'I do

not
think the three parts sit well. I would suggestthat the storiesbe rearrangedso as

to reveal a pattern either in setting, chronology or themes-experience'before

concluding'A full length novel... would have beenfirst rate. If this is Marechera's

first effort, then he has a great future as a writer'. Ester Kantai was more critical

'...his [Marechera's]energy and anger,even his bitternessare directedagainstthe

wrong targets... The unifying force of the story... is fatalism and bitterness.What

one does not find is

anywhere the causeof the fatalism and the resignatiorf.Her

conclusion is emphatic as she advised Heinemann against publication,.'These

stones are damaging to the world bent on liberation. In their presentforni they

are even more damaging to the young writer.' Interestingly, Kantai's objections

were on entirely political rather than aesthetic grounds. "

On Currey's recommendation The House of Hunger was published, not on

literary merit alone but as an inducement to Marechera to complete a full-length

(SB Hindsight shows this tactic to have failed miserably.

novel ppl77/179).

Marechera never produced a full-length novel and continued to experiencethe

difficulty and The

consistency. sincereand well-
greatest in sustainingcoherence

" f rom Currey and others was receivedby

intentioned praise and encouragement

Marechera not as an incentive to develop his craft but as an unqualified

StanleyNyamfukudza, who was with Marecheraat Oxford, was to

endorsement.

Dambudzo the acceptanceof his book as a vindication of

note obviously saw

know it and to celebratewith him in his

himself and he wanted everyoneto about

(SB He (Marechera) was later to consider that that

moment of triumph' p179).

25
particular moment of triumph heraldeda false dawn, as he spoke the
of misplaced
optimism engenderedby the 'premature success'of The House Hunger (SB
of
pp2l7/218).

1.2 The Black Insider and Black Sunlight: The London Works

One of the 'conditions' for publishing The House of Hunger imposed by

TffAM*I
inemanns
jL,. James Currey was that Marechera should produce a full-length
.,.

novel. According to the HeinemannEditorial files Marecheradid in fact submit

three manuscripts during 1978. They were 'The Black Insider', 'A Bowl for

Shadows'and 'The Black Heretic'. " The latter two works have not been seen

since their submissionto Heinemannand possiblereturn to Marecherawho at the

time was living in a squat in Tolmers Square, London NW1, so their

disappearance,despiteextensivesearchesby, amongothers,JamesCurrey,David

Caute and Flora Veit-Wild,, is not surprising. Paradoxically this very productive

period was also the time that Marechera'slife was at its most chaotic. However,,

I
as argue below, the chaos of his lived experienceis clearly evident in the

structure of the London works.

John Wyllie, a Canadian thriller writer and Heinemann reader, read all three

Of 'The Black Insider' and 'A Bowl for Shadows' he said... with
manuscripts.

both manuscripts we are in to R. D. Laing country' (SB p202), a referenceto

Laing's work on schizophreniaand madness. 'The Black Heretic'the sympathetic

Wyllie found 'a brilliant and fascinating piece of which

autobiography... goesa

26
very long way to explaining Marechera's perhaps overwhelming,
personality
problems' (SB p204). He continueshis commentswith the incisive 'I think that he

is now incapable of drawing the essenceout of the tragic circumstances being

of
black in a too white world and producing a book...' Obviously
greatly impressed
by Marechera Wyllie goes on to suggest that
a selectionof material be drawn
from the three manuscripts and carefully edited into
a new book, claiming '...in
that form the book would be seenas the most important piece of writing to
come
out of Black Africa' (SB p206). Currey was still hoping for a strongly
cohesive

and coherent work from Marechera and did not pass on Wyllie's suggestions.

Notifying Wyllie of his views Currey suggestedhis idea be held in reserve as 'He

[Marechera] seemswilling to try and produce a developedand structurednovel

based on 'The Black Insider' drawing on these three books. I'm half-afraid he

can't do it' (SB p206). Unpredictable as ever and in spite of Wyllie's reservations

and Currey's fears Marechera submitted the manuscript for Black Sunlight to

Heinemann in August 1979, contracts were signed in December and the book was

published in late 1980 (SB p186). A black sun' is, of course, a symbol for

mental illness, particularly depression as Kristeva explored In her work on

depressionand melancholia, Black Sun. Her despairing 'Where does this black

sun come from? Out of what eerie galaxy do its invisible, lethargic rays reach me,,
21
pinning me down to the ground... ',, is a cry from the heart which Marechera

would certainly have recognised.

In an interview with Veit-Wild in 1986 Marechera I

claimed'When wrote Black

Sunlight, I was staying at what was called the "Tolmers Square Commumty".

This was a squattercommunity of about 700 people. I was the only black person

27
there' (SB p218). No doubt there is someMarecheranexaggerationherebut it has

been established from the Heinemann files that he living

was in a squat at the
time of writing Black Sunlight. Earlier in the same year Marechera told Alle

Lansu 'While I was writing Black Sunlight I was readingbooks

on intellectual

anarchism to reinforce my own sense of protest against everything... Intellectual

anarchismis full of contradictions in the sensethat it can never achieveIts goals.

If it achievesits goals then it is no longer anarchism.' " Neverthelessaccording

to Veit-Wild the destiny, if not the statedor intendedgoal, of Black Sunlight was

to become'... a manifesto of intellectual anarchism'(SB p260).

In a sense however this comment confuses an examination of Black Sunlight.

Quite simply,, its lack of structure,the inclination to long rambling passagesand

near incoherence cannot be explained away nor salvaged under the pretext of

'Intellectual anarchism'. The incoherences seem to have a personal rather than

political significance. Marechera was fighting against a senseof disintegration

brought about by the excessesof white minority rule and the double alienation

resulting from a colonial European education,his ability to realise his potential

flawed by circumstancesbeyond his control. Of Black Sunlight he

as a writer

concedes'In The House of Hunger I had found a voice but that voice ceasedto

be relevant, becauseI was now in London In a totally different context' (SB p32).

It was perhaps his inability to adjust to that new environment, to find a new

the false senseof his standing as an establishedwriter that

voice, coupled with

led to such undisciplined writing in Black Sunlight.

Of that wnting McLoughlin 'Marechera'sverbal dexterity outstrips

comments

28
that of most African writers but, as... Black Sunlight indicates, his
serious

concernswith the metaphysicsof creativity and with languageitself as a violent

instrument take his fiction beyond the acceptedbounds of "African" literature.'

Subsequentremarks from McLoughlin indicate that he felt that Black Sunlight

had also taken Marecherabeyondthe pale: 'The writing is sometimesobscureand

his identity crisis as a black Ziimbabweanliving

III in exile has thrown him nto the

searing problems that surround a writer's relation to reality'. " In its fragmentation,

incohesivenessand sporadic incoherenceBlack Sunlight reflects the life the

writer was leading at the time of producing the work. In 1979 Marecherawas

virtually penniless, very disturbed, living in a squat and under enormous pressure,

self-imposed and from his to

publisher, producea work delivering the promises

of exceptional talent hinted at in The House of Hunger. The writer's often slim

grasp of everyday reality slipped, and the resulting world of multiple realities,,

multiple personalitiesand paranoia became Black Sunlight. In 1986Marechera

said in an interview with Veit-Wild, 'Finally I wrote what is now Black Sunlight

the third version of several efforts to expressmyself after the great disillusion

success.I think I was too successful with my first

which came after my premature

book, I thought that everything from then on would be heaven' (SB It

p218). was

far from heavenas the pressuresof fame, the demandsof his publisherand living

destitution too much for the writer's fragile mental health.

in a stateof near were

JamesCurrey in this deterioratingbehaviour, recounting

was a principal observer
disguisesincluding full
how Marechera would turn up at his offices in various

hunting pinks on one occasion, as a grey-haired old lady on another and once

festooned with camerasas a Guardian photographer.There were also stories of

29
knives being pulled out and at least one fistfight between
publisher and writer.
Understandably perhaps, there was a hint of
expediency about the decision to

publish Black Sunlight.

The consensusamong the Heinemannreadersappearedto be that Black Sunlight

was like the proverbial curate'segg, someparts quite good but othersrather less

so. Ann Godfrey, alternately 'bored' and 'Impressed',was honestly undecided:'I

can't make up my mind whether he is making an extremelybitter, satirical attack

on western radicalism, or if it's a load of pretentiousrubbish.' Wyllie was 'very

but
enthusiastic' suspectedthat 'Black Sunlight will not be widely read...because

it calls for far too much effort. ' Pantheon,,who had published House ofHunger, "

expressedthemselves 'disappointed'and went on ' Black Sunlight needsmuch

rethinking and reworking and not even a monumentalediting job... would be of

much use at this point... This novel is an exercise in self-destruction. As it

progresses... there is less and less of a focus for the narrator until we are fully

by
assaulted a relentless barrage of images and associationscut loose from the

outer world and adrift in a void without inherent structure or '

constraint. The

reader from HememannNigeria, Simon Gikandi,, '...

suggested this kind of writing

has not had any appeal in this part of the world and can easily go unnoticed

there is no single element to suggest that it is written by an African. ' However, he

Marechera 'an but like Ann Godfrey, he found

considers extremely gifted writer'

the style to be '...

of the avant-garde writers of the 1950s... placed alongside them

he doesquite well. "'

In the final analysisthe curate'segg which was Black Sunlight was consideredtoo

30
lacking in'good parts' to publish, indeed some
readersfound very few good parts

at all. And yet Currey, againstall advice, went aheadwith plansto publish. As he

in
explained a letter to Tom Engelhardtof Pantheon'l have decidedthat we ought

to accept Black Sunlight and have got it formally approved... I hope it

will

remove a psychological block and that he will get down to finishing the

Zimbabwean novel. "' The pattern of publication of The House of Hunger: that

of publishing a work known to be lacking in at least someaspects,,

to encourage

the production of strongerwork, was therebyrepeated with Black Sunlight.

Black Sunlight was, not surprisingly, badly received. In an unpublished work,

'The Logic of Ambivalence. The Early Prose Work of Dambudzo Marechera', "

Mark Stein divides his analysis equally between The House of Hunger and

Black Sunlight. A notable exception is in the section devoted to 'critical

responses'which is given over entirely to The House ofHunger. In a work which

is unflinchingly positive in its Marechera appreciation Stein had apparently been

unable to find anything other than negative comments about Black Sunlight.

Veit-Wild notes 'Public response was less positive than the acclaim that greeted

The House of Hunger. Most reviewers criticised the lack of structure and

' (SB p217). Shethen quotesJamesLasdun,'It is the failure of

conceptualcontrol.

that limits had the makings of an extraordinarypiece of fiction, to a

control what
'
disturbing, but ultimately formless document of personal anguish. " This

to what the text actually than

represents Veit-
observationis probably closer

Wild's 'manifesto of intellectual anarchy' or perhaps,Ann Godfrey's ambiguous

Black Sunlight as an 'extremely bitter, satirical attack on western

views of

'a load '

of pretentious rubbish. Marechera's 'intellectual
radicalism' or

31
anarchism' could as easily be interpreted as an absenceof discipline and an

inability to revise, possibly allied to artistic arrogance. The work is not

pretentious rubbish although at times it can come perilously close to it. it is an

attack on many different fronts, but in addition to this,, it is a symptom of

Marechera'sunstablemental condition at the time of writing.

The responseto Black Sunlight disappointedMarechera.He was disheartened,,

not only by the lack of critical acclaim and literary successbut also by his lack of

financial success,,as he was impoverishedand homeless.However worse was to

come. On his return to Zimbabwe in 1982 Marechera was greeted at the airport

with the news that Black Sunlight had been bannedon the groundsof obscenity

and the rather odd accusation,,reminiscent of pre-Independencecensorship,that

'the book imitated negative features of modernist writing' (SB p290). But before

this, his official connection with Heinemann was severed.In Currey's absenceon

leave,,the Managing Director,,Hamish MacGibbon,,was called upon to deal With

the barrage of threats and demandsfor money from Marechera.Eventually he

parted with 020 (to which Marechera was almost certainly not entitled, as his

advancesexceededhis royalties) on '...your formal that

agreement you will
...

make no further demandsfor money...you will severall further contact with this

firm... if you enter the premises again we will call the police... We on our part

in '
formally waive the option clauses your current contracts. Marechera thus

became the first writer to be banned by Heinemann in their long history as

A few days later &y*4ater Marechera completed a bad week (July

publishers.

1980) by becoming to be banned from the Africa Centre in

the only person ever

difficult behaviour finally forced

King Street. The same pattern of increasingly

32
Dr Alastair Niven, Director of the Centre, to exclude him (seeChapterFour).
To
Niven's great surprise, after his banning Marechera
never entered the Africa
Centre again. JamesCurrey's experiencewas different,
rather as two years later
he was still receiving hotel bills incurred by Marechera the
in mistakenbelief that
'his publishers' would settle them (SB p222).

Black Sunlight was a fourth attempt to provide the novel desperatelyawaitedby

JamesCurrey and is less a revision of Black Insider than a revisiting of the same

issuesand themes. Although the text of The Black Insider was edited by Flora

Veit-Wild "
several repeated passagesremain. Rejected in 1978 and 1984, The

Black Insider was eventually published in 1990,somethree yearsafter the death

of the author and it is a pointed commenton his lack of fulfilment as a writer that

the back cover blurb consists of effusive praise from Angela Carter and Dons

Lessing culled from their reviews of HouseofHunger.

TheBlack Insider was published as a result of the efforts of Flora Veit-Wild and

the Dambudzo Marechera Trust. But that the manuscriptwas recoveredat all is

thanks to the efforts of David Caute, writer and friend of Marechera.During a

searchof the files in the HeinemannEditorial Offices in 1984 Caute discovered

photocopiesof The Black Insider and anotherMarecheramanuscriptPortrait of a

Black Artist in London." With Marechera'spermissionboth were submitted to

Heinemann by Caute. Both were rejected, Portrait on the grounds of being

Ipretty incomprehensible'and TheBlack Insider as 'self indulgent', 'unstructured',

(The Black Insider, p 18).

and'not... of interest to the generalreader'

33
Caute saw Marechera as a 'scandalously gifted writer', a 'monomaniac

ventriloquist' and strangely as a 'baby faced fly-trap'. The Freudianimplications

of this peculiar choice of words are underlined by the referenceto Marecheraas

'diminutive and pretty', and the implication that he was not above prostitution.

'Marechera.went to sleep rough in Cecil Squarewhile keeping a close eye on a

parade of white liberal ladies who paid his rent or his price.' Caute'sreview of

The Black Insider is more an exploration of his relationship with Marechera than

a discussionof the novel, of which Cautestates,,'Civil war rages... as a group of

refugees discuss the meaning of everything... But the scenario is incidental;

Marechera'srespect for realism had evaporatedduring his British exile; the here

and there of post-colomal terror and (perhaps)atomic war is neither here nor

there.' He then goes on to suggest 'If his fiction was black hole autobiography,,

his life was an extended fiction. ' Caute is apparently suggesting that one of the

reasons for reading The Black Insider is because of references to the remarkable

lifestyle of the author, a suggestion that does have some ment. However the

structural flaws remain inhibiting factors. Caute comments'Marechera'srespect

for realism had evaporated; in no small measureMarechera lost touch with

by
4reality' becauseof his illness which was exacerbated his environment,and

is., least, the fractured and fragmented form of The

this in part at reflected in

Black Insider.

language was not limited to

Quite obviously the employment of extravagant

himself, indicated and in the following from Adewale

Marechera as is above,,

time the review " was Editor of the

Maja-Pearce,,who at the of writing

'DambudzoMarechera'sshort and violent life

Heinemann.African Writers Series:

has turned out to be a boon for literary necrophiliacs with pseudo-romantiC

34
notions concerningthe tragic destiny of the misunderstoodartist. In this he was at

least partly responsible. ...his writing is directly autobiographical.'

Understandably Maja-Pearce conflates the narrator of The Black Insider and

Marechera himself, supposedfact and supposedfiction, pointing out 'The war is

supposedto be a metaphor, which is why the novel fails to convince as anything

more than a seriesof autobiographical investigationsdressedup as a continuous

narrative. ' The reviewer recognises the intensely personal nature of Marechera's

prose and the idiosyncratic position of the writer in calling TheBlack Insider, '...a

more courageousbook than almost any other that hascome out of the continentin

the past 30 years.' Issue can be taken with the notion that TheBlack Insider came

out of Africa, a limiting verdict that ignores the dual influences of being in

England and being away from Zimbabwe. The review closeson a prescient and

rueful note, 'One can certainly see why Marechera made so many people

uncomfortable,and why his death...has made it easierto turn this enfant terrible

of African writing into a romantic legend. The pity of it is that the legend is

alreadyin dangerof overtaking the work. '

The substance behind Maja-Pearce's concern is illustrated by Veit-Wild's

approachto TheBlack Insider. She finds it'... unique in exploring the predicament

(Teachers bestowing on Marechera the

of the "lost generation" in exile' p259)

is at odds with the writer's own highly

mantle of spokesmanwhich somewhat

individual stance. Neverthelesshis work is certainly an invaluable record of one

Zimbabwe. Veit-Wild goes

person's experience of pre and post-independence

further' The Black Insider... transcendsthe concretepolitical or social situation,

the humanpredicamentas a whole' (Teachers

taking any condition as a parableof

35
p260). This comment gets closer to the nub of The Black Insider. An argument

can be raised to support the view that Marechera'spsychological problems did

representa universal condition amongblack Africans, though TheBlack Insider

is also a uniquely personal document. Veit-Wild is well aware of the singular

qualities Marechera,
brought to his work as shedemonstrates;'TheBlack Insider

contextualises the author and dismantles or "deconstructs"the myth of the

invisible and infallible literary creator'(Teachers p261), a techniquewhich many

critics accepted,showing no hesitation in acknowledgingMarechera'sfiction as

openly autobiographical. This of course is problematic in a work which

presents a multitude of voices and disguises, exposing the multitude and diversity

of possibilities and views' (Teachers p262). If sorting out the 'real' Marechera

was a problem for the it

critics was one which bedevilled Marecherahimself as

his work abounds with images of fragmentedselvesand doppelgangers.As he

remarked 'I think I am the doppelgainger whom, until I appeared, African

literature had not yet met'(Dambudzo Marechera 1952-1987, p3).

Of the Heinemann readers Wyllie was the most enthusiastic although his praise

was qualified. 'The Black Insider... [is] full of poetic insights, often superbly

written, highly imaginative, magnificently worth reading... altogether too

frantically, too frenetically "the last desperateditch of a state of mind".' He

be done with TheBlack Insider is a

concluded with the unhappy... what should

I don't believe for... the AWS public' (SB pp200/201). Senda

problem... it is right

Kurayera (HeinemannNairobi) apparentlysanguinebut would be aware

wa. was

Marechera heed his advice that, 'If the author

of the unlikeliness that would

[un]intelligible allusions, inserted a

reduced the vast chunks of quotations and

36
senseof continuity or shortenedthem to credibility, and made the
story end in a
convincing manner it certainly would be interestingreading...' (SB p203).
,

It should be noted that the Heinemann readers were

writing of the unedited,,

unpublished version. Undoubtedly some of the 'flaws' were removed by Veit-

Wild as the published version was awarded a Special Commendationfrom the

judges of the 1991 Noma award for Publishing in Africa. One of the supporters

was Landeg White who in his presentationto the committeegave an exposition

of the work , then added ' This makes The Black Insider sound forbiddingly

erudite and it is,,in fact, hard to describethe book as it is without putting people

off. ' Perhaps because he is unable to take the book quite seriously White

describesit as'...very good fun. Like all good comedyit is fundamentallyserious

but there is a dazzling display of verbal Wit here in a rangeof different styles.' He

goes on'lt is obviously going to be very much more comfortable for us all having

Marechera dead and his works issuedunder the benign editorship of Flora Veit-
32
Wild than Marecheraalive and kicking.'

The published version of The Black Insider has a valuable thirty two page

introduction by the editor which includes a short biography of Marechera an

,
history of the n,
manusc ipt; there then follows the novella The
exposition and a

Black Insider, three previously published short stories and two poems. The

this extra material, either for bulk or to indicate the range of

inclusion of

Marechera'swriting is, perhaps,unfortunate from the point of view of the general

for whom The Black Insider offers a dauntingenoughprospect in itself

reader ,

37
Veit-Wild acknowledges the difficulty of popularising Marechera when she

'
writes Yes , it will cost the reader time and effort to read this book. And why

not? Should not writer and publisher be proud of that, provided the effort turns

out to be worthwhile' (The Black Insider p 19). For those with a specific interest

in the writer or the genre the effort is undoubtedly worthwhile. As Veit-Wild

indicatesthe generalreaderwould needto be determinedin orderto discern ' a

...
strong inner coherenceif the reader is preparedto follow the writer along paths

of thought which, though intricate, are an intrinsic part of his work' (The Black

Insider p20). The reward for the diligent reader Will be to ' the
-accompany
narrator as he unfolds one reminiscenceafter another,,uncoiling one from the

other in the spirals and drifts of Marechera's life and thoughts' (The Black Insider

p20).

In the following extract Veit-Wild confronts the accusation that The Black Insider

lacks a formative structure:

The writer's desire to strip naked all attitudinizing and to get to the
core of things is intrinsically linked to a special, an experimental
type of writing. Where logical and straightforward thinking is
deemed as oppressive and as leaving no room for the imagination,,
forms such as prescribed by the distinct
conventional of writing
literary have to be cast aside. (The Black
and separate genres
Insider p29)

condition in 1978 it is
In view of his known parlous physical and psychological

form and content of The Black Insider

too ambitious to claim that the chaotic

by Marechera. There may be some truth in Veit-

were deliberately constructed

difficult to distinguishMarecheraýs'experimental'
Wild's analysis. However it is

develop disciplined approachto his craft. At

qualities from a simple failure to a

Insider, he not necessarilycapableof 'logical

the time of writing The Black was

38
 mI

and straightforward thinking. '

1.3 Mindblast: The Writer Tramp

The image of the writer tramp inspired by Marechera'slifestyle in Britain

was

confirmed as he establishedhimself in Harareon his return to Zimbabwe:

the last section of Mindblast... is simply a factual record of what

...
was happening to me each day while I was homeless. In it I
recorded even anything that walked by as I was typing, how I had
slept the night before etc. I did that preciselybecausethe idea, that
someone can actually write a book while being a tramp, is not
accepted here. But I did it.

This interview with Kirsten Holst Petersen " reveals a typical Marecheran

reinterpretation of events. In actual fact he wrote in the park because he was a

compulsive writer who was homeless: it was not an experiment he was

conducting.

The park bench diary is an appendix to the book Mindblast or The Definitive

Buddy (hereafter Allindblast) which Marechera began submitting to publishers

within a year of his return. A collection of material gathered over the year,

in
Mindhlast is a mixture of plays, prose and poetry,, which,,accordingto the back

blurb 'Award Dambudzo Marechera turns the full blast of his

cover winner

in
formidable powers on Zimbabwe transition'. Marecheratold Fiona Lloyd in an

interview recordedin 1986:

Mindblast is based on contemporary Harare it has to do with

...
those statesof mind now prevailing in the new Zimbabwe, the new
Harare... Those states of mind are contradictory. They tend to be
tend to be downright shallow. (SB p3l 1)
eccentric or

One of the criticisms made of Black Sunlight and The Black Insider was that they

39
reflected the dilernma of the writer in exile,,that is the absenceof a framework

within which to place his work in context. Back in HarareMarecherawas able to

overcome this difficulty and the existentialist approachof Black Sunlight and

The Black Insider is replaced in some parts of Mindblast with

a more direct

political involvement that is observantand critical of the post-colonial state.This

was a brave stanceto take in the euphoria that was the immediateaftermath of

the achievementof independence.

Not surprisingly, prospective publishers were cautious in their approach. Charles

Mungoshi in his role as Editor with the Zimbabwe Publishing House (ZPH) who
,

rejected the manuscript,,said later in his obituary to Marechera which took the

form of an open letter:

you brought me Mindblast... I knew I couldn't persuademy

... it. One, because
publishers to publish of the well-known reputation
you had made for yourself which my colleagues in the publishing
house did not feel was commercially profitable. Two, I thought if
the book was difficult or if it was difficult for me to understand-
who is going to buy it? Dambudzo, I felt you were not
communicatingto the people.
it
This professionaljudgement did not extendto their personalrelationship seems

he
as adds-

day "You aren't an artist." I felt bad. But when I saw

one you said
... I had begun to That's all. Dambudzo,.
you next, already, miss you.
you had a way With me that made me question my own sincerity in
life-style things I took for granted. You
my job, my and most
I? "
actually were asking me- who am

Marechera the College Press (part of the British

Rejected by ZPH approached

for his fellow student from Oxford, Stanley

Macmillan Group) whom

Like Mungoshi, Nyamfukudza found the book had

Nyamfukudza, was an editor.

but felt careful editing ' The prose sectionsin particular were
merit,, it needed

40
very unevenand also occasionally libellous'. Eventually Marechera
agreedto cuts
but after that 'there was another battle
with the managementat College Press.
They felt that the book was anti-government (which
in those days was not the
done thing), that it was obsceneand liable to be banned.' Nyamfukudza
then adds

an interesting comment which not only reflects Mungoshi's experiencebut also

goes some way to explaining the Marechera/Currey/Heinemann relationship:

One curious aspectof my relationship with him

when I worked as
a publisher is that while I myself found him to be quite
philosophical and easyto deal with,, within the establishmentof the
publishing house he had a reputation as wild and dangerous,even
as a bit of a madman,,and no one would deal with him. He was also
equally despising of them. So I endedup having to deal with him
on everyoneelse'sbehalf (SB p339)

Mindhlast was eventually published in August 1984during the Book Fair and as

Nyamftikudza told me became a College Press best seller. 35 At the time of

publication Marechera was in detention having been arrested for causing a

disturbance at the Fair. He was detained without charge under Emergency

Regulations until the Fair was over. Eccentric behaviour from Marechera was

now common and even his detention arousedlittle comment.David Caute deals

with the episode in his essay 'Marechera and the Colonel'. Referring in his

opemng to the actual arrest he writes 'Clearly Marechera's fate was of little

concern to the Zimbabwean writers, academicsand politicians lazily circulating

among the bookstands,,

' adding scornfully 'exchanginggreetingsprefaced by the

triple revolutionary hand-shake: thumb-palm-thumb. An urgent clasp already

36
grown lethargic and decadent '
With ritual use.

Although Caute's essay quotes extensively from Mindblast, the (at that time)

The Black Insider and also The House of Hunger it is not a cntical
unpublished
41
work. It is a record of their relationship; and to some extent a commentaryon

Marechera'sattemptsto locate himself in the 'new' Zimbabwe. But chiefly

it is an

examination of an alleged incident which occurred shortly after the first review

of Mindblast "
appeared. Apparently Marechera was accostedin a toilet in the

Harare Holiday Inn hotel and severely beaten by a Colonel of the Zimbabwean

Army who accused him of writing filth that would defame the reputation of

Zimbabwe and its Government. Caute'sinvestigation found witnesses,namedthe

Colonel and concluded the allegations substantiallytrue. However, as he points

out in an early passage ' An this essay we shall learn more about Marechera

though we may remain uncertain as to whether his life owes more to his art than

the reverse.' " In identifying this age-old dilemma of life imitating art or art

imitating life, Caute is making a distinction that would, perhaps,have been lost

on Marechera to whom writing was his life.

Mindblast was not distributed internationally and, apart from those with a

professional interest in Marechera, like Caute and Veit-Wild, critical comment

hasbeen largely confined to Zimbabwe. Attracted by the 'here-and-now'

stanceof

Mindblast as the antithesis of the obsessiveinterest in the past history of the

Zimbabweansidentified with the prominentthemesof corruption

struggle, young

for Oliver Nyika then aged twenty-one, wrote in

and the need social change. ,
(August/September 1984, p46) 'Mindblast is mind-
Mahogany magazine

it
boggling... as is prophetic, and horrifyingly '
honest. Another undergraduate

Veit-Wild (SB pp390/391) 'I

from the same time, Munoda Marariketold

that I beganto understanda lot more about

Mindblast,
purchased... and was when

He things that happenedwithin society.,

him, his political standppint. would write

42
within the people.' Despite wanting to like Marechera,even to identify with him,.

Maranke cannot ignore the familiar problem of accessibility

and of implicitly

asking who Marechera was writing for: recognisingthat althoughMarecherawas

writing about what he saw as a sick society he 'would use excessivelydifficult

languageto project these issues,,so it was rather difficult for the generalreaderto

he
understandwhat meant.'

I referred earlier to a Marechera cult among young Zimbabweansand Maranke

confirms this in his referenceto his generationas the 'Mindblast generation'. He

also unwittingly highlights the paradox of a writer, ostensibly writing for the

people but whose work has little is

general interest and used only for academic

purposes. As Mararike explains:

While we were at the University, we usedto do practical criticisms

of Dambudzo Marechera!s texts. while Marechera consistently
...
denied that he was writing for a socialist government,on the other
hand he was in fact,,writing for the povo, " for the peasantfarmer in
, for blind Kapota School, he
Buhera, he was writing the person at
for the ghetto, he was writing for the township, he was
was writing
a writer who penetratedall strataof society.

These extravagant claims sit very uneasily with Mararike's earlier comments on

the difficult language of Mindblast and have the flavour of the seminar room

farm. However it is difficult to dispute that, to a

rather the street or the peasant

Mindblast was an important text and the

certain era of university undergraduate,

haunting shebeensof Harare, a cult figure.

romantic writer tramp, the parks and

Mararike's interview concludes:

don't have to take up the concerns of what I would

we any writer
... Mindblast who are prepared to take up
call the generation, people
from where Marechera left. As a result we are not progressing very
in things that are happening directly in our
much terms of analysing
society at this very moment.

43
Whether there is much difference betweenthe lifestyles of the
pennilessLondon

squatter and the destitute Harare writer tramp is doubtful, and yet Veit-Wild

comments'Marechera'swritings after hiIs return to Zimbabwe IIin 1982 - published

and unpublished - tend to suffer from an overly self-centredand self-indulgent

viewpoint: they reflect the egocentric existenceof the bohemian and generally

miserable poet acted out in bars and shebeens'(feachersp308). Any criticism of

Mindblast implied in her comments is qualified as she continues 'However by

focussing on the city Marecheracontributed substantiallyto the developmentof a

new urban literature' (SB p309) and nominatesthe book as 'the manifestoof his

satinc indictment' (SB p281)

As for the accusationsthat Mindblast is 'self-centredand self-indulgent',yes, in

it is. But then to at least the same degree so were Black Sunlight and The
parts,

Black Insider. No doubt the role of the retUrMng writer rebel, and his struggle to

find a place in bwlding the 'new' Zimbabwe, had its effect on Marecheraas the

to an obsessionwith his role as perceivedby

concern with self shifted emphasis

others (Mindblast and Scrapiron Blues) rather than the earlier relentless

by self (Black Sunlight and TheBlack Insider).

examination of self as perceived

1.4 Scrapiron Blues: 'A sad and lonely figure'

Scrapiron Blues, the third and final

With thesewords Flora Veit-Wild introduces

posthumouslypublished Marecheraworks-
volume in a seriesof

1986irDambudzo Marechera said: "My

At a lecture in Harare in
life has been an attempt to make myself the skeleton in my
whole
44
 own cupboard." When he died less than a year later, he left behind
a large number of unpublished literary skeletons.Since then, on
behalf of the Dambudzo MarecheraTrust have tried to
,I assemble
as many of them as possible and so ensurethat the contentsof his
cupboard can, as he wrote in a 1985book review, "senda mad look
to the end of time". (Scrapiron Blues p ix. )

It is tempting to see this volume as the last sweepings the

of cupboard.But the

pejorative implications should be resisted. Scrapiron Blues is important, not

simply for its varied literary content which will not lose Marecheraany friends

nor convert his detractors. Critical analysishas yet to emergebut it is safe to

assumethat opinion will remain divided. Those who saw genius In Marechera

will find evidence of it here and those who saw rather less than that will not be

persuadedotherwise. Scrapiron Blues ties up some'loose ends' but it doesmore

than that. There is evidence here (and in Mindblast) that the writer felt keenly

the dilemma of his role of 'artist' versus his role of 'good citizen'. The works

published in Harare indicate that, although he experimented with both

standpoints,it was a dilemma he never resolved.

After Mindblast in 1984 Marechera had for

no more work accepted publication.

Longman had rejected Killwatch in 1983 and College Press, Harare, and

Heinernann (UK), rejected Depth of Diamonds in '

1985. His poetry was

poorly received. Veit-Wild who was in

constantly rejected or published and

daily contact with Marechera at this time writes how this situation: anxiety over

his increasing psychological isolation, and his

his role as a writer, physical and

deteriorating health, depressedhim deeply. He completedvery little of the work

begun in 1986 and 1987 and submittednothing to publishersin that period.

Scrapiron Blues sympathyand enthusiasmfor

Although Veit-Wild writes of with
45
the 'literature of urbanisatiotf enriched by Marecherawho recordedlife in Harare

'quietly scnbbling notes amid all the noise and commotion of public bars.', the

picture she presentsis of a sad and lonely figure- '...he divided his time between

vmting at his flat and drinking in the hotel bars and shebeensof the city centre.'

Scrapiron Blues, a miscellany of prose, poems and plays reveals a writer running

out of time and one who no longer burned with the fire that producedHouse of

Hunger, had lost the fierce, manic drive of Black Sunlight and TheBlack Insider

and had neither the energy nor the stomach for the political confrontation of

Mindblast. Veit -Wild finds in Scrapiron Blues a 'new subtlety and a gentle

descriptive lucidity' which combine to offer 'perceptiveinsights into Harare life

in the 1980s.' Scrapiron Blues also offers insight into the development of

Marechera the writer, providing a postscriptto his careeras a writer and also to

his life. Quite how that careerand life will be is

viewed uncertain,but perhapsto

light the way the first Dambudzo Marechera Symposium " was held in Harare in
,

August 1995 to coincide with the Book Fair. There is a delicious irony in the

dates that a Marechera speciality was disrupting that prestigious

choice of in

annual event.

1.5 Summary

was written in the period 1976 to

The majority of Marechera'spublished output

his first The House of Hunger,

1979 and there is little argument that publication,

As it largely on the grounds of the potential

remained his best work. was praised

by, among others, Currey, Wyllie

ability of the writer ('genius' was a word used

46
and Lessing) an overview of the Marecheracorpus must concludethat
that
potential was only partially realised. The quality was not maintained,
or at least
took a different hue as the eccentricities of Black Sunlight
and TheBlack Insider
presented themselves, to be labelled intellectual anarchy in some
quarters and
pretentious rubbish in others. Both books were written in the direst of conditions

with the writer homelessand suffering from a chronic behaviourdisorderbrought

on by extreme paranoia. The nature of Marechera'swork Is openly biographical

and these points must be given considerationas they informed both the form and

content of his work, as the writer himself commented:'The thing I remember

most about it [becoming a writer] is that I always tried to reduce everything into a

sort of autobiographical record. As though I needed to stamp myself with the

evidenceof my own existence'(The Black Insider p 109).

In the years 1976 to 1979 Marechera wrote, in addition to the published work

listed above,.the unpublished and subsequentlylost Black Heretic and Bowl for

Shadows. The frantic activity of these years was inspired by the critical acclaim

given to The House of Hunger as Marechera, tried desperately to fulfil the

extravagantpredictions of his future to

as a writer and satisfý the demandsof his

publisher. Unfortunately the flaws critics had identified in The House of Hunger

remained and the later work,, unless it is very short, suffers from structural

as Marechera's apparent inability (or

problems of coherence and continuity,

reluctance)to revise his work becamea major drawback.

The 1984 publication of Mindblast avoided the problemsof structureto a certain

by three plays, two short stories,forty-two poemsand the park

extent comprising

47
bench diary as an appendix. Nevertheless,,although
someof the piecesare among
his best,, some of the writing has the flavour
of a first draft and would have
benefited from editing and rewriting. However the
very lack of revision may be
felt on occasion to give the works a kind honesty, true to the moment of
of

creation, in which the writer's influencesare more easily discerned.

There is a certain sadnessabout the final collection of work, Scrapiron Blues,

not

only becausethe writer continues to circle irresolutely around familiar themes

and issueshe first raised in The House of Hunger, but also due to the extreme

shortnessof some of the pieces which seemto indicate Marechera'sfailure to

sustain his undoubted ability as a writer. If there is sadness,there is also joy as

the collection contains one of his best works,, the short story 'First Street Tumult'

and confirms his (if

exceptional ultimately unfulfilled) talent as a dramatistfirst

revealedin MindhIast.

The final work to be published, Scrapiron Blues in itself does not fully answer

the question why Marechera's considerablethough talent

incandescent did not

becomea lasting flame, but it doescompletethe picture. My subsequentchapters

will examine in detail eachof the individual works that make up that picture.

Notes

is
' Whether The House of unger is a novella or short stories not a consideration
his 'Short Fiction From Zimbabwe', Research in
for Dieter Riemenschneiderin
Vol 20.3 (Austin: University of Texas Press), 1989. He
Aftican Literatures,
48
 includes Marechera as one of the 'four...
outstanding short fiction writers from
Zimbabwe%,the other three being Mungoshi, Nyamfukudza
and Parwada.
'Doris Lessing, review of The House
ofHunger, 'A Cultural Tug of War', Books
and Bookmen, Vol 24.9 (London: June 1979),
pp62/63.
3 Hans Zell, (ed.) A New Reader's Guide African
to Literature, SecondEdition
(London: Hans Zell,, 1983), pp414/415.
' The writers were: Wilson Katiyo, A Son Of
the Soil (London: Rex Collins,,
1976); Charles Mungoshi, Waitingfor the Rain (London: Heinemann,
1975);
Solomon Mutswairo, Feso (Cape Town: OUP, 1957) and Mapondera
(Washington D. C.: Three Continents Press,1974); StafflakeSamkange,On
Trial
for my Country (London: Heinemann, 1966), The Mourned One (London:
Heinemann., 1975) and Year o the Uprising (London: Heinemann,,1978);
Ndabiningi Sithole, ThePolygamist (London: Holder & Stoughton,,1972).
Apart from The House of Hunger the only works consideredby Zimunya
and
not included by Kahari were Charles Mungoshi, Coming of the Dry Season
(Nairobi: OUP, 1973), and Geoffrey Ndhlala, Jikinya (London: Macmillan,
1979).
6 Kevin Foster, 'Soul-Food for the Starving: Dambudzo Marechera'sHouse
of
Hunger', Journal of CommonwealthLiterature (London: Bowker Saur,,1992),
p58.
'Fredric Jameson,,ThePolitical Unconscious(London: Methuen, 1981),
p75.
8 Carl Jung, 'Psychology and Literature' Modern Man in Search Soul
of a
(London: Ark Routledge, 1984),p 175. Seealso Chapter Threebelow.
' Philip Larkin 'The Old Fools', Collected Poems (London: Faber and Faber,
,
1990), p196.
10Marechera'sletter to Heinemanndated 17thFebruary1977referredto'. a short
..
novel entitled "At The Head Of The Stream"and three short stories:"Burning In
The Rain",, "The Transformation Of Harry", and "Black Skin What Mask"; James
Currey, then Editor of the HeinemannAfrican Writers Series, was impressedand
asked for to
more stories add substance to the intendedpublication - Marechera
respondedwith six very short stories ( 'The Writer's Grain', 'The Slow Sound of
his Feet%'The Christmas Reunion', 'Thought Tracks in the Snow', 'Are There
people Living ThereT and 'Characters from the Bergfrith') which Heinemann
acceptedand regardedas completing the collection. (from Heinemann's House
of Hunger File).
11in an interview with George Alagiah, 'Escapefrom the House of Hunger',
South,,December 1984,ppl0/1 I-1
12In his report on The Black Insider Heinemann reader John Wyllie has the
following, '... Marechera... could become, in my opinion, as important a writer
Soyinka of African Dylan Thomas, ' The Black Insider, p 12.
as or, perhaps, a sort
13T. 0. McLoughlin 'The Past and The Presentin Af ihcan Literature: Examples
From Contemporary Zimbabwean Fiction', Presence Afiricaine, Vol 132 (Paris:
SocieteNouvelle PresenceAfricaineý,1984), pp93/107.
14T. 0. McLoughlin, 'Black Writing in English From Z imbabwe, The Writing of
East and Central Africa, G.D. Killam, (ed.) (London: Heinemanný$ 1984),
pp 100/ 119.
15ibid, ppl 00/111
16In a filmed interview (Didn't you usedto be R. D. Laing?, shown on Channel 4
1988) Laing discussing a patient her ity
inabili to remember
in July is with
49
possible instancesof parental sexual abuse;she is however certain that
she was
abused.Laing's advice to her is to accept that the abuses happenedbut to
for how, stop
searching the the where and the when and to get on with the
rest of her
life, starting from the position of the here and
now. He comments'If you are
given the key to enableyou to leave a dark cell isn't it perverseto stay the
, in cell
until someone has explained exactly why you where there, wouldn't it be better to
leave and learn how to live outsideT
17Mbulelo V. Mzamane, New Writing from Zimbabwe:DambudzoMarechera's
The House of Hunger'. Aftican Literature Today,No 13 (London: JamesCurrey,
1983), pp201/225.
11The material from the Heinemannreadersis taken from Heinemann's House
ofHunger File.
11If self-serving, the desire to discover a Zimbabwean'superstar'is in
evident the
commentsof Currey and Lessing in particular.
21 Titles shown in this style rather than italicised denote reference to
an
unpublished work or in the caseof 'The Black Insider',the unpublishedversion.
21
Julia Kristeva, Black Sun (New York: Columbia University Press.,1986),p3.
22
From an interview with Alle Lansu,February1986,Teachersp5.
23T. 0. McLoughlin, 'Black Writing in English From Zimbabwe'. The Writing of
East and Central Aftica G.D. Killam, (ed.) (London:Heinernann, 1984), pl II
24Pantheonpublished a hard cover version of TheHouseofHunger in September
1979. Despite incorporating fulsome praise from Doris Lessing ('marvellous
writer', 'formidable talent'. 'powerful', 'fi=Y'), the venture was not successful
and the book was remainderedin October 198 1 SB p 191.
ý$
2' The material in this paragraphwas taken from the Heinemann Black Sunlight
File and SB pp210-214.
" The Zimbabwean novel to which Currey makes reference never materialised. It
was Currey's fervent hope that Marechera would write a novel about Zimbabwe
that would establish his reputation as the Zimbabwean Soyinka or Achebe.
(Heinemann Black Sunlight File. )
27Mark Stein of the University of Frankfurt submitted this work to the Un I.versi.ty
of Warwick on 17th August 1994 as an MA dissertation. It is as yet unpublished.
28James Lasdun 'Sunlight and Chaos,, ATew Statesman and Society, London: 12
December 1980,p46.1
29 In the introduction to The Black insider Flora Veit-Wild writes of Black
Sunlight and The Black insider'... someof the themes are interlinked and certain
passages...are more or less identical.... In order to avoid repetition these passages
havebeencut...' TheBlack Insider p19-
30in his article 'Baby-faced fantasist who aspiredto be da inned, Independent On
Sunday 12th January 1992, Caute refers to Portrait as a verse choreodrama...
the [The Black Insider], a brilliant (but typically
complementary to prose work
uneven)satire on racist i
Britain. '
31Adewale Maja-Pearceý,'Humbug hater% New Statesman & Sociqy,, London:
31st January 1992,p54.
32Landeg White was Director of Southern African Studies at the U ni versIty of
York until 1995. These comments were extracted from an unpublished piece
199 1) Dambudzo Marechera f or the Noma Award.
written (circa in support of
33Kirsten Hoist Petersen,An Articulate Anger (Sydney: Dangaroo Press, 1988),

p37.
50
" Charles Mungoshi, 'Dambudzo you are still alive', DambudzoAllarechera
1952-1987, ppl3-14.
Telephoneinterview with David Pattison3rdJune 1998.
David Caute, 'Marechera and the Colonel% The Espionage of the Saints
(London: Hamish Hamilton, 1986),p3.
In the Source Book (p326) Veit-Wild infers that the matter of Marechera's
persecution, and Marechera himself, had become an obsessionwith Caute. The
tone of Caute'swriting and the referencesto Marechera's'prettiness'and 'saucer-
like eyes'suggestthat inference carries someweight.
11David Caute, 'Marechera and the Colonel'. The Espionage of the Saints
(London: Hamish Hamilton, 1986), p9.
" Povo is a Shonaword meaning 'proletariat'.
" Killwatch is included in Scrapiron Blues but Depth of Diamondswas omitted
and there are no plans for its publication. Vicki Unwin was with Heinemann in
1985 and shared responsibility for the rejection of Depth of Diamonds; in a
interview with me in November 1994 the
she remembered novel as a 'thriller
type - quite unlike anything he had done. I thought it showeda promising new
direction.'
41The Symposium was sponsoredby the Dambudzo MarecheraTrust and the
Zimbabwe German Society and held I
on st and 2nd of August 1995. Some 15
paperswere presentedand are to be published in October 1998 by Africa World
Press (New York) - The Editor is Anthony Chennells of the University of
Zimbabwe.

51
 CHAPTER TWO

Theoretical Perspectives

On 30th March 1979 in responseto a letter from Tom Engelhardt

of Pantheon
Books, asking whether he could communicate direct
with Marechera, James
Currey replied, Td be quite happy for you to corresponddirectly him
with though
I must repeat my professional warning. THIS MAN IS DANGEROUS! Not to

you! Not to me! But to himselff

The purpose of this chapter is to outline the major theoretical issues raised by

Marechera's unique, and ultimately self-destructive,, approach to his work. I Will

investigate the extent to which the prose fiction reflected Marechera's

disconnectedlifestyle, and consider the effect if any, of his drinking habits and

the possible use of drugs. I will examine how his writing was affected by his

illness and explore the relevance of psycho-analytical interpretations to what

are,, in the final I

analysis,, works of art. will also explore the influence of his

mental instability on his writing and indicate how his literary development

reflects the tenor and conduct of his life on his journey from Rhodesia,through

Oxford and London, to Zimbabwe. Such a profile offers an extendedmind map

the he from the apparentheights of the Guardian Prize for

of writer as moved

Fiction through rejection and the banning of his work to lonely unfulfillment

living through the most turbulent period in Zimbabwe'shistory.

while

I will also examine the 'artist as communal spokesman'versus'artist as Romantic

52
individualist, and Marechera'srepudi II of the notion of the writer as teacher

guide or mentor. This Will lead to an examinationof the disputebetweennational

commitment and literary universalism,.and the rejectiion of the 'Africanist'

II label.

2.1 The Psychology of Art

'The rotting corpses within' (The Black Insider, p35)

Peggy Kamuf observes that Derrida 'signalled several important ways in which

deconstruction resembles psycho-analysis; both are concerned with the analysis

of a repression that fails to prevent the return of the repressed in the form of

symptoms.' ' It follows that an attempt to complete both a psycho-analytical

examination and a deconstruction of the texts would cover much of the same

ground and, arguably, reach very similar conclusions. In concentrating on a

psycho-analytical approach I hope to avoid becoming embroiled in marginal

differences of interpretation and to establish more clearly how Marechera's

illness,. his life history and his reaction to the various envirom-nentshe

encountered informed his writing. In taking this approachI also have in mind

Max Friedlander's argument 'Art being a thing of the mind, it follows that any

be It may be other things as well,, but

scientific study of art will psychology.

psychology it will always be. "

3
it
As Jung argued '...the human psycheis the womb of all the sciencesand arts',

'
follows that a psycho-analytical examinationof works of art alkles
enut,

for their creation. Jung goes

to be drawn about the individual pyscheresponsible

53
on to suggestthat there is a two-fold purposeto psychological researchof this

nature; one is to explain the formation of a work of art and the other is to reveal

the factors that make a person artistically creative. My intention is to concentrate

largely on the former but the two inquiries are inextricably linked and
some

speculationon why Marecherawrote is inevitable.

Freud suggestedthat all works of art are createdout of the personalexperiences

of the artist, and that the componentparts of a work of art can be tracedback to

complexes, in the senseof interconnectedconsciousand unconsciousideas and

feelings usually gatheredin early childhood, within the artist'spsyche. As Lionel

Trilling points out,, Freud was known to some as the 'discoverer of the

unconscious'a title he refusedwith the words 'The poetsand philosophersbefore

me discovered the unconscious;what I discoveredwas the scientific method by

which the unconscious can be studied.' Trilling to

goes on maintain'... the human

the Freudian psychology is exactly the stuff upon which the poet has
nature of

always exercised his art. "

According to R. D. Laing, in the sensethat we all experience life as taking place

'our view of it will die with us, while

in 'our world', world' and our idiosyncratic

for will continue. ' This is

'the world', which provided the stage our experiences,

true for The creative artist leaves behind poems, novels, paintings
not everyone.

'the to the artist's 'own world' view. But

etc. that can offer a permanence in world'

only on Freud's theories of the id, the ego

any exploration of a work which called

the to the exclusion of others, the Jungian collective unconscious,,

and super-ego

for example, would be dangerously ' These factors, id, ego, super-ego,
one-sided.

54
collective unconscious, are revealed in readings of The House of Hunger,

Mindblast and Scrapiron Blues; and although these works will be treated

separatelythey are to be seen as points on the same continuum. The apparent

stylistic excesses of The Black Insider and Black Sunlight call for a slightly

different approach. While also drawing on the works of Jung

and Freud these

readingsmust take cognisanceof the existentialist nature of the works and the

way their construction more obviously reflects the physical and psychological

condition of the author at the time of writing.

It is commonly held that works of art are an enduring legacy in which aesthetic

appeal is complemented by psychological interpretation. This is a view with

which Marechera may well have been sympathetic. The following appears to

acknowledge the psychological significance of paintings, poems and stories '...I

agreedthat there was nothing left of us except...the paintingswe painted on the

painted walls; nothing left except the poems and the I

stories sweatedblood to

bleed out of me' (Black Insider p 144). Sartre expressedsimilar sentiments,,

though in bleaker terms 'In life, man commits himself, draws his portrait and

there is nothing but that portrait.' I But of course that portrait however and

wherever it exists,, those poems and stories, are themselves rich sources of

information about the artist, even while it remains precisely true to say that

'there is nothing but that portrait'. As Marechera implies, after the death of the

artist there is nothing left to interpret except the work. Ironically, in Marechera's

his behaviour and as

reassessed frequently as his
case,,stories of are assessed

writing. However, taking a wider interpretation of Sartre's 'portrait', that is

perhapsinevitable.

55
Although the works of Jung and Freud expressdiffering
views on the type of
influence forming the psyche there is broad agreement that elements
of the
psyche that created the work reside within the work, in its contours
, its shades
and its tones. The manifest content is available to everyonebut the latent
content
is available only after very careful examination. The latent content is not

immediately available to the artist. As Freud argued, psychologically we are not

mastersin our own house.The origin of emotionsand motives for action is held

in the unconsciousand is therefore inaccessibleunder normal conditions.It is of

,
course possible to take a pyscho-analytical. approach, among many others, to the

reading of any prose or poetry. But in view of the complexity of Marechera's

work and the way his life-style was inextncably linked with his work, a psycho-

analytical approach seems particularly appropriate. Such an analysis is not

without a certain irony in view of Marechera's well known views on psychology

as 'a way of justifying insanity' (Scrapiron Blues, p204). However, the fear and

mistrust expressedby Marechera are themselvessymptomsof a particular mind

set,where, perhaps'...human and

consciousness human striving instils in me fears

of something radically missing from my own make-up' (Black Sunlight, p 116).

In the following piece from The Black Insider that same fear and mistrust is

linked to bitter condemnationof psychiatry in general,and probably of Dr. Hoare

and Professor Gelder of the Warneford Mental Hospital in Oxford in particular

,
(SB p 160):

Some psychiatrists today diagnose disenchantment with social

structures as a diseaseand proceedto inflict a cure on the patient.
Some of our greatest writing comes from writers in a state of
disillusion, disenchantmentand dismay. (The Black Insider p 128)
56
Marecherafelt that a 'cure' for his illness would destroy his
muse.Anthony Storr

maintains in The Dynamics of Creation that 'successful'

psycho-analysis may

remove permanently a writer's reasonsfor writing and undoubtedlysome weight

be
can attachedto Marechera'scomments.But if the 'disenchantment'is so severe

that it leadsto, or exacerbates,a neurosisor psychosis,then the writing beginsto

reflect more accuratelythe mental ills of the NNnter,,

rather than the social ills to

which Marecheraalludes.Nevertheless,,as the social ills are 'responsible',at least

in part, for the mental ills, then the writing is still capableof reflecting the social

structure.

The image of the mind,, or psyche, as a complex arrangement of rooms and

tunnels became an obsessionwith Marecheraand the House of Hunger can be

interpreted as a metaphor for the Marecheran psyche. The Arts Faculty In The

Black Insider and Devil's End in Black Sunlight in addition to being central

organising devices Within the novels are similarly representations of

Marechera's psyche. The Arts Faculty is 'stupendously labyrinthine with its

infinite ramifications of little nooks of rooms, some of which are bricked up

forever to isolate forever the rotting corpses within' (p35), and the Devil's End is

a 'network of caves and interlocking tunnels' (p52). Devil's End Is at the centre of

Black Sunlight and The Black Insider is located entirely within the Arts Faculty.

The use of such metaphorsto representthe psychebrings to mind Lacan '...the

is
formation of the I symbolized in dreamsby a fortress, or a stadium - its inner

by marshesand rubbish tips,,dividing it into two

area and enclosure, surrounded

fields the subject flounders in quest of the lofty, remote

opposed of contestwhere
57
inner castle whose form... symbolizes the id in a quite startling way. ' 9 The

symbolism of caves is, according to Jung, equally important: 'The dark cave

correspondsto the vessel containing the warring opposites. The self is made

manifest in the oppositesand in the conflict betweenthem... Hencethe way to the

self begins with conflict. '

The three works are dominatedby two things, TheHouse of Hunger perhapsless

obviously but no less significantly than Black Sunlight and The Black Insider.

The first is a journey back to the beginnings, the search for the primordial 1; and

the secondis a building or complex of rooms which is a central feature of the

journey, and which, in both Lacanian and Jungian terms,, representsthe

fonnation of the 1. Marechera'sfictional or philosophicaljourney could also be

describedin Hegelian terms as 'the moment of indetermination',11in which the

writer withdraws psychically from his surroundings as, by a psychical negation,

he is able to remove himself ftom involvement With finite things. To do so offers

an interesting perspective on Marechera's in

psychological predicament which it

be
can seenthat the Hegelian dialectical logic is incomplete,as Marecheramoved

betweenthesis and antithesisbut did not achievesynthesisand, as a consequence

of that remainedpsychologically out of balance.

Mindblast and Scrapiron Blues are both collections of short works which

demonstratethe writer's dilemma of being a 'good citizen' (writing in uncritical

true to his individualism

support of the socialist government), or of remaining

the freedom his to his views without fear or favour. As we will

and of art express

ChaptersFive Six Marecheranever resolvedthat dilemma and became

seein and

58
physically and psychologically isolated from the nation builders. His
return to
Zimbabwe became notable for his failure to
establish his role as an artist in a

culture too new, too disorganised, and too preoccupied with the demands
of
materialsurvival.

2.2 Biography into Art

'Sunlit memories?'
'Throne of Bayonets")
The stereotypeof the 'tortured gemus'or 'two minds in
one body' kind has been

readily attachedto Marechera.And it is tempting to avoid the limiting tendency

of this stereotypeby refusing to cast him in the role of the outcast,the loner, the

young and very sensitive artist, at odds with the brutality and horror of the

townships and the desperatepredicamentof his family, the grinding poverty and

extreme hardship. But,, in actual fact, this was his inevitable role. For the

adolescent Marechera the effect of his immediate envirom-nent,which owed

-
much to the cumulative effect of seventy years of white minority rule, was

devastating.The effect of his wider environment- the illegal Smith Government

declared UDI in 1966 further worsening conditions for black Zimbabweans-

was no less so.

Although David Buuck 12 that The House of Hunger and the joumal
argues

section of Mindblast are 'His [Marechera's] most autobiographical works', he

goes on to concede that '...in The Black Insider and Black Sunlight, the

schizophrenic self and text seem to become one; though clearly constructedas

"fictions",, these books in many ways presenta more telling portrait of the author

59
than any conventional autobiography could.' Buuck is referring to the
standard

autobiographical method of a sequentialengagementof a seriesof events.In The

Black Insider and Black Sunlight the sequenceof events,,his father's death,life in

Rhodesia, life in Oxford,, for example, are clearly biography. The

problem with
the biographical explanation is that it shedsa good deal more light on the life

than the art. To combat this Raymond Williams argued that biography was

inevitably enclosedwiithin
III a 'structure of feeling' representing'the most delicate

and least tangible parts' of 'the particular living result of all the elementsin the

general organisation [of everyday life]. To get away from the 'biography' and

closer to the 'art" it is necessaryto deconstructthe reportedeventto detenninethe

structure of feeling' supporting it. 13

Thus it can be argued that in The Black Insider and Black Sunlight the

fragmented form which encloses those biographical events represents the

structure of feeling', the tenor of his life, as he experiencedit at the time of

writing. Williams' hypothesis has relevance for this study in that it seeks to

establish evidence of the influence of external forces on the formation of

individual experience. Silvano Ariett developeda similar hypothesis,basing his

by
views on the examination of written work produced schizophrenics(although

his theory is not necessarily exclusive to schizophrenics). According to Arlet,

such examination revealed that the writers were operating within a 'sphere of

meanine wherein 'The meaning is conveyed not by logical progression of

thought but by the totality of the thoughts. No matter how disconnected,the

[written work] conveys a tone, an atmosphere,,what at times is called a sphere of

' 14 The 'tone' or 'atmosphere' is captured within the structure of the

meaning.

60
piece; so it is that the clues to Marechera's11
ived experiiences are to be found in

the formal presentationof the works as well as in the

content.

SubsequentlyI Will explore further the notion

of sphereof meaningby suggesting

that the changing form of his works can be seen to representthe

changing
circumstances of the writer's lived experience. But, firstly, taking one example of

a 'live event' (his father's death), I will examine how Marechera used that

biographical material.

At various times Marecheraclaimed that his father was murderedby the police or

by the army, though it seems likely that the official report of the drunken

Marechera senior being the haplessvictim of a hit and run driver is probably

accurate. It is perhaps too facile to accept Marechera'srevision as a clumsy

attempt to make senseof his father's death by inventing a reasonfor it, but that

possibility does exist. However his claim that he personally viewed the

bloodstainedcorpse is imaginatively embellishedand most probably untrue:

I was thirteen. My father had been killed, rather mysteriously.We

still don't know which army officer did it. ...the police were
knocking on the door asking mother to come and identify father's
body becausehe had been killed. My two older brothers were
... horrible in
away and so mother took me alone. It was really the
mortuary; you could see that he had been riddled with bullets, the
heavy automatic bullets which had almost cut off a part of his
body, becausethey had sewn it back, you could see the stitches.'
(SB pl 1)

Another version claims.

you could see where the car had hit him, his body had been
...
broken into two from there and the head and one arrn had been
flung to one side and the rest had been flung to the other... and his
head had been smashed...and I was seeingthis at eleven years of
age. (SB p47)

It is evident from the various interviews on record that Marecheracould vary the
61
content of a familiar story, even perhapsto present himself In tragic pose. For

example, although there are many witnessesto the fact that he stammeredfrom

very early childhood (SB p47), he was inclined to blame his bad stammeron the

trauma of seeinghis father's mutilated body, claiming he was unableto speakfor

severaldays and when his speechdid return it was with a severeimpediment.

The many different versions Marechera presentedof his experiencesbecamea

kind of truth in themselvesas he merged imagined reality with the actual events

of his life. Such fictionalising allowed Marecherato explore a more complete

and complex imaginative vision of human action. His tendency to revisit and to

rewrite his experiencescan be seenas a constant searchfor different levels of

meaning from In
a particular experience. a work of art, after all, exact and literal

truth is not a fundamental requirement.Sylvia Plath's father was not a Nazi, but

that does not matter to an appreciation of her poem 'Daddy". In reply to

Audrey's 'I do not know what poetical is. Is it honest in deed and word? Is it a

true thing? ' Touchstone responds 'No truly: for the truest poetry is the most

feigning' (As You Like It, Act 3, sc.3). By exaggerating the circumstances of his

father's death Marechera.is able to examine his own traumatic responsesWith a

greater degreeof honesty. Whether Marechera saw his father in the mortuary or

to degree the depth of his anguishwas real, painfully honest

not is, a , immaterial,

andclearto see.

The experience,real or imagined, was usedto vivid and moving effect in 'Throne

Bayonets' as he musedon the lasting effects on him of his father's death:

of

Did I mistake the corridor

And the doorway (each step
62
 Irrefutable, irreversible)
Now the Room endless black rain
And the blood distant vistas
Of photogenic Falls?
Sunlit memories?
Rather My butchered father
On a mortuary slab, and I
All of eleven years old, refusing
But forced to look. I know now: Learn
Mortality early and you are doomed
To walk forever alone.
(Cemetery ofMind p36)

Dramatic and highly effective though this account is Veit-Wild points out that it

was not but

Dambudzo., his brother Michael Marechera,who in fact was the one

who visited the mortuary with his mother, DambudzoMarecherabeing away at

boarding school at the time of the accident. In terms of a psycho-analytical study

which sets out to discern the influences that determined his behaviour and

affected his development as a writer such detail is important. Worthy of note in

the sensethat distortions and rewritings of his personal history have important

implications for an attempt to develop a better understandingof the writer and his

work, though in terms of a literary appreciation of the work such detail is of

.,
lesser importance.

2.3 Drink and Drugs

'A fight in Bedford Square'

Although it seems unlikely and perhaps more by good fortune than good

Marechera did hard drugs (SB p30) but'drunk and smokeddope

judgement, avoid

itmore or less and

continuously while consciousness money permitted" and also

LSD' (SB In Mindblast he refers to the London squat;

experimentedwith p157).

'... experiencesof cannabis, belladona, LSD, cocaine'

reminiscencing about our

63
(p156). James Currey recalled that the period after leaving Oxford and before

returning to Harare (October 1977 - January 1982) was one when Marecherawas
'Often in a desperatestate,rambling and incoherent,whetherfrom drink, drugsor

illness, it was impossible to tell. ' " Currey describes a'fight in Bedford Square'

outside the offices of Hememann International, 'One great occasion that was
)
by
much remembered a lot of people when he was particularly obnoxious and

drunk I finished up wrestling with him in this lovely squarewith plane trees. I

was wrestling with Dambudzo on the pavementwith everybody hanging out of

the windows' (see also SB p225). The Reverend R. D. de Berry, who knew

Marechera during his brief time in Sheffield wrote, with some sympathy, 'I

would doubt if Mr. Marechera,

will be alive for very much longer - he hardly eats

and only drinks' (SB p227).

Marechera was a heavy drinker throughout his adult life. During his brief period

in Sheffield the residential Secretaryof the YMCA, G. Lawrence,commentedon

Marechera's '... totally undisciplined and drunken state of existence' (SB p227).

At Oxford 'He disturbed college life through frequent bouts of drunken

behaviour' (SB p 159), 'running amok when drunk' (SB p 163) '...
and was arrested

for being drunk disorderly' (SB 175). When back in Harare 'He refusedto be
and p

ofcured" of his excessive, unhealthy life style or his heavy drinkiný (SB p313).

the 'excessive,
unhealthylife style' and
The 'chicken and egg' question of whether

of his illness is difficult to answer,

the 'heavy drinking' were symptom or cause

be Marechera'sillness dated back to his

though it should observed that while

his destructive lifestyle was an adult development. In adulthood,

childhood, self

the no doubt contributing to his

it can be observed, the one exacerbated other,

64
early death. It can also be observed that, however it
was acquired, the 'heavy
baggage' of problems, both real and imagined, that Marechera
carried was

central to his writing. No 'heavy baggage' would have meant no Dambudzo

Marechera,writer.

Aware that some readersand critics consideredthat his development or lack of

-
it - as a writer,, was attributable to the excessiveuse of alcohol and other mind-

expanding stimulants, Marechera told Alle Lansu in an interview recorded in

February 1986, '... I would never write when I was drunk, I never write when I

am dnmk or smoking dope. Most people think I do, but I don't' (SB p26).

Neverthelesshe was well aware of the creativepossibilities of suchstimulants,as

this lucid referenceto the effects of drugs makesclear:

'Offering the mind-bloWing cigarette.Behind which glowing point

my mind thought; refusing to focus on anything but the concussing
effects of spaceand time. The thousand separateperspectives from
which to view the point of a needle. The making of a story. (Black
Sunlight p 101)

Although expressed in more poetic language there is an understanding here of

Huxley's description of the effects on the mind of taking the drug mescalin: 'Place

and distanceceaseto be of much interest. The mind doesits perceivingin terms of

intensity of experience, profundity of significance, relationships within a

16 If Marechera was sympathetic to the use of drugs then it was tinged

pattern' .

bitter their emasculating effect, as he observed with a

with a appreciation of

'The dope helped at first. And then began to hurt,

typically vivid simile:

head systematically, like a housewife calmly slicing cucumber'

splitting my

(House ofHunger, p 105). Huxley may well have been one of the 'gurus' to whom

Marechera makes sarcastic reference: 'Nowadays we have a thousand gurus to

65
teach us to stand on our heads to blast our minds with mescalin to
... ... escape the
horrible boredom that makes us bite our hands
and neither fear the final day nor

wish for it' (Black Sunlight p 116). If one 'nelither fear[s] the final day
nor wi
for it' then there is no incentive to changethe status
quo, and that for Marechera

was a highly unlikely and undesirable condition. More than one reviewer

suggestedMarecherahad an affinity with the beat poetsof the sixties and his life-

style was certainly similar. A major difference is unlike,, inter alia,, the poets

Ginsberg or Ferlinghetti, the writers Huxley or Castenada,Marechera,apparently,

did not use drugs for their alleged creative effect. Any impact of drink or drugson

his writing was not intentional.

The following short extract shows the complexity of the writer's thought

processesas ideas tumble out at a frantic pace. An initial reading might suggest

that the apparent obscurities in the text were the result of mind-influencing

but
stimulants,, on analysis,however, a more controlled engagementwith issuesis

revealed:

Fucking Allah! And there was Hitler at the Olympic games turning
his backside on our finest athlete Motherfucking Buddha! I've
...
spent my life running from one bit to
of earth another. Carrying my
smashed peace of mind into the oddest gangs of peoples. Take this
one for instance. I bring them music and laughter and poetry and
they throw me into a pitlatrine. By now Blanche can smell my
inglorious flight, covered in humanshit, chickenshit and prickling
Stanley Mutesa. 17 Blanche
all over with ghastly spears. meets
Goodfather I presume. am a I bit of alright, Blanche, just a slight
case of black wasps I trod on. You know. A nip into the pool Will
restore me to my old self Fucking military arse! Another
quickly
my right sideboard. The persistent bastards.
spear just shaved of
I'm only a fucking court jester, Chief, not a dissident like
Sakharov. Shit. The spears are still flying. I wonder if Walter Mitty
daydreamed like this? (Black Sunlight p9 )
ever anything

The kaleidoscopic tumult of ideas suggestsa very creative mind in overdrive.

66
There is the very strangeadoption of the black American athlete,,JesseOwens,as

tour finest athlete' followed by referenceto Marechera'sphysIcal ('runnIng from

one bit of earth to another') and psychological ('smashed peace of mind')

dislocation. Reference to the personal rejection he feels and the rejection of his

work ('I bring them music and laughter and poetry and they throw me into a

pitlatrine') and the humiliation of his I inglorious' flight, arguablyfrom Rhodesia

and New College, is followed by the unconvincingattemptsat self re-assurance'I

am a bit of alright", and at belittling his problems 'just a slight caseof black wasps

I trod on His sense of equam I will, it be

seems, restored by intercourse,, (a

nip into the pool'),,with Blanche Goodfather (the name is obviously an unsubtle

pun on the role of the he

coloniser) as gleefully declares 'Fucking military arse!ý,.

Marechera's self-doubts about his he

role as a writer resurfaceimmediately, is

only a 'fucking court jester' not a 'dissident like Sakharov'. The writer then

his seriouspretensionsby making comparisonsof his work to that of

undermines

the American humonst,, James Thurber 'I wonder if Walter Mitty ever

daydreamedanything like this'. This then

passage can be seento be tightly, even

intellectually, controlled.

However,,there are passagesthat are not so thematically lucid:

from beyond fades into warm doorways and

That's when the chill
descriptions Africa into a confined room. That's when the
crams of
down a victim tense and white. What
rain out of the empty air pulls
it door like brain and tongue red-hot to speak?
is pounding at my
The fist is clenchedaround Golgotha-red flowers to crack the stony
heart with hammers of human knuckles. Not a shred of emotion
lingers; the wind has it
scoured all. A frail and tattered grace
the moonlight. Oh, black insider!
outlines the continent in round
(The Black Insider, p 101)

67
This beautiful and imaginative prose is highly
charged emotionally and the
despairingtone is heavy with meaning.However, the literal
meaning,the senseof
the passage is not immediately apparent. Whether that suggests
, a conscious
attempt at the surreal, rather than the darker inspiration of drink or drugs is
,
difficult to determine. Regardlessof the inspiration,
such passagesprobably led
Marechera's critics to commentunfavourablyon the accessibility his
of prose.

2.4 Madness

'Voices in the gritty trumpet'

The above extracts ('Fucking Allah! ' etc and 'That's when the chill etc... ') are

not dissimilar to many others in Black Sunlight and The Black Insider. It can be

argued that the rapidity with which the writer moves between diverse and

complex issues reflects the fragmented nature of Marechera's 'sphere of meaning'

(his lived experiencein London), as well as confinning his obsessivepursuit of

thoseissues.

House ofHunger is more recognisably conventional in structure than either Black

Sunlight or The Black Insider in that there is a chronologically sequential

coherency to the story line. In no small measure this pattern suggestsa sphere of

meaning which reflects the remnants of the semblanceof order imposed on his

life by the requirementsof being a studentat New College.Perhapsit Is unwise to

to Marechera's adult life history as orderly, but the Oxford

refer any part of

did discipline and a framing of activities that

experience establish some sort of

to dissolve he struggled to find a role for himself after leaving

was completely as

New College and student life. On his move to London the framework of

68
Marechera's life began to disintegrate and his 'sphere
of meaning' became

increasingly precariousand fragmentary. Evidence of this is to be found in Black

Sunlight and The Black Insider as,,in comparisonwith The House Hunger, the
of
form collapsesand the use of violent imagery increases
with an emphasison the

scatological, the profane, the sexual, gore and disgorgement-

The ugly fact. Erect. Oozing a black light. Plunged. Heaved. Up

down. Up down. Smiling and unsmiling authority. Fucking the
ugly
fact of the street. Controlled J,ets of moonwhite water spurted from
the desolation's wrenched-open mouth. Thoughts that crack like
nuts in the explosion of a raindrop... The utmost and edge. Struck
the ear. With bestial fact Fucking and sucking the air with
...
speech... Spreading the thighs across my groin Heaving. Up
...
down. Squelching spittled words into the many eared cunt. (Black
Sunlight, p97)

The short sentences, as well as the descriptive 'Plunged. Heaved. Up down. Up

down.", representthe rhythm of sexual intercoursewhich is portrayed,not as an

act of love, but as a violent act of possession. The violence of the language and

fragmentedsentencesare themselvessymbolic of his life in London.

Although there is a coherency in The House of Hunger, the progression through

the plot, such as it is is not a smooth one, as the writer intertwines a basic story
,
line with sudden insertions of apparently unconnectedmaterial. Because the

interjections are not clearly signalled the suddenshifts are initially disconcerting

until it is realised that one strand is in the 'here and now' and the other strandsare

that feed into and complement the main thrust of the story. These
recollections

recollections' vary thematically but are plamly autobiographical referencesas

Marechera began the 'painstaking exploration of the effect of poverty and

destitution on the 'psyche" (The House of Hunger, p6l) and which continued in

Black Sunlight and TheBlack Insider.

69
The question of the relationship between Marechera's
psychological illness and
his writing brings up even more complex issuesthan that his heavy drinking
of

and drug taking. My concern is not only with the meaningof

an image within the context of a specific literary text, but also with the larger

psychological context which imposes its meanings on the image.

I am also concernedwith the very issue of madnessitself, which is more often

defined in terms of social attitudes towards deviant behaviour than a clinical

diagnosis. Marechera was mad only in the Foucauldian sense,that is by the

manner in which the depths of his passionsrevealed themselves'The savage

danger of madness is related to the danger of the passionsand to their fatal

concatenation.'19 Although he could behave in a dilettante fashion, as he was

very self-aware ,CI was enjoying playing the part of the unfathomable black

intellectual mind. I still do' (The Black Insider, p87), he was demonstrably

passionate in his beliefs. Issues of sanity and madnessare often difficult to

resolve and although Marechera was not 'mad', neither was he 'sane'. He was

suffering from a personality disorder and was certainly, in Dostoyevsky's words,

an 'oddity':

For not only is an oddity not always a detail and an isolated

the it may occasionally transpire that he It
instance - on contrary,
bears him, perhaps, the very heartwood of the
is who Within
for the other men of his epoch have all
whole,. while, some reason,,
been loose from it for a time as by some tidal
of them wrenched
20
gale.

A 'tidal gale' such as colonialism or neo-colonialism, perhaps, arousing such

passionsas Foucault recognised.in his comment 'The possibility of madnessis

? 21
implicit in the very phenomenonof passion'.
70
At one extreme Marechera's psychopathologycould be
seensimply to undermine
the coherenceof his writing. The following is from a long
piece in which the

narrator struggles to describe the lasting affects of colonialism (or neo-

colonialism):

Having smashed the boot through the glass veneer of the

state. Of
our nerves. And minds. That sheer blatant austerity. Is wealth. In
our wake,, smashed institutions. Smashed minds. Smashed traffic
signs. Smashed courtrooms. Smashed armouries. Eyeballs
whirring. Their red veins sticking out to encapsulate the black
sunlight up there down here. Right here in our heritage. Fucked.
Leaving nothing but Bull Shit Organs. Screwed. The assholes.
Those ugly facts. My trial. (Black Sunlight p103)

There is an overwhelining sensehere of the writer's barely controlled rage at the

parlous state of the human condition, and one can take that potent meaningfrom

the passage. The very short staccato sentences, the violent language, the

discontinuities and the obfuscatory 'red veins sticking out to encapsulatethe

black sunlight up there down here' are an effective portrayal of utter disillusion.

However,, although Marechera's anger Is very clear, the 11teral meamng Is

obscuredby the manic paceof his writing and thought processes.One readingof

the passage suggests that Marechera is writing of 'the people'. Another reading

suggeststhat the incoherent presentationof the piece reflects the disarray of

Marechera's own lived experience,a reading that may well be confirmed by the

otherwise obscurereferenceto 'My trial. "

At another extreme the brilliant surrealism of his sentencescould be seen as

depths to the more rational and sane among us. For

plumbing unavailable

example, again from Black Sunlight:

Ants, tulips, and anacondas,are the voices in the gritty trumpet.

Cigarettes and whisky, artichokes and popstars; are the beads
71
 strung round Nick and Nicola's frail shoulders.There are pink
crabs at the shallow end of the pool' (pI 14).

Here, although even the primary meanIngIs not 'mmed'ately apparent,there is

a

gentle beauty about this rhythmic prose. Passageslike this may offer an

enjoyable,,if daunting challenge to the committed, but they would certainly

defeatthe 'general reader).

This issueof the relationship betweenhis psychologicalillness and his writing is

interestingly complicated by Wilson Harris's idea that schizophreniais a creative,

imaginative responseto the stricturesof colonisation.This involves the notion of

'creativeschizophrenia', which is (accordingto Wilson Harris):

a complex threshold into a cross-culturalmediumthat breaksthe

...
mould of a one-sided,,conquistadorial realism, ...bringing into
play parallels and alternatives through which to re-vision the
complicated global legacies of the past as those becomeactive in
original and profoundly intuitive ways within the presentand the
future. "

Schizophreniais then in Harris's view,, a form of anti-colonial psychological

,
adjustment.The implications of this hypothesisfor Marechera"sprosefiction are

explored in ChapterFour.

An alternative source for Marechera's mental disorder lies deepin the cultural

traditions of his African heritage.Michael Dambudzo's

Marechera, elder brother,

23
told the story that their mother got rid of her by
madness passing it on to her

24
Dambudzo. Michael Marechera recounts that one of their
unfortunate son

had been killed but that her evil influence had been passed
ancestors as a witch,

on to his mother. The were

consequences that:

Towards the end of 1969, Mother became mad. She went to

... her only get rid of the
consult a n'anga who told she could
72
 problem by passing it on to one of her children. She did not
choose Lovemore because he was her favourite. She did not
choose me becauseI was named after a powerful ancestorwhose
spirit would protect me from suchthings. ShechoseDambudzo.

In 1971 he began to suffer delusions.He was

sure two men were
following him everywhere.Only he could
seethem. He was then
writing his 'A' levels and I don't know how he managedbecause
he was taking so many tranquillizers.

SubsequentlyI felt he must have known what Mother had done.

When later he left for England my bonestold me he
was running
away from something. When he returnedto Zimbabwe he refused
to seeMother -I now understandwhy.

It is difficult to explain such matters to those who do not know our

culture. But I feel this story explains why Dambudzo always said
he had no family and why he saw himself as an outcast. (SB
pp53/ 54)

If, as Michael Marechera suggests,Dambudzo was aware that his own mother

had betrayed him, this would have placed yet anotherpressureon his precarious

graspon his mental well-being; his burgeoningparanoiawould have been given

sharpfocus and his fragile hold on reality would have been further threatened.

There is no doubt that Dambudzo Marechera began to experience mental

problems from around the age of 13 years, probably induced or at least

by
precipitated the traumasof his father's death deterioration
and a subsequent of

a life style that was already harsh and demanding.

One childhood friend recalled how his (Marechera's)behaviour changed'-when

his father died and when they were forced to move out of their houseand when

his mother startedto go out with men."' That DambudzoMarecherawas awareof

his mother's visit to the n'anga was confirmed in a letter from Dr Anthony
26
Chennells to me dated 29th August 1995. Chennells recalls discussing with

Marecherathe story about Marecheraand his mother, apparentlyin the context of

73
'being caught between 'European' and 'African'
culture, Chennells writes 'You
.
can imagine my horror when instead of the usual details with
which students
illustrate their cultural confusion,.Marecheraproduceda story very
similar to the
one Michael Marecheratold. " He used it to show that Shona
culture had rejected
him.' It is significant that Dambudzo Marechera
expressedthe view that his

culture, rather than simply his family, had rejected him. In addition to the

Europeanversus African debateMarechera,was keenly

aware of the ostracising

effects of UDI.

The Black girls in Oxford whether African,, West Indian

- or
American - despisedthose of us who came from Rhodesia.After
all, we still haven't won our independence.After all, the paperssay
we are always quarrelling among ourselves. And all the other
reason black girls choseto believe. It was all quite unflattering. We
had become indeed we are the Jews of Africa,, and nobody
- -
wanted us. It's bad enoughto have white shit despisingus; but it's
a more maddening story when one kettle ups its nose at another
kettle. (The House ofHunger, p97)

The last sentence is a subtle reference to Ecclestasticus: 'How agree the kettle

and the pot together? For if the one be smitten against the other it shall be
,
broken' (Chapter xin, verse 1), as Marecheralamentsthe antipathybetweenblack

Africans, which he seesas causingmore problemsthan the issuesbetweenblack

and white.

None of Marechera's works could be accuratelydescribedas a roman a clef. But,

as issues around his illness are recurring themes in all of his writing, some

backgroundto that illness is important. not simply in biographical terms, but also

as a key to a deeper understanding of the text. He writes of his time at

Penhalonga:

It was at this time I began to write poetry, each thickly affected by

whatever English or American I
poet was reading at the time. I

74
 would take an easy chair onto the edge of the cliff on
which the
school was built and nibble at the landscapesprawling beneath
me,
scratch at the soul irritation that was beginning to make me
suspect
that all was not what it seemed,that all inside
me would never be
echoedby what was outside. I was beginning to grow up. I was
on
my way to the Hararean mazesof Skidrow. I was not going to be
whatever the whites and the blacks expected of me. (Mindblast,
p122)

The image of the young Marechera, realising he is 'different%

and at the start of

what was to become a compulsive search-for-self, is brilliantly evoked as he

regards his philosophical joumey from the rural idyll of Penhalongato 'the

Hararean mazes of Ski&ow".

There are reports that Marechera began suffering attacks of paranoia and

hallucinations while at primary school which he attended from age 6 to age 13

(SB p52) and his years at St. Augustine's Mission school at Penhalonga, were

marked by developing signs of a psychological illness. As the Principal at the

time,,FatherPearcecommented'He showed a number of signsof clinical mental

sickness, including hearing voices threatening him etc. Also repeated

hypochondria, requiring us to motor him into the hospital at Umtali for treatment

of supposed"heart attacks" which were shown not to have happened(SB p68).

Hypochondria is in itself an illness and it seemslikely that the "heart attacks"

were in fact panic attacks brought on by a state of acute anxiety, a corollary of

paranoia. However as Father Prosser, one of the staff at St Augustine's,

'...
explains, of course we have never given anybody psychiatric being
treatment,.

far too rough and ready a place for that.' (SB p69) The fact that the young

Marechera was an exceptionally gifted student may well have been a factor.

MasotshaMike Hove " was one such studentand he describeshis experiencesat

boarding school:
75
 For a section of my schoolmates shall know how big,
-I never or
small - the explanation of my unusual achievementswas simple. I
had a team of witches' or wizards' familiars,
zombies,,which
unseen,,sat next to me in class and noted everything we were
taught. They did my homework while I played or slept. And
when
we had to write examinations,,the familiars pouredinto my head
all
the information I neededto passtop of the class."

Such accusations as these would provide a possible source for Marechera's

hallucinations.But while that can only remain speculationthere is little doubt that

his exceptionaltalents would have placedhim outside the usualexperience the

of
African schoolboy leading to his isolation and exacerbatinghis paranoia.

In The House ofHunger Marechera describes With a Lawrentian passion a violent

storm at Penhalonga, 'That rain, it drummed the dirum until the drum burst,

stitching the mind with thongs of lightning. It was like a madman talking

incessantly; whispering rapidly into the ear of the sky' (p32). Confronting the

elements like 'Pauline travellers on the road to Damascus' has the result of curing

Marecheraof his hallucinations:

They had gone! I could feel it. They had erasedthemselves into the
invisible airs of the storm. The daemon had been exorcised and
gone into the Gadarene swine. For the first time in my life I felt
completely alone. Totally alone. It is as if a storm could rage in
one"s mind and no one else has the experience of it. It frightened
me a little. (p34)

The key to this very dramatic passage(which covers three and a half pages,

31/34) is in the introduction of the parable of the Gadarene (St. Mark 5, v 1/13).

The storm can be seenas a metaphor for Marechera's be

illness, it can also seen

(the daemon) (as colonialism) is endemic among black

as an illness which

Africans. In this latter reading Marechera,like the Gadarene,

was not alone in his

difficulties: 'My name is Legion, for we are many' (v 9). As the Gadarene's

'cured' by being transferred to the swine who,, thus driven mad,

madnesswas
76
dash headlong into the sea, so the 'ills' of Africa disappear
will when the

coloniser is banished.

argued above that, in sections of Black Sunlight and The Black Insider

particularly, Marechera engages in a search-for-self, the primordial 1,, that

involves being free of all prior influences. In this passage,with the imaginative

exorcising of his personal daemons,

he achievesthat: 'For the first time in my life

I felt completely alone'. Marechera's personality problems tended to destroy

friendshipsbut he could be, by all accounts,a friendly and sociableman. It seems

likely that he was not naturally a solitary being and the prospect of being alone

'no
and misunderstood,. one else had the experienceof it', was 'frightening". A

possible explanation of that fear is offered by RD Laing. Quoting William

James,,Laing wrote: 'No more fiendish punishmentcould be devised... than that

one should be turned loose in society and remain absolutelyunnoticedby all the
30
membersthereof

Although Father Pearceattacheda note to his form

recommendation on behalf of

Marecherato the University College of Rhodesia qualifying his comments:'On

is
the day I write this he [Marechera] going to the doctor suffering from what

appearsto be a seriousmental disorder' (SB p92), the only extant medical report

Marechera to be the produced folloWing his examination by

on appears one

Dr Hoare Professor Gelder at Warneford Mental Hospital,

psychiatrists and

Oxford. The actual medical record is not available, and the following information

from between Sir William Hayter,

is taken an exchange of correspondence

College, Oxford, Len Rix, Lecturer at the English

Warden of New and

77
Department of the University of Rhodesia. Hayter
quotes the psychiatrists as

offering the view that 'he [Marechera] was not in their sensementally but that
ill'
I- -I
fife was psychopathic and had a personality disorder for which there was no

treatment' (SB p 175).

As psychopathyis not untreatable indeed it'requires or to

, is susceptible medical
treatment' whereas psychosis is 'inaccessible to psycho-analytical treatment'. "
it

seemslikely that there is a confusion of terminology in Hayter's account,and that

Marecherawas diagnosedas psychotic rather than psychopathic.It seemsthat he

suffered from a schizoid state aggravatedby paranoia. The importance of this

distinction is emphasised by R. D. Laing who argued that a psychotic breakdown

was more in the nature of a breakthrough,an existential crisis from which an

individual could reach a more authentic way of being, rather than a physical

illness treatable with drugs." Anthony Storr had this to say about the schizoid

character:

Schizoid people very often fail to develop any realistic sense of

...
their position in the human hierarchy Thus they often continue to
...
feel themselves to be unrealistically weak and incompetent on the
one hand, and to have equally unrealistic phantasies of power on
the other. Moreover, the less satisfaction a person gains by
interacting with people and things in the external world, the more
will he be preoccupied with his own inner world of phantasy. This
is a notable characteristic of schizoid people, who are essentially
with inner,, rather than outer, reality. 33
introverted: preoccupied

As Fanon pointed out a recufflng condition of colonial occupation was the

powerful senseof displacementexperiencedby the indigenouspopulation; taking

this 'Inheritance'to Oxford could well have exacerbatedMarechera's uncertainty

nil his in the 'human hierarchy' and hastenedhis retreat Into phantasy
about place

bearing in mind his alreadyfragile mental

and a preoccupationwith'inner reality',

78
state.

Both psychiatry and psychoanalysis recognse three functional

psychoses:

schizophrenia, manic-depressive psychosis, and paranoia. Evidence of

schizophreniaand paranoia (the latter is sometimesregardedas a variety of the

former) abound in the writings of DambudzoMarechera.According to Dr David

MacSweeney, a member of the Royal College of Psychiatry:

When we are young we interject bits and pieces of key figures in

our lives: a good father, a good mother, or a good teacher.In his
RepublIC, Plato suggests that work is needed to integate the
diverseparts of the inner self. He says:"Only when man haslinked
these parts together in a well-tempered harmony and has made
himself one man instead of many,,will he be ready to go about
he
whatever may have to do.""

Quite clearly the adult Marechera never achieved the 'well-tempered harmony'

and,,as he demonstratedthroughout his writing, never became'one man instead

of many'. As a consequence of this he struggled to do 'whatever he may have to

do', which was of course to write and possibly through that writing discover 'a

more authenticway of being':

I am the luggageno one will claim:

The out-of-place turd all deny
Responsibility:
The incredulous sneerall tuck away
Beneathbland smiles,,
The loud fart all silently agreenever
Happened;
The sheerbad breath you politely confront
with mouthwashedplatitudes: 'After W-
all s
POETRY. '
I am the rat every cat secretly admires;
The cat every dog secretly fears,
The pervert every honest citizen surprises
in his own mirror: POET.
('Identify the Identity Parade' Cemetery ofMind, p 199)

The title hints at an ambiguity along the lines of 'Will the real Zimbabweanplease

79
stand up? Exactly which identity is being sought in the identity parade?

Marechera's own identity is under attack: he is 'the luggage'

no one wants; the
rout-of-place-turd',-, the 'loud fart' and 'bad breath' greeted hypocnisy,
with

platitudes and a patronising excusing of his 'faults', 'After all it's poetry'. And

yet, the writer maintains in an affirmation of his self-imagethat he is what others

secretly want to be. Reference to the 'honest citizenI is an ironic reversal of

values. Marechera the 'pervert' and 'poet', is honest,,and the 'honest citizen' is a

hypocrite who publicly denies Marechera's 'truth' but secretly recognisesthe

validity of the writer's stance (arguably, his identity) and, if he had the courage,

would adapt it for himself

A series of misdemeanours had led to the University-initiated psychiatric

examination held in early 1976. Marechera had, (selecting from a lengthy

catalogue of disasters) assaultedvarious people, threatenedto murder named

people, set fire to the college, stolen property to fund his drinking and been

arrestedand fined for being drunk and disorderly. Marecherahad agreedto the

examination when presented with the ultimatum of psychiatric treatment or

expulsion; it is little wonder then that the University viewed the diagnosis of

'untreatable' with some apprehension. In February 1976 the College informed

Marechera that unless his behaviour improved he would be sent down. His

behaviour did not improve. There were more violent incidents, and on March

15th 1976he was expelled.

Typically Marechera rewrote the history of his expulsion, claiming'I very much

from Oxford of insanity. They demandedthat I

resentedthe implied accusation

80
either sign myself voluntarily into their psychiatric hospital or I would be sent

down. That choice really freaked me out' (SB p160). The following his
period

expulsion marked the beginning of Marechera's career as a writer. Quite

obviously he had been writing while at Oxford and before that, but the works that

were published were written very substantially in the post-Oxford era. In

subsequentchaptersthe framework of the developmentof the writer becomesthe

texts themselves, which,, as the Heinemann reader John Wyllie,, commented,

clearly reflect Marechera's intention was to say 'Look, here is the way I am and

here is the reasonfor it. "' In every single text the perturbation,the instability and

insecurity is personal and all pervasive. This approach to the writing of what

purports to be fiction is not simply an imposition of art on life but rather reflects

the fact that the art-to-life relationship is a two-way street, the one is not

discreditedby associationwith the other."

2.5 Political Commitment

A Writer for a Specific Nation?

I shall now turn to the question of Marechera's rejection of the almost obligatory

roles for the African writer of his generation,,as spokesman for 'the struggle' or

'teacher'of his people. Marechera'sviews on the 'commitment' of the wnter were

'If for a specific nation or a specific race, then fuck

vigorous: you are a writer

1952-1987, A more temperate

you' (Damhudzo Marechera p3, see also above).

from Marechera presentedto the Zimbabwe German

version emerged a paper

Society, on Wednesday29th October 1986. His topic was 'The African Writer's

Experience of European Literature. He said 'From in

early my life I have viewed

literature as a unique universe that has no internal divisions. I do not pigeon hole

81
it by race or languageor nation' (SB, p362). This deliberately syncretic approach

to literature is confirmed later in the same article when he claims '...Mikhail

Bakhtin has offered a category of narrative whose unifying factor is a 'carnival'

attitude to the world. This categoryincludes writers from different backgrounds

Heavenand hell are close and may be visited. Madness,dreamsand day-dreams,

abnormal statesof mind and all kinds of erratic inclinations are explored"' There

are echoes here of Marechera's own work of course. Simon Dentith argues that

its
carnivalised writing ...reproducesWithin own structuresand within its own

practices, the characteristic inversions parodies, discrownings of carnival

,
1 38
proper. and undoubtedly Marechera's work shows some of those qualities

But what of Marecheraýs clear vision of the writer existing simply as a writer in a

'unique uru*verse,,with no barriers and therefore,,with no limiting expectations?Is

this any more than an impossible dream? This is something of a rhetorical

question. But what does matter, certainly in Marecheran ternis, is that the writer

be free to prior expectationsinfonning either the form or

should operatewithout

his Such a view is not unique of course,either to Marecheraor

content of work.

Africa; as Louis MacNeice bitterly observed, in An Ecloguefor Christmas:

I have not been allowed to be

Myself in flesh or face, but abstractingand
dissectingme
They have made of me pure form, a symbol or a
pastiche 39
Stylised profile, anything but soul and fles
-

In trying to escapefrom that 'stylised profile' Marecherawas seeking a senseof

but (as I below) the first step was to become

his own unique identity argue

identity createdfor the writer by

disentangledfrom the influence of the notion of

82
divers others. The escapewas through writing, as Barthes
argues:'Writing is that

neutral, composite, oblique space where our subject slips away, the negative

where all identity is lost, starting with the very identity of the body writing. " Of

courseBarthes' argument was concernedwith the primacy of the readerbut the

significance of the death of the author had, perhaps,a different resonancefor

Marechera in that such death could lead, not to obscurity, but to a rebirth from

which the 'pure' individual could emergehaving purged himself of pernicious

influences.

Such individualism did not sit easily in newly independentcountries where it

seemedthat the initial task of black African writers was not to write about their

own experiences but to record a sense of history and culture to replace that

ignored by colonial writers and historians. The role of the writer was typified as

'...teacher or guide, lending his skill to the education and direction of the

41
massesi. As Achebe remarked 'The "nter cannotexpectto be excusedfrom the

task of re-educationand regenerationthat must be done. In fact he should march

right in front. "' Ngugi argued'An African writer should write in a languagethat
113
will allow him to communicate effectively with peasantsand workers in Africa.

He was referring specifically to writing in an African language rather than a

European language, but the notion of accessibility, regardlessof the African

language/Europeanlanguage debate, was one to which Marechera paid little

to
heed. He was in any event under no pressure write in Shona as a means of

the SouthernRhodesiaLiterary Bureae ensured

protest, since the activities of

that more African languagebooks were published in Rhodesiathan in any other

African country.

83
Marechera had his own perception of the activities of the Bureau: 'In Zimbabwe

we have these two great indigenous languages,ChiShona and Sindebele.Who

wants us to keep writing these ShitShona and ShitNdebele languages,this

missionary chickenshit? Who else but the imperialists."' This stanceis opposed

to that of Ngugi for whom the fact that his language had been hijacked by

missionariesand imperialists would have been a very powerful reasonfor writing

in it to set the record straight. (SubsequentlyMarecheradid, nevertheless,write

in Shona. The one-act play 'The Servant's Ball' was published in Scrapiron

Blues in English and Shona language versions.) As for his own use of English

Marecheraexplained:

Shona was part of the ghetto daemon I was trying to escape.Shona

had been placed within the context of a degraded mindwrenching
experience from which apparently the only escape was into the
English language and education. English language was
...
automatically connected with the plush and seeming splendour of
the white side of town... (Damhudzo Marechera 1952-1987, p7)

This is followed by the bleak observation'l was therefore a keen accomplice and

'
studentin my own mental colon1sation.

A counter to the argument that the use of English is a political statement and

indicates mental colon1sation is that Marechera's use of English is rather an

,
indication of a continually regenerative '
hybridization. As he argued with

his 'experimental' use of English:

typical extravagance when explaining

have have harrowing fights and hair-raising panga duals

you to
... language before it do all that you want
(sic) With the you can make
it to do... this may mean discarding grammar, throwing syntax out,
from Within, beating the drum and cymbals of
subverting images
developing torture chambers of irony and sarcasm, gas
rhythm, 1952-
limitless black resonance. ( Dambudzo Marechera
ovens of
1987, pp7/8)
84
A similar theme - that of a 'new culture' emerging from the
clash of the 'old

cultures' is explored by Dash who argues (of colonised people) 'The only thing

they could possess(and which could not be tamperedwith) was their imagination

and this became the source of their struggle against the cruelty
of their

conditions.' He attributes the notion of sucha 'counter-cultureof the imagination'

to Wilson Harris who claimed that'the imagination of the folk involved a crucial

inner re-creative response to the violations of slavery and Indenture and

' "
conquest. Dambudzo Marechera rejected the idea of a black historicity to

recreate 'his' lost culture and which attemptedto disown the Europeanculture

transplantedto Affica. His 'inner creative response'tothis vacuumwas to offer a

portrait of an individual adrift in a culture in permanenttransition, lost in a world

of hybridity and incompleteness. Marecherais too unforgiving of himself With

his accusations against himself of being an accomplice in his own 'mental

colonisation'. He experienceda dynamic and powerful processof socialisationin

which any degreeof choice was not a realistic option.

As for the role of teacherpreferredby Ngugi and Achebe,Marecherarejectedthe

argument,,saying 'I don't know that the writer can offer the emerging nation

anything... Writing As
can always turn into cheappropaganda... soon as one talks

in you are already into censorship' (Dambudzo

about a writer's role society...

he
Marechera 1952-1987, p19). Of the reader comments: 'Those who do not

illiterate. One must learn' (Black Sunlight pI 10).

understandmy work are simply

Marechera's points on the role of the writer are well made and to an extent echo

the criticism levelled at the activities of the southem RhodesiaLiterary Bureau

who ensured,by very strict censorship,that no politically sensitive material was

85
published (see below). His commentson the reader,,however,,
may seemarrogant

and dismissive. They have the air of rationalisation as the writer attemptedto

answerhis critics, especially those who accusedhim of being dlfficult to read.

toLeN
The following extract from The Black Insider is
.
eK#aGWfrom a polemic on the

nature and use of language, sustained over several pages (pp47/52) in which

Marecheraentertainsthe notion of language,amongother things, as a corrupting

agencyand as tool of individual freedom-

Language is like water. You can drink it. You can swim in it. You
can drown in it. You can wear a snorkel in it. You can evaporate
and become invisible with it... The way you take your water is
supposed to say a lot about you. It is supposed to reflect your
history, your culture, your breeding etc. It is supposedto show the
extent to which you and your nation have developed or
degenerated. The word 'primitive' is applied to all those who take
their alphabet neat from rivers,, sewers,, and natural scenery -
sometimes this may be described as the romantic imagination. The
height of sophistication is actually to channel your water through a
system of pipes into your very own lavatory where you shake the
hand of the machine and your shit and filthy manners disappear in a
roaring of water. Being water you can spread diseases like
bilharzia. And if you want to write a book you cannot think unless
your thoughts are contagious.

The latter half of the above is a thinly disguisedattack on the notion of the writer

as communal spokesman,comparingthat activity to the spreadingof a disease.

It

lament for the individual who is not 'allowed' to think unless his
is also a

he
'thoughts' are contagious, that is, unless can be understoodand acceptedby

everyone.As I demonstratein ChaptersFive and Six there is abundantevidence

he true to those ideals in the work he produced on his

available that remained

return to Zimbabwe.

86
2.6 Nationalism

'The worst kind of hypocrite'

I shall now move on to consider the dangers and difficulties

of writers

attempting,or being encouragedto attempt,the creation of an 'Afri identity' or

a 'senseof nationhood'. leading to the question of Marechera'srejection of the

label 'African writer. ' In the scramble for Africa in the late nineteenth
and early
twentieth centuries 'new' nat'ions were createdby the English, the French, the
11
Germans,,the Dutch, the Belgians and the Portuguese,and with thesenew nations

'new' identities were establishedindistinguishablefrom the 'home'country of the

coloniser and settler. Wole Soyinka comimented, 'One hundred years ago the
...
colonial powers that ruled Africa met to diwy up their interests into states,

lumping various peoples and tribes together in some places and hacking them

apart in others like some dementedtailor who paid no attention to the fabric,

colour or pattern of the quilt he was patching together.' " When Southern

Rhodesia became the independent republic of Zimbabwe in April 1980 it

signalled the end of colonial rule in Africa. The process of recapturing an

'African identity', that had begun decadesearlier elsewherein Africa, began to

gather force in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe.And it is impossible to understandthis

process without specific reference to the local f actor of the Rhodesia Literature

Bureau which largely informed or deformed it during the final years of

colonisation.

The Rhodesia Literature Bureau was establishedin 1953 under the auspicesof

the Native Affairs Department with the express intention of encouragingthe

black African in Shonaand Ndebele, the languagesof the

publication of writing

87
indigenous peoples of Zimbabwe. The Literature Bureau functioned as a literary

agency; among other things it organised writer's workshops to teach writing

skills, assessedmanuscriptsand recommendedand preparedthem for publication.

But the Literature Bureau always had a double function." On the one hand it

played a very important role in promoting vernacular writing and providing the

for
means its development.On the other hand, it had been establishedin order to

prevent the emergence of critical political literature. All submissionsto the

Literature Bureau were closely vetted by the Native Commissioners who rejected

all political or religious subject matter, both one would imagine appropriate

topics for a country that had been colonised by British entrepreneurs

accompanied by proselytizing missionaries.

This censorship ensured that indigenous writing was unable to tackle serious

issues and followed a completely separate development to black writing in

English. The national identity constructed by the writers working to the orders of

the Literature Bureau portrayed an apolitical, one-dimensional, folklorist people

difficult to the soldiers who eventually overcamethe Smith

very reconcile with

bearing at all to the worlds depictedby, say, Charles

regime and no resemblance

Mungoshi in Waiting for the Rain, or Stanley Nyamfukudza in The Non

Believer's Journey, or in Marechera'sHouse of Hunger, Black Sunlight or The

Black Insider. The efforts of the Literature Bureau ensuredthat the work of the

black Zimbabwean writing in Shona or Ndebele was heavily censored,severely

became part of a literature branded in pejorative

limited in subject matter and

being prepared and presented for

terms as 'native. If a national image was

black Zimbabwean then it was one cynically manipulatedby

consumption by the

88
the white Govemment.

PrebenKaarsholm writes of the struggle for the 'heartsand minds of the people'

that was 'an integral part of the processof decolonisation in Rhodesiafrom the

Unilateral Declaration of Independencein 1965and the first initiatives of guerilla

warfare on the part of the nationalist movementsfrom March 1966 onwards...to

the independenceof Zimbabwe... in 1980.' " She continues 'The struggle has

been maintained since then in the attempts by Zimbabwean writers, poets and

to
artists... consolidateand develop the foundationsof a new, autonomousculture

that were establishedduring the war'. I arguelater that sucha 'new' culture is in

fact a hybrid of what had gonebefore; here I wish merely to illustrate the dangers

inherent in trying to recreatea national identity or senseof nationhood.

But there were attempts to escape the interference of the Literature Bureau and

some black Zimbabweans Wnting in English, often from exile, did take on

politically sensitive matters. However even for these brave political writers there

history and they did not necessarilyget it right. In

were problems in recreating

1980 the Mambo Press published The Searchfor Zimbabwean Identity by George

Kahari, at that time a senior lecturer in the Department of African Languages at

University Zimbabwe. Kahari examinedthe first novels written in English

the of

by black Zimbabweans.One of the novels was the previously mentioned Waiting

for the Rain by Mungoshi which Kahari calls'... a novel of bleak social realism

disintegration the family unit' (p 134). He also refers to Year of the

charting the of

Samkange, ' historical novel which shows how

Uprising by Stanlake ... another

the people in resisting the Charter Company

the African spirit media influenced

89
Administration and the reasonswhich led to the rebellion of 1893-18971
(pl9).
...
Musacmura Zimunya in Those Days of Drought
and Hunger examines the

emergenceof 'serious African fiction in English in Zimbabwe' (p2). Of Year of

the Uprising he notes the central role of the spirit mediums and refers to the

'documental-historicalsignificance'(p 16) of Sainkange's

work. Obviously Yearof

the Uprising contained vital information for those searchingfor clues to the

Zimbabweanidentity.

Terence Ranger's book Revolt in Southern Rhodesia 1896-1897, first published

in 1967, was hailed (in the blurb to the secondedition (1979)) as '...[a] classic of

Rhodesian historiography' and '... one of the most intelligent analyses yet

produced ... an engrossingand meaningful study of the nature of the Shonaand

Ndebele fight against the rule of the British South Affica Company.' This is not

the place to enter into the detail of Ranger'sclaims aboutthe socio-economicand

political organisations of the Shona and Ndebele peoples nor to examine his

interpretations of the events that preceded the wars of 1896-1897. But Ranger

emphasised, among other things, the importance of the Mutapa and Rozwi

empires, suggesting that the structures and memories of those empires were

significant in 1896 in achieving combined action against the whites. He also

that the mediums played the most important role in brin ing
91 about
stressed spirit

the risings. The Shona he suggestedwere imperialists and the Ndebele

unity in

dependent the Shonafor agriculture and technology.Suffice it to say

warriors,, on

questioned
that theseconclusions,,and others, were subsequently and the validity

his text brought into seriousdoubt by, for example, David Beach
and accuracyof

Shona, " Julian Cobbing in The Ndebele Under the

in A History of the and

90
 V, L
A-humalos1820-1896 52In the preface to the second
edition of Revolt published

in 1979 Ranger acceptedmany of the criticisms, adding the comment,,'It

is now
ten years since Revolt in SouthernRhodesiawas published
and ten yearsis a long
time in Africa and in African historiography If I were the
... writing about risings
today, I would certainly do so very differently' (p xi).

Such withdrawals do not come easily and

only after long and arduous

examination of the available facts. Of his search for evidence with which to

support his own findings and to contestBeach and Cobbing, Ranger comments,

'Often in the past ten years I have read a book which seemedat first sight to

confirm the argument about ... leadershipin 1896 only to realise that the book

itself was drawing heavily upon the interpretations set out in my own book. This

is true,, I think, for Lawrence Vambe's book An III Fated People and Stanlake

Samkange's Year of the Uprising' (pp xiv-xv). Samkangeacknowledged his debt

to Ranger, and of Vambe's Ill Fated People, which stressesthe central role played

by the spirit mediums in the risings, Ranger comments,... the overall account of

mediums and revolt ... is [drawn from Revolt]'.

Sarnkange'snovel was usedby Kahari in his searchfor a Zimbabweanidentity as

validating certain characteristics of the Shona and Ndebele identities but

Satnkange's novel was based on neither primary research nor specialist

knowledge. As Samkangeacknowledgesin the preface to his novel he relied on

the evidence appearing in Ranger's book, evidence which was subsequently

disputed and found to be in error. It would seem that the construction (or

of a national identity is a task that is fraught with the difficulties

reconstruction)

91
of censorship, false notions of history, and the personal, often idiosyncratic

intentions of the writer. The Zimbabwean experience has been repeated

elsewhere: writing in Tasks and Allasksof Ng-ugi'sA Grain of Wheat, Lewis

Nkosi claims '...so strong is this historical sense,so pervasivethe influence of the

Mau Mau uprising, that by comparison the characters seem to me not as

important: it is possible to argue that history itself, as it unfolded in the Kenya

struggle for freedom becomes

and independence, the true 'hero' of the novel."'

This raisesthe issuesof whose senseof history is being recordedand what is the

provenance of that 'history', if it is to be taken as more than fiction, as Nkosi

implies it is.

Marechera had a keen sense of history but only insofar as it offered the key to

understandingthe present. Flora Veit-Wild wrote Marechera refusesto identify

himself with any particular race, culture or nation; he is an anarchistic

is
thinker the freedom of the individual of the utmost importance.In this he is
...
this is how he tries to live' (Dambudzo Marechera 1952-
uncompromising, and

1987, p34/36). This is an uncompromising approach certainly, but Marechera was

humour,,stating in The Black Insider'Writing has made me the worst

not without

kind of hypocrite - an honest one', and referring disparagingly to the African

'those dogs in London' (p79) and their talk of 'cabbagesand kings of

exiles as

the and of the Af rican image in djaspora'

racist phenomenaand onions inkwells

(p6 1). As for nationalism,, 'National culture' he scoffed in Scrap, *ron Blues, (p26)

seems to mean a lot of fat women dressed in the Leader'scolours and a crowd
...
half-naked traditional dancersleaping in clouds of dust.
'
of

92
Clearly Marechera,can himself be felt to exhibit the two-minds-in-one-body

syndrome. He can be seen as exemplifying the identity crisis of the African

exiled in Europe,,in physical and psychological exile. Kristeva says; 'Writing is

impossible without some kind of In

exile'. Kristevan terms one becomesa writer

'by becoming a stranger to ones own country, language, sex and identity."'

Moreover in addition to physical exile the senseof alienation induced by the

,
excesses of colonisation meant that many Africans were, in effect, exiled in

their own country.

Certainly his own acute awareness of the two-minds-in-one-body condition is

evident in the following passage,which has added relevancein that Marechera

questions the ability of the novel to contain something as complex as a national

identity. On the emergenceof the black writer'the narrator comments:

Suddenly it seemed all our best minds were accessible, had

experienced the same anguish as ourselves, had felt the same anger
and humiliation at the hands of the whites and were writing about it
to let every brother know. And then, of course, the African image
which we ourselves were constructing in our novels and poems was
as limited and as false as in the white novelists and poets
descriptions. Perhaps the limitation and falseness are inbuilt within
the novel as a genre which has never fully accommodated the
... (The Black Insider
multitude and psyche of whole continents'.
P109-1 10)
I
is
Here I suggest Marechera referring to the Jungian collective unconscious,, ... a

disposition by the forces of heredity' (see above). He is

certain psychic shaped

asking how the novel can hope to accommodatesomething so intangible as an

identity when the roots of that identity go back thousandsof years and spread

over a whole continent.

93
2.7 Universalism

'Literacy is the surgeon's needle'

Despairing of the many and various attempts to create an 'African

image'
Marechera was particularly scathing in his attack on the Government of the

newly independent Zimbabwe dismissing it as a'machine-like state'with a desire

ive the citizen a prefabricatedidentity and consc'iousnessmade up of the

to '...91

rouge and lipstick of the struggle and the revolution' (Black Insider p142). Not

that he had any answers himself as he followed that particular attack with the

bemused'Hadwe lost the African image or had the Affican imagelost us?'(Black

Insider p142). Undermining the certainty of his readers with such rhetorical

questions is a common Marechera device. Of course it could also mask the

writer's own uncertainty as a writer.

The following passagesuggeststhat although writing helped Marechera as an

individual he consideredthat much African writing was actually damagingto the

African:

Literacy is the surgeon's needle with which I bind my wounds. I

would do a better job of it if I had I
an anaesthetic. suffer from
insomnia. And wear Gogol's overcoat at nights and seek out the
secret of his genius. Africa needs him desperately, otherwise we
will choke in self disgust. I have found in nineteenth-century
Russian literature an empathy with the breath and experience of
Africa which I have not found in literature We have done such a
...
good advertising and public relations stunt with our African image
that all the horrors committed under its lips merely reinforce our
admiration for the new clothes we acquired with independence.
(Black Insider P113-114)

No doubt it is the Emperor'snew clothesto which Marecheramakesreference.

In 'The African Writer's Experience of EuropeanLiterature' Marechera identified

two types of writer: 'There are those who write while working in the service of
94
the state, or some religion or Ideology. There are writers who
can only write

while they are free to develop their own personality, to be true to themselves'

(pl-04). Marecherawas of course in the latter category

and the journey to become

a writer was a painful one 'The writer is no longer a person;he hasto die in order

to becomea writer' (p 103). It was aj ourney that Marecheradid not seeinhibited

by borders or territories '...the direct international experience of

every single
living entity is for me, the inspiration to write' (Dambudzo Marechera 1952-

1987, p3).

This sentiment is problematic as it seemsto suggest that experience itself can be

shared.It cannot of course be shared.Experience is unique in itself. It can be

imperfectly explained, but not shared.However this is not to arguethat because

the only certainty is our own experience we should always look inwardl.-Pnot only

becauseof the dangersexpressedby Kristeva ('Depressionis the hidden face of

Narcissus,.the face that is to bear him away into death,.but of which he is

unawarewhile he admires himself in a mirage') " but also because,

as the poet

Sylvia Plath suggested, '-personal experience is very important but shouldn't be

a kind of shut box and mirror looking I

narcissisticexperience. believe it should

be relevant to the larger things, the bigger things, such as Hiroshima and Dachau

and so on."' This would seemto me an obvious truth. To relate our experiences

to the world at large is a way of understandingthem, of placing them in a context

in which they can be measured.But, although I can relate them, place them,

measurethem,,my experiencesremain stubbornly mine. However I

much as a

writer or social commentator may want it, I cannot see through your eyes, nor

stand in your shoes. This, I suggest leaves the writer able only to represent

95
himself or herself and notions of speakingTor
and on behalf of a people'become,

in practice, illusory and impossible to realise.

'Speakingfor and on behalf of a people'is a battle for the black African writer
cry
introduced by the Kenyan writer Ngugi wa Thi
iong'o. This
I leads immediately to

problems of definition and self identity as Marecherademonstratesin TheBlack

Insider '... "I've never met any black writers. Are you
angry and polemic or are

you grim and nocturnal or are you realistic and quavering or are you indifferent

and European.Those are the categories,I think. " shesaid..."I write asbest I can."

I replied, at a loss for words' (p68). There is little doubt that the black writer,, the

respondent, is Marechera,
himself, the sentimentis certainly his. Although I doubt

that he was ever at a loss for words.

DambudzoMarecherawas a complex individual, deeply affectedby the excesses

of the circumstancesof his internal and external environments.As a writer his

work is often obscure as he muddles his way through a fog of reminiscences,,

impressions and imaginings, toward a sort of clarity of personal vision and

purpose, which is achieved only rarely. But it is a quest in which he was

indefatigable - that is until the physical illness of his last years drained his

strength.Undoubtedly his psychological illness informed his work but is his work

diminished by his illness? It may be too much to argue that the work was

by
enhanced it, but as his traumas were part nature, part nurture, they do offer

valuable insights into the sufferings of an individual caughtbetweentwo cultures,

he
as moved from Rhodesia to Oxford and London and back to Zimbabwe. The

for
obsessivesearch a senseof his own identity and purposecausedhim to reject

96
any idea that he could, or should, act as spokesmanfor anyonebut himself, and

the fruitless nature of that search led him to reject the notion
of writing for a

specific nation or race as he saw himself - as a writer approachinga universal

-
audience.

This endless circling around the nature of existence led to

accusations of

obscurantismand irrelevance,,and it is true that some of the work is difficult to

read.But if he is unreadon the gToundsof obscurity or difficulty, then the blame,

such as it is,, should be shared between writer and reader. On reading an

unpublishednovel Philip Larkin wrote to the author 'For you... the eventsspeak

for themselves...the reader wants that impure thing, literature plots, suspense,
-
characters, ups, downs, laughter, tears... Your narratiVe isn't a story, it's a frieze

of misery...this is the most difficult thing to make a book of"' Difficult, but not

he
impossible, might have added. More often than not the readerdoes want the

finished article, polished and in readily recognisableform, and Marechera'swork

is undoubtedly short of some of the qualities on Larkin's list. But the occasional

excursioninto the difficult and less familiar if not the unknown, may extendthe
,
reader and ultimately provide an experience against which to measure other

experiences.

In his rejection of nationalism for universalism; his determined espousal of

individualism rather than the role of communal spokesman;and his determination

to continue Writing although often in a debilitated state,physically and mentally,

T)4mbudzoMarechera,travelled a lonely road. It was a combination of these

qualities that led to his unique contribution to African literature: as Robert Frost
,

97
wrote in The Road Not Taken., 'I took the one less travelled by, / And that has

made all the difference.

"'

Notes

1 Peggy Kamuf,
ed. A Derrida Reader (London: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1991),
? 516.
Max J. Friedlander, quoted by EH Gombrich in Art and Illusion (Oxford:
Phaidon Press,,1960), Oxford, p3.
3 C. G. Jung, Modern Man in Search Soul (London: Ark Routledge, 1984),
ofa
P175.
Bettelheim suggests that psycho-analysis is at least three different things: a
method of observation, a therapy, and a body of theories on human behaviour and
personality structure. My use of the term is covered by the latter definition, a
body of theories etc..
5 Lionel Trilling, 'Freud Literature', Critical Theory since Plato, H. Adams,
and
(ed.) (London: Harcourt Brace Jovanovitch, 1971), p949.
6 R. D. Laing, The Divided Seý((Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1959), 19.
p
7 The Jungian ('a disposition
collective unconscious, certain psychic shaped by
the forces of heredity' Modern Man in Search of a Soul, p 175) With its notion of
behaviour being determined (in part, at least) by historical precedent, is redolent
of Marx's views on a dominant ideology. As Fromm argues persuasively in
Beyond the Chains of Illusion (London: Abacus,, 1980) to establish the
relationship between Marxism and Freudianism, it is apparent that lines of
demarcation are difficult to discern.
8
Jean Paul Sartre,,Existentialism and Humanism (London: Eyre Methuen, 1948),
A

__
r2.
Jacques Lacan, Ecrits Selection (London: Tavistock/Routledge, 1977),
-A
p5.
0 C. G. Jung, Dreams (London: Ark Routledge, 1985), p260.
Howard P. Kainz, Hegel's Philosophy of Right, with Marx's Commentary (The
Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1974), pp6/15.
12 Buuck, David. 'Hybridity and Identity in the work of Dambudzo Marechera,
Research in African Literatures, Volume 28, Number 2, Summer 1997, pp
118/131.
13 Raymond Williams, The Long Revolution, (London: Chatto & Windus, 1961).
14 Silvano Arieti, Understanding and Helping the Schizophrenic,
(Harmondsworth. Pelican, 1981) p76.
15 Interview David Pattison, January 1995.
with

98
16
Aldous Huxley, The Doors ofPerception ( 1964)(London: Grafton, 1977),
P717.
Presumablythis is a reference to the meeting between Henry Morton Stanley
and Kabaka (king) Mutesa the First of Buganda. A pact betweenthe two led to
the spreadof both Protestantismand Roman Catholicism,,the resulting factional
split contributed to the downfall of Buganda in the scramble for Africa. The
country was renamed Uganda when it came under British rule in 1896. The
relevance to Marechera's story is unclear unless It is in the echo of Stanley's
?Freetingto Livingstone 'Blanche GoodfatherI presume
8 JoanMagretta exploresthis
issuein TheIconography ofMadness,University
of Michigan, 1976, p3.
19Michel Foucault,Madness
and Civilisation (1961) (London: Tavistock, 1967),
85.
0 From the introduction 'From the Author' to TheBrothers Karamazov(1880),
Fyodor Dostoyevsky ( London: Penguin, 1993).
21Michel Foucault,Madness
and Civilisation (1961) (London: Tavistock, 1967),
88.
2 Wilson Harris,, The Radical Imagination, Alan Riach & Mark Williams (eds.)
(Liege: University of Liege, 1992),ppl4 & 15.
23The full text of Michael Marechera'sletter to Veit-Wild
explainingthe 'family
is
curse' given in Appendix Three.
2' As Marechera had been diagnosedas schizophrenicit is useful at this juncture
to draw attention to R. D. Laing's contentionthat schizophreniain the individual
is best understood by examining the family nexus, on the grounds that 'The
by
relationshipsof personsin a nexus are characterized ...reciprocal influence on
each other's experience and behaviour. ' R. D. Laing, Sanity, Madness and the
Family (Harmondsworth: PenguinBooks, 1990), P2I.
25The Marechera family moved from Vengereto an inferior squatterlocation at
Tangwena.where they had a house 'divided into two rooms... There were no
proper windows, just big holes... There was no water, there was no electn'City
...
There was a lot of filth... a lot of garbagewas lying in the open and water was
flowing through, so there were very many flies and cockroachesbreedingall over
It
the place. was very dirty and unhygienic' SB p52. On his expulsion from the
University of Rhodesia Marechera returned to Tangwenawhere he stayeduntil
r ing up to Oxford.
Dr Anthony Chennells is a Senior Lecturer in the English Department at the
University of Zimbabwe. He was one of Marechera!s tutors during his time at
what was then the University of Rhodesia.
27Chennells referring to the letter from Michael Marechera quoted above, and
is
to the Source Book, pp53/54.
28 Masotsha Mike Hove wrote the largely autobiographical Confessions of a
Wizard (Harare: Mambo Press, 1985). He was the Federal High Commissioner to
Nigeria during the Federation of the Rhodesias and Nyasaland. He later became
the first black African to be appointed as social administrator in Bulawayo.
29
ibid p7.
30RD Laing, Seýfand Others, Second Edition ( London. Tavistock, 1969) p82.
31 Both these definitions are taken from ppl3l/132, A Critical Dictionary of
Psychoanalysis, Charles Rycroft, (ed.) (London: Penguin, 1972).
32 This argument underpins Sanity, Maidness and the Family and is referred to

99
specifically by Harriet Stewart in, 'Fear in the family', The Guardian (London:
July 26 1996), p 14.
33Anthony Storr, TheDynamics Creation (London:
of Penguin, 1991), p75.
34As quoted by Cal McCrystal 'Old boy's class act'. The Observer Review
in
(London: September4th 1995), p8.
35A point made by Wyllie his
in reader'sreport on The Black Heretic, undated
but probably around November 1979.
36This idea is developed further by Anthony P. Kerby
in Narrative and Self
(Bloomington: Indiana University Press,1991). Seeparticularly pl 2.
37 Dambudzo Marechera,, 'The African Writer's Experience
of European
Literature' Zambezia,pp99/plOl.
38Simon Dentith, Bakhtinian Thought(London, Routledge,1995),
p65.
39Louis MacNeice, SelectedPoems,(London: Faber& Faber, 1960), 10.
p
40 Roland Barthes, 'The Death
of the Author, Image Music Text (London.
Fontana,1977),p142.
41G. Griffiths, A Double Exile (London: Boyars, 1978),
p49.
42Chinua Achebe, Hopes
and Impediments- SelectedEssays1965-87, (London:
Heinemann, 1988),p30.
43Ngugi wa Thiong'o, 'On Writing in Gikuyu', Researchin Aftican Literatures,
Vol. 16,,Number 2 (Austin: University of TexasPress,1985).
44Writing in The Searchfor ZimbabweanIdentity (p 15), GeorgeKahari
was able
to claim that following the establishmentof the SouthernRhodesiaLiterature
Bureauin 1953 'to encourage,assistand adviselocal authorsin Shona',more than
60 such novels had been published up to 1980.What is now the Zimbabwe
Literature Bureau is still very active. SeeChapterSix. 0
45 David Caute,, 'Marechera and the Colonel',, The Espionage of the Saints
(London: Hamish Hamilton, 1986), p15-
46In their introduction to The Radical Imagination Riach and Williams argue
'English is manifestly a globally dispersed and decentred language whose
principal connecting legacy is colonialism in all its complexity. Harris invites us
to seethe historical and contemporaryoperationsof languageneither in terms of
imperial authority nor in terms of the self -righteous rhetoric of the deprived but
rather in terms of continually regenerative hybndization. 'p 13.
47Michael Dash 'The Way Out of Negritude', The Post-Colonial Studies
.
Reader.,eds.Bill Ashcroft et al (London: Routledge, 1995), p200.
48 Wole Soyinka in an interview with Nathan Gardels, 'Bloodsoakedquilt of
Africa%The Guardian (London: May 17th 1994), p20.
49This feature of the work of the Literature Bureau is further developedby Flora
Veit- Wild in Teachers,Preachers,Non-Believers, pp72/74.
50Preben Kaarsholm, Cultural Struggle and Development in SouthernAfrica
(London: JamesCurrey, 1991),p32.
51A History of the Shona was published in London in 1979. Among others
Ranger also cites David Beach, 'The Politics of Collaboration, University of
Rhodesia,History SeminarPaper, No 9,1969, and'The Rising in South Western
Mashonaland,,1896-71, doctoral thesis, University of London, 1971.
52The Ndebele under the Khumalos, 1820-1896, doctoral thesis, University of
Lancaster,, 1976. Additionally,. 'The Absent Priesthood: Another took at the
RhodesianRisings of 1896-97, Journal ofAfrican History, Vol 28, No 1,1977.
53LewisNkosi., Tasksand Masks (Harlow: Longman,1981), p3l.
100
54 Julia Kristeva, The Kristeva Reader,, Toril Moi, (ed.) (Oxford: Basil
Blackwell,, 1986), p298.
55Julia Kristeva, Black Sun (New York: Columbia University Press, 1989),p5.
56 The Poet Speaks,Argo Record Company London 1965, PLP 1085. Sylvia
Plath recordedher contribution on 30th October 1962.
5' Quoted by Nicci Gerard in 'The crying game" ObserverReview(London: 10th
September,1995), p15.
58Theseare the final lines in Robert Frost's poem, 'The Road Not Taken', The
SelectedPoems, Ian Hamilton, (ed.) (Harmondsworth-.Penguin,1973),p77.

101
 CHAPTER THREE

The House of Hunger: Marechera and the 'postcolonial

situation I

3.1 'Havoc in the College' '

Dambudzo Marechera arrived in England on 3 October 1974 to

read English
Literature at New College, Oxford. Starting his life
in England as he was to

it,
continue he took a tax' from Heathrow Airport to Oxford, which was paid for

by the College as he had amved wth no money, no possessions

and only the

clothes he was wearing (SB pl. 62). Oxford was unlike anything he had ever

experiencedand, on one level at least, he responded with traditional romantic

enthusiasmto its characteristicambience:

A few rusty spears of sunlight had pierced through the overhead

drizzling clouds. Behind the gloom of rain and mist, I could see a
wizened but fearfully blood-shot sun. And everywhere, the sweet
clangour of bells pushed in clear tones what secret rites had
evolved with this city. Narrow cobbled streets, ancient warren of
diverse architecture all backed up into itself, with here there and
everywhere the massive masonry of college after college. ('Oxford,
Black Oxford', The Black Insider p 158)

A less romantic view comes from the Alle Lansu interview. Lansu had asked

whether he felt at home in Oxford:

I knew the United Kingdom only through its authors, its poets, its
-
I
playwrights. was now actually on the soil where all these writers
I'd been studying for years and years had lived and died, and the
reality was so disappointing. Oxford has got one of the highest
unemployment figures in England. And Oxford is also segregated,
I
though thought I had left segregation behind. On the one side
there are the students,, the aristocracy of Oxford. On the other side,
there is a whole army of thousands and thousands of ordinary
workers who live I
and work there. mean, Jesus Christ for the first

102
 time at Oxford I had a white servant.Shehad to
come every day to
my house,sweepup everything, clean my empty beer bottles, clean
up everything. Thousands are unemployed and live on soc'al
security.... Their residential areas are totally cut off from the
university, and so you have the same kind of segregationas at
Rusape.And if you tried to crossthe boundaries,,if
you as a student
tried to drink in pubs where the workers drink, you would
get
beaten up. I got beaten up myself when I
got tired of the student
pubs and wanted to drink in pubs where there were some other
black people. (SB pp23/24)

Recordedeight years after the event and bearing in mind Marechera's

capacityto
distort past experiencesthe above commentsneverthelessretain a powerful
sense

of alienation.

Veit-Wild offers an explanation of Marechera's sense of estrangementin the

Source Book (p 152):

New College, founded in 1379, is one of Oxford's oldest and most

prestigious colleges. With its monumental architecture it reminds
the visitor of a fort or a castle. The large quadrangle surrounded by
stem grey facades, the towering chapel and quiet cloister, the
solemn hall With portraits of famous college inmates, the lovely,
well-kept college garden, enclosed by high walls reflect
impressively and imposingly centuries of English academic
tradition. No wonder the young African student felt lost and
dislocated.

It is little wonder then that,,despitethe efforts of many, he neversettledat Oxford

and left in March 1976. In a subsequentrationalisation of this episode he

expresseda passionate(though distaste

probably unreasonable) for his time at

New College 'I discovered they were trying to make me into an intellectual

Uncle Tom. I was being mentally raped' (SB p 152).

Sir William Hayter, warden of New College, had the unenviabletask of dealing

Marechera on a daily basis. In Februaiy 1976 he began an exchangeof

with

letters With Len Rix, a lecturer in the English Department at the University of
103
Rhodesiaand one of Marechera's referees,,exploring the
possibility of Marechera

returning to Rhodesia.On being askedfor details of Marechera's 'bad behaviour;

Hayter replied:

He has found adjustment here very difficult. He consistently

overspendshis allowance and is always borrowing money from
he
everyone; is being by
sued a local bookseller for non-payment
of a very large debt. He has been drinking much too much and has
been arrestedby the police for being drunk and disorderly. He is
offensively rude to, and on occasion physically assaulted,other
studentsand members of the domestic staff, He has threatenedto
kill various people and to set fire to the College (he did start one
fire, which luckily did no damage).His behaviour to an American
School here last year was so unbearable that their supervisor
threatened to cancel the course unless he left the College. (SB
p175)

To claim that Marechera was merely a poor student is obviously an

In
understatement. a letter to me (5th July 1997), ProfessorAnn Barton, one of

his tutors at New College, remembers a colleague's view towards the end of

Marechera's time at New College that '... he [Marechera] had probably cost the

college more in trouble and expense than any undergraduate in its 600 year

history". Using similar language to Hayter, Professor Barton mentions

Marechera'sbehaviour,,
she also refers to tutorial difficulties '... not only because

he simply wasn't interested in doing the English course, but becausehe was

likely to convert complaints about his failure to do much academicwork into

those teachinghim. ' Suggesting

that
accusationsof racial prejudice on the part of

Marechera was unable to accept the consequencesof his own actions she adds

'These were wholly unfounded but Charles obviously needed to fall back on

Robert Fraser,, first Marechera at the Africa Centre, which he

them". who met

(Fraser) described as 'the best club in London', confinned that 'he [Marechera]

in his developmentthen getting an English )2

degree
was more interested artistic .

Alastair Niven,, who was Director of the Africa Centreto which Marecherawas a
104
regular visitor at this time, adds to that view with his recollection that

'Dambudzo enjoyed intellectual debatealmost

in a dilettante way. He would take

an opposite view just for the sakeof a debate.-)3

Typically Professor Barton's memories of Marechera

are tinged with frustration

and sadness.On being asked for her view on the 'unfulfilled promise' or

(wayward genius' dilemma, shereplied 'Promise unfulfilled sounds

more like the
truth to me than wayward genius. Whichever way you look at it, though, it is a

very sad story. One wishes it had ended differently.' In similar vein Sir William

Hayter in spite of the terrible problems he was causedby Marechera, was able to
,

say to Rix 'Oddly enough, I rather like him; there is something there, and he is

certainly intelligent' (SB p 175). Sir William died in 1995, and his widow, Lady

Iris Hayter, who was too ill to be interviewed, wrote to me (June 1997): '1 am

glad to have known DM and wish his life had been easier' and this despitethe

fact that she had herself suffered grave difficulties with him as her diaries

indicate (SB p 162-164).

Professor Norman Vance now of Sussex University was also a tutor in

Marechera'sfirst year. When interviewed by Veit-Wild he recountedthe story of

going to Marechera's 'I

room: could hardly breathe becauseit was incredibly

steamy. What had happened was that he had washed all his clothes in the

washbasinin the room and hung them up on a piece of string acrossthe room and

then turned on the electric fire and closed the windows' (SB p172) Professor

Vance recalled he had told Marecheraabout washing machinesand tumble driers

but felt that Marecheraprobably dIdn't know how to

in the college on reflection

105
operate them and was too proud to ask. He continued 'I actually knew nothing

nu Marechera
UDOUtCharles other than he was on a JCR scholarship.I didn't even
know whether he was from a rural areaor an urban areaý.
4 He
sharedthe view of

others that Marechera was unable to cope with the formal demandsof studying

English at Oxford. Vance suggested that Marechera might have found the inter-

wars years Oxford more to his liking-

Charles had a completely non-academicframe of mind. He just

wanted to read as widely as possible, and, magpie-like, pick up
whatever appealedto him. The Oxford of the Twentiesand Thirties
with its acceptanceof 'being what you wanted to be' and a much
less disciplined set of expectationsmay well have suited him better
than the exam driven environmenthe found himself in.

Vance saw little of Marechera once his stint as his tutor had finished. After his

first term Marechera attended very few seminars and became nocturnal (SB p 153),

sleeping during the day and only appearingat night, to the great aggravationof

those who were trying to sleep. Vance remained interested in his erstwhile student

but did not initiate contact, as he explained 'Charles had a harshand cruel tongue

I to
and saw no reason expose myself to it. '

In the next part of this chapter I will examine the work produced immediately

following his departure from New College, the award winning collection, The

I
House of Hunger. In the subsequentpart will examine Marecheraýs
statusas a

post-colonial writer.

106
 3.2 The House of Hunger:

got my things and left. '

The Home of Hunger was probably written in Oxford

in mid to late 1976
following Marechera'sabrupt departure from New College. His
relatively recent
involvement with the academicworld possibly accountsfor the more substantial

plot and characterdevelopmentthan that evident in later works where, as Wyllie

also observed in his comments on The Black Heretic,, be presents himself as a

spiritual and intellectual wreck. The collection of storiesalso benefited from the

writer's ability to draw on the still fresh experiencesof his life in Rhodesia,,

providing a grounding of gritty urban realism and,,at times, an assurednarrative

voice. The element of autobiography often found in first novels is immediately

apparent in the opening sentences:'I got my things and left. The sun was coming

up. I couldn't think where to go' (p 1). In view of his subsequentlife history the

prescience of these opening sentences,,in which the writer offers three things, a

departure,a new beginning and uncertainty,is particularly telling.

Although set in a Rhodesiantownship and in part dealIng with the eventsleading

up to and beyond his expulsion from the University of Rhodesia it also reflects

the dilemma Marechera experienced on leaving New College and finding

himself, possibly for the first time in his life,, with nowhereto go. All of his life

had been directed towards obtaining accessto formal education and now that

academic goal was no longer valid other goals had to be As

established. part of

that process Marechera engagedin an examination of his current situation and

how it arose: '...I was reviewing all the details of the foul turd which my life had

been and was even at that moment' (pl). The subsequentexamination of the

107
influences on his psyche is much more extenslive Iin Black Sunlight and TheBlack

Insider where he searchesfor the primordial 1. But begins

it as a cry for the

integnty, the sanctiity almost, of the III The House of Hunger where,

'One's mind became the grimy rooms, the dusty cobwebs

in which the minute

skeletonsof one's childhood were forever in the spidery grip that stretchedout to

include not only the very stonesupon which one walked but also the starswhich

glittered vaguely upon the stenchof our lives' (pp3/4). The pathetically grotesque

image of the 'minute skeletons'is poignant recollection of the lost innocenceand

unfulfilled hopesof childhood. Theseare recurring themesin Marechera'swork.

Evidence of Marechera's paranoia is offered in the first paragraph, 'I couldn't

have stayed on in that House of Hunger where every morsel of sanity was

snatchedfrom you the way somekinds of birds snatchfood from the very mouths

of babes. And the eyes of the House of Hunger lingered upon you as though some

indefinable beast was about to pounce on you' (pl). There is an argument that the
Tj-
of Hunger of the title signifies Rhodesia and that may well be the manifest
flouse

meaning but the latent signification is Marechera'spsyche.This becomesclear as

the story unfolds and the writer - almost as if he is it

working out for himself as

he progresses- comesto realise that the only way to be free of a colonisedmind

is to go back to a time before those influences held sway. Erich Fromm argues

that by becoming 'self aware' an individual 'can gain insight into the fictitious

his ideas; if he can graspthe reality behind these ideas if

characterof conscious ,
he
he can make the unconsciousconscious, will attain the to
strength rid himself

his to transform himse4f' (my emphasis).This is not in the

of irrationalities and

developing a tradition as Chinweizu advocates (see later in

way of re-Inventing or

108
this chapter), but is rather a freeing of the mind to becomethe 'one true
self in a
Rogerian sense.' The searchfor the reality of self is often
a painful and troubling
It
one. is also an ultimately impossible quest to complete,as the journey itself is

the destination.RD Laing arguedthat being bom into an alien world hindersthe

Rogerian searchfor the reality of self-

We are bemused and crazed creatures born into a world where

...
alienation awaits us. We are potentially men, but are in an alienated
state,,and this stateis not simply a natural system.Alienation as our
present destiny is achievedonly by outrageousviolence perpetrated
by human beings on human beings.7

Marechera confronts that outrageousviolence. His conflation of psychological

and physical starvation is an attack on the excessesof white minority rule in this

allegorical reference to the 'theft' of the land by the colonisers and the subsequent

disenfranchisement of the people which led to 'political tyranny and

psychological emasculation'. ' The allusion to the theft of sanity can also be seen

as a reference to the ultimatum he received from New College when he was asked

either to accept psychiatric treatment, or to leave. However it could also be a

thinly disguised reference to the actions of his mother, whose 'transference' of her

madnessto Dambudzo was itself an assaulton, or theft of, his sanity.

In On Becoming a Person 9 Rogers refers to Soren Kierkegaard as suggesting that

the most common despair is to be in despair at not choosing or willing to be

Ignoring the implications of Laing's 'outrageousviolence' he goes on to

oneself

argue that 'To Will to be that self which one truly is is indeed the opposite of
,

despair". As far as Dambudzo Marechera was concernedthat statementsimply

He had that will, but did not bring him Quite

happiness. possibly, on
isn't true. it

his return to Zimbabwe, if circumstances had been different he could have

109
achieved self-fulfilment, and through that, happiness.But, unable to become

establishedin the new country, this did not happen.

As is common throughout Marechera's work the passagefrom The House

of
Hunger is ambiguous and tends itself to alternative interpretations.In typically

extravagantform he claimed 'I spreadmy fingers outstretchedand played tune

a

without listening to the sound I was playing. It has always been like that' (SB

p205). Although it would be unwise to accept Marechera'scontention without

reservation, an inspection of his typed manuscripts reveals a compulsive writer

whose typing occasionally runs off the edge of the pageand who could not stop

writing long enough to order his work into paragraphs. In her report to

Heinemann (8th Sept. 1978), Senda Wa Kwayera commented on A Bowl For

Shadows, 'The first striking thing about this novel is that it is written in one

paragraph of seventy one pages!' On the other hand Marechera's implication that

his writing was free flowing and spontaneouscomes, perhaps, dangerously close

to a justification of his indiscipline and inability to revise.

It was at the suggestion of James Currey that the title of the longest story in the

collection,. which was to give the title to the volume, was changed from

Marechera's original 'At the Head of the Stream' to 'The House of Hunger'. In a

memo of 28th April 1977 introducing Marechera's work to Akin Thomas of

HeinemannAfrica, Currey writes, 'I detect a searingtalent here. This is someof

the most powerful slum writing and reminiscencesI have ever seen.It still needs

far more powerful title. (I suggestedThe House of Hunger to

more work and a

him.)' The title was changedand with the changea subtle but important shift of

110
emphasis was introduced. 'At the Head of the Stream',Marechera'soriginal

title, makes referenceto a source,,a place of beginnings.The primary level of the

work concerns the day to day life of a particular individual living in a township,

but the secondarylevel suggeststhat the path to recovery from the

excessesof

white minority to
rule is go back to the beginning. The title 'At the Head of the

Stream' reflects the secondary level and matches more closely the tone of

Marechera'smusings on his origins and subsequentdirection. It is also a more

accurate representationboth of Marechera'sindividualism and the themes and

issuesof the later work.

On the other hand the title 'The House of Hunger" implies that the work has a

broader ambition. Given his background and circumstancesit is inevitable that

Marechera'sVMting has political undertones.In choosing'The Houseof Hunger'

as a title for the book Currey foregroundedthe political content and effectively

placed the writer into the position of speaking on behalf of those who have been

oppressed -a position Marechera certainly did not seek, and one with which he

was not comfortable. However when the House of Hunger is seen as a

representationof the psychethen the sheerindividualism of the work emerges.

Currey's agendawas of courseto encourageMarecherato Wrlte 'the Zimbabwean

novel' and he expended a great deal of time and energy on that ultimately

frustrated quest. Unfortunately Currey's well-intentioned efforts in promoting

The House of Hunger and the subsequentpublicity which concentrated on

historical and political angles, may well have led to an undervaluing of some of

The House Hunger, the developmentof

the unique features of of which concern

III
the individual. Such publicity also conditioned others to anticipate Marechera's

eventual emergence as the Zimbabwean Achebe or Soyinka. In the event the

writer's later works were deemedfailures. Partly, it is true to say,becauseof their

structural and stylistic qualities but also, at least in part, becausethey did not

fulfil these over optimistic forecasts which mistakenly lauded Marechera as a

political commentator.

Indirectly such promotional hyperbole may have causedthe subsequentLondon

works to be a
written in such manner that Marechera's'message'
concerningthe

alienated individual was made abundantly clear. He rejected attemptsto control

the direction of his work and followed his own inclinations with increasing

determination. The 'Zimbabwean novel' did not emergeas, despitethe publicity

(and advice) he had received, the writer ignored matters of 'national interest' in

his obsessive pursuit of his own identity. On his return to Harare he briefly

adopted a more overtly political stance in his

engagedwith wider issues and

I discuss in Chapter Five. But it was a position in which he was ill-at-

writing, as

he did based in London. Certainly The House of

ease,,and one not accept when

Hunger is a more coherent and cohesive whole than the works that followed it,

but if Marechera.had been encouragedto develop the search for 'self as self

which begins in The House of Hunger, rather than to engagewith socio-politIcal,

historical issues,,then his history, and perhaps the development of

personal

writing in Zimbabwe, might have been different.

'At the Head of the Stream'was

One of the first people to read the manuscript

Heinemann.reader Ester Kantai whose generally unfavourablereport commented

112
that 'The unifying force of the story is fatalism
and bitterness'. That is fair

comment but the organic unity of the text is a journey through the
psyche.How
Marecheracame by her report Is unclear " but that he did
Is strikingly evident as
he usesher exact words in TheBlack Insider:

But there I was... oblivious of the unusualeye

watching me, as I tore
at my hairs because a critic had,,in passing,written this
about my
short stories: 'It is clear that the writer does not have a high opinion
of the black man. He is pompousand a bore,,trying to fight liberation
from western,capitals while all the time wishing he
was white. But
the black man can-notreally hide his identity, however hard he tries.
By adminng the whiteman so much he is also accepting the
whiteman's image of him... Thesestoriesare damagingto the morale
of the world bent on liberation. In their presentform they are even
more damaging to the young writer. He should be given the chance
to representthese stories on a more rational plane.Furthermore,they
should be experienceswhich can be sharedby people who want to
know what it meansto be in Southern-Africa today. (ppl46/147)

Taitz and Levin " argue that for Marechera writing was 'a way of stitching

together the fragments [of his] life. As Marechera himself puts it: 'Afterwards

they came to take out the stitches from the wound of it. And I was whole again.

The stitches were published. The reviewers made obscenenoises'(The House of

Hunger p39). The agony Marechera must have felt at Kantai's offensive and ill-

informed remarks, and the he

isolation may well have felt at sucha misreadingis

indicated in TheBlack Insider,,when immediately following the aboveextract his

best friend leaves him to return to Africa and his wife asks for a divorce and

leaves for America.

With a subtlety he later abandonedin Black Sunlight and The Black Insider,,

Marechera plots a journey of death and rebirth in The House of Hunger. In the

closing section of the story an old man, a storyteller, talks to the central character,

the young Marechera:

113
 A man to whom everything under the sun had really happened
was walking home when he met a green dwarf who looked up at
him scornfully, sneeringly.
"Why do you walk with a crutch?" the dwarf
asked with
contempt. The man held out his handsand stampedhis legs on the
gravel road and said:
"Can't you seeI have no crutch? IndeedI have no need it. "
of
But the dwarf spat on a passingchameleonand saidto the man:
"You have the biggest crutch I have ever seena cripple "
use?
"What crutch?"
And the dwarf, spitting again at the skulking chameleon,said:
"Why, your mind."
And with that they parted. Now the road is betweenthe water and
the earth and many have grown old and died journeying upon it.
(p82)

Marechera uses images of the sky and the sun obsessivelyand in this case it is

not clear whether 'everything under the sun' is good or bad. What doesseemclear

is the unquestioningacceptanceof his experiencesby the man who demonstrates

that he is not crippled by walking on the 'gravel road'. At the risk of overliteral

allegonsation it might be noted that gravelled roads were laid at the order of the

colonial powers and were not always to the benefit of the indigenouspopulation,

often heralding the end of a traditional way of life and a speeding up of the

colonising process, as Joyce Cary demonstrated so effectively in Mr. Johnson.

Therefore,, the actions of the man could be seen to signify that others control his

direction in life. The fact that the roads were often built vqth forced labour would

imply a subtle irony in the use of a symbol of colonial exploitation to deny that

he has been marginalized. Consequentlythe dwairf, an ancient magical eaith

figure, tells him he is crippled in his mind. This be

could seenas,,on one level, an

the nature of colonial education and its

attack on colonial exploitation, usurping

alienating effects on the minds of black Africans and the resulting psychological

damage,,of which claims Marechera, many are unaware. The reference to the

" can be seen as a pointed comment on the survival techniques

chameleon

114
 by
adopted many of absorbingthe cultural requirementsof the colonisersin order

to merge into the background,hencethe contempt for the creature.The road that

leads between 'the water and the earth' leads to the 'head of the stream'.hence

Marechera'schoice of title: it is the road to the vagina and the birth canal. In

short.,the experience of the man to whom 'everything under the sun had really

happened' is uselessand worse than that it is dangerous.The only escapeis to

,
go back to the birth experienceand to start again.

That much is implicit in the following from an 'old man' who 'simply wandered

into the House one day out of the rain', in a monologue which closes the story and

the
emphasises need for a spiritual and psychologicalcleansing:

That's when he said I will live at the heart of a grain of sand." And
he also said I will light a match: when it flares I will jump straight
in to the dark heart of its flame "
seed. But as he listenedto himself,
to the thirst and to the hunger, he suddenlysaid in words of gold:
"I Will live at the head of the streamwhere all of men's questions
begin." (p8O)

The monologue is addressedto the narrator who, in view of the wealth of

is clearly Marechera himself That he did not always

autobiographical material

take himself seriously is indicated in the narrator's comment on the old man

'What he loved best was for me to listen attentively while he told storiesthat were

fragmentary' (p79). (Perhapsthere is a rare exampleof the

oblique, rambling and

humour )
here. As Marecherachoosesto close his
writer's gentle, self-deprecating

'old the does assume some significance. He may

story with the man' character

the their ancient wisdom or be the father Marechera

well represent ancestorsand

have teamed, philosophical. And then again he may

would preferred, wise and

just be a vehicle for Marechera'sideas.

115
As was demonstrated in Chapter One some of the
readers and critics of The
House of Hunger would consider the criticism, 'oblique,
rambling and
fragmentary',to be an appropriateone. The initial
structurelocatesthe narrator in

a bar in conversation with two others! occasionally, and without warning, the

narrative shifts in time and place and autobiographicalmaterial is introduced.Just

as suddenly the narrative shifts again, back to the bar. Although disorientating

this is an effective device demonstratingthe unreliable and fragmentarynatureof

township life, as is the loss of the locating device in the later stagesas the story

becomesincreasingly fragmented.

That suchfragmentationreflects the condition Marecheraexperiencedfor himself

is indicated throughout the text. In this instance he is talking, through the

narrator, to Edmund,, a school friend who 'lived out his tortured dreams in

humiliation' and was 'the only one in the class who knew that Yevtushenko really

existed. Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Turgenev, Pushkin, Gorky - he read them all'

(p6l). This is a thinly disguised portrait of the young Marechera of course: 'He

[Edmund] had actually written dozensof novels (all unfinished) and short stones

(all unfinished) whose plots alternatedbetweenthe painstakingexploration of the

effects of poverty and destitution on the (p6l).

"psyche... This be
can also seenas

an apposite summary of the driving force behind Marechera'scompulsion to

wnte.

In the London works,, Black Sunlight and The Black Insider, the use of other

to
characters representthe multiple selves of the writer is much more apparent.

However Edmund,, who is not only a writer but becomes a guerilla, is the

116
Marechera who stayed to fight, as is Nick in Black Sunlight
and Owen in The
Black Insider. In an obsessive reworking of themes ideas Marechera
and
desperatelytries to come to terms with the concept that his life from birth has

been little more than a seriesof intersectinginfluences

over which he had little, if

any, control. Thus what becamecentral to the London works, the exploration of

the psyche, and the psyche representedas a series of rooms or tunnels, is also

central to The House ofHunger, but is less compulsively worked through.

The 'rooms' motif is introduced in The House of Hunger with typical Marecheran

'l
uncertainty. did not quite know what happenednext. Somethingseemedto split

my mind open.... And the mind slowly becamethe room. And the room - floor,

roof, walls - was boxed in by other rooms.... And they were all containedwithin

each other, papering over the cracks' (p37). The reference to splitting suggests

the formation or emergenceof other personalitiesand recognisesthe schizoid

tendencies, which had been tentatively diagnosed. The intricacy of the mind is

pictured by an infinite seriesof rooms, eachroom representativeof an influential

force and eachroom is responsiblefor 'paperingover the cracks',that is eachone

contributed in some way to Mareche4s mental colonisation, and each one is

complicit in the disguising of incipient insanity,.itself an inevitableTesult of the

actions of those forces. 'My mind felt like nothing.... A doorway yawned blankly

I
into me:... could not bring myself to touch the walls to prove that they were

really there.... For some reasonI began to wonder if I was really in there- perhaps

I was a mere creation of the rooms themselves'(p76).

This is the key to The House of Hunger, the narrator is a creation of sundry

117
others. As a person unto himself he does not exist. As I explore below,

recognition of the influence of 'others' is taken further in Black Sunlight and The

Black Insider where Marecheraarguesthat all the 'other selves' die

must in order
that the essentialself can be realised. The reaction of the narrator of The House

of Hunger is not so drastic, the terror is so overwhelming it precludesany action

but flight'l ran from that houselike a madmanwho has seenthe inside his
of own

ravings' (p77). The lack of help from others and the acute loneliness of his

individual path through life implicit in the following '.Ahe picture of my skull

has since blended into the memory of that empty but strangelyterrifying house

I
which - when called - merely maintained an indistinct silence'(p77). Blaming

his predicament of double alienation on his mental conditioning he continues'It

was the House of Hunger that first made me discontented with things' (p77)

In the circumstancesit seemsreasonableto place this increasedawarenessaround

the time that his illness became more severe. In The House of Hunger the

narrator is recalling a conversation with his sister-in-law 'I... told her about my

nervous breakdown when I became aware of personsaround me whom no one

else could see.... This had happened a few weeks before my sixth form

examinations - which I then had to write with a massive dose of white

tranquillisers' (P28). Leaving aside the obvious connotations of 'white

tranquillisers'the autobiographical content is confirmed by Michael Marechera's

letter (seeabove and Appendix Three) 'In 1971 he [DambudzoMarechera]began

to suffer delusions. He was sure two men were following him everywhere.He

then his 'A' levels and I don't know how he managedbecausehe was
was writing

taking so many tranquil li sers.'

118
Michael Marechera then gives details of the 'passing on' of the family
mental

problems to Dambudzo from his Mother - which he dates around 1969 - he

writes,,'I felt he must have known what Mother had done.' This suspicionseems

to be confirmed as the passagefrom The House of Hunger continues'Meanwhile

the voices continued to torment me:... I never told the psychiatristthe whole truth

about what they were saying; but I did sendoff a seriesof hysterical missivesto

Peter [the narrator'selder brother] demanding'the truth of the matter.... What the

voices said was something quite obsceneabout my mother'smorals'. The remark

about his mother's morals is, perhaps,a distraction, a denial to himself of 'the

truth of the matter%that she had given him a form of madness,He gives graphic

descriptions of her as an adulteress (p48), as a whore (p77), and as a foul-

mouthed harridan. She chastiseshim for soiling his bedsheetsby masturbating

and exhorts him to get a girl, demanding:

" Why don't you get on with laying one or twoT or three. Or four.
Or five.... 'You stick it in the hole between the water and the earth,
it's easy. She splays out her legs and you bunch your pelvis
between her thighs and Strike! right there between her water and
her earth. You strike like a fire and she'll take you and your balls
all in. Right? Up to your neck. When you come you'll see it misting
her eyes." (p78)

is
This probably the passageDavid Caute was referring to when, in commentson

TheHouse of Hunger he claimed that Marechera'-stuffed Painful obscenitiesin

his loyal ' " Whether Marechera'smother was 'loyal' is a

the mouth of mother.

debatebut it is true that he did portray her as a drunken adulterous

matter of some

whore.

Mrs Marechera 'Her face long and haggard,

Initially is portrayed sympathetically,

119
scarred by the many sacrifices she had taken on our behalf (p8). The
sympathy
with her suffering on her children's behalf is however 'spoiled' sincethe sacrifice

is depicted as worse than useless.'I sent

you to University) she sayspathetically

to the protagonist.

There must be big jobs waiting for you out there. 'Tell that Ian
to
Smith,' Peter butted in maliciously. 'All did
you was starveyourself
to sendthis shit [the narrator] to school while Smith made
surethat
the kind of education he got was exactly what has made him like
this'(p9).

His education alienated him from his people and equipped him for the 'white'

world from which his colour barred him entry. Ultimately his parents are to
blame,,as Larkin said, 'They fuck you up, your Mum and Dad."' Two Marechera

themesare reflected here: the effects of educationand perhapslessobviously but

more radically, the passingon of inhibitions,,complexesand attitudes,,from one

generation to another,, again as Larkin said of Mum and Dad', 'But they were

fucked up in their turn/ By fools in old-style hats and coats,'(my emphasis).

There is a sub-text in The House of Hunger in which the writer constantly circles

the subject of his mental instability, blaming it on everything around him. For

example, his education: 'my parents starvedthemselvesto give me an education

I
and make me what am now... Usually that meansthey have decidedto sell you

mind and soul to the bloody whites' (pl 12); or the actions of Ian Smith's

Government- '...Smith made sure that the kind of education he got was exactly

what has made him like this' (p9). There were also the far-reaching effects of

colonialism: 'An iron net had been thrown over the skies, quietly. Now it,.

tightening, bit sharply into the tenderer meat of our brains... we were whores:

eaten to the core by the syphilis of the white man's coming' (p75): and the

120
influence of his environmentl '...cast out of village, town and country. cast out of

womb,,home and family. A veritable desert'(p79).

But beneaththis political version lies a more simply human complexity. However

superstitious and insubstantial he may have regardedthe ancient curse imposed

on him by his mother, its existencecould not but embitter his relations with her.

Certainly, Michael Marechera is at pains to stressthe magnitudeof the situation:

'It is difficult to explain such mattersto those who do not know our culture. But I

feel this story explains why Dambudzo always said he had no family and why he

saw himself '

as an outcast. The violent emotions raised in him by the

contradictions and competing expectations caused by, among other things, the

meeting of ancient beliefs and traditions and his Europeaneducationat Mission

School and the University of Rhodesia; followed by the cloistered calm of New

College, Oxford, were obviously enough to disturb the balance of his fragile

mental health. The House of Hunger was his first and most nearly successful

attempt to reconcile those internalisedcontradictions.

3.3 The Other Stories:

'Like the eye in the painting'

I have thus far concentratedmy comments on the eponymousstory from The

House ofHunger. The other nine storieswere either submittedby Marecherawith

At the Head Stream ('Burning in the Rain, 'The Transformation of Harry'

of the

'Black Skin What Mask') written to fill out the proposedbook at the
and or were

James Currey ('The Writer's Grain', 'The Slow Sound of his

specific request of

121
Feet'. 'The Christmas Reunion', 'Thought-tracks
in the Snow',,'Are There People
Living ThereT, and 'Characters from the Bergfrith'). Ester Kantat, Heinemann

reader, in her undated report, offered the view: 'Marechera'sshort stories are

confusing in many points becausehe crams very many eventsor Incidentsinto a

short space.As one event is getting interesting one is transferredto something

totally different. In fact this style is comparableto the modem art of circles and

shadesetc, with a weird eye looking out of eachcircle. The unifying force of the

story, like the eye in the painting is fIatalism and bitterness.' Shecontinues,'What
,.
one does not find anywhere is the causeof the fatalism and bitterness.Kantal, it

seems,was looking for something less obvious than '...the tragic circumstances

of being black in a too white world."'

'Burning in the Rain' confronts the problems of identity ('The mirror said it all

and in it he knew his kinsman; the ape, lumbering awkwardly into his intimacy'

(p85)) and of colonisation ('...he woke up to find that he had painted himself with

whitewash and was wearing a European wig. It took him hours to get rid of the

paint and for days afterwards he reeked of nothing else' (p86)). 'The

Transformation of Harry' brings up issues of personal loyalty ('I see you're still

using your friends to make up improbable stories' (p9l)) and national identity

Cand there we were; in an uncertain country, ourselves uncertain' (p92)), and

'Black Skin What Mask%the title a casualpun on Fanon'spopular work, takes as

its central point Marechera's expulsion from Oxford. Typically the narrator

(Marechera) is telling the story to a black friend who 'was always washing

himself.. He did not so much wash as scrub himself until he bled. He tried to

his tongue too, by improving his English and getting rid of any accentfrom
purge

122
the speaking of it' (p93). Marechera himself had an incredible accentthat had
no
trace of Africa and appearedto be pitched somewherebetweenOxbridge
and the
16
World Service of the BBC.

This could be attributed to simple affectation, or be seenas

part of an elaborate

game with the nature of meaning. It is interesting that in Chris Austin's film

House of Hunger, shot for Channel 4, Marechera appears in the London

scenes

wearing a kurta which he has changedfor a soberthree piece suit when filming in

Harare, being African in Europe and European in Africa. However as 'The

Writer's Grain', one of the stories written at Currey's request, indicates, a

profound obsession with his own identity was beginning to emerge and his

writing became more clearly autobiographical and revealing of his paranoid

tendencies,'At college they had all been hell bent on making life intolerable for

me but I had somehow kept my end up and of course when I became worth

knoWingthey occasionally invited me out for a glassof grapepoison' (p 104).The

story also explores the theme of the alternative self or doppelganger (later

pursued in Black Sunlight and The Black Insider), as 'elemental twirf (p 102). 'my

phantom double' or as a 'tWIn brother' who takes over his life until the confusion

of identity is total and the double alienation made obvious in the following

Lainglan questioning 'Am I him or is he I

me or am myself and is he himselP

112).

Themes of false identity also arise in 'The Slow Sound of his Feet' linked to the

by 'the feeling of the silent but desperate

voices
suggestionof possession others,

(p136). He also links the death of his father with his stuttering which
inside me'

123
in turn becomes a dumbnesssymbolic of the inability to direct his own affairs.

Perhapsthe most unusual story, becauseof its apparently

stereotypicalapproach

to the 'problems' of colonisation is 'A Christmas Reunion, A straightforward

,
story of how African traditions were replaced by the actions of the colonial

powers and the missionary societies it is also an allegory of the battle between
,
the white minority government and the black 'terrorists' and a superficial

justification made on intellectual grounds,for Marecheranot joining the struggle.

The final story, 'Charactersfrom the Bergfrith', in point of fact is not a story but

a poem written in blank verse. Its inclusion is distracting and was counselled

by
against some readers,it did not appearin the American edition published by

Pantheon.

The shorter stories in The House of Hunger are notable for the identification of

the theme of 'other selves' which achieved prominencein later works and for

containing what could well be Marechera'sphilosophy of life. In 'The Writer's

Grain' shortly after ýN&Warthog, a black warthog, has eaten a 'fine old violin'

followed by a 'gigantic cello' he lectures'the boy' (arguablyMarechera):

to insist upon your right to go off at a tangent. Your right to put a

... be labelled to
spanner into the works. Your right to refuse to and
insist on your right to behave like anything other than anyone
expects. Your right to simply say no for the pleasure of it. To insist
human
on your right to confound all who insist on regimenting
impulses according to theories psychological, religious, historical,
Insist upon your right to insist on the
philosophical, political, etc....
importance, the very great importance, of whim. There is no greater
pleasure than throwing or not throwing the spanner into the works
simply on the basis of one's whims. (p122)

This implacable insistenceon the rights of the individual and the autonomyof the

creative sensibility, echoesthe words of artists through the ages in conflict with
124
prevailing ideology, political censorship or any authority except their
own
perceptions. JamesJoyce's situation as an Irish writer In exile offers
an obvious
parallel: 'When the soul of a man is born in this country there are nets flung it
at
to hold it back from flight. You talk to me of nationality, language,
religion. I
shall try to fly by those nets.' " It was an approachthat placedMarecherabeyond

the pale of the various societies he encountered,resulting in his isolation

and
compounding his alienation, as both The Black Insider and Black Sunlight were

able to demonstrateso effectively.

3.4 'A counter-culture of the imagination. ' "

What then of Marechera'sstatus as a 'post-colonial' writer? It was not often that

Marecheradenied himself the pleasureof throwing a 'spannerin the works' and

the omission of the more traditional featuresof post-colonial literature seemsto

have been deliberate. Thus The House of Hunger does not attempt to assert myths

of origin, or explore the themesof collective resistance,,separatenational identity

and cultural distinctiveness in the way of Achebe, Armah, Ngugi et al. Those

omissions, coupled with the book's existential nature and obsessionwith the

individual and the 'here and now'. set it apart from other works producedby

black African writers. In addition to this, Marechera'srefusal to be labelled a

'black writer', his fascination with the individual mind rather than the collective

body and his demand for intellectual freedom from the restrictions of race, class

and nationalism tends to make difficult any comparisons With the school of

wnters usually categorisedas post-colomal.

125
This approach is particularly important when
comparing and contrasting
Marechera with other black Zimbabwean writers,
as I do in Chapter Six, who

tend to be more ideologically purposeful. The various writers react differently to

what are current events for some, and history for others; reflecting a changing

view of history, certainly, and without any regard for a spuriousdivision at the

date of independence.As their writing careersbridged the transition Rhodesia

of

to Zimbabwe such a division would have been inappropriate in any case.

CategonsingMarechera.and his work is notoriously difficult, not only becauseof

the unique qualities of the writing, but also becausethe writer at times appeared

to be 'against everything'. However the rest of this chapter will offer some

suggestionsof where Marechera'swork might be placedamongthe shifting sands

of post-colonial literature and will broach the subject of Marechera's

'Africanness' as a writer.

Gerald Gaylard is perhaps understating his case when he suggests'...it would

seem that an African nationalist reading of Marechera is inadequate'. He goes on

to say'... a post-colonial reading would be more helpful, as he was writing most

directly about post-colonial and neo-colonial issues.' " This claim is, perhaps,

The House of Hunger than the later works. As for Black

more accurate of

Sunlight, Zimunya arguesthat it is devoid to

of any reference past history:

you can't run away from your past completely, unless you think
... That has to do the
of his book Black Sunlight. nothing with past.
There are no ghouls arising from the ancestral past, there are no
fables It's a modem state, a human estate which is
stories or at all.
African or white - he actually leaves the
corrupt, whether it's
setting unidentified, anonymous. "

Zimunya's reading however seems to ignore that the factor of corruption,

126
although a general feature of modem society, always has a specific basis in

historical practices; and also he appearsnot to consider the

possibilities offered
by an allegorical reading. As JacquesAlexis said: 'A human being be
cannot the

son of no man, the past and history cannot be denied.' " Of the writer himself

Zimunya adds '[Marechera's] work demandsa lot of attention...He confusesand

bewilders a lot of readersand I don't think that's a virtue at all.' " This is a harsh

judgement: Marechera was himself 'confused and bewildered' and his writing

reflected that. Zimunya appearsto be taking the stancethat the writer shouldbe

a 'teacher'and that the 'difficult' nature of the text inhibited that role. Undoubtedly

it did, but that is a role Marechera in

refused any event. PossiblyZimunya could

have observed that the 'confusing' text and the 'confused and bewildered'

characterswere themselves indicative of the hybrid nature of the post-colonial

condition as experienced by the individual) And as such, although difficult to

read, are instructive and important.

It is perhapsinevitable that Marecherawould write, directly or indirectly, about

post-coloMal issues - that was after all his background. But post-colonialism

performs the function of a secondary agenda, which informs the main

biographical thrust of his work; it is not a guiding sub-text. Marechera'swork

the hybridised nature of post-colonial culture, not only in the

also reflects

to (mainly) Europeanwriters but in the tacit of

acceptance
profusion of references

the dialectical process of mutual transformation which observes that the

'transaction of the post-colonial world is not a one way process in which

oppression obliterates the oppressedor the coloniser silences the colontsed in

terms. " In short, Marechera'stask, as a man and a writer, was to come

absolute

127
to terms with the inevitable and iffeversible hybrid nature his
of acculturation.
The Marecheran characters, mostly versions of himself
of course, inhabit a

world created by a colonial experience to which both parties contributed,

however unequally. Chinua Achebe offers an example this hybridity

of and

refers to the resulting tensionsin this memory from his childhood:

On one arm of the cross we sang hymns and read the bible night
and day. On the other my father's brother and his family, blinded
by heathenism, offered food to idols. That was how it
was
supposedto be anyway. But I knew without knowing why it was
too simple a way to describe what was going on. Those idols and
that food had a strange pull on me in spite of me being such a
thorough little Christian... "

Achebe's adjustment to those opposing forces appearsto have been better than

Marechera's as he goes on to say 'If anyone likes to believe that I was tom by

spiritual agonieson the rack of my ambivalencehe certainly may suit himself I

do not rememberany undue distress.' He carries on to claim that such exposure

was helpful in that it enabledhim to see'...a canvassteadily and fully. ' Marechera

viewed a similar canvas,not'steadily and fully'but in a distorted and fragmentary

way, and yet one with a powerful validity of its own,, as in his words,, 'At this
,

point the writer ceasesto be African or European.He has becomethe exploding

26
atomsof his searingvision. '

On the question of Writing style and approachMarecheraremarked:

There are two traditions in African literature: I

one will call the
traditionalist outlook,, whose leader is Chinua Achebe and Ngugi
wa Thiong'o also belongs to it; then there is the other, I would call
it the modernist group, represented by Wole Soyinka and Ayi Kwei
Armah and myself The three of us are always described as
individualists and this word is used in a very insulting way. If
people accuseyou of individualism, then they are actually saying
you are a reactionary, you are capitalist in your approach to art, you
are not a writer of the people. (SB p44)

128
It is significant that this interview took place when, to intents
all and purposes,
Marechera's writing career was over and the writer appearsto be
attempting to
his
secure place in African literature.

There is a certain sadnessin this attempt at identification with other African

writers which expressesa view contrary to his earlier claim 'I think I am the

doppelgiingerwhom, until I appeared,African literature had not yet met. And in

this sense, I would question anyone calling me an African writer'. 27 Few critics

did call him an Aftican writer indeed they had problems in categorisinghim at
,
all. And that difficulty still persists; writing as recently as 1991, Dan Wylie

observed:

Dambudzo Marechera is the misfit,, even the bete noire,,of African

fiction, more scatological than Armah,,more "bound to violence"
.,
than Ouologuem: a sparkling and disturbing aberration, and a
solitary refutation of Claude Wauthier's prediction that African
writers were unlikely to "withdraw into some ebony tower, where
they can devote themselvesto art for art's sake, to the throes of
Freudian angst." "

Wylie's comments indicate concern at his own inability to 'locate' Marechera

within the conventions of African fiction. He accommodates that concern by

accepting that Marechera had moved the boundaries of the definition of an

African writer.

However,,whether Marechera earnedthe distinction of representingthe 'solitary

Wauthier's prediction is doubtful. The referenceto 'Freudian angst'

refutation' of

brings to mind Bessie Head, for example, but other African writers (Soyinka and

Armah are not the only ones) have taken an approachto writing which owes as

to 'art for sake' as any desire to build a new Africa. However

much art's

129
Marechera's work does not offer easy comparison
with any other. As a

consequenceof this, categorisationof the writer,, or evaluation of for example,,

,
his contribution to post-colonial literature, presentsmajor difficulties. A familiar

problem as Gerald Gaylard observedis that:

Marechera did not write according to the political

agenda...
Marechera evades categories with ease and I have had
great
difficulty in summarising his viewpoints as "Life is not
a plot you
know. It does not have one coherent theme but many conflicting
ones.tv29

Possibly one category Marechera could not evade if such as Chinwelzu was the
-

one doing the categorising - is as a vmter of 'Euro-assimilationistjunle."

According to Chinweizu, Euro-assimilation'in African literature is the equivalent

of the phenomenon in Afro-American music where black artists 'cross over' to

white audiencesby adjusting their musical style, themes and stage mannersto

suit the prejudices of white audiences,usually to the disapproval of their Afro-

31
American audiences.'

Leaving aside the likelihood that musicians, of any creed or colour, may well

make adjustments to their 'art' in the legitimate pursuit of their careers and

commercial success,,and ignoring the fact that they should, by any standards,

have the freedom to change if they want to change, Chinweizu neglects the

develops from Presumablyhe

evolutionary processwhereby one thing another.

have disapproved of the activities of a small recording company, Sun

would

R-cords,,based Memphis, Tennessee the 1950s which issuedrecordingsof

,n
'black music' by white artists. Plenty of people did disapprovebut it was for such

racist reasons as that 'white boys shouldn't sing nigger music', rather than on

Those artists, whose records were produced by a white

aesthetic grounds.

130
entrepreneurcalled Sam Philips included Elvis Presley,Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl
,
Perkins,,developed a style influenced by Southern blues
and gospel music (all
black), country music (all white) and rhythm
and blues (mainly black). It

produced the hybnd that was eventually given the generic of 'rock and roll'. In a

further complication it seems that the elements that

made up that particular

hybrid were themselves hybridised, as Wilson Harris explained to Alan Riach

'...If you go into some so-called Black Ghetto where you have men beatingdrums

and claiming that they have an independentmusic, that is not true. They are,

whether they know it or not, drawing things In from other cultures...' " (my

emphasis).

Chinweizu continues 'Euro-assimilation was the cultural policy of colonial

education... In the British colonies, the most Euro-assimilated earned the

mckname 'Black European'." The phenomenon, alas, endures in post-colonial

AfTica in both its blatant and subtle versions, in academic as in general culture.'

Those writers who were not Euro-assimilated but Negritudist, (Leopold Senghor
)34
defined negritude as 'The sum total of the cultural values of the black world'

accordingto Harrow:

reclaimed a threatened sense of worth and dignity by recouping an

... based black by the The
aesthetic on values.... reconstructing past.
key to the [Negritudist] literature is the act of recalling... four foyers
identity: (1) The individual's personal experience, (2) the
of
a social or cultural loss, (3) the culture and
individual who reclaims
the race and, (4) the past and the heritage. 35

Reconstructing the past, even if it was desirable, is an impossible dream, or

to 'languageof national belonging [which] comes

nightmare, condemned using a

laden with atavistic apologues'." Those who would reconstructare locked in the

themselves 'modem'; inevitably their attempts at

present time and are
131
reconstruction are contaminatedby their own modemity, their own inherited and

nurtured norms and values, and thus their attemptsdistorted. As the neo-Marxist
-
critic would argue, ideology is unavoidable: '...there is no such thing as an
'47
innocent reading. What we see in a text is what our ideology has equipped
us
to see. We write what our ideology has equipped us to write. As culture and

ideology feed off each other the idea of being able to recreate,or even to know,

the past is inherently unsafe. Amadi-Tshiwala " arguesagainstthe premissthat a

traditional African culture somehow remained static throughout the centuries

simply awaiting the departure of the white man before emerging intact (as is

implied also in Armah's 2000 Seasons).Instead she offers a view of culture as

dynamic and fluid, and suggests that '...in Africa now a culture that was

traditional... is now merged with Easternand Westem onesand evolving to what

is yet to be defined. "' Culture is evolutionary and is in effect constantly

redefining itself, Amadi-Tshiwala is describing a process of hybridisation.

On the broadest definition then, Marechera is inevitably a post-colonial writer,

but not in the senseof restoring a pristine culture, sullied by the colonial episode.

The idea of an 'African' culture in this senseis seen by many as a reductive

concept. Ken Saro-Wiwa notes that Nigeria is '...an agglomeration of peoples

different languagesand cultures exist in Africa. The fact that we

and cultures...

common beliefs or a common history of

share a common colour or certain

to lump all Africa into a single pigeon-

slavery and exploitation are not enough

hole.' ' Europeans speak of a French culture, a Spanish culture, a German

Similarly Africa has not one culture but many. In that rich tapestry of
culture.

the the Euro-assimilationists' forms but a single thread and, as

cultures work of

132
the tapestry grows, the significance of that thread
will diminish. But it should not
be disowned as it has an integral part in the history
of the cultural development

of many African countries.

Just consider for a moment the possibility that

somewriters can free themselves

of 'colonial influence' and are able to continue, as though it had never been

interrupted, the development of a 'purely' African culture,

recording it in a
'purely' African literature. They are indeed blest. But
surely that does not mean

that those who are not so blest, those who are not able to free themselvesof those

pernicious influences, should be condemned because their writing shows

evidence of those catastrophes?A problem With Chinweizu's attack on 'Euro-

assimilationist junk' is that it assumesthat an intellectual choice has been made

by the artist to create in a particular style. That may well be so in some cases.

But Darnbudzo Marechera, I suggest, was not able to make that choice. His

to
writing, and a similar degree,the man himself, reflected the turbulenceof his

personal background, history and upbringing. However much he may have

wanted to,, he to
was never able reconcile that inner turmoil. body
Marechera's of

work demonstratesquite clearly that he was never able to lay the ghosts that

hauntedmost of his adult life.

In Toward The Decolonization Of African Literature, Chinweizu et al (referred

to in the admiring tones of Julio Finn as 'Chinweizu and the Headhunters')"

announcethat their aim is 'to release African culture from the death-grip of the

West' (p3). As culture is, in very crude terms admittedly, 'the way we do things',

it should be made clear that Chinweizu and his associateswanted to change

133
particular people and to redefine the 'way they do things'. This
intention
supposesa degreeof choice that may not have been available to
all; quite simply
some may have been held so tightly in the 'deathgrip'that escape(if that is
what
it would be) was not an option. An
argument can be advancedthat Marechera

was so held. In any event, in his writing he attemptedto reflect the 'here
and now'
rather than to resurrecta mythic past. He was interestedin the past,of but
course,
only to the extent that the present is better understoodwith knowledge of
what
had gone before. Sharing that senseof creating
an understanding of 'where we

are now) by examining the 'here and now' experience Stephen Dedalus

proclaims- 'Welcome, 0 life! I go to encounter for the millionth time the reality

of experience and to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of

-) 42
my race .

Chinweizu et al go on to claim that'... a significant number of African critics are

eurocentric in their orientation,,whereasthey ought to be afrocentric. Suchcritics

view African literature through European '

eyes. (p6). " It is not my intention to

engagein this argumentby listing Europhiles on one side and Afrophiles on the

other. Such a practice would not add to an understanding of the work of

Marechera,who was, perhaps,the authentic voice in the wildernessthat tried to

his
escape ideological straitjacket by recognisingallegianceto nothing and to no-

one. However be
an attempt should made to place his work within the parameters

establishedby Chinweizu and his associatesas they framed a major issue.

Working on the assumptionthat 'contemporaryAfrican culture is under foreign

domination'. Chinweizu suggestedthat:

134
 on the one hand, our culture has to destroy all encrustationsof
...
colonial mentality,, and on the other hand, has to map out new
foundations for an African modernity. This cultural task demands
a
deliberate and calculated processof syncretism:one
which, above
all, emphasizesvaluable continuities with our pre-colonial culture,
welcomes vitalizing contributions from other cultures,, and
exercises inventive genius in making a healthy and distinguished
synthesisfrom them all. (p239)

Any possible affinity with Bhabha's postitive

IIIIIIviews on hybridity

removed as Chinweizu continues 'If decolonisation is the airn, such synthesis

must be within the parametersof the African tradition rather than outside it. '.

Marechera's work obviously does not meet these requirements. There is,

moreover,, a difficulty with this doctrine, with its implied theme of the

preservation and recovery of the African heritage. Not only is the definition of

'African tradition' problematic, but so also is the question of who has the

responsibility for that definition. One of the major problems of the novels

published by the Southem RhodesiaLiterature Bureau was that the writers were

forced to write to a 'tradition' imposed on them. The resultswere consequentlyof

little value in depicting a culture in transition, or to a society in a state of flux.

Chinweizu is aware of the dangers of leaving a culture 'unchanged and in

does in fact call for 'experimentation'. But 'The kind of

moribund stasts' and

experimentation called for may be described as traditionalist,, that is to say,,

experimentation for the purpose of modernising and revitalising the tradition'

in
(p239). He goes on to suggestways which these aims may be achieved.But

than follow that line I will take issue with the notions of 'experimentation'
rather

'tradition' theserelate to the work of DambudzoMarechera.

and as

Chidi Amuta describes

Many critics have taken issuewith Chinweizu's approach.

[a] kind romantic simplification'. " Others argue that

it as'... of reductionism and
135
the creation or 're-creation' of a culture is an impossible task, as is
culture
dynamic and evolutionary. Fanon mistrusted the kind
of backward-looking

romanticism which Chinweizu represents: '...all the proofs of a wonderful

Songhai civilisation Aqll not change the fact that today the Songhai's
are underfed

and illiterate. '" My main concern however is with the exclusivity of

Chinweizu's approach and his tossing into the wastebasket
as 'Euro-

assimilationist j unk' anything that is not wholly 'African'(although, he somewhat

contradictorily does accept 'vitalizing contributions from other cultures). The

problem is that the definition of 'Euro-assimilation' is based on a large

generalisation.Chinweizu assumesthat all such writing was a consciousattempt

to be 'European' and therefore by implication, not 'African'. But Marechera's

chosen'camp' was neither Europe nor Africa, but the world, and identity '...an act

of faith, impossible to verify. ' ' As to whether the writer could offer any sort of

leadership, he expressed grave doubts "'You literary chaps are our only hope."

Harry began. I choked politely on my drink. Then we are sunk I thought' (The
fl-
nbuse ofHunger p 16).

Chinweizu's quarrel with writing like Marechera's is that it does not refer to and

develop traditional African practices. For Marechera there was nothing coherent

there to refer to or develop. His hybrid nature gives him no coherentand entire

body of 'African' or black tradition to write from. "'You hate being black." she

My discoloured teeth ached. Here we go again, I thought. Can a hollow

said.

decayedsoul be filled in, the way dentists do to

it a messof teethT (The House of

Hunger p45). Marechera did not hate being black. His that
acknowledgement his

'blackness'was now 'discoloured' by the colonial experiencedid not endearhim

136
to the negritudinists or the nationalists. But 'discoloured' is
not necessarily

pejorative, it can also be a recognition that irrevocable changehas taken place.A

recognition that, for the peaceof mind if not sanity, of the individual, adjustment
,

- not acceptance- to the new condition was a fundamentalrequirement.As for

the question about the 'hollow decayedsoul': the answer is that a decayedsoul,

whether belonging to an individual or a country, cannot be filled in,, cannot be

restored.What is lost, is lost forever.

On the simplest level Marechera must be classified as a post-colonial writer,

simply becauseof his background and subject matter. But this definition is very

broad. He did confront issuesof 'culture conflict' and the 'African heritage'but in

a narcissistic,,undidactic fashion which annoyed some critics. But, although

there were many inconsistenciesof approachand attitude in his life and work,

and much posturing for the sakeof maintaining an image,Marecherawas never a

He
pseudo-anarchist. was the real thing. Whether this was out of conviction or

perversity, illness is
even, a moot point but, I
as commentedearlier, he did appear

to be againstalmost everything.

Until very late in his life he disowned affinity with race or nation in maintaining

his right to his 'uniqueness',his individuality. It is precisely that quality that

his difficult to categorise. His individuality was the desireto

makes work so very

be free of all influencesand to embracea universalismwhich recognisedno

barriers and acknowledged no preconceived values or standards. Possibly

Marechera was aware of the Langston Hughes anecdoteabout the young negro
47
to be a poet, not a negro poet but that apart Marecherawas too
who wanted

137
widely read and too astute to fall into the trap of 'his' universalism being little
48
more than an acceptanceof 'white orientatedaesthetics'.

This is not to claim that his escapefrom such aestheticswas achieved,,or even

however
achievable,, much It was desired.The perniciousnature of his education

was literally a 'death-gnp' from which there was no escape,at least for the

psychologically fragile Marechera. But contrary to the views of Chinweizu and

others,,such calamity does not devalue the work. It is authenticin its own right,

both as a symbol of the disastrouseffects of the colonial legacyon the individual

and as a testamentto one man's struggle to break free of that legacy.

Notes

I Lady Iris Hayter, Wife of Sir William Hayter, Warden of New College kept a
diary of Marechera's activities. The entry for 10th August, 1975, reads ' Ws
[William's] day was spent on Charles Marechera who has created havoc in the
College, running amok when drunk among conference members... W was told of
door beaten down, Mr Ledwige [a college steward] attacked
a seriesof incidents,,
Colin Winter and we hope has taken Charles away. 'SB
and so on. was summoned
p163.
Interview with David Pattison, London, 30thJune 1997.
3 Interview with David Pattison, London, I" July 1997.
4 Interview with David Pattison, London, 21stJuly 1997.
5 Fromm qualifies his comments by pointing out that '...truth is the essential
and the individual; awareness is the
medium to transform, respectively, society
key to social and individual therapy'Erich Fromm, Beyond the Chains offflusion
though for
(London. Abacus, 1980), p16. Marechera was certainly very awarel
him truth was a negotiable treaty. That said, such a 'problem' would not, of
course, invalidate his transformation.
6 Carl Rogers, who in turn was quoting Kierkegaard, develops this theme in On
Becoming a Person (London: Constable, 1967).
138
7 From Laing's
introduction to The Politics of Experience, (London: Penguin,,
1967).
8 See David Caute,, Fanon (London: Fontana, 1970),
pI 6.
9 Carl Rogers, On Becoming Person (London: Constable, 1967), 10.
a pI
10Nothing in the Heinemann files indicate that Kantai's
report should be shown to
Marechera. In fact there is evidence that James Currey attempted to keep such
adverse comments away from the writer.
11 Laurice Taitz and Melissa Levin, Fictional Autobiographies
Autobiographical Fictions, paper presented to The Dambudzo Marechera
Symposium, Harare, 1995, unpublished, p2/3.
12 While the ability to the background
merge into may appear advantageous,
Marecheraýs reference to a chameleon's properties is to indicate a desire to
identify With, rather than to escape from. His use is in a pejorative sense,as he
makes clear. See p2 and p39 for examples.
13David Caute, 'Baby-faced fantasist to be damned', Independent
who aspired
On Sunday, (London: 12th January 1992).
14Philip Larkin, 'This Be The Verse' Collected Poems (London: Faber & Faber,
1988), p180.
15 A John Wyllie comment about Marechera in his report on The Black
Heretic.
16 Robert Fraser described Marechera as having a very marked Oxford
accent, far more exaggerated than most English Oxonians would have. It had a
very marked roll to it and he to
used speak in what we would call a very lah-di-
dah way, rather like an Edwardian Oxonlan than a late 20th century Oxonian' SB
p244.
17James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a YoungMan (London: Paladin, 1988).
P207.
8 Michael Dash, 'The Way Out of Negritude', The Post-Colonial Studies Reader,
Bill Ashcroft et al, (eds.) (London: Routledge, 1995), p200.
19My use of the term 'post-colonial' is consistent with Ashcroft's definition '... all
the culture affected by the imperial process from the moment of colonisation to
the present day. This is because there is a continuity of preoccupations
throughout the historical process initiated by European imperial aggression' Bill
Ashcroft et al, (eds.) The Empire Writes Back (London: Routledge, 1989), p2.
20Gerald Gaylard, 'Dambudzo Marechera and Nationalist Criticism', English in
A (Grahamstown: Rhodes University Press, October, 1993), p90.
2,
2ýrica
Jane Wilkinson, Talking with African Writers (London: James Currey, 1992),
211.
Jacques Stephen Alexis, 'Of the Marvellous Realism of the Haitians', The
Post-Colonial Studies Reader,, Bill Ashcroft et al, (eds. ) (London: Routledge,
1995), p195.
23Jane Wilkinson Talking with Aftican Writers (London: James Currey, 1992),
p203.
Z4Bill Ashcroft, The Post Colonial Studies Reader (London: Routledge, 1995),

p183.
5 Chinua Achebe, 'Named for Victoria, Queen of England, The Post-Colonial
Bill Ashcroft (eds.) (London: Routledge, 1995), p 190.
Studies Reader, et al,
26 Dambudzo Marechera, 'Soyinka, Dostoevsky: The Writer on Trial for his
Time', Zambezza, XIV (ii) (Harare: University of Zimbabwe, 1987), p107.

139
27
DambudzoMarechera 1952-1987,p3.
28 Dan Wylie 'Language Thieves', English
in Aftica, Vol 18, No 2
(Grahamstown: RhodesUniversity Press,October,,1991),
29Gerard Gaylard, 'Dambudzo Marechera p43.
and Nationalist Criticism% English in
Africa, Vol 20, No. 2 (Grahamstown: RhodesUniversity Press,October, 1993),
.-n
0 Chinweizu,, Voices From Twentieth-CenturyAfrica
(London: Faber & Faber,,
1988.), p xix.
31
ibid, p xxi.
32
Wilson Hams. The Radical Imagination (Liege. University of Liege, 1992),
A

r
Black European'is a possible interpretationof the title TheBlack Insider. The
title has clear reference to Ngugi's 'black white man'..who was black on the
outside but with 'white', that is., colonial, values inside. There are also obvious
connectionsWith the even earlier'Brown Sahib%a description coined by Tarzie
vittachi, refemng to 'those Asian politicians and administratorswho refused to
recognisethat their role in an independentcountry was very different from the
role of the colonial rulers whom they had replaced' The Brown Sahib (London:
Andre Deutsch,,1962),p9.
34Jonathan Peters,.A Dance
of Masks (Washington, D.C.: Three Continents
Press,,1978), p6.
35Kenneth W. Harrow, Thresholds Change African Literature (London:
of in
JamesCurrey, 1993),pp60/61.
36Homi Bhabha,. TheLocation Culture (London: JamesCurrey, 1993), 141.
of p
37Seethe prefaceto Lewis Nkosi's Tasksand Masks (Harlow: Longman,1981).
38Regina Amadi-Tshiwala,, 'Critical Bearings in African Literature, Presence
Afticatne, 115 (Paris: SocieteNouvelle PresenceAfricaine, 1980), pl 51.
39Seealso David Pattison'Inside TheBlack Insider' UnpublishedMA thesis,p 16.
40Ken Saro-Wiwa, 'The Languageof African Literature: A Writer's Testimony',
Researchin Aftican Literature, Vol 23, No I (Austin: University of TexasPress,
1992), ppl54/155.
41Julio Finn, VoicesofNegritude (London: QuartetBooks, 1988), pl 85.
42 JamesJoyce,Portrait of the Artist as a YoungMan (1916), (London: Paladin,
1988), p257.
43One writer so attackedwas Wole Soyinka who was accusedof being 'a sell-out
to the west, a brainwashed colonial cringing obediently before alien literary gods.'
In his turn Soyinka dismissed Chinweizu et al as 'unsurecritics and superficial
traditionalists... [who] do not know what they are talking about... neo-Tarzanists
promulgating a poetics of pseudo-tradition which has no African foundation.'
James Gibbs & Bernth Lindfors,, Research On Wole Soyinka (Trenton New
Jersey:Africa World Press,1993),p342.
44Chidi Amuta, The Theory of African Literature (London: Zed Books, 1989),
preface.
5
5 Franz Fanon,, The Wretched of the Earth (1961) (London: Penguin, 1990),
p168.
46Dambudzo Marechera, 'Soyinka, Dostoevsky: The Writer on Trial for his
Time', Zambezia, XIV (ii) (Harare. University of Zimbabwe., 1987), p107.
47The story goes 'One of the most promising of the young negro poets said to me
[Langston Hughes] once, "I want to be "
a poet, not a negro poet, meaning, I

140
believe, I want to write like a white poet," meaning subconsciously,I would
like to be a white poet," meaning behind that, "I would like to be white' Voicesof
Negritude (London: Quartet Books, 1988), p 186.
48
ibid, p186.

141
 CHAPTER FOUR

The Black Insider and Black Sunlight: Neurosis Art?

or

4.1 The London Years

On leaving New College in March 1976 Marecheraentered

a phaseof his life in

which he was permanently unemployed and had no settled home as he lived out

the role of the writer-tramp. This vagrant existence lasted through the London

years and continued on his return to Harare in 1982 until friends provided him

with his own bed-sitter flat, at 8 Sloane Court, in May 1984. As far as is known,

apart from infrequent and brief penods of part-time teaching in Harare, he never

had paid employment.

Due to the highly irregular nature of his life it is difficult to be precise about

Marechera's movements. However, it is known that he stayed in and around

Oxford until October 1977 when he moved to Cardiff, possiblyto meet up with a

former girl friend with a view to marriage (SB ppl96/198). ' While in Cardiff he

was arrested for theft, possessionof cannabis, and overstaying his visa (SB

p 192)2 FolloWing the intervention of James Currey ' and thanks largely to his
.

efforts, Marechera was not deported, he

although was jailed for three months. In

February 1978, shortly after his release from prison, where, he told '
Currey, he

he moved to London. And there - apart from a short spell

was repeatedlyraped,

in Sheffield between February and April, 1979, as writer-in-residence at the

142
University, and a three week visit to the Berlin International Literature Days

(Honzons '79) in June/July, 1979 - he stayed, living in a succession

of squats,

until he left for Harare in February '

1982.

From time to time Robert Frasermet up with Marecherain London,,usually at the

Africa Centre in King Street where, often joined by Ben Okri, they would discuss

literature. Combining a comment on the autobiographicalnature of Marechera's

work and his lifestyle Fraser suggested 'He [Marechera] couldn't distinguish

between literature and life. His life was a story in itself' Occasionallythey met

accidentally in central London. Fraser describes one such meeting, which was

memorablefor him,.but,,one suspects,run of the mill for Marechera:

-6
It was shortly after he had left Brixton Jail. I was around in central
London having just delivered some manuscripts to Hememann who
at that time had their offices in Bedford Square when I saw
Dambudzo hurtling towards me, the usual haunted expression on
his face. I said 'I didn't know you were out of jail' and asked him to
join me at a nearby cafe. He talked about being in jail and asked
what my plans were. was at It the time of the strike at the Times
and all the supplements had been affected, including the TLS. As a
response to this Karl Miller had just set up the London Review of
Books from offices in Bloomsbury Street. Dambudzo suggestedwe
might try for some reviewing work. was I free-lancing at the time
and thought it a good idea.

When we arrived at the offices was it late in the lunch hour, Karl
Miller wasn't there but various secretariesand sub-editors were
about the place. I thought Dambudzo was about to introduce
himself along the lines of 'I'm a writer looking for free lance worle
introduce me. But as soon as we entered the room
and would also
Dambudzo was seized with nerves and a kind of self-conscious
jittering - he stood looking at his feet, and began mumbling about
winning the Guardian Fiction Prize.

This probably seemedvery unlikely from the secretaries' point of

because his behaviour and his terribly disreputable
view of
We didn't get as far as asking for reviewing work, as it
appearance. him
the secretaries and sub editors thought a
was quite obvious door he
case. I started then edging toward the when
complete nut
suddenly stopped in the middle of this abortive self-explanation
143
 and looked at me for a moment before muttering 'Let's
here.' get out of

We ran down the stair well to the landing

where his panic turned to
anger. He took out a box of matchesand struck one
'Bum the place down. Bum the while shouting
place down.' The horrific thought
struck me that here I was outside the offices of the London Review
of Books with a well known arsonist, apparentlyabout to bum the
place down. In the event,,he extinguished the match and
down the stairs and into the street.He we ran
ran in one direction and I ran
in another. And that was the last time I saw him. 7

Fraser offered this story as an example of Marechera

in conflict with authority.
That may well be so, the incident was certainly typical Marechera's
of reactionto
having to deal With any sort of 'officialdom'. However the
writer's violent
reaction may also be interpretedas frustration at his own personalinadequaciesin

presenting himself, rather than indicating anarchic or iconoclastic tendencies.

Alastair Niven,, who,, as director of the Africa Centre from August 1978 to 1984,

had regular contact with Marechera,,offers a view of the writer

which suggests

anotherpossibleinterpretation of the episode.

Dambudzo always behaved in a very odd way but there was an

element of calculation in it. He knew what he was doing, it wasn't
done out of anger. The wildness was either manic, that is he
couldn't help himself, or there was a degree of calculation. On
balanceI think I would vote for calculation. He wantedto createan
image, an image of an interesting literary person. Perhaps if he had
matured and developed having secured a position for himself [as an
established writer] then he may have become a calmer, more
reasonable person. But, of course, that never happened He
...
wanted to make a literary mark. Dambudzo Marechera was very
young, very innocent and very naive in some ways. He modelled
himself on someEuropeanwriters who lived a rough, hard life like
Dylan Thomas or Brendan Behan. To be the sort of writer he
wanted to be he had to live life that It
way. was the life he did lead
but I suspectthere was an intention behind it - perhapsto write a
book like Down and Out in London and Paris. 8

Undoubtedly there was an element of image manipulation in Marechera"s

behaviour; equally there is no doubt that the London period was very stressfulfor

him. Veit Wild writes of his stagesof seriousdepressionand refers to a story the

144
writer used to tell '... how he wanted to drown himself in the Thamesbut each

time was held back by the dirty water' (SB p236). Marecheramade
referenceto
this in the unpublishedchoreodramaPortrait of a Black Artist in London, 'Ripple

softly, dirty Thames, reflect softly our suicide's rain / Clouds of fire loose
my

millions of blood onto the ebbing tide' (SB p268). One memorablenight at the

Africa Centre Marechera read from Portrait of a Black Artist. Asked by Niven to

read for twenty minutes Marechera, who after a while was accompaniedby a

saxophomst,,went on for more than an hour. Niven recalled 'I was usually a strict

Chair but I didn't stop him becausethe audiencewas enjoying the performance,I

was also worried about his reaction if interrupted. Not that one would be

personally hurt, but some awful public embarrassmentcould be caused". 9A

particularly graphic example of such public embarrassmentoccurred when

Marechera disrupted a formal occasion at the CalabashRestaurantat which the

British Ambassadorto Chad was being entertained,Niven recalled 'Dambudzo

was absolutely at his worst. He stripped of almost all of his clothes and started

yelling abuse... and upsetting tables' (SB p23 7/238).

Wendy Davies, who was Education Officer at the Africa Centre during that time

found Marechera to be 'charming and infuriating in equal measure',,one who was

to 'prick balloons of pomposity' and a 'baiter of authority,. She also said

inclined

he could be 'generous, warm and responsive' having quite impulsively given her

his copy of the Collected Works of Lewis Carroll, which she had admired. On

he had written anything in the book she was able to tell me

checking whether

'Yes, he has signed it, just above a stamp which statesProperty of Heinemann

Inc' 10

145
Portrait of a Black Artist in London was wrItten in 1980 the Affica Centre (SB
at

p239) and his period there, which was during the first two years of his 'London

exile' (1978 - 1980), coincided with the most fruitful of his writing career.Since

he submitted these particular manuscriptsto Heinemannit

is certain that it was
during this time that he wrote 'The Black Insider%'A Bowl for Shadows','The

Black Heretic' and 'Black Sunlight'. The manuscripts of 'A Bowl for Shadows',

and 'The Black Heretic' were lost after having been returnedto Marechera,and it

can only be a matter for speculationhow much other work went astraydue to his

effatic lifestyle.

Davies recalled 'He was often very unhappy and could be outrageously

demanding at times but in the middle of a tirade he would suddenly flash a

knowing mischievous grin which was quite disconcerting.Whether it was act or

not I do not know, suspectneither did Dambudzo. My abiding visual memory of

.11
him is of a thin, gaunt figure in a big black wide brimmed hat, hurtling down King

Street,,bits of paper falling out of various bagsand pocketsashe strodealong.' 11

Alastair Niven met Marechera for the first time in early 1979.

He was in the bar of the Calabash Restaurant [at the Africa

Centre], he struck me as a well-dressed young man with a fairly
plummy Oxford accent, I had the impression of a rather genteel
background. Of course, nothing could have been further from the
truth. He seemed a cheery, pleasant and intelligent young man of
I
the sort wanted to to use the Africa Centre. I told him:
encourage
Africa Centre home. A remark that came to
please make the your
haunt me.

Eventually Marechera's behaviour became too much even for the ever tolerant

Niven,,and after an episodewhen he had to be forcibly preventedfrom sleepingat

146
the Centre and then proceededto cause 000 worth of damage,he was banned.

Dr. Niven told me 'The Africa Centre gave him a context within he
which could

operate and I always felt it a terrible defeat that we bannedhim from it. He was

the only person we ever banned and it was in the sameweek that he was banned

from entering the premises of Heinemann,,his publishers. I achieved a limited

in
objective stopping the trouble but I felt it was a defeat.Here was someonewho

was actually valuable, creative, probably the most able person using the Africa
-) 12
Centre, and we were stopping him entering.

This most productive writing period was also the time that his behaviourwas at its

most unpredictableand it is possible that there is a link betweenthe two patterns.

Certainly the lack of coherence and continuity in his life at that time is reflected in

the fragmentation and discontinuities evident in the structure of his In

work. the

first part of this chapter I Will examine the published London works, Black

Sunlight and The Black Insider and demonstrate how his writing style changed

The
_r__ -
House of Hunger to become even more autobiographical and 'difficult'
from

his lifestyle informed both form and content. In the second part I
as increasingly

the Jungian 'neurosisor art'debate outlined in ChapterTwo.

will elaborateon

4.2 Black Sunlight and The Black Insider

'Help! '

In William Golding's Pincher Martin the action takes place entirely in the mind of

Marechera's with his own mental

the central character.In view of pre-occupation

description Pincher Martin's hopelesspredicamentcould be

condition Golding's of

to Marechera: 'He was struggling in every

applied with equal appropriateness

147
direction, he was the centre of the writhing and kicking knot his body.
of own
There was no up or down, no light and no air. He felt his mouth
open of Itself and
13
the shrieked word burst out. "Help! "'

Marechera's attempt to come to terms with the contradictions generatedby his

Europeanised education begun in The House of Hunger continued. But his efforts

were hampered by worsening mental health as he tried to follow up the praise

by
engendered his first published work and to producethe full length novel sought

by James Currey at Heinemann. Marechera.wrote The Black Insider and'A Bowl

for Shadows' in early 1978, closely followed by 'The Black Heretic'. Black

Sunlight, the fourth and last version of what started out as The Black Insider was

written in mid-1979 and is not a revision but rather a reworking of the same

themes and issues after the latter had been rejected by Heinemannfor the first

time. However an inspection of the original manuscript reveals that substantial

had
passages to be edited out of The Black Insider before it could be published

becausethey had already appearedin Black Sunlight. As it is many similarities

can still be found betweenthe two.

There is no doubt that Marechera struggled to establish a base for himself on

leaving the 'cloistered calm' of New College. Implying that his time at Oxford had

been somehow detachedfrom 'real life', he commentsin The Black Insider 'I was

discovery in the real United Kingdom' (p43). It was

just about to start aj ourney of
led him back to Zimbabwe. His lifestyle
to be a struggle in vain and aj ourney that

becameincreasingly dissolute as he continuedto take drugs and drink excessively,

his health problems and feeding into his writing, as the

in turn exacerbating

148
difficulty he had in creating a coherent narrative leading to
appropriate

conclusions which is apparent in The House of Hunger, deepened.Subsequent

publication of Black Sunlight and The Black Insider allowed comparisonsto be

made with the earlier The House of Hunger and assumptionsformed about the

manner in which Marechera'sillness had shown itself in his work. The patternof

increasing incoherence and fragmentation which such comparison reveals fits

remarkably well into the general argumenton the effects of schizophreniaon the

writer put forward by Geoffrey Grigson in his work on the poet John Clare, who

spentthe majority of his adult life in an asylum:

The madness itself, the confirmed psychosis, though it may be

difficult enough to say where it begins, does not so much release as
destroy. But the preliminaries, the preliminary anxieties and
experiences and illuminations, may provide a schizophrenic With a
richness of material. To start with, his less impaired normality may
incline him to scale down or censor that richness. As his disease
extends, the censorship lessens and the it
poems, or whatever may
be,,blossom out like flowers in the night; the experiences no longer
cohere., and his sense of form loosens towards the incoherent and
the fragmentary. 14

The relative coherency of The House of Hunger disintegrates in Black Sunlight

and The Black Insider as his deteriorating mental health allowed him to

experiencethe world only in disconnectedinsights and this fragmentedexperience

is reproduced in narratives lacking direction, cohesion and continuity. The

following from Black Sunlight is a typical diversion. Appropriately

example

deals the difficulty of saying what one means (or meaning what
enough it with

one says):

Keep your shirt on, my dear chap. What does one ever mean?... It is
I know that intrigues me now but what I can never know,
not what
Imagine it, there are things which our mind and imagination can
think or imagine. And if we are mere puppets to these things
never
Do I don't see. But perhaps you do. I have
then you see?
... define You have to define me. If we do
adjectivesto you. nouns
the adjectives and the nouns can you imagine the
away with
149
 transformation that would take place within you,
within me... ? But
of course we cling to the adjectives and we stoutly hold on to the
nouns. They weave descriptions which are neither lethal nor fatal.
Fascinations,, complexities that,, when inspected
under a fine
microscope,neither fascinatenor are they complex. You live on the
periphery of a centrifugal life - is there not an impossibility there?
You live on the outer reachesof a centripetal life there
- is also a
contradiction there? The headthat outpacesits body's marathon,or
the body that outruns its head's hundred yards
of sprinting, this
does not make for clear thinking, clean feelings. Anyway is
what
clear thinking after all? (Black Sunlight, p63)

The perceptive reader will discern the subtleties

of Marechera's points on
languageand the managementof meaningbut,
couchedin terms of unconvincing

rhetoric.. his points are not clearly made. However that observationperhapsonly

servesto underline the (intentional?) irony of the question 'what is clear thinking?

Black Sunlight in particular has many such diversions that, although often

provocative and interesting in themselves, have the effect of disrupting the

progression of the story-line and of breaking the narrative flow.

What little influence remained from the academicconditioning of his University

experiences soon disappeared in the undiscipline and impatience that

characterised the productive years of 1978 and 1979 as Marechera strove,,through

his ANnting,for a clear sense of identity and purpose. As he demonstrates in Black

Sunlight and The Black Insider, he has a sure grasp of the hybrid nature of his

identity and his searchwas not so much for a senseof who he but
was,, who he

might have been, had he not been subjected to the pernicious influences of

colonialism. To the outsider his purpose was uncertain and in any event, one

suspects,was dominated by factors over which he had no control, the outcomeof

for
the Liberation war,. example,or the critical receptionof his work.

150
The following extract shows his indiscipline, as the writer is diverted from the

main story line to explore a familiar Marecherantheme of the limitations imposed

by the structure of meaning attached to language.Also in familiar Marecheran

fashion the reader is offered a string of metaphorsin an inconclusive

series of
loosely connectedassertions rather than a coherentand cohesiveargument.

The languages of Europe... are descended from one parent

language which was spoken about 2500 to 200 BC. This Indo-
European group of languages- in their modem form has been
-
carried by colonisation to the far corners of the earth. Thus the
Indo-Europeanriver has quite neatly overflowed its banks and like
the flood in the bible has flooded Africa, Asia, America and all the
islands. In this case there does not seemto have been any Noah
about who built an ark to save even just two words of all the
languagesand speech,which were drowned.Literacy today is just
the beginning of the story. Words are the waters which power the
hydro-electricity of nations. Words are chemicalsthat H20 human
intercourse. Words are the rain of votes which made the harvest
possible. Words are the thunderstorm when a nation is divided.
Words are the water in a shatteringglass when friends break into
argument. Words are the acronym of a nuclear test-site. Every
single minute the world is deluged by boulders of words crushing
down upon us over the cliff of the TV, the telephone,the telex, the
post, the satellite, the radio, the advertisement,,the bill-poster,, the
traffic sign, graffiti, etc.. Everywhere you go, some shit word will
collide with you on the wrong side of the road. (The Black Insider
pp 48/49)

He continues in this vein for several pages, then introduces a 'play' which runs for

thirteen pages before returnIng to the central issue of the refuge in the Arts

Faculty. This 'diversion' (which runs from p44 to p62) begins reasonably enough

the reaction to the war. 'The faculty is the last

as an examination of narrator's

desperateditch of a state of my mind bred In the tension of war. Black clouds of

their in the black of the sky, which is still cindered by the

smoke graze minutes

the comet that blasted us in that old twentieth century.

shock and concussion of

The dog-earedhistory books say so.' (p44). This elegantly phrasedallusion to the

followed by the ultimately ironic 'A half-digested idea

traumas of colonisation is
151
is transformed into an overwhelming description of the world'. This is ironic since

Marecherathen takes a 'half-digestedidea' (more accuratelyseveralsuch 'ideas'on

'language', 'words' and 'attitude') and runs with it for several pages, effectively

taking the reader away from the 'story' and into a cul-de-sac from which

Marechera eventually leads the reader using a version of the 'Clarenceburst his

bonds'technique."

The writer's constantstriving for a senseof identity and purposeis seenalso in the

following remarkable passage in which the apparent attack on his mother

-

although in typically ambiguous form the 'fucking bitch' is more probably an

allusion to Africa complying by

in its own rape the white settlers- and with its air

of violent anger, desperation and self-loathing and its rich mixture of obscenity,

blasphemy, humour and poignancy, is a prime example of Marechera's writing.

The extract also indicates that he could handle diversions without losing

continuity or direction.

As I swung gently by my heels in the thick fat fucking breeze of

sheer humidity, I had a clear view of the court and could see and
hear all that went on there. So this is humankind. Swinging.
Backwards and forwards. Swinging through history. These are my
I am their people too. Crucified upside down by my heels.
people.
My Golgotha a chicken yard. Father! Father! Why the fucking shit
did you conceive me? You have no meaning. I have no meaning.
The meaning is in the swinging. And that is ridiculous. Absurd.
Ha! That fucking bitch, my mother, why did you open up to receive
him? After that annunciation, that lecherous gleam in his single
Did and shake our history's shirtfront? As
glittering eye. you writhe
I in a cocoon. Swinging. Swinging
now grind my teething people
Europe was in my head, crammed
in a cocoon of chickenshit.
together with Africa,, Asia and America. Squashed and jammed
together in my dustbin head. There is no rubbish dump big enough
to relieve me of my load. Swinging upside down, threatening to
burst the thin roof of my brains. Those years of my travels. Years
of innocence and experience. Motherfucking months of twiddling
thumbs insecurity. In search of my true people. Yes in
my with ,
true people. But wherever I went I did not find people
search of my
152
 but caricaturesof people who insisted on being taken
seriously as
people. PerhapsI was on the wrong planet.
In the wrong skin.
Sometimes.
And sometimesall the time. You know. In the wrong skin.
This black skin. (Black Sunlight pp 3/4)

The passionateand shocking corruption of the Crucifixion and the brutal

parody
of Christ's cry from the cross are powerfully wrought, as Marecheraconflatesthe
death of Christ both with his own wish not to-be-born, and the despoliation
of
Africa. As Marecheraidentifies with the fate of the African 'These are my people.

I am their people', but only insofar as they representhis beginnings.His central

concern here is the effect of the colonial experienceon him as an individual. In

search of his 'true people' he finds only 'caricatures' who, tragically, do not

realise they are 'caricatures' and so, as they do not sharehis concern,they seeno

reason to search for 'truth'. His conclusion is simple; he cannot find his 'true

people' because,
as a result of the he
colonial experience, is the 'wrong' personin

the 'wrong' place. The solution, however, is far from simple. As this reading of

Black Sunlight makes clear, to find the 'right' person he must rid himself of his

hybridity. And to do that he must go back to his beginnings.

The questfor a senseof self so evident herepervadesthe London work.

"Can you prove that I existT

'Yes if you tell me who is speaking.'
'That is the point of thesemany words." (Black Sunlight p 115)

This exchangeis an inner monologue as the narrator recogniseshe speakswith

many voices, has many identities. The question 'Can you prove that I exist?I is

not about existence,per se, but it is about multiple identities and the likelihood, or

of
otherwise,, being able to identify which of them is asking the question.In effect

the narrator is asking, 'Who am ff Therefore the point of 'thesemany words' is

not to prove existence but to consider the inevitably hybrid nature of identity

153
 itself The (impossible) solution is to destroy the layers of influence,,socialisation,,

politicisation, call it what you Will, until only the unadulteratedcore remains.

Both Black Sunlight and The Black Insider are explorations the
of self However
this is not a narcissistic exercisenor is it a searchfor self in the
way of a Rogerian

self-awarenessor knowledge of self gained in relation to others. Nor in view of

,
its disintegrative intent, is it quite a Jungianprocessof individuation, sinceit lacks

the emphasisJung placed on integration and wholeness.It is rather a searchfor

the self or knowledge of the self as I in primordial form, a knowledge of self

gainedprior to that gained by identification with the other. In this way Marechera,

is seeking to discover the true, the unalloyed self, free of contaminating

influences, particularly, as he makesclear, the colonial experiencebut also before

the dialectic of identification with the other has begun the irreversible processof

encoding identity. The search for self as primordial I is a quite compelling

I- I
--
philosophical exercise, but it is an impossible quest. The important feature of the

searchis the processitself, a questfor understandingof ' self-as-is'. If a coming to

terms (not a blind acceptance)with that condition follows then somethingbetter

than mere co-existence may be possible. It should be possible, for instance,to

achievea Rogenan congruencebetween 'self-as-is' and 'self-as-would-like-to-be'

thus securing an end to personal dissonanceand inner turmoil. All the evidence

suggestsDambudzo Marechera never reachedthat stateof mind. Rogers suggests

that reconciliation of self-image with that of 'self-as-others-see-us'

is reachedby

having an 'unconditional positive regard' for others. Marechera was unable to

form lasting relationships with things or personsoutside himself and was often
fy 16),
judgemental (as, among others, Professor Barton and Dr. Niven can testi

154
thus denying himself accessto helpful feedback.As a result,,the searchfor self-

is
actualisation,which realisable,also becamean impossiblequest.

To achieve 'knowledge of self' Marecherahas to explore his past and both Black

Sunlight and The Black Insider incorporatethe classic form of the journey. Black

Sunlight has the excursion to and then through the Devil's End, headquartersof

the Black Sunlight terrorist group. The Black Insider,.although the action never

leaves the Arts Faculty, presents Marecheraýstravels from Rhodesia to Zimbabwe

via England, from colonialism to neo-colonialism, from non-combatant to

combatant.In both works,,the writing, with its confusion of roles and exploration

of multiple personalities, leads to speculationabout schizophreniaand links can

be tracedto Laing's work in this area.

for be
Marechera'ssearch the unalloyed self can also viewed as the for
search the

id. The id 'contains everything that is present at birtlf it is the individual,

,

primitive, unorgarnsed and emotional, before the rational realities of the ego

become a shaping force. Such a search may well be the inevitable result of

colonisation,. Fanon argued: 'Because it is a systematic negation of the other

person and a furious determination to deny the other person all attributes of

humanity, colonialism forces the people it dominates to ask themselves the

"In IT". 17Fanon's comments have particular

question constantly. reality who am

for black Zimbabweans who, due to the activities of the boycotted

relevance

Smith Government found themselvesisolated not only from the white minonty

but also from the rest of black Africa. In effect, black Zimbabweanssuffered a

double isolation. On top of this Marechera was also faced with the debilitating

155
effects of a hazardouslifestyle and a mental illness.

Lacan viewed the formation of the I as 'fortress' or 'stadium' containing

within

itself, 'a remote inner castle whose form representsthe id'. Exactly this type of

symbol is prominent in Marechera'swork; he describesthe Devil's End of Black

Sunlight as a type of fortress and the Arts Faculty in The Black Insider becomes

a fortress. In turn the opposedfields of contestare representedon the grand scale

by the black/white dichotomy of colonialism and on a personal scale by the

attempt to reconcile the 'multiplicity of our singleness' as Marechera 'flounders' in

the attempt to return to his beginnings. Additionally, Devil's End is 'a network of

caves and interlocking tunnels, natural and man made' (Black Sunlight p52), and

the Arts Faculty is '-small when seen from outside; but inside it is stupendously

labyrinthine with its infinite ramifications of little nooks of rooms, someof which

are bricked up forever to isolate forever the rotting corpseswithin' (The Black

Insider p35).

The Devil's End of Black Sunlight and the Arts Faculty of The Black Insider

must on some level be considered representationsof Marechera'spsyche. The

the structures, that is, within Marechera's psyche, are a search for
activities within

the unconscious self, the id and the he

characters encountersare versions of

Marecherahimself engagingin debateswith Marecherathe narrator. The readeris

the prospect of Marechera talking to Marecheraabout Marechera.

presentedwith

This need not be seenas interminable navel gazing but is rather the agony of a

tortured psyche trying to break free of unwanted influences. It is also a psyche

the of alternative scenarios. Thus Owen in The Black

exploring possibilities

156
 Insider and Nick in Black Sunlight are
versions of Marechera who did not

emigrate but who stayed, not only to write but also to join the armed
struggle.
However before I look at those roles and
others, it will be useful to examinethe

specific section in Black Sunlight featuring the 'great cunt.

One complete chapter in Black Sunlight is devoted to the

journey through Devil's

End which places it at the centre of the novel,,both

in an organisationaland a

philosophical sense.At the centre of that chapterand thereforeat the heart of the

novel are several pages in which 'Franz's brother' ( Franz is presumably Franz

Fanon in which case 'Franz'sbrother' seemsto be Marecherahimself) delivers

, a

polemic on the nature of the 'great cunt'. His use of the word 'cunt' has various

Sigm'fiicatiions. I have already commented that Marechera was working under

extreme difficulties to fulfil the demands and expectations of the readers,

publishers and critics of House ofHunger. In its pejorative sense18the 'great cunt'

is aimed at those whom he saw as being responsible for his physical and

psychological deracination and those people and forces who he imagined were

preventing him from producing the expectedwork. It is not difficult to imagine

the bleak despair of Marechera who, with the vision before him of producing a

definitive work on his own beginnings, realised the impossibility of the task he

had set himself I-fis passions,the combinationsof qualities that madehim unique

he had either inherited from others or they had been given to him ready made and

secondhand. This includes the influence of his voracious reading which showed

itself in his work in the extensive references to other writers. (In her essay

Cixous offers an interesting hypothesis when suggesting

Difficult Joys, He'le'6he

is
that it authors who give birth to the author. Parents,she writes'... belong to two

157
different species...the real biological parents...the others are texts,,
other writers,

other books.')"

Respondingto the question 'Are you an illusion' Franz replies:

I am I supposethe sum of all the thoughts and delusions and

...
feelings which I hold. In a senseI am the fiction I chooseto be. At
the same time I am the ghoul or the harmlessyoung man others
take me for. I am what the rock dropping on my headmakesme. I
am my lungs breathing. My memory remembering. My desires
reaching. A am all of those things. Are they illusions? I do not
know. And that I think is the point. That we never do know for
certain. (p68)

This is quintessential Marechera,as the reader is presented with the options of

Marechera being his own fictive creation or the fictive creation of others. The

only certainty on offer is the impossibility of being certain who, or what, is on

offer. In other words, the only thing we can be certain of, according to Marechera,

is that be is
we can't certain what real and what is an illusion, a theme he explores

to brilliant effect in 'First Street Tumult (Scrapiron Blues).

In denigrating all humanity he apparently denigrates himself most of all 'We are
,

the great cunt. Whatever you do, whateveryou think, whateveryou feel, whatever

you aspire to, it's dictated by the great cunt. In fact it's the DNA in us, that great

(p70). But this self-denigration is misleading. He refers to the DNA in us as

cunt'

being the 'great cunt; some of his DNA he inherited from his mother; because

had tainted inheritance she was advisedby the n'angato passon to him; as a
she a

result he becamedoubly cursed

The 'great cunt' is also, perhaps, a metaphor for the Jungian collective

that is, a 'psychic disposition shapedby the forces of '

heredity. The
unconscious,
158
tgreat cunt' is inside Devil's End which is in tum Marechera's psyche; the

connections With the collective unconscious are made quite plain. Firstly

Marechera confronts the notion, promoted by, among others, R. D. Laing, that

madnessis less a state of mind than a comparative and judgemental 'diagnosis'

by
passed others. Marechera claims 'You're only mad when there are other people

around you, but never when you are on your own' (p7l). " He then makes

referenceto Fanon's work on the mental illnessesinduced in black Africans by

the processes of colonialism. Bringing together the ideas of Fanon, Laing and

Jung, Marechera argues:

'It's people who manufacture all kinds of crazinesses,like you and

me and Christian here. ' 'Franz was really mad about it in the
catacombs,, these miles of burial ground, these passagewaysof the
great cunt... ' 'You don't know the history of these caves I suppose?
Nobody really does. But they are pre-human. All kinds of
monstrous beings to
used roam in and all around here, beings long
extinct, ... Anthropoids hung around shivering, begetting, dying.
There is a lovely collection of remains and artefacts to attest to the
fact. ' (p7 1)

This imaginative writing not only presents a picture of the complexity of the

human mind,. it is also a pointed comment, in terms of poetic symbol, on a lost

history and an eloquent lament for a lost culture.

The 'great cunt' is the totality of expenencethat gave Dambudzo Marecherathe

he to do the same time as it convinced him of the

insight to see what wanted at

impossibility of realising his vision, that of resurrecting the primordial 1. 'It's

It's are. It's the soul that's inside you looking out into
inside you. everything you

the world. It's everything outside your self that looks inside you. That's the great

That's the great whore' (p70). The whore could possibly be taken as a
cunt.

to Marechera'smother, as he so describesher in The House of Hunger.

reference

159
However it has a wider resonancethan that. The whore is not only the whore in

the tTaditional sense of selling services (connecting perhaps with the idea of

Marechera being asked in his terms anyway, to prostitute his art), but in the
,
deeper sense of despoiler, as one who taints and contaminates.He continues,,

'You see things and you think it's you seeing the things but all the time it's the

great cunt seeing through you. You touch things and you think it's you touching

things but it's the whore touching things through you' (p70).

Marechera was constantly struggling with the specific effects on his psyche of

growing up in Rhodesia. The 'great cunt' can therefore be read as colonisation.

Marecheramakes clear that he knew what action he should take: 'I knew what to

do. But even the knowing what to do wasn't my own and even right now I am

what the great cunt wants me to be. A kind of one-slogan agitator whose very

obsessionis the proof of his (p70).

tolerated madness' Marechera his
emphasises

desperate situation by suggesting that even his madness is hardly noteworthy as it

is greeted with a kind of benign paternalism and resigned inevitability-of-it-all

that undennines his individuality still further. Here is bleak despair and

hopelessness as the writer explores his Catch-22 situation. He wants to escape

from the person he has become but he can only want that becausehe is that

he bitterly critical of his environment but part of the

particular person; is

that he should be critical of it, thus by not

conditioning of that environment is

he
conforming, inevitably conforms.

There is an escapeýand that is to destroy the version of Marechera that is so

Psychologically he has been consumedby the many versions of the

contaminated.

160
'great cunt'- to reflect this in Black Sunlight Chri st11
an is swallowed. 'The rough

slimy tongue waddled me onto the huge molars and as they cameto chew me, the

power of their coming ripped out all screaming from my deepest

phosphorescence..--Swallowed alive by the great cunt' (p73). He is swallowed in

order that he may be reborn. Reborn into a silent world. 'The silence was the first

person singular. A small noise in a long thin tunnel. A single bright eye blazing at
--
C?

me' (p73). Marechera presentsa view from the womb (the 'head of the stream' as

it were): his rebirth is a successas he is reborn free of all nurturing influence,,

reborn in the first person singular. The searchfor the primordial 1,the id is over
,
and a new j ourney can begin.

How deeply Marechera felt about the implacable historical and ideological

influences which contaminated his writing is indicated by his plaintive 'I have

been an outsider in my own biography."' He goeson to comment 'A writer is no

longer a person,he has to die in order to becomea writer.' The narrativethread in

Black Sunlight is guided by a journey in which the narrator meets his

doppelganger who is a writer and I have previously argued " that The Black

Insider features aj oumey, aj oumey in which several versions of Marechera die

so that the remainder, which is the of

essence Marechera,can survive and become

a writer.

The Black Insider is an allegory of ideas in which the sense of the primary

signification, the prose fiction is undermined by the secondarylevel of meaning

,
Marechera explores his experiences, antecedents and influences. It is a
as

deceptively simple story in which a disparate group of people threatenedby an

161
unnamedplague gathersin an unspecified city and take shelter in the Arts faculty

of a ruined university. There they discuss a range of philosophical issuesas an

enemy army approaches.On one level it is just that, a work of fiction and perhaps

a pointed comment on the actiVities of intellectuals whose inclination is for talk

rather than action. As a work of fiction it is also a metafiction in which the author

intrusively introduces personal experiences which may or may not be true. It may

also be an allegory in which the reader chooses the tiMe and place, a post-war,

possibly post-holocaust fiction in which the Arts faculty represents pre-colonial

,
Africa, post-colonial Zimbabwe or is located somewherein Europe. Or it is an

allegory in which Marechera himself stands at the centre of the novel not only as

narrator but symbolically as the crumbling Arts Faculty with the various

characters being versions of the author himself exploring his own experiences.

All of these implications are organised within the overarching symbol of the

'...
Marecheranpsyche as metanarrative, stupendouslylabyrinthine with its infinite

ramifications of little nooks of rooms,,some of which are bricked up forever to

forever the rotting corpses within. ' At the time of writing The Black Insider
isolate

Marechera gave every indication of being very ill; his behavi

iour was often

highly the labyrinthine faculty with its rotting

paranoid, erratic and irrational,

corpsesand bricked up rooms is a terrifying portrayal of the writer's psyche at

this point of crisis.

If this interpretation of the Arts Faculty holds good then the individual who

The Black Insider in deep psychological trouble. The plague is inside,,

wrote was

and an unexplodedbomb sits menacingly on the

the advancing armies are outside

162
roof Clearly the Arts Faculty - inside Marechera'spsyche - is a dangerousand

unhealthy place. identifying himself with the Faculty by his referenceto 'my roof

(my emphasis)and revealing his paranoia and senseof alienation by

referring to

attacks on him from both sides engagedin the war, he writes, 'They also had

fighter planes on each side which occasionally strafed my roof because

some
fucking Joker had painted a bull's-eye on it' (p34). Possibly the bull's-eye

symbollsesthe transferenceto him of the 'family illness', in which casehis mother

is the 'fucking joker'. But,, more reasonablyperhaps,the incident is symbolic of

the experiences of being a black Zimbabweanwith a value systemsubjectedto a

European education. In this instance the 'fucking joker', like the earlier 'fucking

bitch', is the Affican colonial experienceitself

The plague is, among other things, the alienating effects of a European colonial

'The
education,, plague has taken its toll of those like myself who have sought

refuge under its dark wing' (p 141); in order to destroythe plague he has to destroy

himself The unidentified army which is neither black nor white but both, with

'blackened faces' represent the difficulties a paranoid Marechera perceived had

dogged his life and the bomb representsboth an uncertain future and the fear of

the unknown.

As for the charactersin the Faculty, the versions of Marechera,Holland refers to

23
this technique as 'splitting', arguing that a 'simple' story can be elaboratedinto a

'complex, multi-faceted work' by the 'doubling or splitting of characters'. The

then to adopt different psychological positions with different

writer is able

In his essay Creative Writers and Day Dreaming Freud referred to

characters.

163
'...the inclination of the modem writer to split up his
ego, by self observation,into

many part-egos, and,,in consequence,to personify the conflicting currents of his

own mental life in several heroes.

' " Marechera'sconflation of himself with his

characterswas probably more an unconsciousact than that suggestedby Freud's

commentsbut the insight offered by those commentsis still valid. The conceptof

'splitting' and 'part-egos' certainly has resonance in The Black Insider in

where

one sensethe various charactersare false selvescreatedto explore false realities.

It is not difficult,. for example, to imagine Marechera seeinghimself as Cicero,

the brilliant orator and castigator of corruption, or as the tragic, hauntedfigure of

Hamlet, or as Owen, the Marecherawho stayedto fight. In anothersense,the fact

that they have different degreesof blackness (Otilith is 'coal black' (p75), the

African Schweik has 'dark skin' (p99). Helen, who is 'paler than the whitest ghost'

(p39)) is clearly symbolic and represents the writer's awarenessof his own mental

colon1sation as he presents himself not as one of these types but as all of them.

The use of male and female charactersas versionsof the writer is not surprising.

The id in its primitive fonn, prior to the influence of the ego, is asexual,thus in

the elemental vvriting of Marechera the unconscious takes either mate or female

form. The writer can be either or both,,the creation has a biological determination

but is gender free. So it is that Helen, a fourteen-year-oldwhite girl, who is

introduced in the early pagesof The Black Insider, symbolisesthe white colonial

experiencein the Marecheran It

psyche. is also significant that she is isolated, as

the author allows her no dialogue with the other characters,and that she plays a

major part in preparing the narrator to take up arms. Such a reading may seem

forced. But it answerssurprisingly well the actual experienceof reading this self-

164
involved novel.

The vmter makes it clear in The Black Insider that his

educationand educators
had infected him with the 'plague of
intellectualism' which had placed him

outside the armed struggle and out of reach of the people: 'I had seen how our

education had given us too early the veneer of experience which our elders

mistook for mature and solid knowledge of a world that had rapidly ceasedto be

ours'(pl4l). Obviously there is a considerableelementof self-justification in such

claims. Marechera appears to be suggesting that an inappropriate European

education gave a false impression of political sophistication. He is also suggesting

that such education moved those so educated away from a 'grass-roots'

understanding of the African people, and towards a European society from which

they were excluded. Isolated by his education Marecheraportrays himself in The

Black Insider as belonging neither to Europe nor to Africa. In this way his status

as non-combatant is justified; he could not take up arms as an African until his

'Intellectualism',, his European education, had been purged. Similarly he could not

act against the forces of colonialism and neo-colonialism until his mental

colon1sationhad been expunged.

In thrall to such forces the writer,, as writer, is impotent. Appropriately then the

shells that destroy the Arts Faculty and kill Otilith and the others, thereby

removing both the education systemand the results of that system in Marechera,

also kill Helen, at one and the sametime destroyingthe Thus

colonial experience.
.,
the narrator attains a sort of freedom and a sort of psychic unity and moves closer

in his searchfor the primordial 1.

165
That he is not yet wholly free is evident from the fact that the
novel closesas he

preparesto confront those unidentified fears that still haunt his psychein the form

of the approachingarmy. John Wyllie, a Heinemannreader, commented that the

unpublished Bowl for Shadowswas 'in R. D. Laing territory'. The violent end of

The Black Insider and my earlier commentsabout Marechera'spossible schizoid

state,call to mind Laing's The Divided Self:

Destructiveness in phantasy goes on without the wish to make

compensatory reparation, for the guilt that prompts towards
preserving and making amends loses its urgency. Destructiveness
in phantasy can thus rage on, unchecked, until the world and the
self are reduced, in phantasy, to dust and ashes. In the
schizophrenic state the world is in ruins, and the self is (apparently)
dead. (p85)

Black Sunlight and The Black Insider were written while Marecherawas living in

a squat in Tolmer's Square in London, effectively homeless and penniless,,

drinking excessively, experimenting with drugs, unemployedand unemployable,

and suffering from a psychological illness which had been diagnosed as an

untreatable personality disorder. Little wonder perhapsthat there is evidence in

The Black Insider that apart from the many problems he could give name to,

Marechera suffered from the ultimate terror, an unnamedand unnameabledread,

a fear of being here, of being anywhere. In the circumstancesof his existencein

London it is reasonableto presume that his life was without form or direction, a

danger in itself as Kristeva argues, 'For the speaking being life is a meaningful

life: life is even the apogeeof meaning. Hence if the meaning of life is lost, life
25
be lost: when meaning life
shatters,. no longer 1
matters.
can easily

The option of suicide discussedearlier appearsto be behind the cryptic comment

166
'The other side of the world is only a drop of blood
away' (The Black Insider p 100

and p144 and Black Sunlight pl 12), the blunt 'I was drunk and tried to end it all

with the large kitchen knife' (The Black Insider, p 171), and
an awarenessof his

own parlous condition indicated in the bleakly poetic 'There is nowhere to hide

on the road to suicide' (p52). There is abundanttestimony from those who knew

Dambudzo Marechera personally (SB p236, and above), that his lifestyle
chosen

was very dangerousfor his physical and psychological health and one can only

speculatehow close that lifestyle was to a deathwish.

Although he wrote compulsively about madness, often with telling insight, for

example 'It is not sanity or insanity that I fear but the power that consciously

shapes these in others' (p72). Marechera reacted violently to any suggestion that

he had any form of mental illness, claiming that it was not him, but his

envirorument that was sick. In this he is at least partly supported by R. D. Laing

who argued that the schizophrenicseesthings do

others not see,not always in a

delusory manner, '...the cracked mind of the schizophrenicmay let in light which

does not enter the intact minds of many sanepeople whose minds are closed.' "

Arguably it was this heightened perception, this acute awareness,,rather than drink

or drugs, that led Marechera to produce his brilliant writing and extraordinary

It
images. may also have generated what Benedetti has called a, '-Aeformed

world,. which is not only a world of logical nonsensebut is also a world of

erroneous sensory evidence, of '

hallucinations. " Such criticism is not aimed at

undermining Marechera'sachievementsas a writer. On the contrary, Benedetti's

better understanding of the nature of those achievementsby

view enables a

within which to frame the extraordinary world of Dambudzo

offering a structure

167
Marechera.

Both Black Sunlight and The Black Insider demonstrate that Dambudzo

Marechera was a writer of exceptional vision and talent, but undisciplined and

possessedof an unattainableambition, driven by the desperateneedto escapehis

predicamentand his I
illness. arguedabovethat the striving for knowledgeof self

as the primordial 1, that is without referenceto the other,,is an impossible quest.

According to Sartre 'The other appears as being able to effect the synthesis

between the conscious thesis and the unconsciousantithesis.I can know myself

only through the mediation of the other, which meansthat I in

stand relation to my

id in the position of the other.' " But if the other is destroyed, which is precisely

what happens in The Black Insider, then only the id remains. However it is not
,
by
self-knowledgethat is gained this action, quite the reverse.It is a destructionof

all the others -'the versions of me that did not come out of the womb with me'-

(p144) thereby destroying all accumulated knowledge in

and self-knowledge order

to start again with a tabula rasa.

Here is the key to the work that followed House of Hunger and came out of

London. Quite Dambudzo Marechera did not want to be where he was or

simply

he had become.He to go back to his birth and to start

to be who, or what, wanted

Whether of all around him and his desire to start

again. the complete rejection

or artistic posturing is part of the

with a clean slate indicates intellectual anarchy

both can be demonstrated sporadically but

polarised. argument mentioned above;

the of the all-pervading nihilism that was evident to a

neither with consistency

Hunger but took centre stageduring his London period.

lesser degreein House of

168
It is very apparent that Dambudzo Marechera did not
settle at New College.
Unfortunately the 'cure' of leaving Oxford was worse (for Marechera) than
the
'disease'as his always fragile grip on his mental health loosenedby his erratic
was
lifestyle. Black Sunlight and The Black Insider stand
as eloquenttestimony to an

outstandingtalent trying valiantly to establishhimself as a writer and strugglingto

develop a senseof identity. A struggle frustratedby an unclear

perceptionof who
he was, and what his role was, and complicated by his ongoing battle
with a
debilitating illness.

4.3 The Other Stories:

'--*something intensely personal... '

Apart from the eponymous story in The Black Insider there are five other works,

three short stories and two poemsmaking up the collection. All of the storieshad

been published earlier in WestAftica: 'Night on my Harmonica' in May 1981;

'Oxford, Black Oxford' in June 1981; and 'The Sound of Snapping Wires' in

March 1983. Both Night on my Harmonlca' and 'The Sound of Snapping Wires'

were written in 1980/1981 when Marechera was living in Clerkenwell Road,

London,, and feature his drinking habits, his attempts to write and his

relationshipswith women. Both are very short and feature the narratormusing on

recent experiences. They are episodic and undeveloped although both have

memorablepassages:

Outside,, the thunder of trucks, cars, loud heavy metal music.

Screamsas some prostitute was being beaten up. My neighbours
squatters, dossers, derelicts, single parents who had
were mostly
given up. Young old men who passed themselves off as sculptors
These were now my people. I was one of them. A
and painters.
down and out drifter who happenedto write books. Something
inside me tore. Two days ago it happened I
again. was drunk and
tried to end it all with the large kitchen knife. There was all this

169
 blood everywhere. I was more or less seeingthe
inside of my own
ravings. 'Night On My Harmonica', TheBlack Insider (p 171)

There is a film-like quality about the pace and direction this

of short sequenceas
the reader is presentedwith an external view of the apartmentblock,,
moving in to
focus on the tenantsbefore settling on the isolated figure the
of writer. Marechera
takes the readerfurther by extending the journey into the writer's psyche.And
yet
in 'The Sound Of Snapping Wires' he decries such an approach:'When he
pared
this down to the bone of his own personal experience,the anaernicimagery of

self-analysis soon revolted him' (pl65). It may have revolted him but it was a
technique he used himself One successful example of a controlled use of self-

analysis is the story 'Oxford, Black Oxford' (see below). In that story rain seems

to be employed as a metaphor for the hostility Marechera experienced at Oxford.

Marechera's use of rain as a metaphor is not confined to hostility as he

demonstrates in'The Sound of Snapping Wires'. Here rain is inspirational it has a

cleansing, almost purging effect, as it dispels 'some of the rught's bitterness':

It was raining when he came out clutching his box of chips and
spareribs. The chill gusts blew hither and thither, billowing out his
coat., hitting his face with the liquid globules of yet another
indecisive London rain. He liked it.
The fresh and cold blast of sanity, soaking him already with its
attendantsenseof rootlessness,, blew into his lungs and dragged out
of him someof the night's bitterness. He drank every last drop of it.
Before him was the tall YMCA building: immediately to his right
was the illuminated fountain, the blue- green water sparkling
upwards like a long-drawn-out yearning only to fall back to be
recycled upwards once more. Like his own expectations. His own
ambition - what had it been so long ago in high school and then at
university? What was it? It had started in Africa and now found
him here in London. Mooching his way in the small hours towards
Clerkenwell Road. 'The Sound Of Snapping Wires', The Black
Insider, pp 166/167

No doubt considerable license has been exercisedby the writer in this romantic

of a few moments in his life. Whether the event happenedor was

presentation

partly or wholly imagined is impossible to know; and is in any event, of no real

,

170
consequence.In this very short extract Marechera captures the essenceof his

erratic life and gToundsthat in the mundane experience of visiting a fast food

store. There is a heart-breaking beauty in the image of the writer, slightly

intoxicated,,battered and blood-stained,,

eating chips and spareribs while standing

in the rain admiring the rise and fall of a fountain which he comparesto his

expectations of life. There is tragedy in that the expectations,,the ambitions,,are

now nothing more than an imperfect recollection.

Of course a major factor in the 'failure' of his ambitions at university was his

sending down from New College, an issue that is central to the third piece,

'Oxford,,Black Oxford. ' This story, rather longer than the other two in this short

sequencehas a formal structure of a beginning, a middle and an end, three

developed characters and, like 'First Street Tumult (Scrapiron Blues),

demonstratesMarechera's considerabletalent as a short story writer. 'Oxford,

Black Oxford' presents a central character, clearly Marechera himself, as a

diligent and gifted student but one whose very survival as a student is placed at

risk by his alternative existence as a violent drunk. The disjunction within the

characterisation,.gifted student or drunk is matchedby a disjunction in the story

,

as,.with dramatic effect, the portraits of Oxford and Africa presented in the

opening paragraphsare supersededby a foregrounding of the protagonist and a

in
shift narrative style and tone.

The story was probably written shortly after he had left New College in 1978, and

Black Oxford' several nuances. With the obvious

the title 'Oxford, contains

William Henley's 'England, my England"' it can be read as a bitterly

echoesof

171
ironic comment on Marechera's experience of exclusion at Oxford. Such a

reading suggeststhat Marechera may have felt an enormous senseof loss at

leaving Oxford. 'Oxford, Black Oxford' is also black the

in sensethat Marechera

was black and a mocking acknowledgementthat although Oxford accepts black

studentsit is, the story suggests,underpinnedby white values. The title can also

be seenas a direct referenceto the bouts of depressionand paranoia

which caused

the writer such grave problems during his time at New College. Here black has

the same correlation with mental illness as it has when applied to Churchill's

'black dog' or Kristeva's 'black sun'.

The opening paragraphconcludeswith the sentenceMy mind an essayin itself'

and the first two paragraphs can be read as a typical student essaywith Marechera

as the ideal student.The first paragraphpresentinga collage of Oxford imagesand

the second a collage of African images juxtaposed to draw vivid comparisons. The

imaginative link connecting the paragraphsof the 'slow calm walk to a tutorial in

All Souls' reflecting Marechera's actual i oumey from Africa to Oxford.

A few rusty spears of sunlight had pierced through the overhead

drizzling clouds. Behind the gloom of rain and mist, I could see a
wizened but fearfully blood-shot sun. And everywhere, the sweet
clangour of bells pushed in clear tones what secret rites had
evolved with this city. Narrow cobbled streets, ancient warren of
diverse architecture all backed up into itself, with here there and
everywhere the massive masonry of college after college. ('Oxford,
Black Oxford'. The Black Insider p 158)

With its colourful combination of a stereotypical African icon (a spear) and a

English icon (rain) the opening sentences 'A few rusty spears of
stereotypical -

had pierced through the overheaddrizzling clouds. Behind the gloom of

Sunlight

I a but fearfully blood-shot '

sun. - offer a
rain and rmst,, could see wizened

image. In of what ensues it is worthy of note that the spear(the

memorable view
172
African? ) has been damagedby the action of the rain (the English?). The 'wizened

but fearfully blood-shot sun' can be seenas a vision of the future

under threat but

more reasonably represents Africa, and the 'spears of sunlighf represents

Africans leaving Africa. Thus, it can be argued that 'spearsof sunlight'

is an
implicit metaphorfor the black Africans at Oxford and the 'drizzling
clouds...the

gloom of rain and mist' likewise a metaphor for the hostile environment that

greetedthem.

In the opening paragraph the language teems with images of exclusion: 'secret

rites' and 'ancient warren'; the almost incestuous 'backed up into itself, 'close-

packed little shops'; 'crowded pavements';leading us to the agencieswhich had

directed Marechera.to Oxford,. agenciesof faith, hope and charity, given cynical

expression here as 'Myth, illusion, reality'. It is perhaps not too far-fetched to see

the faith he had placed in the educationsystemdestroyedbecauseit was basedon

the myth of equality for all, his hopestherefore an illusion and his dependence
on

charity a reality. Of course Marechera rejected any notion of charity but,, that

rejection apart, the reality is that his very existence became dependenton the

charitable actions of divers others, his presenceat New College the result of a

Junior Common Room Scholarship partly funded by the fees of other

30
undergraduates.

'Myth, illusion, reality were all consumed by the dull gold, inwardness,

That Myth, reality' shouldbe consumedby an 'inwardness,

a
narrowness'. illusion,
but
'narrowness'is in keeping with the tone of the paragraph, why 'dull gold'? An

dull the welcome and unwelcome experienced by

oxymoron, gold' signifies

173
Marechera at Oxford. It also representsa tarnishing of the prize he had 'won'
with
his scholarship to Oxford. The 'sheerand brilliant' extent of his achievement
and

its potential seem now an 'Impossibility... as the raindrops splashed and the

castanets of stray sunlight beams clapped against the slate roofs, walls and

doorways'. Notably the raindrops act together but the sunlight acts in 'stray'

beamsand is denied accessat all points as the psychologicaland cultural barriers

opposingthe black African are given physical,,if metaphorical,form.

The referenceto Zuleika Dobson - '...did Zuleika Dobson ride past, her carriage

horses striking up sparks from the flint of the road?' - is more than a mere

example of Wide reading. By implication it inserts the black narrator.,

intertextually,, into the earlier work by Max Beerbohm (1911)

As the landau.rolled into "the Corn",,anotheryouth -a pedestrian,

and very different saluted the Warden. He wore a black jacket,
-
rusty and amorphous. His trouserswere too short: almost a dwarf
His face was as plain as his gait was undistinguished.He squinted
behind spectacles.
"And who is that?" askedZuleika.
A deep flush overspread the cheek of the Warden. "That, " he said,
"is also a member of Judas.His nameI believe is Noaks.
"Is he dining with us tonight?" askedZuleika.
"
"Certainly not, said the Warden. "Most decidedly not. "
(Zuleika Dobson,p3)

The resemblancesto Marechera himself, the unusual the

appearance, squint, the

the difficult relationship with the Warden; are too strong to

spectacles, implied

have been chosenaccidentally. In 'Oxford, Black Oxford' Marechera'watches'

the

by, Zuleika Dobson the in

passengers the carriagelook out and
carriage pass as in

from turn the In this way Marechera indicates

see his equiValent the of century.

are not unique, they he

are,, appears
that his experienceof prejudice and exclusion

to be suggesting,endemic in Oxford.

174
A key word linking the opening paragraphsis the
adjective sweet, as in 'sweet

clangour of bells' which pervadesOxford, in contrastwith 'the evil-sweet fumes

of the ever-openbeer halls' of the townships. However the main link is between

the closing and opening sentencesof the respectiveparagraphsas the 'mind' in

which the initial essaywas written or imagined becomesa vantagepoint through

which various stereotypicalimagesof Africa are presented.

The clear and specific references to Oxford are abandonedhere in favour of

generalisations aimed not at a locality or even a country but at the continent of

Africa itself

Drawing apart the curtains,, opening the windows, to let in... the
hail of memories. The reek and ruin of heat and mud-huts through
which a people of gnarled and knotty face could not even dream of
education, good food, even dignity. their lifetime was one long day
of grim and degrading toil, unappeasable hunger whose child's
eyes unflinchingly accused the adults of some gross betrayal.
(p158)

Thus the 'people of gnarled and knotty face' is, metaphorically speaking, the

Mrican nation and 'the child's eyesý,*A+iWprobably intentionally reminiscent of

the haunting images of starving Biafran children which in themselvesbecame

symbolic of Africa in the 1970s. In this context 'child's eyes' is a trope for the

1970s generation of Africans whose unattainable dreams and plight of 'grim and

degrading toil, unappeasablehunger' intellectual and physical hunger, that is -

-

are blamed on the alleged complicity of earlier generations.

In counterpoint to the 'Narrow, cobbled streets, ancient warren of diverse

architecture... with here there and everywhere the massive masonry of college

175
after college', township life is describedin a single graphic sentence.

The foul smells of the,pit latrines and the evil-sweet fumes the
of
ever-openbeer halls, these infiltrated everything, from the smarter
whitewashed hovels of the aspirant middle class to the wretched
squalor of the tin and mud-huts that slimily coiled and uncoiled
together like hideousworms in a bottomlesshell.

Marechera emphasisesthe all pervasive extent of horror and filth by

using the

simile of 'hideous worms' to describe the 'smells' and 'fumes' and stressesthe

reptilian unpleasantnessby describing the fumes as 'slimily' coiling and uncoiling

in 'a bottomless hell%the latter a metaphornot only for the township but also for

life in the township. The final sentencereturns to images of the African in Oxford

before a 'sudden downpour' ( the hostile envirommentof Oxford) drives away

thoughts of Africa as 'the blood-shot mind [the blood-shot sun of the first
...
paragraph now figuratively the African collective unconscious,, saturated with

bloodstainedmemories] was completely shroudedby the heavyclouds'.

To a certain extent the opening paragraphs admit their fictionality as the author

to
intrudes admit that he is writing an essay. The rest of the story,,in contrast, is in

realistic mode. The tone shifts, from that of a detachedobserverto one of intimate

involvement as the narrator relates his experiences.. In a series of exchangeswith

Stephen,a fellow studentand a tutor, Dr Martins-Botha,Marechera confrontsthe

issuesof class distinction and prejudice, using the different voices to disseminate

different points of view and different perspectives. The name, Martins-Botha, is

bitter joke. Dr Martins is the name for the footwear

of course a cross-cultural

(in the 1970s)by National Front skinheads. Pieter Botha

worn almost exclusively

National Party NIP the Verwoerd governmentrenownedfor his extremist

was a in

and for his views on the purity and supremacy of the

support of apartheid

176
Afrikaner. In fairly direct fashion Marechera is,,through the
made-upname of a

college lecturer, linking the supportersof the UK basedNational Front

and the
Afrikaner supporters of apartheid. By placing that link
in a position of some
he
authority is suggestingthat racial prejudice can be found in Oxford.

Bakhtin " arguesthat the voice in the novel has an ideological dimension
and the

various exchangeshighlight that Stephen and Dr Maitins-Botha share a value

system from which the narrator is excluded. In the following extract the tutor has

asked the narrator a question but before waiting for an answer turns to address

Stephen:

'Had a good shooff

Stephen actually blushed with pride as he said, 'I bagged seven.
Two are on the way to your houseright now.'
'Ah, a decentmeal for once.'

In addition to the idiomatic Englishness' of the language, for example, 'good

shoot' and bagged seven',the exclusive intimacy implied in this exchangeby the

revelations that Dr Botha knew Stephen had been shooting, Stephen knew Dr

Botha's address and that he would accept a gift, is confirmed when the narrator

observes Dr Martins-Botha's right hand was between Stephen's '

thighs. This

homosexual encounter could be hallucinatory. It certainly has a surreal air, and

shockingly emphasisesthe narrator's isolation. On the other hand it could be

realistic and a comment on the impotence of the black studentin that he is of so

little significance that ie is allowed to witness behaviour that if reported,could

for The
have severeconsequences the perpetrators. is
narrator of course unableto

because,
apart from the obvious barriers of classand status,his
make such a report

that it is unlikely that anyonewould give credibility to his

own reputation is such

the
complaints -about badbehaviour of others.
177
In the following example the themes of drinking the reasonfor his
- precarious

situation - and exclusion are combined and when he sayshe is 'dying for a drink'

and Stephen'producedhis hip flask, a silver and leatherthing' in response,drink is

clearly in the text and exclusion, equally clearly, in the sub-text. Earlier the 'sweet

clangour of bells' in Oxford was contrastedwith the 'evil-sweetfumes of the ever-

open beer halls' of the unnamed township. The gulf betweenthe studentsis again

driven home. The taking of alcohol in the caseof the white student, involves a
,
silver and leather flask and in the case of the black student, it is a stinking

experience in a crowded beer hall. In addition, perhaps,as silver is an epithet

often used to describe the tone or colour of bells,,it is suggestedthat those who

drink from such flasks are more familiar,, and therefore have more in common,

with an enviromnent nnging with the 'sweet clangour of bells' than those who

frequent beer halls in a 'bottomlesshell'.

In typical contradictory Marecheran fashion the characterisation in this very short

story is stronger than in the longer works. Stephen is cast firmly as middle class

He is on familiar social terms With his tutors, he

or even, perhaps,aristocratic.

hunts, he uses a hip flask. When he is first introduced he is presentedin the

the indolent though confident student.'He leanedback against a

classical pose of

hands in his '

ankle. Marechera'schoice of languagefor
wall., pockets, ankle over

Stephenshows him to be patronising, asthe following demonstrates:

Always wanted to know learned your English, old boy.

where you
Even better than of the natives in my own hedge.
Excellent. most
You know. Wales.

this the Welsh Nationalists were deep into their

At the time of the writing of story

178
campaign of English-holiday-home-cottage-buming and the restoration of the

Welsh language was a major issue. Marechera,,who had lived

in Wales,,would
have been aware of those activities and this apparently banal
exchangeis deep

with meaning as he exposesthe venal attitude of the coloniser. The exchange

continues,

'It's the national lingo in my country.'

'It's not bambazonkalike UgandaT
'Actually yes, your distant cousins are butchering the whole lot of
us. I
'Mercenaries,eh. Sorry old man. Money. Nothing personal.'

The use of bambazonka' is confusing - it servesas an arrogantneologismbut the

1-1
n
absenceof a clear meaning obscuresthe apparentlink to genocidemade by the

author. One possibility is that by using a neologism Marechera was indicating the

complete disregard of the European for the African language and by extension,

African culture and the African people.

A key phrase here is 'Nothing personal' as it is used again when the narrator in an

ironic reference to identity confusion cannot distinguish between Stephen and Dr

Martins-Botha:

I picked up my essay from the floor and began to I

read. was
halfway through it when Dr Martins-Botha laughed quite
I did look I he had
scornfully. I stopped. not up. waited until
finished. I was about to resume when he suddenly - or was it
Stephen's voice? - said, Nothing personal. You know. '

There is of course a heavy irony in Marechera's use of the phrase Nothing

The action of the colomser had disastrouseffects on the individual, the

personal'.

the tutor is at the narrator by linking the two denials

scorn of clearly aimed -

Marechera suggeststhat such acts are justified by the perpetratorby the simple

denying the of the other. Significantly, Marechera

expedient of individuality

179
 closes his story With a reference to 'something intensely personal [which]
was
flying towards me'.

Of particular interest in this short piece is Marechera's

referenceto 'The language

of power.' Although apparently aimed at the mocking 'Language, dear boy.

Language.' it actually refers to the summons from the Warden

and appearsto

acknowledge that power is inevitably associatedwith status.The exchangethat

precedesthis bleak statement is notable for two things. One is the carefully

affected tone of the studentsdialogue in which both observea student'sscript in

,
playing their parts. The other is the contrastbetweenthe narrator'sutterancesand

his thoughts.

Shit. I had forgotten to check my mail. There was probably a

summonsto the deanin it. Not again,for Chrissake.But I said in an
off-hand way, 'Bloody uppity theseporters, if you ask me. When a
bloke is quietly sneakingback into his rooms,they make a fuss.'

Here, perhaps, is the nub of the story. The desperation of the unspoken thoughts is

in
very evident the appealNot again. for Chrissake.'but his observablereactionis

very different. The character created by Marechera cannot show concern for such

matters (Both in this story and in his own life it could be )

argued. and responds
,
'Bloody uppity, these porters.... His use of 'uppity' to describe the porters may

hint at its common association with 'uppity nigger' deliberately reversing the

stereotype. In this way, by contrasting the content of the spoken with the

unspoken, Marechera is able to highlight the dilemma of his naffator who

apparentlycares deeply about an issue but, becauseit would contradict the image

of the hard-drinking, is
anarchic student,, unable to admit that is the case. Flis

reaction confirms the image he has and

presented, the result is another step away

from his role as 'Ideal student'.

180
Almost inevitably the story closes wiith the narrator drinking
III triple whiskies as he

contemplatesan uncertain future 'At last something - not much - but something

intensely personal was flying towards me like the flight of a burning sparrow.'

'Intensely personal' is a repudiation of the earlier Nothing personal' protestations

of Stephenand Dr Martins-Botha and the 'burning sparrow'a nightmarevision, or

a deliberate Spoonerism of spear and arrow? As so often happens with

Marecheraýs work the reader is left with uncertainty is the ending a carefully
-

crafted surreal image, or a flashy meaninglessgestureof a writer suddenlybored

with the exercise? Unfortunately for the reader looking for certainty, the

complexity of the man and the vvriteris suchthat be

either altemativecould true.

32
4.4 'From the heart and mind of the artist 1

We must now re-examine the Jungian 'neurosisor art' debateoutlined in Chapter

Two. In suggesting that 'From the heart and mind of the artist' is a suitable

epigraph for both I

works am aware of the accusation that Black Sunlight and The

Black Insider are essentially self indulgent; indeed some would see that this

disqualifies them from any considerationas 'works of art'. I take a broaderview.

In Black Sunlight and The Black Insider Marechera engageswith the difficulties

being black African, both in white minority ruled Rhodesia,and in England,

of a

he does highly way by confronting the issuesraisedfor him

and so in a individual

to his ownpersonal dilemma. As a record of

and exploring the possible solutions

lived through the most dynamic period in the history of Zimbabwe

a writer who

opportunity to examine one man's struggle to come to

the works offer a unique

181
 terms with those turbulent times. Just how far
one could or should attempt to

extrapolate that individual experience into the nati and international

I
consciousnesswas confronted in ChapterThree.

The question now under consideration is,, are they

works of art? Or being

predominantly personal do they simply deserve to be treated as symptoms of

neurosis and no more? And if the latter is the case, where does that leave the

work, bearing in mind David Cook's view of African literature: 'We shall also

want to winnow grain from chaff in works of mixed quality - there is too little

grain in our world for us to reject supplies simply because they need separating

from husks."'

There are two separate arguments to consider: firstly, that for all the mess in his

life Marechera's art IS nevertheless a detached and objectively realised self-

expression; though there such examples 'Oxford, Black Oxford', 'First Street
,
Tumult' and 'The Skin of Time' come to mind, this would be difficult to maintain

with any degree of conviction. Secondly,, that,, although defective in objectivity,

messy and confused by personal complications, Marechera's work is still

interestingin human, and to a degree,also, artistic terms.

I have indicated in earlier sections the advisability of analysing Marechera's

output, contextually and intertextually, in three distinct phases: Oxford and

immediate post Oxfordi, which saw the production of The House of Hunger;

Cardiff and London, a prolific period from which only Black Sunlight and The

Black Insider survived; and Harare, where he wrote Mindblast and the miscellany

182
of works that became Scra iron Blues. Producedin very different circumstances

(though a consistencywas the recurrenceof exacting personaldifficulties), it

can
be argued that the writing from each of the three phaseswould meet Jung's

cntena'.

The essenceof a work of art is not to be found in the personal

idiosyncrasies that creep into it - indeed, the more there are of
them5 the less it is a work of art - but in its rising above the
personal and speakingfrom the mind and heart of the artist to the
mind and heart of mankind. Art that is only personal, or
predominantly so, truly deservesto be treatedas a neurosis."

Recognising the difficulties of judging which literary production is a true work of

art and which is merely evidence of a psychic disturbance" Jung conceded:'The

question of what art is in itself can never be answeredby the psychologist,but

must be approachedfrom the ).

side of aesthetics 36Jung is not attemptingto define

'art', per se, but he is attempting to establish means by which 'bad' art may be

distinguishedfrom 'good' art. According to Jung 'bad' art is excessivelypersonal.

In Marechera's case, in view of the biographical content his work could be

identified as personal,,indeed,,it could be arguedthat the essenceof Marechera's

is
work in the 'personal idiosyncrasies'that do not so much creep in as declare

themselves.But his work is not personalin the senseof being uncommunicatedor

unshared.Thus it could also be argued that the 'mnd and heart of mankind Is
,
engaged when the genesis of those personal idiosyncrasies is confronted.

Marechera is skilful at objectifying his 'personal' feelings and making them

to
impersonal in the sensethat they are accessible others. Having said that, it is

that accessibility may have to be worked on by

agreed on some occasions,such

the general reader. Clearly, accessibility is the key to resolving Jung's

37
dichotomy. As Schneidermanargues: 'It is the act of communicationthat
183
distinguishesthe work of art from an incoherentcry of
pain or joy. Whether what
is communicatedis evaluatedas "great" or as a work of
geniusis in somemeasure

culturally and historically determined."'

Jung's argument poses problems in evaluating Marechera's

work. The
'impersonality' which Jung requires of 'good' art must co-exist with the personal

and unique qualities of the artist which are also essentialto the production of a

work of art. The 'impersonality' or subjectivity of a work is always ultimately, a

matter of judgement. The final sentenceof the above quotation 'Art that is only

personal, or predominantly so, truly deserves to be treated as a neurosis,ý is

particularly problematic. At times Marechera's work could be accused of failing to

'rise above the personal', which may well be indicative of a neurosis,or even a

psychosis. But defective though they may sometimes be, as art, Marechera's
C

works do succeed (if sometimes partially) in giving objective, impersonal'

expressionto his human situation. By Jung's standardsBlack Sunlight and The

Black Insider, in particular, because of their occasional obscurity, may be

considered ineffective as works of art, but as records of a writer struggling to

achieveimpersonal artistic impressionthey are invaluable.

Marechera did not write propagandafor any cause though he was accusedof

political and intellectual posturing. Among others Zimunya accused him of

(.cynically dismissing' any 'social and moral undertaking'39 and (by the

anonymous 'Colonel') of 'writing filth that would defame the reputation of

40
Zimbabwe and its Government ,
But the distancing of history may well
.

as reductive and parochial, and will offer to the dispassionate

condemnsuch views

184
eye a more generousperspective in which to assessMarechera's art. If however

Marechera's works were classed as polemical, as some, notably Veit-Wild and

T/ -*
Kevin Foster,, maintain, then as Holland argues, with a faint echo of

Schneiderman's historical and cultural determinism,, 'we can experience

propagandaas art only by a radical effort of imagination or after the... causehas

passed into history"' ( my emphasis).

By making no reference to how 'what went on in their minds' is communicated

nor to Jung's requirement of 'rising above the personal', Anthony Storr, although

himself a Jungian psychiatrist,, appears to question Jung's views on the 'personal'

he
nature of art when argues,

some of the people who have contributed most to the enrichment

... have little
of human experience contributed to the welfare of
human beings in particular. It can be arguedthat someof the great
thinkers listed above " were self centred,,alienated,or 'narcissistic';
more pre-occupiedwith what went on in their own minds than with
the welfare of other people. "

This latter sentiment was certainly true of Marechera and Storr continues his

argument with the following comment, which in itself is a remarkably accurate

summary of Marechera's approach to his work 'The creative person is constantly

discover himself, to his own identity, and to find meaning in

seekingto remodel

the universethrough what he "' Not unreasonablyStorr Is implying that a

creates.

(in that is) searchby the 'creative person' will

successful terms of understanding,

for the reader/viewer.Marechera'ssearchfor the primordial

also provide meaning

I was not (could not be) But the journey, as destination in itself, and
successful.

successfulin terms of exploration

the reasonsfor undertaking that journey were

and understandingof self

185
Perhapssurprisingly, there is a measureof agreementbetweenJung
and Freud. In

spite of his seemingly unequivocal approachto the validity of a work of art, Jung

recognisedthat Freud's opinion had some weight: 'Freud thought he had found a

key to the work of art by deriving it from the personal experience the
of artist.
This was a possible approach,for it was conceivablethat a work of art might, like

be
a neurosis,, traced back to "'
complexes. The questionthen for Jung was one of

degree,that is, how much of the work was 'excessivelypersonal'and how much of

it a detached impersonal representationof an experience. Freud it had

appears,,
, ,
no such reservations; in his psycho-analytical interpretation of Jensen'sGradiva

he is unequivocal: '...the creative writer cannot evadethe psychiatristnor can the

psychiatrist evade the creative writer,, and the poetic treatment of a psychiatric

theme can tum out to be correct without any sacrifice of its beauty.' ' The first

part of this quotation confirms Freud's own view that he was only articulating

what the poets and writers had already discovered.As Trilling said: '...the human

nature of the Freudian psychology is exactly the stuff upon which the poet has

always exercised his art. ' (see above). The specific 'psychiatric theme' to which

Freud refers in this instance is that of 'delusion'; a state of mind which is

by
'charactensed the fact that in it have
'phantasles' gainedthe upper hand- that is,

have obtainedbelief and have "

acquired an influence on action. That Freud does

not see this as harmful or undesirable is indicated by his contention that the

(arguably Jung's 'rising above') use of a delusion does not diminish the
creative

quality of the work, that is, its beauty', in any way at all.

Freud begins his essayon Leonardo da Vinci with the declarationthat is

it not his

'To blacken the drag the sublime into the '

dust. but it is
intention radiant and

186
rather to resolve, through psychiatric research,the enigma of the artist 'whose

outlines can only be surmised, - never defined.' " As with Stoff's comments

(above) this description is remarkable for the it

way can be applied to the
difficulties of categorising Marechera. As Marechera's
prose output changedso

considerably in style as he moved from Africa to England and back to Africa

another similarity is found in Freud's contention that a 'style change'occurred in

Leonardo's work which coincided with physical relocation. On his from

move
Milan to Paris the previously 'radiantly happy and pleasure-loving Leonardo'

becamewithdrawn and according to Freud '...the sparkle of his temperamentmay

have grown dim and some strangesides of his nature may have been thrown into

"'
prominence. In a long and detailed account of Leonardo'swork and personal

background Freud probes the artist's relationship with his parents, his

homosexuality, his (apparent) inability to complete his work, his (apparent)

nil,
abandonment of painting for scientific investigation. His conclusions need not
wiý5
concern us here as it is the reasonst4& Freud embarkedon the undertakingthat

are important: Freud's to

aim was understandthe man better in order to have a

greater appreciation of the artist and of the artist's work - the aim was

understanding,not judgement.

Both The Black Insider and Black Sunlight represent not only a search for the

I
primordial and a sense of self, but also a journey, Marechera'sjourney to

become a writer. Lacan argues that '...psychoanalysis may accompany the patient

to the ecstatic limit of 'Thou that art', in which is revealedto him the cipher of

his mortal destiny, but it is not in our power as practitioners to bring him to the

point where the real journey begins.

' " The continual self-examination by the

187
 is
writer a form of psychoanalysisin which the searchfor self, 'Thou that art',, is

revealed as fruitless and,,as a consequenceof that, Marecheradoes not reach the

point where his 'real i ourney' can begin.

If Marechera had been able to start his 'real journey', to become establishedas a

writer in the new Zimbabwe, the outcome is impossible to know. But it must

include at least the possibility of the eventual emergenceof a 'great writer'.

Schneidermanpresentsboth sidesof the 'art or neurosis'debate:

It could be argued...that great writing transcendsthe sufferingsand

confusions of the author and representsthe achievementsof new
heights, where craftsmanship and inspiration overshadow the
personal factor. In the samevein, it could be said that great writing
replacesthe personal and idiosyncratic with universal symbolsand
meanings.Inferior writing... could be characterisedas showing all
the seams that went into its composition, including the psychic
scarsof the author. But these argumentsin favour of the essential
normality of great writing are the result of wishful thinking, rather
than being based on a careful study of the relationship between
biography and literary creativity. Such a study reveals that great
literary art is a synthesis of technical skill with tremendousfear,
rage, or other powerful emotions, and that the fundamental
character of great writers reveals significant failure along
developmentallines, that is, a basic lack of maturity. "

With its echoes of Macaulay's 'Perhaps no person can be a poet ... without a
52 Schneiderman's is an interesting, if rather
certain unsoundness of mind'

unorthodox,, argument. He is saying more than that great writers are not of the

common herd. His argument that technical ability when allied to a series of

powerful emotions may produce 'great literary art' has something to commend it.

The ability to focus on an issue(s) or theme(s) and to reveal all the subtleties and

to them succinctly and creatively is certainly a basic

nuances, and express

However his claims that such art is based on obsessive behaviour

requirement.

and a lack of maturity is difficult to substantiate.

188
Marechera's work and career appears to offer some for
support elements of
Schneiderman'sargument. There was no 'essentialnormality' to Marechera'slife.

His writing, often undisciplined, occasionally fragmented and

rambling, is also
full
memorable,, of great passion, fear and rage. He could, with justification, be
describedas obsessivelyconcernedwith his own personalproblems.Additionally,

his personality was such that he was unable to form working relationships
with,,
among others, his fellow writers, his publishers and the Zimbabwean nation-
builders. As a result of this there was 'significant failure'o if not along

developmental lines, then certainly in the quantity of work the writer actually

managedto finish and present to his publishers. None of this would, in either
Freudian or Schneiderman'sterms, disqualify his work from being consideredas

potentially 'great literary art'. In the final analysis,using David Cook's metaphor,
there is both grain and chaff in Marechera's works, according to Schneiderman

the presenceof both doesnot disqualify them from being consideredas 'works of

art'. As for Jung's requirementof 'rising abovethe personal' there is enoughgrain

(in what are admittedly works of mixed quality) to claim that that requirementtoo

is satisfied.

If Marechera had been able to complete his first journey, to rid himself of his

demonsand to becomeestablishedas a writer in Zimbabwe, and to start out on his

'real Journey' towards a more consistent and substantial body of work, then,

possibly, that might have led to the early emergenceof the 'new novel', which as

SalmanRushdie speculatedrecently'[is] a post-colonial novel, a decentred,trans-

national,, inter-lingual, cross-cultural novel.' " Marechera did not write such a

is possible to discern, particularly in the London works, definite

novel although it

stepsin the 'new' direction forecastby Rushdie almost twenty years later.

189
Notes

1 At various times Marechera

claimed to have married. If he did marry then it
wasn't while he was in the UK as a searchof the GeneralRegisterOffice index of
marriages (which lists all marriages which have taken place in England and
Wales) found no entry for the marriage of a Charles or Dambudzo Marechera.
This was confirmed to me in a letter from the Glamorgan Record Office, dated
30thJuly 1997.
2 Quite possibly a play
written by Marechera was performed while he was in
Cardiff. Charles Byrd of Llandaff Road, Cardiff, wrote (Feb 1998) to tell me 'I
recollect, that about the time you mention [Oct 1977-Febl978] a friend who was
an actor with the Everyman Theatre invited me to listen to a play performed by
two actors in their studio at 'Chapter'. The writer of the play was present,he was
African and may have been Marechera.' Unfortunately the Everyman Theatre
doesnot have records going back to that period and havebeenunableto add to the
anecdote.
3 The film, House of Hunger, has an early scenein Marechera tells Chris
which
Austin of his experiencesin the Cardiff jail. He explains that the police askedfor
the namesof his next of kin and that, as he had no relatives in England he offered
them the name of his publishers. In a gleeful commentthat has ironic undertones
he goeson, 'Imagine that Chris, being buried by Heinemann!'
4 Currey told me this story in January 1995.During the sameconversationhe also
suggested that Marechera would sometimesresolve his desperate money problems
by working as a male prostitute.
5 For a detailed chronological summaryof theseyearsseethe SB pp185/186.
6 As far as can be determined Marechera was arrested severaltimes for being
drunk and disorderly or using threateningbehaviour. He may have been detained
in the cells overnight occasionally but the only time he was chargedand sentenced
was the Cardiff episode.
7A critic of African literature and a free lance writer, Fraser was also poetry
editor of West Aftica at the time of his friendship with Marechera. I met him and
London on 30 thJune 1997.
recordedan interview in
8 Dr Niven is now Director of the Literature Departmentat the British Council
This material is from an interview recordedon 1stJuly 1997 at Dr Niven's
London. office. Seealso the SourceBook pp 236/245.
9 Interview with David Pattison Is' July 1997.
10 This refers to my telephoneconversationwith Wendy Davies on 28thMay
1998. Seealso the Source Book (p237) which gives details of Davies attempt
to involve Marechera in the Centre's educationprogramme.
II interview with David Pattison 28thMay 1998.
12Interview With David Pattison 1stJuly 1997.
13William Golding, Pincher Martin (London: Faber & Faber, 1956),p7.
14Geoffrey Grigson, The Poems ofJohn Clare's Madness(London: Routledge&
KeeganPaul, 1949),pp23/ 24.
15 There is a story (probably apocryphal) about a writer employed by a weekly
for more money having first taken the precaution of leaving
magazinewho asked
hero his (Clarence) bound hand and foot at the bottom of a
the of serialised story
deep water-filled well. Apparently no other writer was inventive enough to rescue
Clarence and so the writer's demand were met. The next episode began 'With a
190
superhumaneffort Clarence burst his bonds... '. In this instanceMarecherais even
less subtle. he simply abandonsthe diversion and returnsto his main theme.
)
16 See Professor Barton's comments above Chapter Two. Dr. Niven told
in me
(July 1997) '1 rememberbeing terribly upset, disappointedand dismayedwhen at
one meeting he suddenly accused me of being a racist. To have this
unsubstantiatedaccusation thrown at one with a certain amount of bitterness I
could not help feeling he did it for some kind of effect. He knew it was the last
thing I wanted to hear- he may have thought it the last thing to be true -I hope he
thought that7.
17Franz Fanon, The Wretchedof the Earth (London: Penguin, 1990),p200.
18 The argumentadvancedby GermaineGreer and other feminists concerningthe
way words associated with female genitalia have assumed, in popular usage,a
much more severely derogatory connotation than those words associatedwith
is
male genitalia only marginally relevant here.
19 Helene Cixous., 'Difficult Joys', The Body and the Text (Hemel Hempstead:
Harvester. 1990), p14. Also, for a development of this argument see David
.)
Pattison, 'Call No Man Happy', Journal of Southern African Studies, Vol. 20
No.2 (Abingdon: Carfax Publishing, 1994),pp229/230.
2ZOIn his interview with Lansu, Marechera,contradictsthis view and makesa rare
admissionof his he
illness when admits that on his return to Zimbabwe'l was still
mentally ill'SB p32.
21 Dambudzo Marechera, 'The Aftican Writer's Experience of European
Literature%Zambezia, XIV (ii) (Harare:University of Zimbabwe,1987),p102.
' DavidI Pattiison, 'Call No Man Happy', Journal of Southern Aftican Studies,
Vol. 20 No 2 (Abingdon: Carfax Publishing, 1994).
11
11,Norman Holland, The Dynamics of Literary Response ( New York: Co lum bia
University Press, 1989), p56.
24 Sigmund Freud, Creative Writers and Day Dreaming, Standard Edition
Volume x (London: Hogarth, 1959), p143-
25 Julia Kristeva, Black Sun (New York: Columbia University Press, 1989), p6.
26 R. D. Laing, The Divided Seýf(Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1959), p27.
27 Gaetano Benedetti, Psychotherapy of Schizophrenia ( New York: New York
University Press,,1987), pl 10.
28 Jean-Paul Sartre,,Being and Nothingness (London: Methuen,, 1943), p222.
29 William Henley, For England's Sake: 'What have I done for you, England, my
England? / What is there I would not do, England, my ownT
Professor Barton's letter to dated 5th July 1997, casts an interesting light on
me
Marechera's relationships with his fellow students:
Charles was a small man, but he could and did inflict a good deal
damage the other undergraduates when (as was
of physical on
the he drunk and spoiling for a fight. They
pretty often case) was
to him, but found it hard to be
were sympathetic understandably
beaten by they had themselves brought to the
regularly up someone
without any condescension whatever - to
college and wanted -
make friends with.
Marechera's behaviour had dire implications for other would-be- students as
'The JCR I believe, has never in consequence been
Barton points out, experiment,
Sir William Hayter I s letter to Len Rix (SB p 175).
repeated'. This is confirmed in
31 Quoted by Jeremy Hawthorn in Studying The Novel (London: Edward Arnold.,

191
1992), pp 109/110.
32 Carl Jung, Modern Man in Search
of a Soul (London: Ark Routledge, 1984),,

David Cook, African Literature (London: Longman, 1977), pl 64.

3
34 Carl Jung, Modern Man in Search of a Soul (London- Ark Routledge, 1984)..,
V101.
5 See Leo Schneiderman, The Literary Mind ( New York: Insight Books, 1988),
for a development of this theme, pp 18/19.
36 C.G. Jung, The Spirit in Man, Art Literature,.
and p16_5
).
37 Jung engages Joyce's Ulysses and Picasso's works in The Spirit in Allan,
With
Art and Literature. It is the issue of accessibility that concerns him most, that is.,
are the works capable of being deciphered psychologically. His efforts were
successful but he
only after much effort, as told Joyce: 'Your book as a whole has
given me no end of trouble and I was brooding over it for about three years before
I succeededto put myself into it' (p 134).
38 Leo Schneiderman, The Literary Mind, 1.
p2
39 Musa ZiMunya, Those Years
ofDrought and Hunger, p6.
40 David Caute,,Marechera and the Colonel, p47.
41 Norman Holland, The Dynamics Literary Response (New York: Oxford
of
UMversity Press, 1968), p7 1.
42 In an earlier part of the book Storr refers to, among others, Descartes, Newton,
Locke,, Pascal, Spinoza, Kant, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard and Wittengenstein.
Anthony Storr, Solitude (London: Flamingo, 1989), p xiv.
43
44
ibid, p xiv.
45
ibid, p xiv.
Carl Jung, Modern Man in Search of a Soul (London: Ark Routledge, 1984),
P6100
*
Sigmund Freud, 'Jensen's Gradiva', Standard Edition, Volume x (London:
Hogarth, 1959), p44.
47
ibid, p45.
48 Sigmund Freud, Leonardo Da Vinci and a Memory of his Childhood, Standard
Edition Volume xi (London: Hogarth, 1959), p63.
49
ibid, p65.
50 Jacques Lacan, Ecrits Selection (London: Tavistock/Routledge, 1977),
-A
p7.
)I Leo Schneiderman, The Literary Mind (New York: Insight Books,, 1988),,
pjý06/207.
Thomas Babington Macaulay, Critical and Historical Essays, p4.
53 Salman Rushdie,, 'The novel is not dead. it's just buried', the Observer Review
(London: 18th August 1996), p 15.

192
 CHAPTER FIVE

Return to Zimbabwe

5.1 '... like a bloody tourist'

Marecherareturned to Zimbabwe on 9th February 1982; on his arrival at Harare

he knelt on the airport tarmac and kissed the ground in true returning-exile

fashion.He had returned to Zimbabwe, ostensiblyfor a five-week period, to assist

in the making of a television film based on The House of Hunger. ' However, he

never left the country again and died in Harare, a little over five years later, in

August 1987.

The Zimbabwe to which he returned was in as parlous a stateas the Rhodesiahe

had left. After the post-independenceeuphoria in which the economyhad grown

at over 12 per cent in eachof the first two years,camea rude awakening.As Colin

Stonemancomments:

far from continuing to grow (as projected]... the economy

... the income
contracted; inflation soared,cancelling many of gains
to wage earners, and employment fell; droughts required major
feeding programmes and imports, and produced a suspensionof
land settlement; some whites were plainly remaining as South
African fifth columnists... aid flows slowed, or failed to
materialise... world markets contracted, and much of the earlier
.
dynamism was seenas a once-and-for-all adj ustment following the
South Africa conducted morale-damaging t-C,
attacks
end of sanctions;
on an airforce base and an ammunition dump and closed off trade

193
 routes through Mozambique, forcing more costly and politically
vulnerable reliance on South African ports. '

In spite of small recoveries in 1984 and 1986, which were no more than false

dawns,,the economy continued to weaken, unemployment soared and although

educationimproved, according to Stoneman,fewer than ten per cent would obtain

3
the jobs their educationhad led them to expect. It was againstthis backgroundof

political uncertainty and economic hardship that Marechera spentthe final years

of his life

Marecherawas met at the airport by Chris Austin and the writer Wilson Katiyo,

who was hailed enthusiastically by Marechera with a comrade'shandshakeand

the greeting 'Ah! A son of the soil.' ' Within minutes of his arrival, as he was

being taken to his hotel Marecherawas complaining 'Here I am back in Zimbabwe

and I'm looking at it like a bloody tourist', 'I

and can't stay here, I don't belong

here anymore.' The ebullient mood of his arrival had quickly dissolved into one

of disorientation,, and the news that Black Sunlight had just been banned in

Zimbabwe (on the grounds of obscenity)' fuelled his senseof paranoia, as he

accusedAustin of complicity in the banning, and of manipulating his return.

Austin's plans were soon thrown into complete disarray as the next few days

degeneratedinto a series of violent and drunken arguments.Marecherawithdrew

his co-operation from the making of the film and unsuccessfully attempted to

obtain an injunction stopping Austin from working on it (SB p283).

There are two particular aims of this chapter: firstly, to assessthe works which

194
Marechera produced in the early months following his
return to Independent
Zimbabwe, including Mindblast, and also some of the
posthumouslypublished

matenal in Scrapiron Blues and The Stimulus of Scholarship,

parts of which were

published in the student magazine Focus at the University of Zimbabwe in

6
1983/1984; and, secondly, to consider Marechera's position
on the relationship
betweenthe artist and society, aestheticsand ideology. These
contentiousissues
have already been considered in Chapter Two. However, it
is appropriateto take

anotherlook at how Marechera dealt with the conflict betweenthe demandsof the

new establishment and his own individualistic senseof commitment to nation-

building now that he was face-to-face with the realities of life in post-colonial

Zimbabwe.

5.2 The Stimulus of Scholarship

Although Marechera appearedto place little importance on his personalcomfort

and followed a bohemian lifestyle ('I was living [as a] ... Bohemian fulltime

writer' (Mindblast p 125), 4 my alienated bourgeois Bohemian lifestyle. (p 138)),

...

any temptation to stereotype him as simply a woolly-minded idealist should be

resisted. As a student at the University of Rhodesia Marechera had involved

himself in political activities, though not surprisingly, it was as an individual

(Veit-Wild makes referenceto a 'one man protest march he once held in the city

centre' SB pI 11) rather than as a member of a recognised group. Back in

Zimbabwe he demonstrated that he was politically aware and outspoken. For

195
example, Richard Mhon.
yera had this to say after hearing Marecheraspeakat the

University of Zimbabwe, at a time when the post-independencemood of the

country was on the genial side, he had perhaps more insight and honesty and

wouldn't go along with the usual rhetoric. He saw too clearly corruption and

double standards and he had this open, unguardedly irreverent tone of voice.

There were no sacred cows for him' (SB p307). Mhonyera's generous comments

have the ring of truth but Marechera wasn't always confrontational. He could

broach sensitive issues with great subtlety, as his unperformed play, The Stimulus

of Scholarship, demonstrates. The play was written in the first weeks of his return

when he was staying (illicitly) on the campus at the University of Zimbabwe,

having moved there from the hotel into which he had beenbooked by Austin (SB

p300)

On his return to a highly politicised, socialist Zimbabwe Marechera, the

7 demonstrated his commitment to the

quintessentially individualist aesthete,

construction of a 'new' Zimbabwe. In his play The Stimulus of Scholarship: A

8
Drama by Buddy (SB pp 99-107) he addressessuch sensitive issues as racism,,

power and privilege. The action, which 'takes place at the University of Rhodesia

in the late 1950sand early sixties', is basedon actual eventsand the charactersare

thinly disguised figures from the time. For example, Hudson'

'. is an alias for

Terence Ranger who was a history lecturer at the University of Rhodesia, a

bar campaigner; 'Sarah', is Sarah

political activist and a renowned anti-colour

Chavundukathe first black female student to attend the University. The 'colour

196
bar' of the fifties and sixties on which the play concentrateswas a theme still

vivid in the memory but was also part of 'history' and by focussing on a white

liberal hero Marechera avoids a simple post-independenceanti-white racism. He

is also able to suggest that those who ignore the lessons of history may be

condemnedto repeatthem.

Dramatically very effective the play also has complex and thought-provoking

twists, such as the glee of the racist newspaperman (Wolfe of the Sunday Mule) at

being able to satirise the blacks and the liberals with his photographof Hudson

being knocked into a swimming pool:

Wolfe: [to Citizen One] Just once more. Yes that's it, scowl. [His
camera flashes] Got it. I'll caption it 'This is outrageous'. Jesus,,
what a day. I think for once we've got the guy tied up neatly. There
is nothing like apt ridicule to fumigate the agitators. (SB p 101)

The double irony of Wolfe's pronouncementswould not havebeen lost on a post-

independenceaudience.Neither would the patronising referenceto the simple and

cpure' native have been lost in this disarming comic song.

Good King Baudouin first looked out

As he courted Farida,
When Lumumba came in sight
Rigged out in his bowler
Bring me tanks and bring me guns
Said Baudouin to his batman:
I have got someleftwing ranks
But none as bad as that one
To pray for your salvation
If the native's heart be pure
He won't need education.

A parody of the Christmas carol, Good King Wenceslas (itself a hymn to

patronageand popular in the Mission schools) is sung by candle-holding students

197
as part of a Rag Revue. Once more Marechera is using history to draw a parallel

with the current situation in Zimbabwe. Here he subtly implies the country is in

dangerof repeating the catastrophethat followed the

creatlon of Zaire out of the
former Belgian Congo. As that catastropheinvolved corruption
and murder at the
highest levels of Government this was an audaciousattempt lifting
at political

awareness.

The stage directions to this passageindicate a scene of vitality and colour

as
'Bottles of beer are drunk'. Whistles and 'obscenejokes' feature in a cabaretand

white male students wearing female underwear sing, accompanied by white

femalemajorettes,while floats '... as bizarre as the actorsthink fit... figures from

cartoon strips, from the history of slavery and colonialism, images from the

paranoid white imagination, ' cross the stage. The scene closes on a bitter note as a

black studentapproachesCitizen One 'Black student:Will you give somethingfor

charity, sir? Citizen One: Willingly. [He spits in the student's face. The student

]'
retreats. (SB p103). It is tragic that this promising work should have been

published only in a student magazine. Such work seemsto suggestthat had

circumstancesbeen different,, had Marechera been handled with more sensitivity

by colleaguesand the authorities, then perhapshe could have contributed to the

struggle', he could have been 'a useful citizen' (M indblast p45).

Marecheradid try to contribute on a wider scalethan just through his writing but

circumstanceswere against him. He stood for Secretary-General of the Writers

198
Union in 1984 only to be beaten by the narrow margin of four votes by Musa

Zimunya (SB p37) - unfortunately his behaviour after the defeat so angeredthe

Union that they refused to offer him assistancewhen he was arrestedat the Book

Fair later that year (SB p334). Relationships with his contemporariesdeteriorated

until meaningftil communication was impossible:

The few other writers in the city also seem paralysed by the
ungainly atmosphere; we eye each other with the oblique glance of
mistrust,, competitiveness, and when we are not busy pontificating
to tired reporters, we casually stab each other in the back. It all
seems hopeless. (Scrapiron Blues p26)

In an intelligent and practical attempt to use his expertise for the benefit of his

emerging society he to
attempted set up a literary agency. As he in
recounts the

'Journal' section of Mindblast (ppl33/134) this was a disaster, partly due to the

enormousand unmanageableamount of interest it attracted,and partly becauseof

police harassment.

However.,what may eventually be recognised as a dramatic tour de force did

from this difficult period. If The Stimulus of Scholarship: a Drama by

emerge

Buddy showedMarechera's potential as a dramatistthen Mindblast Part One, The

Skin of Time: Plays by Buddy is a revelation.

199
 5.3 Mindblast

'A very, very personal conflict. '

When I walk down the street, those wide, paved

streetsof the hot
City, I feel in my bones that it is no longer theoretical battle
a
between different ideas of Afficanness but
a very, very personal
conflict between Harare and 1. Mindblast (p132)

Within a year of his arrival back in Zimbabwe Marecherahad

written the pieces
that were collected and published in 1984 as Mindblast. In an interview
with
Fiona Lloyd in May 1986 (SB 3 10) Marechera said:

Mindblast is based on contemporary Harare.... There is no

particular Harare psyche or mentality. That is why the book
consists of many voices. I divided it into different sections trying to
use at once a fictional or Orwellian style mixed with a kind of
iconoclastic technique; and mixing poetry with drama and with the
diary form. (SB p3l 1)

IT.
Fus comments on the structure of the book have the flavour of intellectualised

afterthought and there is more than a hint of self-justification. The work he

generatedon his return to Harare and published as Mindblast is a miscellany

written over a period of time and brought togetherfor the purposesof publication.

The collection confirms his qualities as a writer of memorableprose;it also shows

him to be an accomplished and sensitive lyric poet and a dramatist with a fine

senseof theatre.

Mindblast is representativeof a time)a place, and can be seenas a metaphor for

200
contemporary Harare at a time when the newly independent Zimbabwe was

experimenting with new directions and encounteringnew experiences.However,,

it is, perhaps, on analysis, more representativeof the writer and of his state of

mind. Quite possibly Marechera's comments to Lloyd represent his own analysis

of the published work rather than his original intention as he intimates. On the

other hand,,being back in Harare gave an external focus to his work which, in

Mindblast unlike the London works, is recognisably operating Within the three

spheresof person,place and time.

5.3.1 Mindblast Part One

The Skin of Time: Plays by Buddy

Though as lucid and accessible as The Stimulus of Scholarship, The Skin of Time

is not based on historical 'facts' and, as a later work reflecting his own

the 'new' Zimbabwe is understandablyless 'public-spirited) in

experiencesof ,
In
theme and approach. view of the political climate of the Eighties it had no

being Marechera would certainly have been aware of this,

chanceof performed.

intensifying his alienation still further.

'plays' drama In three acts. Act One - The Coup

Effectively the constitute a single

point though the coup has been transferred

- sets the scene with a neat satirical

business transaction. The action takes place 'Any

from political history to a

201
[where] in the Third World'. Act Two - 'The Gap' - is in 'Zimbabwe' and Act

Three-'Blitzkrieg' - is set in 'Norman Drake's house in Harare5Zimbabwe. The

immediate vicinity of the toilet. ' Significantly, as the focus tightens to become

specifically Hararean, the time of the action in Act Three is 'Zimbabwean Party

Time

Characterisationis dependent on caricature rather than being fully developed.

However,, it works successfully through the farce stereotype (particularly in Act

Three) in some ways reminiscent of the work of Joe Orton, and Marechera is able
,

to demonstratehis sure hand with crisp and pithy dialogue, clean,,incisive and full

of life.

Manager: There's such a thing as Justice, Drake. [Ominously] And

Prison. The disgrace. I could never look even a skunk straight in
the eye.
Drake: Justice, Spotty? It doesn't exist. There is only the Law and
that's fuck all to do with Justice. (Mindblast p 11)

The Manager (Spotty) and Drake (who is accused of theft) are 'white' and the first

act exploresthe relationship between the two,, one a conventionalconforinist, the

other a rakish amoralist:

Manager: You've been leaning on me all your crooked life, Drake.

I allowed it, positively enjoyed it. It made the likes of me- the
the majority feel at least useful. If I
spotty nonentity called silent -
to greatness I could at least cheer greatness.
could not aspire
You've been my hero for a long time, Drake, something I knew I
be I forgot that those above us seldom look down to
could never ...
see where they put their feet. (p I I)

he Spotty from the bullies at school, and

Drake reminds him that used to protect

him But the Manager this was only 'when it suited your
provide with girls. argues

202
image' (pl2) and goes on to give a symbolic vision of the social structurebasedon

their relationship:

Manager: Insults from one's personal hero are not the same as
...
insults from nonentities. I treasured your casual insolence, your
unthinking cruelty. That is how the spotty silent majority becomes
the compost heapupon which criminal tyranny flourishes.(p 12)

The warning note implicit in Spotty's remarks, in which white berates white,,

would not have been lost on a post-independenceaudience contemplating the

actionsof the first black administration. That is

warning made even more pointed

by Drake's response, which is initially personal but develops a larger symbolic

dimension:

Drake:... All these years I have had nothing but pure hatred for
you, Spotty. A voluptuous contempt for you and your ilk who think
life is merely following others. And when for some reason you lose
track of the leader's manner, you sneak out of liquorice-stained
pockets slimy half-baked notions of justice and morality and sit
there and enjoy like a cat with a mouse playing with me before you
fire me and call the police. [Spits]Spotty, you will never change
your spots. [Silence]. (pl4)

Dynamic action is maintained on the stage as the Manager places 'so-called Shona

from Zimbabwe' (apparently stolen by Drake) around the office. The

sculptures

flurry as Drake effects his coup by assaulting the

act closes with a of action

Manager, taking over his a toast heavy with cynicism

position and proposing
(p 17). As
(. May the spots on the earth of silent majorities increase and multiply'
...
final Japanese throws the Manager out of the office.
a act a accomplice

first is of the white role in the transition to

The act then a writty allegory

Independence; Spotty represents the ideological muddle of the typical white

203
silent majority'. Drake is the cynical manipulator who makescorrupt deals (with

Japanesehelp) with membersof the incoming black governmentto oust him. The

is
style expressionistfarce but with a conventionalpolitical thrust.

In Act Two Spotty has decided to 'take the gap' (i. e. go to SouthAfrica) in style,

and is busy with explosives preparing to destroy his house. A running theme is

the failure of Spotty and his son, Dick, to communicate clearly (the generation

(gap'?)

Spotty: You know, Dick, there was a time when we were all really
happy.
Dick. Would that be the night I was conceived?
Spotty: [Slowly] I guess I've brought you up all wrong. (p22)

Dick is asked to bring the 'Castor Oil' which is 'under the bed by the bedpan'

(p23) and with surreal stupidity consistentlybrings the wrong thing until finally in

a moment of high farce he brings the bed itself. As the curtain falls,,he collapses

in tearsat his inability to pleasehis father.

The action and dialogue move at a cracking pace and the characters are witty and

articulate,,sacrificing realism in Wildean fashion to heighten the satiric comedy.

This adds to the virtuoso theatrical effect of the basic situation, with Spotty

holding a grenade(and on occasionsthreateningto pull the pin) while engagedin

angrytelephoneconversationswith Drake and Jane,and actual conversationswith

Dick and Arabella.

Symbolically, Act Three takes place outsidethe toilet in Norman Drake's house:

204
 3rd Man: See what I mean about the country to the dogs?
... going
All these shortagesof essentialthings! We are
queuing for cooking
oil, we're queuing for matches,we're queuing for bread,and NOW
WE ARE QUEUING FOR LAVATORIES! And for
what?
5thMan: To shit decently, of course.(p4l)

One can readily supposethat this exchangewould have been

well receivedby a

contemporaryaudience. As in this theatrical work he is writing only dialogue

Marecherareveals a lighter touch than that evident in the longer

works with their
descriptive and reflective approach. In The Skin of Time he
is able to avoid the

meandering philosophical excessesof his prose, as a result his 'message" is much

clearer and the impact more apparent. The following extract with its vivid

evocationof post-independencedisillusion does have some of the 'faults' of the

prose fiction. It is at the centre of a two-page speech, eight times longer than

anything else in the play and is the only example of the familiar confessional

outpouringsof the prose, which in production would surely have required severe

pruning. There is reference to, among others, traclitional African values, street life

in Harare,, CND demonstrations in London,, the Brixton riots,, Hamlet Linton

Kwesi Johnson,,and the National Front in typically frenetic Marecheran fashion.

With that in mind this clear and unequivocalstatementis all the more refreshing:

I was discovering that there are many shadesof black but the
... bitter
only true one is that of the have-nots. Don't mean to sound -
yes I do to
mean sound bitter, but it seems to me for all the ideals
is
our independence supposed to represent, it's still the same old
ox-wagon of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.
There's even an attempt to make poverty a holy and acceptable
condition. You say you're hungry, and the shef peers over his three
chins down at you and says Comrade, you're the backbone of the
revolution as yourif life's ambition is to be thin and lean as a
mosquito's backbone. And you try to say "Shef, I don't want to be
the backbone,I want to be the big belly of the struggleagainstneo-
colonialism like the one you got there under that Castro beard".

205
 And before you even finish what you are saying he's got the CIO
and the police and you are being marched at gunpoint to the
interrogation barracks. I'm not saying that there'ssuch a thing as an
absenceof free speech.Rather there's an excessof it to feed the
numerous ears that have been unleashed "for security reasons".
(Mindblast pp37/38)

Herethe medium doesnot obscurethe message.

StanleyNyamfukudza had to do battle with the College press to get Mindblast

publishedas they consideredthat the book was anti-govemment.Surprisingly, in

view of the above passage, when the book appeared Nyamfukudza was able to

claim 'not a murmur of protest was heard' (SB p339). This is not strictly true,

Marecherawas badly beatenby a 'colonel in the Zimbabweanarmy' who accused

him of 'filthy writings' that defamed his country and his government' (SB p335).

On the other hand Veit-Wild noted that the book was well received '* especially
...
the
among young Zimbabwean readership' (SB p339)

The dialogue in The Skin of Time is powerful but so also is the senseof stagecraft.

Marecherahandles his characterswith great skill from the relatively restrained

movement of the sculptures scene in Act One, the 'bed, bedpan, castor oiF

running joke in Act Two through to the mass fight in Act Three, the action is

It
unrelenting. would work brilliantly on stage.

The Skin of Time is a satirical farce in which, significantly, a cynical white is in

by Japanese bribing the black politician and being

control, abetted a entrepreneur,
.,
by wife. The satire is even-handed
pursued the politician's would-be sophisticated

206
throughout. Everyone, men and women, black and white, young and old, is

contemptible. As moral therapy and a cathartic antidote to official jargon it is

superb,'When I say a thing it meansexactly what I want it to mean,,no more, and

no less' (Mindblast p15). In view of the attention that his published work has

attractedit is iromc that an unperformed drama may well be Marechera's most

lasting achievement. It will certainly take its place as a pioneer work in any

Zimbabweandramatic tradition, which may eventually unfold.

Described as a sequel to 'The Toilet' and published in Scrapiron Blues in both

English and Shona language versions, 'The Servant's Ball' is a one-act play

featuring the 'below stairs' charactersfrom 'The Skin of Time'. The drama is

more conventional in genre than 'The Skin of Time', relying on a keen social

realism that explores the relationship between the classes and highlights the

divisive effects of the 'new order". 'The Servant's Ball' is the only known

instance of Marechera writing in Shona and may reflect his effort at being 'a

useful citizen' and, perhaps, an attempt to counter charges of elitism in his

writing. In addition to writing in ShonaMarecheramakesuse of work songsand

dance,suggestingthat 'The Servant's Ball' may have been an attempt to recreate

folk drama,.or at leastto introduce a traditional art form within a westerncontext.

The action takes place in the servant's quarters in Norman Drake's house in

Harare. The central theme is the plight of the working class in the newly

independentZimbabwe - 'Thomas: These white people and the chefs have a

207
really good time, but they should think about who clears up the mess
after them.
Me! (Scrapiron Blues p74) -but there is also referenceto the
strained relations
betweenthe generations:

Granny Mberi: You young people of today are just load

a of shit
thrown in the way of us older people. We can't even walk without
fear of treading on your shit.
Thomas: You are really talking through your arse, old lady. How
can you imagine it's us the youth, who are the future of Zimbabwe?
(Scrapiron Blues p74)

As employers,black Zimbabweans are comparedunfavourably with white in an

exchangethat would have 9

appealed to the 'povo' in the audience.

Thomas:It doesnot matter how thesewhites behaveas long as they

give you your money.
Bonzo: What I don't like are the black chefs. They make you work
like an ox in the field.
Granny Mberi: You have to be careful with them. You may not be
paid for three months in a row. And they also bring someof those
relatives of theirs who do not know how to use the toilet.
pp77/78)

In a clear demonstration that Marechera's sympathies were not with the

government Thomas is given beer and cigarettes by Norman Drake as a 'reward'

which he then sells to his friends thereby illustrating how black and white

combineto exploit the working classZimbabwean:

Granny Mberi: Get off all of you. What harm has my son done?
Isn't he the one who is giving you beer and letting you enjoy
yourselves here?
Majazi: It's his neo-colonialism. If he was giving it to us for free I
would understand. But he is charging us fifty cents for a packet of
Chibuku. Thirty-five cents for a small cup of kachusu.Four cents
for one cigarette. Thomas, you are just as smart as your boss. All
the money we work for ends up here when we pay for your beer.
(p80)

Significantly the play ends with the proposedmarriageof a white man (Dick) and

208
a black woman (Raven) and the toast 'Let us drink some beer to those who love

eachother and kiss each other - these are what the politicians call the future of

Zimbabwe!' (p84). The implicit irony is confirmed by the fact that the marriage

cantake place only becauseit has been condonedthe politicians.

At the curtain the assembledcast gather to shout (in their various languages,

Shona, English, Ndebele, Nyanja, etc) 'THE FUTURE OF ZIMBABWE' (p84).

Here, perhaps, Marechera. is satisfying his role as social commentator on the new

Zimbabwe by suggestingthat the way forward is to be by a combination of the

efforts of all Zimbabweans.At the sametime he is able to fulfil his own chosen

role as a cosmopolitan artist by the polyglot nature of the closing paean.

If 'The Skin of Time' was ever to be produced then 'The Servant's Ball' could be

introduced as a very effective final act. The use of music (a mbiralo is played

throughout), singing and dance would be a rousing finale, particularly as the play

closeson a vision of hope for the future. It is a matter of great regret that the play

was not produced for a contemporary audience who would surely have left the

theatremoved,,and even perhapsinspired by the experience.

Perhapsconfirming the ironic referenceto the mixed marriage in 'The Servant's

Ball' Marecherapresentsan entirely different view of miscegenationin 'Alien to

the People'. Jack, who is black, has married Jane,a white woman, and the play is

the evident culture clash. As one of the charactersexplains to the

concernedwith

209
 couple:

Whitney: The blacks think that you are

showing off to them that
you are [leering] screwing a white woman. And the whites think
you are deliberately tweaking their nose and rubbing it in shit.
(Scrapiron Blues p89)

The play ends in a gun battle in which Jack

and Jane"sdaughter is killed as

government forces attempt to rescue the couple. A melodrama, 'Alien to the

People' is a vicious and harsh exposeof the tensionsbetweenblack

and white in
Zimbabwe that has none of the humour of 'The Gap'
and none of the sanguine

undertonesof 'The Servant'sBall'. Neverthelessit is a powerful dramawritten in

a straightforwardand accessiblemanner.

Rather less straightforward is 'The Alley', an expressionist drama

and a blackly

sardonic two-hander in which the history of colonialism is seen as an insane

mixture of the tragic and the absurd. In this exchangeRobin, who is white is
,
addressingRhodes, who with heavy irony is black, and has just been released

from prison-

Rhodes;Give us a sip man. It's me, Rhodes.RHODES.

Robin [blindly, groping through a fog of alcohol]: Never met the
bugger. He was in diamonds wasn't he? Got me into all this mess
with his Cape to Cairo. [Peering at Rhodes]If you're him, you've
sure got one hell of a suntan [Offers bottle, Rhodesdrinks, puzzled]
Know where I've come from,, friend do you? [Rhetorical pause]
CHIKURUBI. 11
Rhodes: I know. I know. [He sits with back against the wall] It's
terrible. I've been there myself once or twice. First time we were
sentencedtogether, remember?
Robin [haýfrememberingl: Yes. You and your Capeto Cairo ideas.
Painting the whole world red (Scrapiron Blues p34).

The drama pursues the classic Brechtian theme of the problems of survival in

210
 difficult
chaotic,, times and there are obvious echoes of Beckett in that the two

are
characters tramps:

Rhodes: But we are all brothers now. ComradesDown and Out

alias Black and White. Solicitors of the renowned Alley. [Pause]
I'll drink to your health.
Robin: And 1, yours. [They toast, exchangingthe bottle; wiping his
mouth] Tell me-how did you come to be in this situation?Not that
I'm prying, you know. You seemeducatedand all that.
Rhodes.Don't know really. Got to the top oncebut then everything
slid from under me. Know what I mean? [Robin nods] But maybe it
had to happen.There was always something... missing.
Robin: It's God who is always missing. When you really want
God-knows want Him, He's never there But Rhodeswas always
...
there even when he was not there. Did you know his statueis still
lurking around somewherecovered in brambles and weeds in the
Botanical Gardens?Honest. [Thoughtfully] We'll never be free of
the bastard! [Looks at Rhodes, surprised] YOU are here - what did
I tell you! [Drinks wildly] Drink is the only medicine that can drive
him from my mind. [Pause] Can you tell me whereI am?
Rhodes:Harare. (Scrapiron Blues pp34/35)

The wall of the alley has symbolic significance both as a physical barrier

representingthe divide between black and white, [Rhodes] 'I am your wall, and

(Scrapiron Blues p46), and as a psychological barrier:

you are my wall'

Rhodes: [Robin is Still staring at the wall] Oh, quit it, Robin,
there's nothing there j ust a wall.
Robin [abstractedly]: Yes a wall. I'm trying to remember when I
... behind It's
last saw it. [Thinks] Know what's that wall? something
that wants me. Something that has always wanted me from the very
beginning of human life. It's there and it's not there. [Hoarsely]
Sometimes I mistook it for my own desires, my own needs.
(Scrapiron Blues p38)

Marechera'suse of sardonic humour (Rhodesis black, in

and one scenebecomes

black for serves to emphasise the overall tone that Is

a woman, example)

despair bitterness,,as this hauntingly beautiful extract

consistently one of and

indicates:

211
 Rhodes [He picks up the iron bar and savagelyattacks the
wall. A
very prolonged thin mournful wail, like a fierce wind drawing
nearer and nearer, howls as thoughfrom a tomb]: Listen, that's the
song that Will forever blow like an unsettled spirit from the
Zambezi - through Harare, Bulawayo, Mutare, Gweru, down the
Limpopo and back again to the Zambezi from which it will
- again
turn restlessly back searching for you and me so that again and
again we can retell their story, which is not our story. Listen to it.
How sad, how profound, and yet so heartbreakingly pitiful.
(Scrapiron Blues p46)

The play closes on a note of reconciliation as the two men leave together. But it is

a reconciliation tinged with hopelessness,[Robin] 'Rhodes,let's eat. I know one

day we'll try to kill each other again but I call it quits for today' (Scrapiron Blues

p47)

'The Alley' is an intense expression of Marechera's troubled view of human life

and human society in contemporaryZimbabwe. In common with the prose fiction

the individual in this powerful dramais depictedas being alone in a societythat is

disintegrating. Unfortunately, in the prevailing political climate of the early 1980s

'The Alley' had little chanceof public performance.

Veit-Wild confirms that Marecheralost or destroyedmany more manuscriptsthan

survived his erratic lifestyle. The few plays that remained, be they f.
airce, folk

drama,.melodrama,expressionismor social realism,,are sufficient evidenceof his

skill and versatility as a dramatist. However, not for the first time, the overriding

emotion on reading Marechera's plays is a painful senseof loss for what might

have been. For all their concentration and vivid effects, there is a certain bitty

shortwindednessabout these works. And becausehe could not establish a place

212
for himself within the new Zimbabwe his work was largely ignored and his plays

remained unperfon-ned. That is as much a tragedy for the development of

Zimbabweantheatreas it was for the artist.

5.3.2Mindblast Part Two

Grimknife Junior's Story

Mindblast Part Two offers a return to the more wordy and introspective mode

characteristicof the writer. Having said that, did

Marechera, offer a clear, focused

and unambigUousexplanation of his motivation in writing the book. In an

interview with Alle Lansu he commented:

I don't think our independenceso far has made any significant

... is for
change as far as the working class concerned,especially
those who became fighters. They joined ZANLA [Zimbabwe
African National Liberation Army] or ZIPRA [Zimbabwe People's
Revolutionary Army] before they finished their education.Most of
them are unemployed and live in the streets.This is what I wrote
about in Mindblast. (SB p35)

As the plays indicate Marechera was certainly capable of dealing with the issue of

Zimbabwe particularly as it affected those at a distance

changein post-colonial

from the locus of power. That issue is implicit throughout Griinknifie Junior's

Story but the story is more notable for the signs of Marechera's growing concern

for his own mental health,, always fragile but now exacerbatedby his harsh

lifestyle and the lack of recognition for his work:

Tony's sculpture had been found 'not of the people'.He had studied
Europe under someof the best modem European sculptors.
all over

213
 His work was totally cosmopolitan, nothing to do with any
i
particular tradition. After the revolution he had returned only to
find his sculptures denouncedby critics left and right. His work.,
they said, is incomprehensible. It has nothing to do with the
national historic traditions. And the tourists and dealersof course
only wanted to buy 'genuine' Shonapieces.It seemedunlessTony
joined the numerous 'anthropological' Shona sculptors, he would
starve or something worse. (Mindblast p59)

Here the writer quite clearly confronts the issue of the relation betweenthe artist

and society, between aesthetics and ideology. The options appear to be very

simple: follow the party line or 'starve or somethingworse'. 'Somethingworse', I

suggest, hints at Marechera's fear of insanity. It is not difficult to imagine the

dilemma of this gifted and sensitive artist torn betweenhis 'duty' (as an artist) to

the political institutions building a 'new' nation and his own senseof commitment

as an individual and an artist to nation building. Little wonder perhaps that a

recurring theme in Mindblast is the writer's preoccupationwith the fear of going

mad, for example, 'boggle the mind right out of your skull' (p5l), '-at the

uttermostmercy of his phantoms' (p54), 4insanity just around the comer' (p59),,

'Buddy dreadedgoing round the bend' (p62), 'the donkey work of keeping sane'

(p63).

Mindblast Part Two comprises a short story, Grimknife Junior's Story, which

focuseson 'Buddy' (Dambudzo) a poet,,'typing in the square' (p5 1) and 'writing

bars, drinking (p6 1). Grimknife Junior's Story, like

poetry in with all and sundry,

thinly disguised recounting of Marechera's own

some of the earlier works, is a

the characters are not developed beyond the point where

experiencesin which

they are any more than Marechera"s attempts to come to terms with those

214
expenences.

The story opens With a Prologue, an ambitious attempt at an allegorical fantasy

in

which a 'fat giant cat' called 'Rix (p45)' 12is re-educatingGrimknife Junior. The

purposeof the meeting, which takes place in the bush, is to transform Grimknife

Junior into a 'useful citizen' (p45). The giant cat is a re-orientation officer in the

pay of the government (significantly Bulgakov's 'huge black cat' was in league

with the devil). Marechera may also be implying that there are similarities

between 1980sZimbabwe and 1930sRussia as Bulgakov was compelledto write

The Master and Margarita in secret in order to avoid Stalin's strangleholdon

Russian artists and intellectuals. Although comparisons between Mugabe's

Stalin'4are
regime/., invidious there is no doubt that Marecherawas firmly of the

opinion that the Central Intelligence Organisation had him under constant
13
surveillance

Grimknife cannot understandthe official ideologicaljargon and constantlyasserts

his own feelings and existential responses'Something was definitely not too his

liking. But he could not put a finger on it. Thesegarish sunsetshad it in for him,

(p45) In the following extract Marechera (as Grimknife) makes a clear statement

of the problems he was facing personally, he also alludes to the directing

influence of public institutions that tendedto prescribethe 'duties' of the artist:

Rix was the Reorientation Officer... Grimknife Junior was the

mental delinquent who had been dragged here to be reorientated...
'Well, Grimknife, we are in this together. I'm here to help you.
Help you becomea useful citizen,'

215
 'What's that
-a useftil citizenT
'Someone who does what he is told. Someone
who says exactly
what others say. Someone who is the spitting image of Duty,
Responsibility, and Patriotism. '
Grimknife Junior looked blank,,
'You're still talking rot, Officer Rix,,' he muttered. (p45)

Rix and Grimknife continue the dialogue in which Rix demands'Your business

should further the aims of the P.E. [Progressive Effort] (p47) and an increasingly

desperateGrimknife defends his position. He cannot

understandwhat crime he
hascommitted but is told that his 'other' crime is 'Using obscenelanguage':

'What have you got against decent language?'

'It's obscenely unnatural, ' the youth countered.
Decency is unnatural? 1ý
'It is - to natural people. '
'Those are dissidents.'
'Look, Officer Rix, earlier on you called me a mental delinquent.
What's that?
'You do not think the way everyone else thinks'
The youth, amazed, looked hard at Rix. (p46)

The gulf between the two, Grimknife and Rix,, the public institution and the

private individual is so wide that Grimknife cannot even agreethat two and two

equal four when Rix tells him 'I

so, am trying to find your four but it's not there

in my heart'. Marecherathe writer is here indicating that he would like to follow

the dictates of the new government but he cannot offer the blind obedience

required. In Kierkegaardian terms, he cannot take a 'leap of absurdity' (see

below). He must be free to expresswhat is Iin his heart' even if it is somethingso

apparently illogical as the refusal to accept two and two equal four. On being told

by Rix that unlessby midnight he has 'experiencedthe transformationwe demand

of you then you Will be hanged by the neck until you are dead' (p49) Grimknife

by
responds musing- 'What exactly would die on the gallows? He had not the

216
faintest idea?' p49). This questioning of his own identity and purposeis followed

by a type of transformation as Grimknife's eyesglow (with inspiration?) and blue

flashescome fTomhis tongue as he begins to tell his story.

At this point the political satire and the science fiction setting are arbitrarily

abandonedand Grimknife's story becomesa seriesof inner monologues.The first

section focuses on Buddy, who is 'penniless, homelessand friendless' (p51),,but

-.
-3
driven on by his writing 'He had the writing to look forward to each day - those

peaceful mornings in the square.Hungry for poetic inspiration' (p5l). As in the

Prologue Marechera argues for artistic freedom although there is a clear indication

that the writer recognisesthis leaveshim opento the chargeof being no more than

a self-indulgent,bourgeois individualist:

He had tried to publish his poems- and that had produced several
laughs. Against him. They had laughedhim out of their offices. His
poems,they said, were capitalist trash.
'We want poemsthat will uplift the people,' they said.
'But... '
'Know what's wrong with you?' they said.
He shook his headbut in his semiology meaningthat he did know.
'Your education,' they said. 'you were educatedby capitalists and
now you write capitalist poems which have nothing to do with our
socialist purposes... We want simplicity and purpose, something the
workers and peasantscan understand... ' (pp5l/52)

Interestingly, 'Workers and peasants' is Ngugi's socialist mantra and it is in the

Hararean works that Marechera struggled to move closer to an accord with

Ngugi's view of the artist as teacher.The crucial question for both is one of who

he
dictatesthe content of the teaching. In Ngugi's case was exiled, his play I Will

Marry When I Want was banned becauseof its political satire (and the theatre

217
razedto the ground). As for Marechera,as Veit-Wild argues:

The book [Mindblast] emergedfrom a complex period in the

writer's
life; a time of physical and psychological struggle
which was richly
creative. Marechera was spurred on by his disillusionment; his
writing drew energy from his scathing criticism of post-
Independence society and his resentment at being marginalized.
While others were still intoxicated by the optimism and euphoria
of
Independence,he namedthe social diseaseshe observedaroundhim:
materialism, political intolerance, corruption, deceptive socialist
rhetoric, growing social inequalities. (SB p309)

In a senseMarechera's fate of being 'exiled' within his own country rather than

it
outside was a fate worse than Ngugi's. After Mindblast he found it impossibleto

get his work published. Even though he continued to write prolifically there was

little chanceof his work reachingan audience.

The secondsection of Gnmknife Junior's Story begins with Buddy being knifed

by an irate cuckolded husband. After attention at the hospital Buddy ends up

phantasmagorically talking in a bar to 'the Grimknife' who somewhat

inadvertently, seemsto be both the person who knifed him and his own alter ego

(the framework in which it is Grimknife who is telling the story seemsto have

been forgotten by now). In the bar Buddy watches a character called Tony

dancing (Tony appears in several of the stories that were later collected in

Scrapiron Blues). Once more Marechera pursuesthe dilemma of the artist in a

developing society stating 'Tony's sculpture had been found not of the people".

His defenceis the familiar one of universality 'His work was totally cosmopolitan,

nothing to do with any particular tradition'. The attack is persistentand familiar

(in Marechera's experience)'His work they said is totally incomprehensible.It has

218
nothing to do With national historic traditions' (p59).

Buddy/Tony/Marecherais unable to comply with the desiresof the

official patrons

and institutions and so 'would starve or something worse.' Buddy sums up the

work's overall theme 'This shebeenwas the field hospital of the uncompromising

artists who refused to be fashioned by the Philistine's hammer and anvil. With

insanity just round the comer... '(p59). Marechera pursues this theme persistently,

linking it to the searchfor self that was a feature of the London novels 'Those in

the shebeenclung to that dream, the individual can only find his society by

searchingto the utmost in himself ' This approach served only to increase his

alienation 'You suffered the insults of the bureaucrats,,

the kicks of the police, the

puzzled amusement of school mates... The malicious gossip of relatives

disappointed that you were not interested in using your education to make money')

(p60).

In a passage from the Source Book (p309) quoted above , Flora Veit-Wild

discussesthe closure of Part Two and the 'tragi-comic death of the poet' where,

she claims,, Marechera questions his own existenceas a writer.' It is ominously

significant in this context perhaps that this death, unlike those recorded in his

It
earlier works is not a rite of passage. does not lead to a rebirth. This death is

final; the poet is dead and will write no more. Suchpassagesare familiar in all his

works but the difference here is that there is no way forward. It seemsthat the

focus afforded by being back in Harare demonstratedto him that his writing had

219
no place in the newly independentZimbabwe. Marecherawas unpredictableand

erratic in his dealings with people but he was, nevertheless,intelligent and

In
perceptive. spite of his rhetoric and his public stancesthe politically astute

Marecherawould have known that he had no future there. He also knew he was

unableto leave.

It is not without irony that the final sceneof the last of the fictional narratives

published in his lifetime should have closed 'With a last insistent shriek of

defiance,he tried to rise, with all his strength,to rise,,denounce,hurl cursesto the

sky, but his strength failed. Dr Grimknife, banging the door outside, calling to

him, heardthe loud sickerangthud of the poet'sfall' (Mindblast p72).

5.3.3 Mindblast Part Three

Blackrain Timewhite & other poems

Mindblast Part Three consists of one long poem, 'Throne of Bayonets', and forty

short poems and fragments. The central focus of this is

study on Marechera's

I do intend to engagewith his poetry in any great detail.

prose and plays, so not

However it is appropriate to look selectively at some of the work. Some of the

themesare familiar 'Rather my butchered father/ On a mortuary slab, and I/ All of

eleven years old, reftising/ But forced to look. ' (p77) and the strangelyvivid and

220
memorable imagery so strong in the prose is perhaps even more powerfully

wrought in the poetry 'The poem screams quietly; / Like flying fish in the

oilstrewn burning sea/The poem is dying alive' (p80).

There are indications that the maturing writer was becoming more self-critical.

For example, in the 'Throne of Bayonets' it appearsthat he is beginning to

his
question own experimentalism

Or so seducethe sense
From the meaning
With experimentsrandom
And indistinct construction
That I resort to the label Post-Modernist?
0 for Black Rain to cleansethe blues! (p83)

The above could merely representMarechera's version of the criticisms that had

been levelled at his earlier works,, but it could also be an indication that he was

developing artistically through self-criticism. The same poem offers a powerful

andmoving evocation of his plight:

How to face alone

This Christian festive dawn?
Nowhere to go: everywhere the slow
But inevitable approach,
I live like a folded newspaper
Abandoned on the front lawn of a deserted dream.
'The people as a whole
Must come before individuals. ' (pp88/89)

It is Christmas,, he is alone and contemplating death, he Is unfulfilled, the

like
newspaper, his potential, hasn't been 'unfolded'. 'Abandoned' he has no role

is
in the creation of the nation which , in any event, a 'deserted dream'. At the

is
centre of this desolation the dilemma of the demandsof the nation versus the

221
needsof the individual. It was a dilemma he never resolved,as the painfully
self-

critical 'The Footnote To Hamlet' reveals:

Now or never is here again. Must I

Look in the face the moon's other side?

The moment demandsdecision. My whole

History is unequalto it - Let me be!

I read all day, walk all night. I have

No end but this; no resourcesbut books.

Thus again I dawdle and dither. Perhaps

Th'impatient problem will lose heart at my
Expert vacillation. (p97)

Regretand self doubt are very evident in this poem which.,along with othershasa

clarity rarely found in the prose.

In 'Mind in Residence', he once more contemplatesdeath and looks back at his

life, perhapscontemplating 'what might have been'.

On grey twilit balconies

In T-shirts and shirt sleeves
Each shrouded in preoccupied misty thoughts
The several pasts of my life
Wait for this and all other days to end.
Down in the street,,antlike thoughts in rags and overalls
Leaning against the derelict buildings
Squatting on the cracked much-stained pavement
All looking up at those looking down
From the grey twilit balconies of hindsight. (p 116)

The repetition of 'grey twilit balconies" in the last line loops back to the first line

of the poem to begin again, a circularity matched within the poem as those

'looking up' look at those 'looking down' who are looking at those looking up. In

this way the poet is reflecting on the actions of the past, which he acknowledges

222
are beyond redemption ('shrouded') but which are responsible for his present

parlous condition,, in 'rags and overalls' 11

iving in urban squalor. The poiignant

reference to hindsight suggests a large measure of regret as his future holds

nothing more that the prospectof waiting 'for this and all other daysto end.'

5.4 Part Four: Appendix

From the 'Journal'

Stanley Nyamftikudza was an editor for the publishers, College Press, and he had

to be convinced that the Journal' should be published as part of Mindblast, I he

...
[Marechera]wantedthe autobiographicalsectionincluded and I did not agree.We

had a couple of encountersin the Norfolk Bar and elsewhere.I finally conceded'

(SB p339). The 'Journal', which was written by Marechera using a miniature

typeWnter while sitting on a park bench, appears to cover a period of little more

than a week. It is a collection of short pieces, conversationalin tone, in which

Marechera observeshis own behaviour as a 'cynical bitterbrained and drained

novelist ...sitting in Cecil drinking

Square,, sour milk in bitter but ingeniousmood,

homelessbut unbroken,,having given up people, I was in the wordtrap of the eerie

insight bom of constantly drunken vision' (Mindblast ppl2l/122).

As a recounting of his experiences the 'Journal' has distinct echoes of

Marechera's previous works. These lines from the second paragraph 'I did not

223
know where I was going. I did not care. I was carrying in a plastic bag all my

in
possessions the world' (pI 19) are very similar to the opening sentencesof The
TT_ C
h6use of Hunger got my things and left. The sun was coming up. I couldn't
,I

think where to go' (p6). The philosophiesexpressedhere,that of the nomadic free

spirit, although separatedby some fifteen years, are identical. There is a certain

here
sadness in that Marechera was still 'searching'. But such consistencyalso

shows, perhaps, that the writer maintained his integrity in very difficult

circumstances. However it was a consistency that led him into great difficulties as

he was unableto reconcile his overwhelming desire for individual freedomwith a

commitment to the requirements of others,, whether that was his publishers, his

friends or his country,,his reaction was the same:

to insist upon... Your right to refuse to be labelled and to insist on

...
your right to behave like anything other than anyone expects. Your
right to say no for the pleasure of it. To insist on your right to
confound all who insist on regimenting human impulses according to
theories psychological, religious, historical, political etc ... Insist
upon your right to insist on the importance, the great importance, of
whim. (The House ofHunger, p 122)

For the political and cultural nation-builders who became involved with

Marecheraon his return from exile his,,at times infuriating,, individualism was a

major barrier to any joint enterprise.

In the 'Journal perhaps livIng out a personal myth in the manner of Dylan
,
Thomas, Brendan Behan or Patrick Kavanagh14he confirms his image as the

tramp:'l a park bench typing this story and I am out there

writer am right now on

in the story' (p 124). It was an image to which the youth of Harare respondedvery

224
readily and have subsequently mythologised. Just how much this was so was

impressedon me when discussingthe writer with a group of young Zimbabweans

in Harare in August 1995. This group of young men aged in their mid twenties

who were attending the first Dambudzo Marechera Symposium and could well

what
represent has been called the Mindblast generation,unfailingly admired the

man. But they knew little of his work. They had all read something, usually some

of the poetry but had failed to come to grips with the prose. One student,aged22,

himself a poet explainedto me that when in London Marecherahad earnedmoney

by giving lectures on the conditions in pre-IndependenceZimbabwe. When I

asked how he came by this information (which is certainly untrue) he merely

smiled and said Everybody knows that.' The existence of the Mindblast

generationwould have pleased Marechera had he sharedKavanagh"ssentiment

15
'A man is immortal when his ideas are exciting to the young'
.

The following passage offers insights into Marechera's intentions in writing the

book as well as his speculationon how it might be received:

How to split the atom of the story and in the mindblast survive the
theme psychological holocaust. All this dead skin I have to scrape
off With literary fingernails. And seed the clouds for the rain to
Tears that have not been shed for ninety years. I feel cold,
come.
like a snake shedding its skin. Is that how the book will go.
Firecrackers setting the thick of the night alight. No guidelines but
whorls of starbursts, the terrible beauty of walking naked among
like trees to the newly sighted. I have just farted. A small
men
warm explosion. Mindblast (p 144)

The searchfor the essential self is seen here as the pure energy releasedby the

splitting of the atom. Marechera contemplates surviving the resultant

225
fpsychologicalholocaust'. As before, writing (his 'literary fingernails') is to be the

tool With which he penetratesthe layers that have accumulatedthrough the ninety

years of colonial m1e.

interestingly, it seemsthe writer is looking to establishhis own place in history, as

he seeshis work inspiring others to follow his lead, suggestingthat his writing

will seedthe clouds of literary revolution to rain 'new' works perhaps.Aware of

his isolated position he feels 'cold' having shed someof his 'skins',,that is, having

rejected some of the current values and norms of Hararean society. He then

fantasizesthat his book will be as 'a firecracker in the night', a successionof

Istarbursts'enlightening the partially sighted,,the blind and the blinkered, and

showing them (other Zimbabwean writers, presumably) the way forward. Aware

of the idealistic hopelessness

of such fantasyMarecherabrutally puncturesit with

the crude announcement'I have just '

farted. The writer goeson to describewhat is

happeningin the park:

The men in greentunics are arguing about who shouldmake their tea
it must be close to ten o'clock. The woman walking always three
- lily. Like lizard
paces behind her husband, like a haiku. Like a a
in the desert-hot rocks. Like a box of matches full of dead
panting
Like that only writes when full of human blood. (p 144)
wasps. a pen

The disjunction of the various images and the rapidity with which Marechera

in is
this short passage vivid and arresting if also somewhat
changes tack

disconcertingfor the reader. the

Nevertheless, senseof the existential moment of

the writer's consciousnessis brilliantly caught.

226
Looking at the book as a whole Veit-Wild argues 'Mindblast... explores the

alienationof African artistsinfluencedby the intellectualrevoltin Europein the

1970sin the context of contemporaryAfrica'. Shethen adds a commentprobably

aimed at the 'Journal' '... the book partially suffers from the limited and

egocentricview oa poet acting out his existencein barsand shebeens'(SB p309)

One could counter that it is not unusual for a poet to have a 'limited and

egocentric view' (Emily Dickinson, Sylvia Plath, DH Lawrence, WB Yeats,,for

example).NeverthelessVeit-Wild doeshave a point to make.

Sheintimatesthat Marechera,who inspired the Mindblast generationwith rhetoric

in his role of writer tramp and iconoclast, then did not build on that when he

turned to writing, appearingto do little more than report on the activities of the

writer tranip in self-centred fashion rather than extending the debate (about the

role of the artist in contemporary Africa) in a orm accessible to his followers.

One reply to this might be Marechera's repudiation of a didactic role. However

the fact is that his writing often offers assertionsbut few supporting arguments.

As he was presenting a personal view, writing out of his own experiences the

nil
of supporting arguments is possibly not critical although it does
absence

sometimesmake accusationsof superficiality difficult to dismiss.

Of his critics Marecherahasthis to say:

The ones who have done me most wrong were those who loudly
proclaiirned the uniquenessof my work and - to my questions-
when they could not explain what they meant or even show that
they had I
read it and sneered in disbelief, they became my

227
 uttermost critics. (p 126)

Marecheradoes not, in the 'Journal' that is, offer a reasonedargumentto

counter
his critics, perhapshe thought that unnecessary,although he does
offer a seriesof
justifications and explanationsof his position:

I did not care where my future lay, where my past was hiding out,
where my present course would maroon me... I had not rejected
the notion of human brotherhood; I could not accommodateits
material ends' (p120); '... no longer a theoretical battle between
different ideas of Afficanness but a very, very personalconflict A
...
conflagration I can lose any time. Lose my life,, lose my mind, or
just end up maimed or concussedof all the things I do not take for
granted' (pl32); 'A genuinewriter must always be preparedto fight
for his work. In fact he must expect all kinds of trouble from every
quarter. There is no room for cowardice in writing' (p134); these
...
doldrums of my career -a career which I think will be adversely
by
affected my return to Zimbabwe, a country very paranoidabout
sex and politics. (p 138)

Marecherawas a courageouswriter but, as mentionedabove,the running battle to

survive increasedhis fears for his mental health 'I probably looked burnt out,

insane' (p 119). He feared the return of the illness that had plagued him in London

'I recognisedthe mood; once in London the mood of desperationhad lasted five

years, punctuating itself with hopeless calls to the Samaritans' (p 119). In a

chillingly detachedmanner he considers killing himself 'The very possibility of

suicide fascinates and repels me. A terrible waste, and yet, an area to exploreý-

(p124).

The original title of the 'Journal' was 'Journal of the Damned' (SB p315) and

there is evidence to suggestthat Marechera,remained obsessedwith his personal

4;
slings and arrows' of misfortune to the extent that the subject matter of the

228
'Journal' was influenced by that obsession.Many familiar themes are revisited,

among others, the reception of his work, the role of the writer,, the death of his
V- ý
his
father, senseof alienation:

My father's mysterious death when I was eleven taught me like

-
nothing would ever have done - that everything, including people,
is unreal. That,, like Carlos Castenada's Don Juan, I had to weave
my own descriptions of reality into the availablefantasywe call the
world. I describe and live my descriptions.This, in African lore, is
akin to Witchcraft.My people could never again seeme as anything
but 'strange'... I am what I am not becauseI am an African or
whatever but because it is the basic nature of a maker of
descriptions,a writer. (p 123)

Although these themes are reworked and often changed example,.he has
-for

presentedseveralversions of his father's death-his position on the aestheticsand

ideology dichotomy has never wavered. For Marechera Art is always favoured

over Politics,,individualism be
should never sacrificed for the 'common good'. In

the 'Journal' he exclaims 'The clich6 about the world being what you make it is

'true'; weave your descriptions and live in them. Do not ever accept another's

description as being your own' (p123) to do so would "violate the treasure of

oneý'suniqueness' (p124).

As he demonstratedin The Stimulus of Scholarship Marechera was capable of

the direction of nation building-,this was

producing work with more than a nod in

however an isolated example. Even back in Harare and faced with the
when

heavily he true to his dictum)'If you are

realities of a politicised situation remained

229
a writer for a specific nation, or a specific race,,then fuck you' (see above). It
Is
this refusal,, or inability, to accept a belief or doctrine blindly
- as some would
havesuggestedwas his duty that helps to define Marechera's
- role as an artist in
his society.Becausehe was unable to take a Kierkegaardian'leap
of absurdity' by

acceptingthat commitment blindly and (for him) irrationally he remained in the

darknessof his scepticism in a sort of existential limbo. Other

writers,,Achebe,.
Ngugi, and Soyinka for example faced the samedilemma but still
producedvery

effective political works. Unfortunately Marechera,often homeless,,unsupported,

alienated,,in fear of insanity and in declining physical health, was in no condition

to make the sustained effort necessary to establish himself as a force in

Zimbabweanliterature.

As discussed above Marechera's early works were an attempt to escape from the

effectsof the dominant ideology of his colonial upbringing and education.Here it

be
can arguedthat his consistentand at times perverseindividualism be seenas an

attempt to break free from Althusser's bleak view of the individual, not as an

individual but as an agent of the system. Marechera's acceptancethat he had

internallsed colonial ideologies seemedto acknowledgethat argument when he

commented 'I have become the skeleton in my own cupboard'. However such

astuteself-knowledge did not lead to self-realisation but rather to the view that

self-realisation within the superstructure, be it Zimbabwean, Rhodesian or

European,was, for Marecheraanyway, a c4)ntradictionin terms.

230
 arguedabove (Chapter Four) that ' part of the conditioning
II [h's)
of I env*
ironment

is that he should be critical of it,, thus by not conforming,,he inevitably conforms

On his return to newly independentZimbabwe he might have expectedto flourish

in a more supportive atmosphere,but he found, as with the banning of Black

Sunlight,that rigid ideas on the role of the writer still prevailed.His reaction was

to remain outside of the systemwhere accordingto Veit-Wild, who was in regular

contact with Marechera in the last years of his life, he continued to write '...as

prolifically as ever but produced nothing that publishers could unequivocally

accept. The recurring criticism was that his writings were inconsistent, not

marketable and inaccessible to a broad readership' (SB p340). Although

Marecheracould physically refuseto acceptthe rules and moresof his societyand

madethis plain in his he

writing and public pronouncements,psychologically was
16
in thrall to a Foulcauldian babel of discourses which, out of his control, made

his questfor a senseof self (the primordial 1) impossibleto achieve.

Mindblast,,with its combination of genresdemonstratesMarechera'sversatility as

a writer,, a poet and a dramatist. For that reason alone it is essential reading.

Marecherareturned to Zimbabwe as an establishedwriter. As an indicator in the

developmentof the writer trying to live up to that reputation at the sametime as

he was trying to adjust to the demandsof the political and cultural nation-builders,,

Mindblast is an invaluable resource.

231
Notes

1 Details of the contract between Marechera

and Chris Austin (Director and
Producer) and Gill Bond of Indigo Productions are given in the Source Bookýp
pp281/282.
Colin Stoneman,, Zimbabwe's Prospects ( London: Macmillan,, 1988), pp4/5.
3 ibid, p6.
4 Katiyo had also been in 'exile' in London
and was a novelist with 4 Son of the
SoiL When he met Marechera at the airport Katiyo was working for the
ZimbabweanMinistry of Information who were one of the sponsorsof the film,
on which Katiyo was employed as AssistantDirector.
5 Wilson Katiyo did try to explain to Marecherathat the
censorswere still the
samepeople who had operated under Smith and still worked to the samerules,
quite simply because the new governmenthadn't had the time to changethem. He
explained the banning was not a plot and was not even political but was a
throwback to pre-independenceroutines. In this exchange, which appears in
Austin's film,, Marechera,possibly in view of Katiyo's position as a Government
employee, ignores his argument. The interview, filmed a few daysafter his return,,
indicates that Marechera was considering staying in Zimbabwe. Under fiercely
direct questioningfrom Katiyo and Zimunya on suchpractical mattersas,what he
would do,, where would he live,, how he would eat Marechera has no answersto
offer. His own personalcomfort had never featured very highly to Marechera who
appears to be rather taken aback by the pragmatismof his fellow writers.
6 The play also appears the SourceBook pp 98/107.
in
7 Severalof the Zimbabweans key positions had frequentedthe Africa Centre
in
when in London,, so much so that director Alastair Niven it
said was known jokily
as 'Zimbabwe House'. He remembers that 'Everyone had to declare themselves
it
politically -you were either part of or you weren't. Dambudzo's independence
of mind was brave and perverse. A senseof self-dramatisationmixed with a
genuine integrity. There was this weird mix of a person who self-dramatised,
consciousof the he
effect was making and who was at times out of control and at
other times acted with integrity because he would have thought it intellectually
lazy to acceptknee-jerk liberal attitudes'( Interview I't July 1997).
8 Parts the Focus at the University of Zimbabwe in
of play were published in
1983/1984.Other parts have not been found and it has not been published
elsewhere neither has it been performed.
9
Povo is a Shonaword meaning 'proletariat
10 is hand made from scrap metal.
mbira a small piano, often
IIAChikurubi Harare.
is a prison in
12 The University Rhodesialecturer who supplied the referencefor Marechera
of
he
when applied to Oxford was Len Rix, which may account for the cat's name.
Bulgakov also made use of a 'giant cat' in TheMaster and Margarita

232
13 The Source Book makes several referencesto this obsession.On one tragi-
comic occasion he was approached by a doting schoolboy who had scoured
Hararelooking for him; Marechera beratedthe boy for his approachand accused
him of being 'a small trainee of a CIO agent' (SB p390).
" Comparisonswith Kavanagh,who had a love/haterelationshipwith Dublin and
once lived in a park there, are particularly apposite. When Antoinette Quinn
(Patrick Kavanagh: SelectedPoems, Penguin 1996) describedKavanagh as 'an
embattled writer in a country in which nationalism remained the major collective
passion' (pxxx) and wrote of his 'uncompromising hostility towards ethnicity as
an aesthetic criterion' (p xxvii) and 'his personalising of cultural issues...a
temperamental cussedness exacerbated by alcohol an abrasive uncouth
... ...
persona and a terse barbed wit though he could be kindly and
... have been
humorous...gallant and charming' (p xxxi) she could just as readily
writing of Marechera.
" Quoted by Frank Kilfeather in an article commemorating the thirtieth
anniversaryof Kavanagh's death. 'Irishman's Diary', The Irish Times On the
Web,Monday November 17,1997.
16 Never straightforward, 'a babel of discourses' for such as Marechera is
For example, he received treatment at the Warneford Clinic for his
complex.
(madness'according to western ideas (a western discourse): his i
mother received
treatmentfor her 'madness' from a n'anga (an African discourse). In this way, it
be Marechera exposed to a babel of discourses, some
can argued, not only was
in
were competition with eachother.

233
 CHAPTER SIX

Scrapiron Blues: A final word

I feet so much the continual death of everything and everybody, and have
learned to reconcile myself to it, that the final and official end loses most of its
impressiveness.
Santayana, Letters, 1931

In early 1987 Dambudzo Marechera became seriously ill with pneumonia', during

his treatment it was discovered that he also had AIDS. Later that year he

developed pneumonia again, and after three days in hospital died on 18t" August

1987, at the age of 35. Scrapiron Blues, the final volume in the series of

posthumously published works., is a pot-pourri of prose, poetry and plays, written

by Marechera during the period from 1983 until this early death. The aim of this

chapteris to assessthat collection (apart from the plays, which were considered in

ChapterFive), and to appraise its contribution to Marechera's literary output.

It is evident from this miscellany that Marecherawas still searchingfor his voice.

In an interview with Alle Lansu in February 1986 he spoke of using various

literary techniques (see below). He was specifically referring to his work on 'The

Concentration Camp' though evidence of different techniques can be found

throughoutScrapiron Blues. On one level it is to

possible seethe tension between

suchrelatively 'realistic' works as 'The Servant's Ball' and 'Rainwords Spit fire'

IA
andthe experimentalismof many of the 'Pub Stories' as one betweenthe desireto

becomea 'useful citizen' within a socialist republic and the desire for self-

expressionat all costs. Or as Georg Lukacs puts it, 'between an aesthetically

appealing,but decadent modernism, and a fruitful critical realism'. '

As the mixture of styles in Scrapiron Blues clearly demonstrates,Marecheranever

achievedLukac's 'fruitful critical realism' in any sustainedway, neither did he

resolvethat dilemma which might suggestthat he was a man of indeterminate

principles.However, to accept such an argumentwould be an error of judgement.

Marechera's'experimentation' was a searchfor his authenticvoice; it was also a

for
search a role and a position he could call his own. As was establishedearlier

Marechera'sdilemma of 'honest artist' or 'good citizen' was compoundedby his

inability to work alongside the socialist nation builders. There is a parallel here

with the earlier situation in Europe. Writing of the Stalinist period in Russia

Lukacssuggested'In this atmospheremany critical realist writers stoppedwriting,

or madeconcessionsagainst their better judgement. And there were somewriters

whoseartistic developmentwas thereby seriouslycompromised'

Scrapiron Blues has work to admire though the mixture of short works in a variety

of styles confirms that Marechera was still attempting to develop his craft rather

thanhe had becomethe master of it. This posthumouscollection indicatesthat the

potential suggested by The House of Hunger was never fully realised.

UndoubtedlyMarechera's 'development' as an artist was f seriouslycompromised'

235
by the demandsof the socialist system.Though would be quite wrong to blame

Robert Mugabe's administration for all of the writer's ills,, many of which,
nwp(-tkýUz
whethervoluntarily or involuntarily, were of his own making, Howt-rer, it was

Marechera'sgreatmisfortune to find himself in an environmentthat, busy with the

a
efforts of establishing new country, had neither the time nor the inclination to

empathisewith one who wanted to march to the tune of a different drum.

The material in Scrapiron Blues can, then, be separatedbetweenthat which is an

caesthetically
appealingmodernism', and that which is 'fruitful critical realism'. In

'First Street Tumult' for example, Marechera shows himself at his best as a

spontaneous,very literary, experiential writer (comparisons can be made, inter

alia, with Kafka, Joyce and Lawrence) and does similar things with varying

degreesof success in 'Pub Stories' and 'The Concentration campý,. On the other

hand 'Rainwords Spit Fire' has a social realist approach in the manner of, for

example, Alex La. Gurna's, In the Fog of the Season's End, or Mbulelo

Mzamane's,,The Children of Soweto. The case for social realism is that it renders

/Rainwords Spit Fire'

'art' more accessibleto the general populace and shows

Marecherain 'good citizen' mode. The case against social realism is that it

'Rainwords Spit fire' is often

encourages stylistic conformity and though
--I!
powerfully wrought it is and flat in comparisonwith his other,,
rather superficial

morepoetic works.

The fact that examples of Marechera's work can be used to satisfy the separate

236
requirementsof Lukacs' literary dichotomy is as much a comment on the

difficulty of pigeonholing the writer as it is testamentto the rangeof his work- o,

difficulty that is emphasisedby the realisation that some of Scrapiron Blues,

'Fuzzy Goo's Storiesfor Children%for example,do not sit easily on either side of

thedivide.

6.1 '...like a rat in a corner... '

After arranging the posthumous publication of The Black Insider and Cemetery of

Mind, Veit-Wild was faced with a disorderly pile of manuscriptsin various states

of completion and had the difficult task of selecting works to be published as a

final collection. As she confirmed to me in August 1995 much of the work was too

shortand too Eragmentedto meet her criteria for representingthe writer's output

during his final years.

There are two longer works, which are likely to remain unpublished, '.Confessions

of a Rusty Dread' and 'Depth of Diamonds'. Neither is strong enough in itself to

publish,nor do to is
they add anything of significance what already known about

the writer. In the event the collection that Veit-Wild brought togetheras Scrapiron

Bluesis a valuable record of the work Marecheraproducedin the final yearsof his

life andan apposite if intensely sad,postscript

I to his careeras a writer.

In her introduction Veit-Wild writes 'This volume brings together pieces of

237
variousliterary genreswritten by Marechera...the common theme...is urban life.

He draws multicoloured sketches of the cityscapes of Harare and capturesthe

vibesand psycheof a big urban centre in 20th century Africa' (Scrapiron Blues p

ix). Perhaps
there is some editorial licence here. Marechera,
does write about 'the

big urban centre', Harare; however, his stories are narrowly focused anecdotes

from the bars and shebeenstogether with autobiographicalmaterial and musings

on the role of the writer. With the occasional exception, 'First Street Tumult' for

example(one of the few pieces in the collection to have been published during

Marechera'slifetime), they lack the penetrative observation and attention to

socially specific detail of, say, Joyce"s Dubliners,, Runyon's On Broadway, or even

Marechera's own 'The Skin of Time' and 'The Servant's Ball'. Like Marechera's

isolated existence at this time,, these Hararean.tales are often flat, one dimensional

and ephemeral. In the way of some of the poems in Lawrence's PansieS 4 they

offer little more than reflections as,- in Marechera'swords, he '... roamedthe town

in searchof stories.' and found only 'A superfluous time for superfluous characters'

(Scrapiron Blues p29).

Marecheraproduced most of the material in the period 1983 to 1985,,and,

according to Veit-Wild, '. few other manuscripts between 1985 and the time
wrote --

of his death.They were mostly fragments, inconsistentin quality. He did not try to

getthem published'(SB p35 1). Someof those fragmentsappearin Scrapiron Blues

andreflect the disillusion his interview with the Dutch journalist Alle
expressedin

Lansu in February 1986:

238
 I no longer have the initial anger I had when I was writing The
...
House of Hunger and Black Sunlight. I seemto have come to the
I
stagewhere think I am ready to sell out my profession. At's that
loneliness which is increasingly driving me to all this... The
isolation is terrible. I'm like a rat in a comer, I can only continue
respecting myself as a writer by living in my head,and that can be
dangerous sometimes,, especially if one has also experienced
paranoia. (SB p36 and Scrapiron Blues p xi)

It is, of course,very sad that Marechera,at the relatively young age of thirty-three

years,should have been expressingsuch sentiments.Quite obviously his physical

isolationhad major implications for his mental and physical health.In addition the

resultantlack of intellectual stimulation led to a different type of isolation that had

anequallyseriouseffect on the vmter. As he explained:

SometimesI think it's just that I miss the intenseliterary intrigues

of the London j ourrials and circles, the nightlong heatedarguments
about what constitutes art,, the times it
when was easy to believe
that there was more than "something" in living a life totally
devoted to literature. Here in Harare all that seems frivolous,,
trivial,, nothing to do with "real" living. There is somethingabout
...
this city that is wrong, all wrong, for a writer, the way London was
not wrong. (Scrapiron Blues pp 26 & 28)

There may well be some typical Marecheran hyperbole in his comparisons of

Harareand London (which he once scathingly describedas 'the dandruff and fleas

of a balding 5.
country') His career in London was in the doldrums whereas his

return to Harare revitalised him. His focus was renewed and he soon had a

publisher. Unfortunately this did not last as, unable to compromise with the

nation builders', he failed to establish a permanentplace for himself in the new

Zimbabwe and gradually withdrew into a decreasing circle of acquaintances.

However,it is true that for those 'devoted to literature' the two cities are hardly

is
comparable,and it certain that Marecheramissedthe intellectual stimulation and

239
 of
companionship his life in London, particularly when it was basedaround the

Africa Centre. In any event his unhappinessand sense Of

isolation were real

enough.

6.2 'Tony Fights Tonight - Pub Stories'

Of the eleven stories and fragments of stories that constitute 'Tony Fights Tonight-

Pub Stories' and form the opening sequence of Scrapiron Blues, one less than
is
ý1- -
three quarters of a page and only two are more than two pages long. Some, for

example,'The Shining' and 'Snakesin Tracksuits'.are little more than the reporting

of bawdybar room fantasiesof sexual prowess,others,particularly thoseinvolving

'Tony' are famillarly autobiographical. Although Veit-Wild refers to the 'Pub

Stories' as 'recording... modem urban legends, the new oral literature of

contemporary African cities' (Scrapiron Blues pxii), these fragments have a

stronger flavour of unworked notes, perhaps recording an incident with the

intention o extending or incorporating into a longer work at a later date. Or they

haveat the heart a theme or sentiment,,which is not developed,like 'Fucking

-

missionaries. Ruined my life. ' ('The Pinpocketing Roadside Preacher, p27). In a

way this lack of development and the absenceof coherenceand continuity also

notablein these works is a profile of Marechera's final years which were marked

by the absenceof a defining purpose.

240
 there are instancesof fine writing, denselypackedwith vivid images.
Nevertheless

Thefollowing is the opening paragraphof 'Smith in Dead Skin':

A hard day. Nerves shrieking. The headtight and taut with the facts
of heat crime, lust, power, boredom and food. The ambulancestill
wailed in the distance. The Air Force had just brutally peeled the
enamel from my teeth. The Horse guards were riding by, back to
barracks.And there was the Army CeremonialBand
-a controlled
din of brassand trumpet, and the uncannyrhythm of stompingfeet.
Under the eyes of cynical, cheerless,drunken, curious, fascinated
In
eyes. navy blue suit and necklaceof oxtail bones,I watchedit all
pass by. I had looked out of the pub windows. I had come out to
watch. So this was the Opening of Parliament! (Scrapiron Blues
p2)

The reader is invited to consider two apparently unrelated events.One is in the

recentpast and involves an ambulancewhich 'still wailed in the distance'and the

other,,the Opening of Parliament , is happening here and now. The wailing of the

is
ambulance linked to 'hard day' and 'nervesshrieking' as with a preciseeconomy

Marecheraimplies that 'the facts of heat, crime, lust, power, boredom and food'

hadcausedan unexplainedviolent incident. He movesfrom one eventto the other

via the Air Force flypast, where sound blends with that of the ambulance,,thus

transferringthe reader'sattention from the ambulance(the past) to the Openingof

Parliament (the present).

The writer is also moving betweenthe past and the presentas he observesthat the

openingof the Zimbabwean Parliament is celebratedwith the all traditions of the

former colonial government, hinting at a possible betrayal of the aims of the

SecondChimurenga.He emphasisesthis apparentcontradiction by the deliberate

semanticconfusion of his 'navy blue suit and 'necklace of oxtail bones'. Here of

241
course his 'navy blue suit' could represent either set of rulers, pre- or post-

but
independence, the 'necklace of oxtail bones' is a symbol of the pre-colonial

pastwhich is not featured in his presentationof the pageant.In other words in

,
Marecheran terms, there is no difference between colonialism and neo-

Both
colonialism. ignore the history of the'people'.

The core of the story is one of sexual indulgence featuring the 'Opening of the

Legs' and an escapein a sack featuring the 'Opening of the Sack'. These 'Openings'

lead to a weakly punning closure: 'I was thinking of the Opening of Parliament. I

was thinking of the Opening of the Legs. I was thinking of the Opening of the

Sack. I rushed to the toilet and was violently sick. ' in which the rhythm of the

repetition is quite effective but, by comparison with the dense imagery of the

openingparagraph, disappointing.

6.2.1 'There's no room for a Norman Mailer in the Third World'

Six of the stories, 'Dreams Wash Walls',. 'The Power',, 'Babel',, 'What Available

Reality', 'A Description of the Universe' and 'The Decline and Fall' have a degree

of continuity and coherence in that they all explore the role of the writer and

feature a character called Tony, the Sculptor/Poet/A-rtist who, as in Mindblast,

he to
when isn't writing, continues wash imaginary blood off the walls of his flat.

This sequenceof stories was included in the manuscript 'Killwatch or Tony Fights

242
 Tonight1),which was submittedto, and rejectedby Longman in 1983.

A centralthemeof the stories is Marechera's difficulty in becomingestablishedas

a writer in Harare. 'I am trying to grasp the kind of story that will take in the

swimming-pool skin of the Harare skies, the slightly mocking darkness that

underliessunset'sbriefly glowing coals, before the black hand of anxiety clenches

its darknessaround the city (Scrapiron Blues p4). Here the city is a metaphor for

his career,which is now 'bnefly glowing coals', as he contemplatesoblivion If he

doesn'tcometo terms with both the demandsof being back in Harareand finding

the right 'kind of story', not only to write but also to live. The uncertainty about

his future appeared to be making him withdraw together with the consistent

concernfor his mental health 'You thought of the future with the self-inflicted risk

of unhinging your mind. The future is controlled by people who inflict their

dreams on other people... The only little safety left is your own small dream1)

(Scrapiron Blues p 15).

As in Black Sunlight and The Black Insider Marechera merges with his characters

andquestionsthe nature of reality 'Shit, what kind of writer was I?... Who was the

reality? Fred and Jill? Or Tony and Jane? Was I in

myself a character someone's

head?(Scrapiron Blues p17). The futility of his attempts to become accepted in

Harareis surnmarisedby what could well serve as an epitaph for the lonely and

embitteredwriter 'There's for a Norman Mailer in the Third World'

no room

(Scrapiron Blues p23).

243
Significantly, ýA Description of the Universe' the final story of the sequence,

which opens with a despairing questioning 'Is it so surprising, I wonder,,that

everyone is obsessed with the pastT (Scrapiron Blues p22)', 'closes with

Marecheraabandonedby his own charactersas they find placesfor themselvesin

thenewHarare:

Tony and Jane are now far from homeless. Tony has bought a
house in Brightwood, a quiet suburb on the outskirts of Harare. He
has also bought a car. Gone are the days of the tragic washing of
..
the walls. Tony is now something in the Ministry of Information.
He still doesn't know exactly what but he has an office, a
telephone, a secretary and several big ideas. (Scrapiron Blues p26).

The Ministry of Infon-nation employed both Wilson Katiyo and Charles Mungoshi

so there is a suspicion of a mischievous personal subtext here. The passage

Marechera's
expresses misgivings about his future role should he join the policy-

makers,,astutely aware that the trappings of office and 'big ideas') are not enough,

he 'doesn't know exactly' what to do. Marecheranever did decide 'exactly what

to do' and as time passed in Harare his work inevitably became increasingly

fragmented.

6.3 'First Street Tumult More City Stories'

-

The eponymousstory in this second sequencewas first published In The Sunday

Mail of 29 May 1983 and is notable for its detachedtone and completeabsenceof

third person narrative voice. This

authorial intrusion as the author maintains a

244
 appealing
aesthetically story, more than any other is a <multicolouredsketchof the

cityscape of Harare' (Scrapiron Blues pxi). The opening paragraph captures a

momentwhen.

Sunlight stencilled her image in the big gleaming shop-front

window. Like a photographnegativeheld up to the light, her image
lingered among the pink harlequins dressed in velvet, silks,,
corduroy, lingered long and longingly among the latest fashions
from London and Paris, a hazy gold-shot silhouette of a tall
graceful Afro-crowned single woman, a teacher at Blake High
Schoolin Fourth Street,Harare.(Scrapiron Blues p108)

The narrator lightly plays with the obvious ' heavy-handed Fanonesque

)6
postcolonial moralism of the richly clad 'pink harlequins' (European) contrasted

with the 'negative' image of the African in favour of a more subtle dialectic

betweenillusion and reality. The vvriter, in cinematic fashion, then pans around the

First Street Mall,, describing the scene in order to locate the woman and the

moment before he finally returns to her to

and closes reveal why he was writing

nil the woman. But the answer contains a mystery 'And the fierce pulsing rays
about

of the sun could not penetrate to the glittering secret tears coursing one by one

down her cheeks' (Scrapiron Blues pl 11). In a curiously jarring shift to the

languageof an inferior love story 'In just such a way she had thrown all of herself

at Dan' (Scrapiron Blues p109), part of the secret is revealed. Her lover has left

her,sheis no longer a virgin 'The freshly mown grasswould be the small print on

her living'- -L ccý is 'Green the matter of the

and pregnant seedlings,suddenly
ý,
is to
morrow' (Scrapiron Blues pI 10). Her flat, to which she reluctant return, is

now a place of 'too many silent and invisible things' (Scrapiron Blues p 109).

245
A recurring motif in 'First Street Tumult' is a captured image as the
writer

in
engages a debate on the nature of the ip
relationshi between Ilus'on
II and reahity.

In additionto the 'photographnegative' of the opening paragraphMarechera,uses

astropes: 'the sharp watercolour strokes of pastel-shadepeople' (pIO8); 'A still

photographfrom a film'. 'A hastily scrawled drawing'; 'a painting by Monet'

(p109):'a portrait on the wall' (p I 10). Pursuingthe samemotif in the actionsof his

he 'A
characters introduces young Swede was calmly taking pictures' (p I 10) and

'two Norwegian girls carried five canvas paintings' (PI10/111). Linking the

woman psychologically to his use of artistic tenns Marechera reveals she is a

teacher,,who 'taught art: drawing, painting and sculpture' (p109). Perhaps for her

the illusion of love has become the reality of an unwanted pregnancy.

The closing mystery of the story, the 'secret glittering tears1%suggeststhat the

image cannot be A
penetrated. casual observer will see that the is
woman crYing

but does not know the reason for her tears. As observer he (or she) can only

interpretsubjectivelywhat he (or she) sees.

The theme is made clear in surreal fashion by 'A group of young university

dressed
students,, in white chef s uniforms cycled into the Mall on a six-seater

bicycle; cycled slowly round and round, ringing a Holy communion bell'

(ScrapironBlues, pI 11), who read a poem:

I am what you see,said the cat,

What you seeis in your head.
Am I in your head,or am I me.

246
The theme is the familiar Marecheran conundrum of the nature of identity as

dialecticbetweenillusion and reality. The images,which are capturedin various

waysthroughout the story, exist in an alternative non-literary medium. But,. the

writer is asking, how does the captured Image relate to the thing itselP Which is

thereal T, the one that in

exists the minds of othersor the T that I believe myself

to be?In addition to that riddle there is a subtle allegorical link on the nature of

illusion, as Zimbabwe moves from the distortions of colonialism to a socialism

that is no less distorted:--b-very clever and appropriate allegory that capturesthe art

teachers unwanted pregnancy and connects it with the notion of the 'new'

Zimbabwebeing little more than the bastardchild of colonialism.

In this vividly illustrated and, considering its shortness, powerful and

psychologically complex story Marechera has quite clearly taken the route of 'an

aestheticallyappealing modernism' rather than 'a fruitful critical realism'.

However, in spite of the allegedly elitist nature of Marechera's aesthetic the

central message of 'First Street Tumult' is very simple, if not correspondingly

clear. The message is - whoever is in power, ultimately the people are exploited,,

andsuffer.

The final story of the sequence,and in biographical

possibly the most significant

tenns,,'Fragments',clearly was written in the last few monthsof his life. 7 There is

his
an overwhelming sadnessin this story that encapsulates life as a series of

fragmentsas he raises the familiar issues of the family, his illness and his

247
relationship with his parents. With heavily ironic humour the iconoclastic

Marecheraportrays himself as 'Harold', a minor functionary In the Ministry of

Construction.

in the openinglines of the story he discusseshonour and the family name'Poverty

was poverty, but poverty was warm and snug when it could still cover its

With
nakedness the woollen blanket of honour. Family honour. The family name'
f Q'I Blues Such fond
rapiron
ý,L. p127). expression is very different from the

Marechera heaped his family 8 his

vilification on on return to Zimbabwe. There

then follows a short nightmare scene in which 'Harold' revisits the morgue and

encountershis father's corpse whose '...battered skull swivelled to face him

directly. He scrunched his eyes shut. Refusing. Denying. Shaking his head

ftiriously' (Scrapiron Blues p128). The denial theme is repeated later in the story

when'Harold' to
refuses answerthe door and is then himself denied,,
when 'Later,

he
on the phone, could hear the number ringing repeatedlybut '
no one answered.

(Scrapiron Blues p128). Thus he denies his past - his father; denies his present -

by not answering the door, and his hopes for the future are denied when his

telephonecall is unanswered.In a final resolution of his role as an artist he denies

any responsibility for the 'people', cOther people were not his responsibility; they

were their own lookout' (Scrapiron Blues p130). And he denies his (mental)

illness 'Harold but he conducted himself as an aging

was thirty-five already

invalid whose hold depended extremerefusal to acknowledgehis

on reality on an

sickness" (Scrapiron Blues p130).

248
Suchpoignantdenials so close to the end of his life have an ineffable sadness.As

equallysad is the evidence of the writer recycling and circling irresolutely around

thesamethemesand issueshe had first introduced In TheHouseofHunger.

6.4 'When Rainwords Spit Fire'

The 'aesthetic appeal' of the very short story 'First Street Tumult' is exchanged

for 'a fruitftil critical realismI in the rather longer 'Rainwords Spit Fire'. Described

by the author as 'a township novella', 'When Rainwords Spit Fire' was written in

1984 and describes 'one day in the life of Rutendo Township' (Scrapiron Blues

pxiii). With its pervasive air of social realism 'When Rainwords Spit Fire' has the

flavour of the documentary Marechera apparently tried to avoid when writing 'The

ConcentrationCamp' (seebelow). In familiar fashion the story is a seriesof brief

but
scenes which, unlike most of his other works,,is written in the third personand

by
is populated a large number of believable characters.

in
Another noticeable difference is the change style and attitude, as Veit-Wild

'Where The House Hunger is full of despair, narrative fragmentation

points out of

and violent images, here the same township life is described in composed, calm
...

language' (Scrapiron Blues pxiii). Also noticeable is the almost

and simple

completeabsenceof Images of bodily excretions (blood, sweat, shit, vomit,.

249
 ) that are such a notable feature not The House
semen, only of of Hunger but also

of Black Sunlight and The Black Insider (see above). However,,like those earlier

'Rainwords Spit Fire' is extremely bleak in outlook. In adopting

works,, I a tneV

perhaps
approach Marecherawas following his own advice 'If you want to write a

political treatise, go write a political treatise, but don't try to pretendit's a poem'

(SBp307, see also below). Arranged in episodic form, the novella exploresthe

actionsof a nuinber of people, including children, as they experiencelife in the

township.Using a detachednarrative voice Marecheradistanceshimself from his

characters in presenting a compelling picture of grinding poverty, unrelieved

squalor, heavy drinking and sex. 'On most nights, there would be shrieks and

shouts from children playing, men fighting, the wailing of police sirens, the

thunderoussongs of some obscure religious sect, the hue and cry of "Thief! Stop

thief" (Scrapiron Blues p 143).

Readersfrom the townships and frequentersof the beerhallsand shebeensWill be

I'llto recognisethemselvesand their predicamentsbut there is nothing here to

able

aid their understanding of why life is the way it is. Children are portrayed

sympathetically but for the adults there is only the existential angst of township

life 'Each day deathexpandsthe spaceit occupiesin our hearts We are accidents
...

waiting to happen. That was it. You waited and waited but nothing happened'

(Scrapiron Blues p 150).

At the time of writing 'Rainwords Spit Fire' (August/September1985) nothing

250
washappeningfor Dambudzo Marechera. In the early months of 1,985,'Depth of

the
Diamonds' last piece of work he submitted for publication, although praised,

hadbeenrejectedby Heinemannand College Press.The groundswere the familiar

of
ones 'difficulty', (too many literary allusions' and 'too self-indulgent' and some

hopefuladvice from a College Pressreader: 'What I am suggestingwould require

somedrastic rewriting. This is not a question of drawing in loose ends, but of a

focusingfar more clearly on what is being said' (SB pp343/348).

(Rainwords Spit Fire I brave

is a attempt to avoid those pitfalls and is a lucid and

perceptive presentation of township life. In Lukacs' terms he is attempting to

choose 'the great and progressive literary tradition of realism in preference to

9
fortnalistic experiment. ' This piece of work demonstratesthat Marechera could

producean effective short story though it is too fragmentedto allow his characters

spacein which to develop. There is an attractive economy about his sparseprose

but without Marechera'selaboratepoetic rhetoric it fails to developliterary power.

Onceagainthe frustrations of this unfortunateman are demonstratedas he falls to

makebest use of his considerabletalents. The pattern of his life and his devotion

he
to writing were inextricably linked; in a sense was writing out his own life. As

RobertFraser suggested'He couldn't distinguish between life and literature. His

life was a story.' 10Lukacs asks 'Is man the helplessv'ctim of transcendentaland

inexplicableforces, or is he a member of a human community in which he can

'. " Marecheradid try to play a

play a part towards its modification or reform?
...
he was unable to stay
part in 'his' community but, ideologically and artistically,

251
with the rational choice implied by Lukacs for any length of ti The significance
I

in the stylistic technique, as Lukacs is not in the form and content.of the
suggested,,

work but in the ideology underpinning it. Although Marechera's technique

the
changed underlying ideology appearedto remain the same.

In spite of its faults,, 'Rainwords Spit Fire', adds to the belief that had

circumstances been differeq, had Marechera been encouragedto harnesshis

rn 13ht
undoubted then
abilities,, that may have led to his emergenceas a short story writer

of very high quality with appropriate comparisons to say, O'Henry, Joyce, and

Lawrence.But that was not to be. Now thoroughly disillusioned and disheartened

and lacking the mental and physical energy for the effort, Marecheramade no

attemptto have this, or any subsequent work, published. But he remained a writer

and,perhapssimply becausehe do he
could nothing else, continuedto write.

6.5 'The Concentration Camp'

In the introduction to Scrapiron Blues Veit-Wild refers to the sectioncalled 'The

ConcentrationCamp' as:

an unfinished novel-like piece consisting of prose, drama and

... liberation.
to
poetry... express his horror of the Zimbabwean war of
He describeslife in the "protected villages", the "keeps", in which
the kept by the Rhodesian Army
parts of rural population were
during some of the wartime, and parallels them with concentration
camps. (Scrapiron Blues p xiv)

252
Marecherabegan working on the 'The ConcentrationCarnp' during 1-985,and it

unfinished at his death in 1987.Apparently had beenhis

remained it intention 'not

to end the manuscript with Independence...

it will be about the survivors: what

happenedafterwards to all those people' (Scrapiron Blues pxv). In the February

1986interview with Alle Lansu, Marecheracommentedon the work in progress:

I have never written a book like that before for which I have to
interview people. I have been going around Harare interviewing
some of the people here in Harare who were former inmates,
prisoners in these protected villages. They told me all these
horrifying stories.(Scrapiron Blues p xiv)

And yet it seems this primary source material was not in itself sufficient for his

as
purpose, he told Lans-u-

The format of the book is- I am following the experiences of two

fictional families. The problem I am having is the technique,
because I don't want it to come out as a documentary and so I am
using a kind of expressionist technique and here and there certain
surrealist techniques and here and there straight narrative.
(Scrapiron Blues p xiv)

This experimental approach appears to indicate a change to the views he expressed

lecture 12 the University Zimbabwe

at what becameknown as his 'farewell at of

on 6th May 1982, (If you want to write a political treatise,,go and write a political

treatise,but don't try to pretend it is a poem. if you want to scream,screambut

don't put your scream on paper and pretend it is a poem' (SB p307). Written in a

loose of characterslinked by
variety of styles, the eight sections offer a connection

Marechera the effects of the war of liberation.

a series of atrocities,, as explores

Such intentional experimentation raises the awkward question of audience - for

whom was 'The Concentration Camp' written? Certainly not the street people, nor

253
thepovos,nor the ex-combatants,nor the people In the townshipswho, with their

lackof formal education, of which he was well aware, would have made neither

headnor tail of it. Some sections, the 'straight narrative,, for example, are

accessiblebut as an entity complete in itself 'The Concentration Camp' is

in
confused organisation,lacking coherenceand continuity.

An alternative view to Veit-Wild's 'a novel-like piece', or Marechera's claim that

he was writing/had written a book, sees 'The Concentration Camp', in. similar

fashionto The House of Hunger, as a series of short pieces ostensibly sharing a

central theme. In this reading the different styles reflect the increased

fragmentationof the writer's approachrather than a deliberateexperiment.On the

questionof audience,,Marechera had no publisher and had stopped trying to get

hiswork published.He wrote becausethere was nothing elsehe could do. Thereis

a terrible sadnessin this observation which interprets the writer's conversation

with Lansu as self- deceptive rationalisation tinged with hope.

desperate Perhaps

Marecherawas readyto 'sell-out' but was awarethat it was too late. The following

is from Part Five of 'The Concentration Camp', appropriately titled 'The

Intellectual's Revolf:

it
"If there is a soul and is for sale,,where is the buyer? And there
are all these of emotion which find no
concentratedpossibilities
attainable confirmation out there, no buyers, no takers. And the
empty honeycomb within the heart- who or what out there will
arrive with the liquid gold and the motor pulse to life again?
pure
(Scrapiron Blues p 180)

Aware that he had failed to become established as a writer in Zimbabwe

Marecherais expressinghis despair;he still has somethingto offer but now that he

254
is readyto negotiate,no-one is interested, 'where is the buyerT. Worse than that

his
hisInspiration, drive, has disappearedand he lamentsthe absenceof a person,,

to
or a cause, rousehis muse, 'the motor pulse to lif e again

Veit-Wild suggests that 'The Concentration Camp' 'employs a children's

perspective' (Scrapiron Blues pxiii). This is true of parts of the work but

Marechera'sattemptsto preservethe innocenceof children bring about lapsesinto

In
sentimentality. this example he is writing of two children:

Her eyes in the flames of the cooking fire were fully clasped to his
and though they did not know it, the two were in the crucible of a
tormenting first love. A love which would not declare love but
would simply, giddily say; "You are alive! "...there was something
in these children which made them resist being changed overnight
into little cynical adults. Perhaps this was the pleasurable pulse
rippling through their joined hands. It was a terribly sweet thing to
live for. This realisation rushed through them into a certainty: the
two of them would never die. (Scrapiron Blues p]63)

The sea change in style indicated by a comparison of the above with his earlier

work, for example the 'The Great Cunt' diatribe in Black Sunlight, is quite

This
remarkable. sad lament for the lost is by
innocenceof childhood emphasised

the acute observation of the absolute certainty of purpose children possess;they

knowwhat they have will last forever. The writer, and the reader,of course,,know

different. However in trying to capture a child-like innocence Marechera has

adopteda mawkish tone which is distracting, and a prose style which borders on

thebanal.

Thatapart,and although 'The Concentration Camp' fails to convince as a sIngle

255
work,there are several examplesof Marecheran
quintessential. style. For example,,

in the Runyonesqueportrayal of 'Jimmy the Dwarf and 'thin Larry Long' from

,City of Anarchists,the bizarre cross-talking double act in the surrealtwo-handed

play which is Part Three, C

The Camp', and which also features a pair of talking

boots.,this vitriolic comment on apartheid from Part Four, 'A Cast of Cadres',,

whichis presentedentirely in song:

, partheidis an ideal
That twinkles only in the gutters
Apartheid is an ideal
To pervertsbehind closed shutters
Apartheid is only real
To faggot Afrikaners
Who fuck their daughters.(Scrapiron Blues p178)

FromPart Seven, 'Tonderai's Father Reflects',. he asks the questions:

Whosethe ghoulish fetid aura in the hold?

Whose the fiendish despair chained yet bold? (Scrapiron Blues
p196)

Although he is apparently writing (In a style reminiscent of William Blake) about

the'comrades,it is his own 'fetid auraýand his own 'fiendish despair'with which

heis so preoccupied. It is Marecherahimself who is In the 'hold' (African slaves

4%
wereof coursetransportedin the hold of a ship). He despair
is,, that he is 'chaine&-

by the actionsof the authorities,,and yet he is 'bold' enoughto resistthem.

Being 'bold enough to resist' implies that Marechera made choices. I argued

but was largely determined by

earlier that personality was part nature, part nurture,

hegemonicconditioning. Lukacs' Marxist materialist perspective would maintain

that choice and personality are inextricably linked, and that personality is heavily

256
 by
influenced environmental factors.

A writer's pattern of choice is a function of his personality. But

personality is not in fact timeless and absolute,, however it may
appear to the individual consciousness. Talent and character may
be innate; but the manner in which they develop, orfail to develop
(my emphasis), depends on the writer's interaction with his
envirom-nent,on his relationships with other human beings. His life
is part of the life of his time; no matter whether he is conscious of
this, approves of or disapproves. He is part of a larger social. and
historical whole. 13

Thereis no counterargumentto the contentionthat, for the greaterpart of his life

Marecherawas at odds with his environment,, and his personal history is littered

with shattered relationships. If we accept Lukacs' argument it seems that

Marechera'spersonality was such that it inhibited his 14

artistic development. How

and why Marechera's personality developed as it did is a matter of speculation

(seeabove)but for Lukacs such detail is not required-a writer's choicesdepend

on his personality, and that personality is formed by interaction with his

Marechera,
environment. tried to live outsideof whateversociety(Oxford, London,

Harare)he found himself Methat of courseis impossible.His works are part of the

socio-historicmilieu he lived through; the fact he

that tried so hard to articulatehis

individualexperienceof that milieu while hopelessly to

trying escapeits influence,

is partof their attraction.

257
6.6'Fuzzy Goo's Stories for Children'

Accordingto Veit-Wild 'Marechera liked children. Paying tribute to him after his

death,Nyarnfukudza.said: "He was really a very warm and amusingpersonand he

wasvery good with children, which is something,from his image, you wouldn't

expect"' (SB p341). These children's stories comprise two pieces written in

CThe Magic Cat' and 'Baboons of the Rainbow'. both rejected as

November1983
,
cunsuitable'by the publishers ZPH and Longmans, 'Tony and the Rasta' from

1984;and, what was probably Marechera's final work, 'Fuzzy Goo"s Guide to the

Earth', started in July 1987.

Dedicatedto 'Max and Franz Wild and all the children of Zimbabwe" only 'The

Magic Cat' with its traditional Europeantheme of the granted wish, appearsto

havebeen written for children. 'Baboons of the Rainbow' is a thinly disguised

Zimbabwe
attackon post-Independence in which a coalition of the white baboon

andthe black baboon destroy the greenbaboonwhere greenrepresentsthe shoots

of growthof the new Zimbabwe. The piece, which is in verse form and illustrated

by the six-yearold Max Wild, includes the lines:

Theyjumped on GreenBaboon
They hit. They bit. They scratched.They beathim up.
They hit him the whole day. It was like thunder.
The rainbow drained of all colour.
Black Baboon and White Baboon were eating GreenBaboon.
White Baboon liked his GreenBaboon with garlic.
Black Baboon liked his GreenBaboon with chillies.
'Let us eat him in a civilised way,' said White Baboon.

258
 Black Baboon agreed,'Yes, let us eat him in a civilised way.
Theycarried GreenBaboon into the kitchen.
They cut GreenBaboon into chops and steaks.
They cooked GreenBaboon with spicesand dry white wine.
White Baboon madethe salad.
Black Baboon madethe custard.Scrapiron Blues,p232.

In typically complex fashion Marechera engages wiith the tension

I between

Europeanand African influences and musesover which corrupt faction, black or

will
white,, gain ascendancyin the new Zimbabwe from which all hopes have

'bolted into the blue'(Scrapiron Blues, p238). By engaging with current issues in

this way Marechera is following the European tradition in which nursery rhymes

wereoften socio-political allegories aimed initially at an adult audience. It was

only after the event or issue had declined in importance that the primary level of

meaningassumedgreatersignificancethan the level.

secondary

One can understand Marechera's anxiety to communicate with the younger

generations
and applaud his efforts as an artist to fulfil that role. However, it is

difficult to acceptthat many Zimbabweanchildren would havehad the intellectual

to
sophisticationnecessary appreciate the sub text of 'Baboons of the Rainbow'.

Of course,, have the simple direct story at the primary level

children would enjoyed

(the cannibal activities of the coloured baboons) but the obvious political

level
secondary have most unlikely. As a children's
would made any publication

Marechera double his record showsthat he wasn't able to

writer was in a jeopardy,

write without engaging with critical political or social issues,but engagingwith

thoseissuesprecludedpublication in politically sensitiveZimbabwe.

259
The other stones are about children and may well have been intended for that

but
audience the intrusion of the cynical narrative voice, subjectmatter, choice of

and the world-weary tone is disturbing. Of course,even when ostensibly

language

writing for children that may have been Marechera's intention. Eschewing any

attemptsat escapism Marechera does not create an unrealistic Roald Dahl-like

world
anarchic in which children triumph. Instead he presentsa world township

cHdren would recogniseand in

one which peaceof mind and spirit, rather than

materialpossessions is the desired goal:

,
Tony knows everything that goes on in Shantytown. It does not
take much imagination. The stealing, fighting, fucking, the incest
and rape. It does not take much thought to grasp the diseasethat is
Shantytown. But then Shanty-townis the only home Tony has ever
had. Tony loves it with great bitterness... One day the Rasta teacher
drove Tony to Cleveland Dam. It was beautiful and quiet. Tony had
been so used to noise and violence in Shantytown that the peaceful
silence of Cleveland Dam almost frightened him. The Rasta
squeezed Tony's hand and said, 'Do not be afraid of peace,
Tony knows many shanty people who are afraid of peace because
they have never known it. Never, never known it. (from 'Tony and
the Rasta, Scrapiron Blues p216)

'Tony' is almost certainly the younger version of 'Tony' who features in the pub

storiesand is Marechera himself of course. Quite possibly the visit to Cleveland

Dam actually happened to the young and impressionable Marechera, providing a

vivid contrast against which to place in context his day-by-day experience of life

in VengereTownship.

'Fuzzy Goo's Guide (to the earth)' is divided into three small se i 'Blah',,
ct*ons,,
I

'Pebble' and 'Gah'. As with 'Fragments', which was also written in the weeks

immediatelypreceding his own death, the impact of his father's death some 24

260
 earlier
years is still very evident 'When my father died I just wantedto be on my

ownbut my mother made me seethe body' (Scrapiron Blues p242). Apparentalso

is thestill strongdesire to rationalise his mental illness 'Paranoidmeansseeingall

thethingswhich big humans have been taught not to see' (ScrapironBlues

p241).
In a way reminiscentof Huxley and Orwell he warns about the insiduouscontrol

by
exercised the state:

Television really tortures little humans. It makes them think of

BMX bicycles and goodies. It makes them prototypes of the blah
adults they will grow into with time. It makes them enjoy watching
(on TV) the destruction of things so that they are too tired to
destroy the society that is actually a lunatic asylum. A lunatic is
someone who knows there is something wrong somewhere but
does not know exactly what. An asylum is where they are going to
put me when they catch you reading all this I am writing.
(Scrapiron Blues p245)

In all probability the above is the final Marecherantilt at the role of the artist in

societyas he implies that his views and beliefs have secured his exclusion from

thosewith power and authority in Zimbabwe. The odd venture as a 'good citizen'

(seeabove) is abandonedas he affirms his consistent view of his role as an

individual with a responsibility only to himself and to his art as a writer. As he

commentedduring his lecture in Harare in October 1986 'The writer has no duty,

15
noresponsibility,other than to his art'. A responsibility and an approachthat he

have
accepts defined him as an outsider. In a more obvious attack on the role of

thestate,he advisespotential young readersto ask of themselves'whether African

socialismmeansyou can be as nasty, dirty, savage,native,,murderousas Jack and

his huntersin William Golding's book Lord of the Flies' (Scrapiron Blues p246).

If this is the last piece of work Marechera produced it is a testamentto the

,

261
 of his philosophy of individualism that was first introduced in The
consistency

HouseofHunger.

Thefirst pageof Marechera's notebook in which he wrote 'Fuzzy Goo's Guide',

in additionto the title, hasthe inscription 'The Children Themefor The Zimbabwe

Intemational Book Fair and Writer's Workshop, 1987' (Appendix 2). Whether

Marecheraintended to present the work at the workshop can only be speculation

but any attemptsat publication would almost certainly have met with rejection.

Zimbabweanpublishers would have been reluctant to handle work so openly

criticalof the governmentbut would have probably cited a refusal on the familiar

groundsof there being no audienceor market.

Someof the works in Scrapiron Blues sit easily with Mindblast, the plays and the

'Tony' stories, for example. Others: the children's stories, 'Rainwords Spit Fire"

and'The ConcentrationCamp', confirm that,,althoughhis work had a consistency

theme,,he That he could write effectively in a

of was inconsistent stylistically.

his talent. However his failure to stay with a

variety of styles is a tribute to

long develop his talent to its full potential is a matter

particular genre enough to

for considerable regret. The publication of Scrapiron Blues completed the work of

by of the last works written by

the Dambudzo Marechera Trust; including some

Marecherathe Trust ensured that, given the writerý's erratic lifestyle, a reasonably

comprehensive his output has now beenpublished.

representationof

262
6.7 'Then that's how it is. '

As he made clear in The House of Hunger Marechera did have some happy

of
memories childhood7 II
rviernorieswhich he Still held when writing Scrapiron

Bluesalthoughnow seasonedwith a weary resignation:

The trick was to convince yourself (and accept) that this was all
there was, all there was ever going to be.... You got on with it the
-
rest was without enchantment, without that enticing r-Ubescence
which for some is the aura of childhood, the tug of those salad days.
Salad days? Or mere digression down Oxbridge lanes? Mentally, a
down and out Gatsby in a rundown apartment, making do with
tortured vision rather than a beguiling tenacious beauty. In Harare.
(Scrapiron Blues p 187)

It is evidentfrom this passagethat Marecherahad becomedisillusioned,by casting

himself as Scott Fitzgerald's Jay Gatsby he is at once romanticising his own

position and also acknowledging that his fight has been vom and lost. In this

link,
intertextual it can be argued, the 'tortured vision' of his presentsituation is

by
represented the doomed Myrtle Wilson and the 'beguiling tenaciousbeauty' of

his childhood dreams by Daisy Buchanan whoAhe (Gatsby/Marechera)had

briefly,,
possessed then lost. On the other hand there is the tortured vision of the

young 'Tony's' living in Shantytown, 'The stealing, fighting,

experience of

fucking,the incest and rape' (see above),to set againstthe beautyof the 'enticing

rubescence the aura of childhood.' The different presentations are not

...
Marechera
contradictory, was aware of the ability of children to withdraw into a

world of their own construction,, 'the aura of childhood', to escapethe sheer

awfulnessof everyday life. Unfortunately the loss of childhood dreams served

263
 to the
emphasise dreadful predicamentof the township dwellers.
only

It is not without irony that, now that he iously

was serl *11,
I he had developeda tact"ic

for survivingadult life 'He has stoppedasking himself what'swi-ong.If this is how
I

it is. Then that's how it is' (Scrapiron Blues p 181). More than a weary fatalism is

indicatedby these words which also signal that his pursuit was over. There is of

the
course searchfor a senseof his own identity that pervadesthe longer works,

but if he was pursuing other goals they never became clear. Perhapsthat is because

themajority of his work was produced looking over his shoulderat where he had

beenrather than where he was going, his tendency to revisit and to rewrite his

a restlesssearch
experiences for he
understandingas explored different levels of

meaningin a particular experience.

ThomasMandigora, who was at Penhalonga with Marechera)told me 'When he

first cameback he was full of life and ideasbut gradually he seemedto withdraw.

I last saw him in 1986 and it was very sad, he was living alone in a flat somewhere

andwasobviously very depressed

and lonely. There was no fire abouthim at all. It

him like that. ' 16 Isolated in Harare Marechera,

made me very unhappy to see

suggested that isolation was intentional: 'Rather loneliness experienced

deliberately,,intensely; an experiment into the hazards of being yourself

(ScrapironBlues p 188).

264
IreneStaunton,a publisher with Baobab Books in Harare, knew Marechera in

Londonand saw him infrequently on his return to Zimbabwe. In a telephone

(I
conversation st August 1997) she confinned that Marecherawas a solitary figure

but accordingto her 'no more in Harare than in London'. Believing he had more

potentialas a critic she did find him a project producing critical work for use in

schoolsbut this was turned down by Zimbabwean publishers becauseof his

reputationand image. Radius Books in the UK eventually accepted the project, but

Marecheradied before Stauntoncould get the newsto him. 17In his interview with

LansuMarechera admitted 'My contacts With other writers are on a superficial

level'(SB, p27)

Stauntonconfirmed that,, in her experience,there was little interaction between

Marechera and his fellow Zimbabwean writers. On Marechera's apparent

ostracisionVeit-Wild comments'Thosein chargeof Zimbabweanculture rejected

him as an outsider and did nothing to encouragehim to live in Zimbabwe and

contribute to its literary life. With very few exceptions, government officials,

universitylecturers, publishers and fellow writers were unable to deal with his

'heretical'views and provocative personality' (Scrapiron Blues p337).

MusaZimunya. was a fierce critic who believed Marechera.should change his

lifestyle and writing style and accept the responsibility of a role model for new

Zimbabweans." But he was also a good friend who assistedIn the unbannng of

Black Sunlight and allowed the writer to use his office and typewriter.

265
UnfortunatelyZimunya has refused to talk about his experiencesof Marechera."

andwhile concedingthat Marechera'sbehaviour often placed him on the fringes of

literarysocietyin Zimbabwe, one can only speculateon Zimunya'srole in keeping

Marecheraout of the mainstream of Zimbabwean literary affairs. I am not

specifically referring to Zimunya's defeat of Marechera for the post of Secretary

Generalof the Writer's Union in 1984 but to his earlier commentson the role of

the vmter in Those Years of Drought and Hunger and his corrosive attack on

Marechera's The House of Hunger which he effectively placed outside his

definitionof the requirementsof the Zimbabweanliterary canon.

In the months before he died Marechera co-operated in the making of a film, After

the Drought and Hunger, by Moonlight Productions, Zimbabwe. " The film is a

Iportrait of the Zimbabwean literary scene' and features interviews with, among

others,,Stanlake Sarnkange, Charles Mungoshi, Stanley Nyamfukuclza, Wilson

Katlyo, Musaemura Zimunya and Marechera. Marechera was, by that time, living

in his own flat and acknowledged that, in companson with the masses,and

althougha'declassified person',he led a 'comfortably privileged life'. Nevertheless

hestill complainedthat 'In Zimbabwe I am not treatedwith respectbut treatedas

one would treat a snake that you do not know whether it is poisonous or not.' He

alsocomplainedof being depressedby his solitary life, adding 'I am treated as an

eccentricgrowth on the skin of Zimbabwe.' The interview was clearly filmed at

differenttimes and in different places. One short and painful sceneshows a very

distressed
Marechera,,clearly in a state of deep depression,
expla,nng his role as a

266
writer. Struggling to control his voice and with tears streamingdown his face he

claimedhis purpose 'to

was recapitulate all the suffering and pain that my people

havesufferedand will continue to suffer.'

Althoughthis statementis similar in sentimentto that expressedin The House

of
Hunger'I found the idea of humanity, the concept of a mankind, more attractive

thanhumanbeings' (p7), it would be unwise to take his subsequentassertionat

facevalueas a rebuttal of his earlier denial that he wrote for a 'specific nation' or a

'specific race', -!Lhough it is very apparent that it was something he desperately

to
wanted believe, perhapseven did believe, at the time he was sayingit.

Earlier declarations apart, the texts themselves, with the exclusion of some of the

playsand shorter stories, confirm the notion that his writing was very often little

morethan a highly personal record, a record in which Marechera.wrote of his own

sufferingand his own pain. And, as can be judged from the film, that suffering and

painwere very real indeed. Whether his commentsindicate that he hopedthat his

works would eventually be read as representativeof 'his people', or whether

towardsthe end of his life he deluded himself that his work was always intended

to berepresentativeof 'his people',remainsopento debate.

Thereis an unsurprising similarity between The House of Hunger, Black Sunlight

and The Black Insider. All were written within a thirty-month period in similar

circumstances
and have strong thematic links to each other. Black Sunlight was a

revisionof The Black Insider and both were written in an attempt to repeatthe

267
 of
success The House qf Hunger. On his return to Zimbabwe in 1982Marechera

to
wasinspired produce some of his most vivid work, published in Mindblast and

ScrapironBlues. Unfortunately he was unable to find a place for himself among

thepolicy makers and decision takers as he was unwilling to join the 'deliberate

campaignto promote Zimbabwean culture' (SB p39) and gradually withdrew.

Staunton'scomment suggeststhat Marechera's careermay have been about to be

revivedbut the attack on African socialism written in the weeks before his death

(seeabove) suggestthat although his lifestyle had changed his views on the

roles of the stateand the individual were as uncompromisingas ever.

respective

In a relatively small body of work that comprises plays, prose and poetry

Marecherawrote in a variety of styles. From the existential angst of his longer

works, the absurd realism (and more) of his plays, to his lyric poems and the

occasional critical work, Marechera is extremely difficult to pigeonhole as a

writer. To apply a label that defines his style as a writer, or identifies him as a

particular genre writer in any meaningful way, is impossible. When Marechera

'I have been biography' 21 e was

commented an outsider in my own

acknowledging his hegemonic conditioning, and, in spite of the caustic

protestation'If you are a writer for a specific race or a specific nation, then fuck

you' (seeabove),he was ineluctably a Zimbabweanwriter. of courseZimbabwe

is a relatively young country and that definition remains fluid. Without doubt,

however,Marechera's work helps to establishthe parametersof what t meansto

bea Zimbabweanwriter. With that in mind in my final chapterI will considerthe

,

268
 made
contribution to the Zimbabwean literary canonby this eclectic body of work

Notes

' GeorgLukacs, The Meaning of Contemporary Realism, p92.

2 Ibid, p135.
3 SeeStuart Sim, ' Historical and Cultural Context% Georg Lukacs.
, As Marechera claimed 'D H Lawrence was the skeleton in my cupboardl (IThe
African Writer's Experience of European Literature', p100) such comparisons are
not inappropriate. I have in mind Sagar's criticism of Pansies that the 'less
successful are merely sketches for poems'. DH Lawrence (Harmondsworth:
Penguin,Revised Edition 1986), p16.
5 FromPortrait of a Black Artist London, see the Source Book
in p265.
6 JamesBooth, University of Hull,
unpublished paper.
7 This assumption based his the to having been hospital.
is on reference in story in
He was admitted to hospital for the first time in January 1987, and again in
February;he was incurably ill and died in August the same year.
8 For being told his his sisters wanted seeto him,
example, on mother and one of
heresponded'What does she want from me) the bitch? Tell her I don't want to see
her' (SourceBook, p306).
9 GeorgLukacs, The Meaning Realism,
of'Contemporary p80.
10Interview David Pattison London July 1997.
with
11GeorgLukacs, The Meaning Contemporary Realism, pp80/81-
of
12 Marechera's badly he left the University to go
address was received and
straightto the airport,, intending to leave Zimbabwe. He had no travel documents
andwas unable to leave (SB pp307/308).
13GeorgLukacs, The Meaning Contemporary Realism, p54.
of
14Of (I Patrick Kavanagh earlier, for example) thrived
course some writers cited
on such adversity. Unfortunately Marechera was damaged rather than inspired by
his lifestyle.
15Marechera in 'The African Writer's of European
made this comment an address
Literature' delivered in Harare in October 1986. The addressis published in full in
theSourceBook. Pp361/368. The above quotation appearson p366
16 Thomas Mandigora is Zimbabwean TV. He
now an executive producer with
gaveme that information in a telephone call in August 1997.
" The information the involvement of Radius Books is
about the project and
confirmedin the Source Book, p353.
" As the interview featuring Zimunya, Marechera and Wilson Katiyo in Austin's
film House ofHunger makes clear.

269
 The Malawian poet, Jack Mapanje, introduced me to Musa Zimunya at the
Book Fair in Harare in August 1995. On learning I was in Zimbabwe for the
MarecheraSymposiumZimunya ended our brief conversation.Since then he has
ignored letters and refused to take telephone calls. Zimunya also refused to
cooperate with Veit-Wild when she was compiling the Source Book, probably due
her
to earlier criticism of his poetry; see Chapter Seven for a referenceto this and a
spat between the two which featured in Parade in December, 1995.
11More details of this film appearin ChapterSeven,a review of the Zimbabwean
literaryscene.
21 See 'The African Writer's of European Literature' published in full in the
SourceBook, pp361/368.The abovequotation appearson p364.

270
 CHAPTERSEVEN

Marechera and the Zimbabwean literary

scene

7.1 'Quarrying for literary treasures"

In his obituary of the writer, Robert Frasersaid:

Marechera's existence was one restless odyssey of risk. From the

University of Rhodesia where he devoured Homer and outfaced Ian
Smith's bully boys, to New College Oxford where his eccentricity
provoked puzzlement, to Sheffield where as writer-in -residence he
banged out the hundred odd pages of House of Hunger, ' he carried
the torch of his quixotic, delectable revolt. 2

Fraser's obituary is typical of many in that it offers selective memories of a

remarkableman and commentson his lifestyle, rather than memoriesof a notable

writer or an assessment of his literary achievements (SB pp379/392). It seems

that many of those who met Marechera can testify to his erudition and his

capacity for intellectual debate, or can offer vivid anecdotes on his occasionally

outlandish behaviour. In some cases indeed such comments often outweigh

evaluationsof his writing.

Attempts to redress this imbalance haven't always met with success. Writing in

Parade in December 1995 Musaemura Zimunya in an article which is ostensibly

,

but is in fact little more than a withering attack on Flora Veit-

auOUtMarechera,,
Wild,,' offers the comment 'I am amusedno end when I seeuniversity professors

and their quislings who wouldn't touch Dambudzo'shand with gloves while he

his torch for literary treasures In his grave.'

was alive now carrying and quarrying

Exactly which of his fel.l.ow countrymen Zimunya consider to be quIslings, is far

from clear. In the main, researchinterest in Marecherahas been maintainedfrom

271
outside Zimbabwe, with little input from Zimbabwean academicsand writers.

The reasonsfor this are complex and, I suspect,vary between individuals, but

include self-interest, lack of interest, a lack of development in the literary

infrastructure,and a simple lack of resources

Though Zimunya protests 'I do not want to be involved in a contest over

Marechera'scorpse', he goes on to detail how, more than others, he was to the

forefront in helping the writer on his return to Zimbabwe. Although that claim is

illuminating, it is his comment on 'quarryl

ing for I iterary treasures' that is
WK-OM
interesting.Zimunya's attack on Veit-Wild, vv*o he describes as 'condescending,

presumptuous and downright insulting' appears to be personally motivated and

carrieslittle weight in the wider field of critical debate.

Veit-Wild's 'quarrying for literary treasures' should be surely be seen as a

valuableeffort in making available a much wider rangeof Marecheras work than

looked likely at the time of his early death. Togetherwith her colleagueson the

Dambudzo Marechera Trust Veit-Wild acted as Marechera's literary executor

and,,in addition to the posthumouspublications, createda Marecheraarchive at

the University of Zimbabwe. As a literary judge Veit-Wild has her critics,' but

her immensecontribution meansthat otherscan now build on a firm base.

I suggestedearlier that some of the over-lavish praise given to The House of

Hunger was, at least in some measure,due to the desire to 'find' a Zimbabwean

Achebe.Another possibility is that Veit-Wild,, and, among others, JamesCurrey

Doris Lessing, anarchismwhen there was 'only'

and saw vitality and intellectual

272
immature or undeveloped, undisciplined writing. In an interview with Ahmed

Rashid.,5VS Naipaul comments:

It is very easyfor people now to feel that Asian imaginative writing

is immensely vital... However, the vitality comesfrom the fact that
the form is borrowed and this new material is poured into it. When
enough of that new material has been poured Into this particular
borrowed form the vitality will also appearto go.

In answer to the question 'Are you dismissing the huge explosion and popularity

of post-colonial literatureT he replied 'I am not dismissingit. I amjust sayingthat

we should not be seeing vitality where there is only first-time writing. ' Naipaul's

commentsalthough concerned with Asian Ii

iterature can be applied with
I equal

appropriateness to Zimbabwean literature (and that of many other African

nations) and his warning about confusing vitality with 'first time' writing can,

with reservations,,be applied to Marechera. He wrote some excellent short stones,

two extraordinary plays, and some fine lyric poetry, which will survive and

becomepart of the Zimbabweancanon.But, as a body of work, his writing lacks

a sense of substantial completeness. He did produce work of the very highest

quality, but he also produced material that fell short of that standard.

In bringing to publication the previously unpublished works the Dambudzo

Marecheran
MarecheraTrust ensuredthat a reasonablycomprehensive coipus is

in to the Zimbabweanliterary
now available. Where that corpus stands relation

canonis the subject of this final chapter.

273
7.2 'Most unforgettable is the tormented figure of Marechera'

The 'Zimbabwean literary canon' to which I refer that

is representedby black
Zimbabweans writing in English. As these are few in
number and of relatively

recent origin 'a clear definition of the canon, with its implications of substance

and hierarchy, has yet to emerge. Until a definitive and substantialbody

of work
does emerge, from an individual or group of individuals,,against
which others

may be compared, the canon will remain somewhatephemeraland ill. defined.

Associated with this difficulty, as I explored above, is the tendency of some

chtics to discuss 'African writing' and 'African writers'. This may be

but
understandable,, it can be renderedillegitimate when it is used to deny the

authenticity and appropriateness of a national voice. A work, or body of works,

may achieve universal acceptance but they remain anchored forever in the social

and historical space in which they were created. The development of a national,

rather than continental,, literature will accompanythe evolution of a separate

cultural identity. The processmay take decadesbut It

it is under way. is a slow

process; the war and its effects is still a major pre-occupation with writers,, as

Chapman comments: 'Zimbabwean literature has remained marked by the

...

warts of experiential living. "

Writing the blurb for the film After the Hunger and the Drought, Kenneth

Harrow,, Professor of Humanities,, Michigan State University, says:

A powerful case for a national literature as an emergentreality in

Africa is made by After the Hunger and the Drought The presence
like Stanlake Samkange and younger rebels like
of older writers
Dambudzo Marechera permit us to grasp the scope and distance
this literature has travelled since colonial times. Samkange's
the visuals of colonial Rhodesia evoke
memories combined with
274
 striking images of the difficult circumstances under which the
African writers had to labour. The fruits of independenceare
by
marked the personal vision and testimony of CharlesMungoshi,,
Bertha Musora,, and others who recount their own personal
experiences as well as giving testimony to current issues. Most
unforgettable is the tormented figure of Marecherawhose anguish
bums on the screenwith all the directnessof his prose.All in all, an
indispensableportrait of the Zimbabwean literary 8
scene.

In taking this highly focused, genre-specific, approach the film follows the

precedent established by Kahan (1980) and Zimunya (1982). The only fully

comprehensive surveys of Zimbabwean literature, that is, including work written

in Shona and Ndebele as well as English, have been produced by Flora Veit-

Wild. Survey of Zimbabwean Writers (1992) was basedon a list establishedby

Veit-Wild in 1987 containing the names of 212 black Zimbabwean writers. The

criteria for inclusion was:

publication of 'creative writing' in any of the three languages,

... English. Authors if they had:
Shona,Ndebele or were considered
published or co-published books of at least twenty pages: published
more than five poems or more than two short stories in literary
anthologiesor magazines. "

Veit-Wild built the to produce Teachers, Preachers, Non-

on survey

Believers(1992) which is sub-titled A Social History of ZimbabweanLiterature

resource in that it captures the background to

and is an extremely valuable

literary developmentin Zimbabwe." It is however too wide-rangingand includes

be defining the Zimbabwean

too much work of a peripheral nature to regardedas

canon.

defined, by Kahar, and do

ZImunya, set
The shorter,,more closely works produced

on the output of black

out to define the canon and concentrate exclusively

English. The by Kahari and Zimunya (all

Zimbabweanswriting in writers named

featured by Veit-Wild) together with writers who emerged

of whom were also
275
after publication, such as Chencherai Hove, Shimmer Chinodya,. Stanley

Nyamfukudza and Tsitsi Dangarembga(featured in the later Veit-Wild work),

and those who have recently appeared ", such as Yvonne Vera, Alexander

Kanengoni and Nevanji Madanhire,,form the basis on which the Zimbabwean

literary canon will eventually rest. They also offer a frame of referencewithin

which to evaluateand place the prose fiction of DambudzoMarechera.It is worth

pointing out that in a survey carried out in 1986 " on the literature syllabi at 26

universities in 14 anglophone Africa countries,, Bernth Lindfors found that

Marechera'swork was included on 10 coursesat 4 universities in 4 (unnamed)

countries. No other black Zimbabweans feature in the survey. Other than the

bare statisticsno details are offered,,neverthelessit is possibleto speculatethat in

some universities and with some academicsat least,,Zimbabwean literature is

representedsolely by DambudzoMarechera.

In order to place Marechera'swork in context within Zimbabweanliterature I will

begin with somecommentson the earlier vmters, Samkange,Vambe, Sithole and

Mutswairo. I will then compare and contrast his writing with other significant

his Katiyo, Mungoshi and Nyamftikudza, before

voices of generation, such as

to with later writers, to determine whether his

moving on a comparison

had discernible effect on writers such as Hove,, Chinodya,

contribution any

Dangarembga,and Vera. My intention is to comment only on major themesand

from an occasional illustrative extract, I shall not enter into a

issuesand, apart

detailed exposition of the work of each writer. My final commentswill address

the question of the impact of the writer on Zimbabweanliterature as a whole.

276
7.3 A Utopian Vision

The initial wave of black Zimbabweanswriting in English producedfiction

as a

secondaryoccupation. For example, Samkangewas first and foremost a historian

and university lecturer, Vambe a teacherandjournalist,,Mutswairo a teacherand

university lecturer and Sithole a politician. Their genre was historical fiction, or

more accurately half fiction, a mixture of truths and part truths, folk stories and

historical 'facts'. Presentedin realistic if sometimesidealistic,,style, the works

,
were authoritative in tone and didactic in intent. Samkangeadmits when

interviewed for the film After the Hunger and the Drought, 'I wanted to reach

peoplewho wouldn't be caught dead reading history books, so I wrote fiction by

sugar coating my history. ' This approach occasionally left his work

uncomfortably between fact and fiction and open to criticism. As Nfichael

Chapman observes: 'A mythologising tendency in his [Samkange's] work

undermines historical causality. "' This is a good point, but one that may well

have been lost on an unsophisticated audience who, unable to differentiate

betweenmyth and historical fact, would not have questionedthe authenticity of

the work. In oblique fashion Marechera questionsSainkange'scredibility in The

Black Insider when the 'Bishop' gloats: 'And I have the best of advisers;that

professor who wrote On Trial For My Country' (The Black Insider, p55). The

'Bishop' is Bishop Abel Muzorewa, party to the ill-fated 'Internal settlement'

betweenthe minority whites and those allegedly representingblack Rhodesians.

Muzorewa becamePrime Minister of Zimbabwe/Rhodesiaas a result of Winning

the dubious 1979 elections. By casting Sainkangeas his 'adviser' Marechera is

attempting to impugn Samkange's by

reputation association.

277
Vambe and Samkangein particular took much of their infon-nationfrom Terence

Ranger's book, Revolt in Southern Rhodesia 1896-1897,whIch as I

establIshed
in Chapter Two was subsequentlydiscredited. By endorsing the
version of a

great and glorious past (the First Chimurenga), Vambe, Samkange and

Mutswairo encouragedthe perception of the liberation struggle as a Second

Chimurenga by presentinga utopian vision of the restorationof the empire that

apparentlyhad existed before the whites had arrived. As McLoughlin points out"

these earlier writers, particularly Samkange, wrote novels with '...a veneer of

historical accuracy'but with the emphasison '...historical processesrather than

historicity.' Of the samethree writers (Samkange,Vambe and Mutswairo) Veit-

Wild observes'Thesebooks, " representativeof Zimbabweanhistorical fiction

mythologise the uprisings of 1896-97 in order to support the ongoing war of

liberation. by establishingthe pride and dignity of their peoplethe three authors

...
try to prove to the whites that they were wrong to betray the concept of

partnership and destroy the achievements of Federation' (Teachers p 109)

Of course those most directly involved in the struggle were largely illiterate and

thosewho could read had little accessto books 16

and would have been presented

with a world purporting to be theirs but unrecognIsableand of little relevance.

So,, at what audience were Samkange and his contemporaries directing

themselves? It seemsthat they were aiming at a small intellectual elite within

Zimbabwe,, but mainly for consumption by a growing number of readers of

'African literature' in Europe and the United States. Apart from the very

unspecific 'writing about Zimbabwe', this may be the only point of reference

278
betweenMarechera and his predecessors,that is, writing for an
audienceoutside

of Zimbabwe. (Marechera did, of course,,write 'The Servant's Ball'

and 'The
Skin of Time,, Plays by Buddy', which if they had been produced
would most

probably have been very well received by Zimbabwean audiences.

) By most

standardsof critical comparison, style, form and content, use of languageetc.,,

there is nothing to indicate a sharedliterary heritage.

However it was against this literature of false historicity and extravagant ideas
,

about nationhood and national identity that Marechera attemptedto expresshis

own experiences of growing up in a country isolated from the rest of Africa by

the activities of the Smith government, and a country in which power, wealth and

status was firinly in the grasp of the white minority. Little wonder perhaps that he

did not share the rosy view of the earlier writers who only began to write, often

from self imposed exile, when their own positions protected them from the

dreadful hardshipsexperiencedby the vast majority of black Zimbabweans.That

he did not sharethat view is evident from his fiction; there is no evidence,apart

from rumour, the odd scumlous anecdote, asides such as the Samkange

reference,and his brief commentsto Lansu (see below), on what he thought of

the writers themselves.As he had so much to say about the role of the writer and

quotedother writers so extensively in his is

own work it remarkablethat f
as ar as

can be traced he never referred directly to, or quoted from, other Zimbabwean

"
writers.

279
7.4 'From sickness to death'

in a study of the black Zimbabweans who were writing in the years around

Independence,Ranga Zinyemba observes '... to move from Nyamfukudza to

Marechera is to move from cynicism to oblivion, from sicknessto death,,to

'
nothingness. " In the same vein Zimunya observed 'From Mungoshi to

Marechera is a seasonaway', " whereas McLoughlin commented'[Marechera]

has long been regardedas the iconoclastic outsider in Zimbabweanwriting. The

posthumous publication of his novella The Black Insider may well add to the case

for keepinghim on the fringes."'

Marechera'sown view of his fellow writers was unequivocal,as he remarkedto

the Dutch journalist Alle Lansu: 'Zimbabwean writers - my own contemporaries

- will never dare to write something like Mindblast, precisely becausethere is this

heavy emphasis on developing our traditional values' (SB p38). Whether he

meant the same 'traditional values' as those espousedby the Literature Bureau or

something different is not clear, but other writers did tackle similar themes to

Marechera's,,albeit in vastly different styles. For example, in Going to Heaven,

the sequel to Son of the Soil, Wilson Katiyo explores the difficulties of a

Zimbabwean exile adjusting to life in London after escaping from pre-

independenceZimbabwe.

Writing at the same time as The Black Insider Katiyo uses a straightforward

linear structure unified by the perspectiveof the third personomniscient narrator

to examine the inner conflict of Alexio Shonga as he encountersthe culture

280
shock of leaving his homeland and of becoming a student in London. Although

Going to Heaven raisesthe samebasic issues the problems facing the terrorist
-

sympathiserin Rhodesia, and subsequently,the black exile in London as The

-
Black Insider,, comparisons are difficult to draw. Going to Heaven, with its

accessibility, simple and direct narrative, its detachedtone,,the absenceof the

author's voice and the complete lack of existential angst, is fundamentally

different from The Black Insider. On reading Going to Heavenone getsthe sense

of Katiyo consulting his London A-Z in order to locate his characters whereas

with Marechera the reader is left in no doubt that he had actually walked the

streetsof 'that vast and anonymous London' (The Black Insider, p94).

And yet, those obvious differences are concernedwith style and form. The basic

the
content,, main themes and issues,.
although handled very differently, have

equally obvious similarities. Some of Marechera's fellow writer' s did confront

the major issuesof the day, but choseto do so in a different form. Herein lies the

essenceof Marechera'scontribution to the Zimbabweanliterary scene.His very

to
uniquenessserves redefine the canon from within its 'borders',which have to

be moved to accommodatehis 'difference%,

and are inevitably extendedby his

presence.

Although Marechera often reactedto his experiencesand recordedthem in a way

that was unique to him, the experiences themselves were not unique. For

example, at least two of his contemporariesshared his experienceof expulsion

from the University of Rhodesia in 1973, Nyamfukudza and Zimunya were also

English Oxford (Nyamftikudza)

expelled, and also gained scholarships to read at

281
and English and History at Canterbury (Zimunya). Both completed their degree

courses,,and Zimunya went on to study for an MA in modern literature.

Zimunya's MA thesis became Those Yearsof Drought and Hunger, and

ahhm;gh
his poetry has been distributed quite widely, though he has not published
any

prose fiction, apart from the occasional short story. Nyamfukudza has published

works of fiction but none makes referenceto his experiencesin England. His

first, and to date, only full4ength novel, The Non-Believer's Journey, is finnly

groundedin Zimbabwe in
and set the final years of the war. His other published

work is a collections of short stories (If God was a Woman, College Press 1991)

aboutthe strugglesof the individual to adjust to the new life after Independence.

In responseto a question n',,

-,out his current writing Nyamfukudza told me that he

is presently manager owner of a small publishing company, Zimbabwe

Information Publishing Systems (ZIPS), and is 'concentrating on material the

larger publishers won't handle, our latest publication is Know Your Rights, a
21
work on human rights, a major issuein Zimbabwe today'
.

Due no doubt to his shy and retiring personality Charles Mungoshi has not

attracted the fervent personal following of Marechera. However his

achievements in both Shonaand in English in 1976 he won the top prizes in

-

two sections of the PEN International Book Centre Award for the best work in an

African language and in English with his novels Ndiko kupindana kwamazuva

(How TimePasses)and Waitingfor the Rain he

suggests is a better role model
-

than Marechera for the would-be writer, and the consistentlyhigh quality of his

prose fiction and poetry assures his central position in any assessment of

Zimbabwean literature. Writing steadily throughout the 1970s and he

1980s,,

282
published ten books between 1970 and 1989. He met with international

recognition when a collection of the stones from Coming of the Dry Seasonand

SomeKinds of Woundspublished as TheSettingSun and the Rolling World, won

the Commonwealth Literature Prize in 1988 (Teachers p268). In comparing the

two writers McLoughlin observed'With the independenceof Zimbabwe in 1980

and the conclusion of the war, fiction is less likely to take Marechera as an

example than Mungoshi whose work offers a more feasible mode of analysing

the one area of experience that has so closely touched millions of lives in

Zimbabwe for so long, the war.' 11 In spite of his eminenceas a Zimbabwean

writer Mungoshi, in common with Marechera, saw his experience as redolent of

the human condition on the he to

grand scale, as remarked an interviewer in 1988

'What I had to say was universal. There is no English fire or African fire, human

experience is human experience' (Teachers p297).

Wilson Katiyo, whose novel Son of the Soil closes with the stereotypical

metaphorof the birth of a healthy child and the implication that the strugglewas

offers a view that is not shared by Mungoshi,

worthwhile and productive,

Marechera or Nyamftikudza. Instead they confront the socio-psychological

traumasleft by both colonialism and the struggle for independence:

recognising

lost society to be an impossible dream

the reconstruction of the pre-colonial

they searchinstead for the location of the inner self, the key charactersstrangers

in their own land. The writers who them, notably, Vambe

Sarnkange,
preceded

fused historical fiction,, looking back to and beyond

and Mutswairo matter with

the first meeting with white settlers, in an attempt to recover an ethnic i ntity

image to a hopeful future. This line is

and to create a national with which greet

283
 also followed to some extent by Katlyo but rejected by his
contemporarieswho

concerned themselves with the 'here and now' cataclysmic effect

on the
individual of past and recent history. Of those contemporariesnone exploredthat

direction with greaterdeterminationand dramatic

effect than Marechera.

7.5 A Dystopian Vision

The utoplanism of Samkange and his contemporaries was

replaced by the

existential angst of Mungoshi, Marechera and Nyamfukudza, which in its tum

hasgiven way to the dystopian view of their successors.In his article 'Land War

and Literature in Zimbabwe', Eldred Jones argues: 'For these Zimbabwean

"
writers victory and liberation have a hollow ring. The war has not solved even

the problem of the land; it remains to be divided up, fought over, worked and

sufferedwith,, all over again.'

Jones points to a consistency in the development of a Zimbabwean literature

written in English. The themes and issues remain the same as thirty years ago

and it is possible to discern a line linking the historical realism of Samkangeet

al through the social realism of Mungoshi and Nyamfukudza to a similar

approach adopted by the more recent writers such as Hove,, Chinodya,,

Dangarembgaand Vera. Chapman comments 'In replying to a concern that

writers should look to the civil society rather than back to the destruction,,

Chinodya sayshe believesthat "writers shouldn'trush to deal with current affairs,

124
but let time give perspectiveto their vision".

284
The sentiment has a certain Marecheran resonanceabout it; however it is

difficult to maintain that he had anything other than an implicit influence on

other writers, and that probably owes more to the man, his lifestyle and his

reputation, rather than to the writer, in that, without exception, the standard

conventionsof form and content are observedby his contemporaries.

Chinodya's Harvest of Thorns explores the pre- and post- liberation period

subjectively rather than in a quasi-historical fashion and includes biographical

material but there the similarities end. Of Marechera's'experimentation'there is

no trace. This complete absence of any sense of experimentation is common to

the work of all the other Zimbabweanwriters with the minor exceptionsperhaps

of Hove's mystical,, almost surreal,, evocation of the First Chimurenga in Bones

or Tsitsi Dangarembga's exploration of new ground in Nervous Conditions by

discussingsuch issuesas anorexia and the exploitation of Zimbabweanwomen."

Although Dangarembga's novel received critical acclaim nine years have passed

since publication as the Writer has been "

exploring other areas. Referredto as

'one of the most consistentand inspired to

of writers emergeduring this decade"'

Yvonne Vera has produced a volume of short stories "y don't you carve other

(1992), two Nehanda (1993) and Without a Alame (1994).

animals? and novels

Born in Bulawayo Vera (who read for a doctorate at York University, Toronto,

Regional Director the National gallery In Bulawayo) writes of

and is now the of

the experience of women in the war of liberation but also evokes a sense of

history by confronting the issues aroused by opposing cultures-,for example, of a

by Ibwe, and a central character in Nehanda

treaty offered the white men, a chief

285
hasthis to say:

Our people know the power of words. It is becauseof this that they
desire to have words continuously spokenand kept alive. We do
not
believe that words can become independentof the speechthat bore
them,, of the humans who controlled and gave birth to them. Can
words exchangedtoday on this clearing surroundedby waving grass
become like a child brought up by strangers?Words surrenderedto
the stranger,like the abandonedchild,. will becomealien
-a stranger
to our tongues.(pp39/40)

There is a similarity here with Marechera'swork in that he too was fascinatedby

languageand what he saw as its traps ('You can bind a man with long ropes of

words' (Black Sunlight p3) for example (see also Chapter Two)). It seems the

similarity is not accidental-, in our conversation 28 Vera spoke of Marechera

'luxuriating in language'. Shealso referredto her desireto developher characters

psychologically while dealing with cuffent themes such as incest and the

exploitation of women. Vera's work has a direct simplicity of approachand has a

relevance and importance in modem Zimbabwe. On Marechera's current

relevance, Vera said. 'Marechera is still very trendy among the young. I don't

think people write because of him. I think it is fair to say that he inspired an

attitude to literature, which was more a love of reading,rather than the practiceof

writing. ' A less sanguine view was expressedby Nyamfukudza who, although he
Is
agreed that young Zimbabweans still admire Marechera itan admiration 'based

on the figure he [Marecheral presentedrather than on his writing. Zimbabweans'

29
he added'are not great readersof books'
.

7.6 A 'wizard of the written word'9.

DambudzoMarechera'splace in Zimbabwean literature is secureand permanent.

Although it would not be to describe Marechera as a 'moulder of his

accurate
286
nation', Yeats' words have a certain appropriateness:
'We call certain minds

creative becausethey are among the moulders of their nation

and are not made

upon its mould, and they resemble one another in this only they have never
-
beenforeknown or f ulfilled an expectation'. Certainly
30
one 'who had never been
foreknown or fulfilled an expectation, Marechera,,in his body
of work)offers a

unique account suspendedin the social and historical spaceandtime of the most

turbulent period in Zimbabwe'shistory. Much of his work is groundedin his own

biography, and the many 'flaws' have an integral part in contributing to

an

understanding of the Ymter. Marechera's work is a moving expression of the

impact on him of the strictures of colonialism and the excessesof white minority

rule. The traumasof the strugglefor liberation and the straitjacketof the socialist

expectations of the nation builders in the false dawn which followed

independenceclosely followed these experiences.It is here that Marechera's

contribution to Zimbabwean literature is located as he confrontsthoseissuesand

revealsthe devastatingeffect they had on him.

Dambudzo Marechera is dead With his death,,Zimbabwe has lost

...
one of its most prolific and ingenious writers, an internationalwizard
of the written word. Hate him or love him, hate his ideas or his
lifestyle even, but he was a fact of life that couldn't be ignored. His
books are now part of the country'sliterary treasure.31

Now eleven years after Marechera's death how do we view such extravagant

statements? It is still a fact that he can't be ignored, but part of the country's

'literary treasure'? Most certainly, in the range of his work, prose fiction, plays,

poetry and criticism, and his exploration of different styles, Dambudzo

Marechera's contribution to the Zimbabwean literary canon is immense. With

he
the possible exception of Charles Mungoshi is the most talented black writer

to emergefrom Zimbabwe. Although an accomplishedpoet, playwright, novelist

287
and critic it is inevitable that his novels have attractedmost attention as his plays

have not been performed and his poetry, until Cemeteryof Mind, was not widely

available. In November 1998 Africa World Press(New York), are to publish a

collection of essays,Emerging Perspectives of Dambudzo Marechera which will

begin to redressthat imbalanceby looking at all facetsof the writer's output.

ConcerningMawerera's comments(above)an important point to make is that the

'treasurehouse' of Zimbabwean literature does not enjoy an embarrassmentof

32Of the most recent

riches. writers to emerge it is possible to identify two types.

Firstly, the writers who have lived and studied outside of Zimbabwe, for

example, Dangarembga and Vera, who explore major issues in a sophisticated

manner,, aiming at an international audience; and, secondly, those writers who

have stayed in Zimbabwe, and explore the same or similar issues in a less

sophisticated manner, in some ways reminiscent of the folkloric tales authorised

by the Literary Bureau but updated to allow a political content. For example

Violet Kala's heroine, Loveness, in Waste Not Your Tears, is an illiterate girl

from a rural backgroundwho, after being seducedand deliberatelyinfected with

the AIDS virus, becomes an international emissary, addressing conferences on

the traumasof being HIV positive.

Another example: of the hero, Musilwa, of Goatsmell, Eldred Jonesobserves'It

[Musilwa] could be a great artist, a

is scarcely credible that the young man

brilliant academic, could research, write and publish a book, spearheadand

and build an arts centre while managing an

execute an artistic project...

drink "' that

I should emphasise I do
undergraduatecourseas well as a problem.

288
not intend a comparison here with Marechera's work, I merely wish to indicate

that an unsophisticated audience will encourageunsophisticatedwriting. The

next Zimbabwean writer of Marechera's stature will come from somewhere

do
unexpectedand somethingquite unprecedented,as all good writers do.

The current position in Zimbabwe seemsto indicate only a very steadyrate of

progress, which may well be expected from a largely illiterate society in which

the first novels written in English appearedbarely thirty years ago. It also seems

to indicate that the expected impetus toward raising the overall standard of

Zimbabwean literature (that was forecast after the attention commandedby

Marechera'swork and the publicity attractedby his deathand the activities of the

34
Dambudzo Marechera Trust) has yet to yield any tangible results. That may yet

happen; the Budding Writers Association of Zimbabwe fort-ned in 1990 with

admiration of Marechera as one of its basic principles appearsto be flourishing -

at least in Bulawayo from where Jonathon Nunu wrote to me with reports of

' 35
enthusiasticmeetings .

Following his comments about writing that has concentrated solely on

to
'experiential living' (see above), Chapmangoeson arguethat the development

Zimbabwean literature is inhibited by the absenceof a 'single

of a coherent

direction or style that could be discerned as Zimbabwean'.,, Perhaps giving

to his desire for wider recognition one of Marecbe4s alter-

unconsciousvoice

Mindblast Scrapl'ron Blues Is Tony, a sculptor. Zimbabwean stone

egos in and

'Zimbabwean is easily recognisableand highly

carving, With its unique style'

Zimbabwean literature, it is well established,long standing

praised and, unlike

289
and held in high regard throughout the world. An activity that has its roots in the

ancient history of Zimbabwe stone carving has evolved to its presentposition

over centuries. Black writing in English in Zimbabwe is barely thirty years

on
from the first publication and the first faltering stepstowards a 'Zimbabwean

style' are still being made. Marechera was an integral part of the beginning;

whether or not he affected the direction of the Zimbabweanliterary movement

or will have a long-term influence on its style remains a moot point awaiting a

longer historical perspective.

it is of courseimpossible to know for certain but it is interestingto speculatethat

the development of black Zimbabwean writing in English would not be any

different if Marechera had never emerged.This is not to argue that his writing

has not made a contribution to such a development.It has of course made an

enormous contribution. But it does recognise that in attempting to break the

mould that he saw constraining black writers he reachedfor different standards

in ways others had not, and have not since,, attempted. Stanley Nyamfukudza

suggested that 'other writers in other literatures had experimented more

successfully' than Marechera, adding 'that is not a criticism, Dambudzowas the

first Zimbabwean to take such an adventurous approach. It is a pity that

Zimbabwe and Zimbabweanliterature wasn't readyfor ini .37

It is hoped that Emerging Perspectiveson DambudzoMarechera will encourage

to of the paths indicated by Marecheras

other writers explore some

One hopes that if such emulation does follow, it is for the

experimentation.

the 'man' that is almost impossibleto follow.

writer',, as presentedan act

290
Referenceis made above to McLoughlin's suggestionthat Marecherawas 'on the

fringes' of Zimbabwean writing; there is a pejorative implication to this that is

inappropriatefor a writer who has international status." Marechera was on the

fringes only in the sensethat his treatmentof his subjectmatter was different to

that of any other Zimbabwean writer. One contribution to Zimbabweanliterature

is then clear - Marechera's work has promoted the notion of a Zimbabwean

literature to a worldwide audience.His 'experimental'style, whether it is classed

as 'intellectual anarchism',, 'pretentious rubbish' or somewhere in between,

to to
continues attract comment and polarise views. Another is
contribution not

yet quite so clear: Dambudzo Marechera,was a very charismatic figure and even

after his death he has a large following; whether that will lead to an increasein

reading and eventually to an increase in writing is difficult to determine and

dependent,in no small degree,on the activities of the MugabeGovernmentand a

-
investment in the education system throughoutZimbabwe, from
much increased

the primary sectorthrough to the universities.

Dambudzo Marechera may or may not inspire others to write; to an extent,

apart, that fate will be decidedby the whim of what Is in

investmentin education

What is is that his corpus of work will grow in stature as time

vogue. certain

the to fade and those who would know

allows memories of the man and myth

him, want to know what it was

Marecheraand want to understand or quite sImPly

" turn to his novels, his plays and his

like to be Nack in a too white world',

poems.

291
As concluding words to this work I was tempted to choosethe poem 'He is sick,

Doctor' (Cemetery of Mind, p150), simply becausethe concluding oxymoron,,

'The undying endurance / Of magnificent impermanence', seems to offer a

suitably precariousposition from which to view Marechera'swriting.

In the event I have chosen 'Angling', (Cemetery ofMind, p64). The ambiguity in

the title, angling in the sense of trying to catch something (to record it as a

poem),or angling in the way of searchingfor an angle as a key to gaining access

to 'the flowerdecked fortress of folly'), is matched by the referenceto his own

unresolved ambiguous feelings to his contribution to the nation's progress,

'Where Duty and Drink outbid each other'. And when the poem arrives 'belly

up, , is it already dead? Is the poet claiming that 'art' (as represented by the

poem) has to
no contribution make to the (new' Zimbabwe?

Angling

Softly, swimmingly
In the depth of the deepest sea
Where gods and regrets cavort
And slumber-
In the innermost chamber of Chimurenga Hall
Where veterans and virgins gather
At the vermillion apex of desire-

Deftly, defiantly
In the flowerdecked fortress of folly
Where harlequins mimic and mime
The nation's progress-
In stoutwalled Earl Grey (Responsibility' s
Abode)
Where Duty and Drink outbid each other
And the visitor's appointment yawns and snores
In dull waiting rooms-
The poem, belly up, floats into view.

The answer is, I suggest,,much more positive. The poem is not going away, it

for those in the 'dull waiting

'floats into view',, to present a new perspective
292
rooms'. However it is vulnerable, it is 'belly up'. It is Marechera's
view that
ultimately 'art' (the poem) will offer a new direction for the 'nation's progress%

providing that those responsiblefor that direction are sensitiveenoughto defend

that vulnerability, and to allow the poem (the poet) spacein which to develop.

Notes

' No doubt Marechera was writing at that time but the book
was not The House
of Hunger. He was at Sheffield from February to June in 1979, whereas The
House of Hunger was submitted to Heinemann two years earlier, in February
1977,,and published in 1978.
2 Flora Veit-Wild,, Dambudzo Marechera 1952-1987,
p15.
3 Musaemura Zimunya, 'Flora Veit-Wild: A Black Insider's Testimony' Parade
December 1995, p29. Ostensibly Zimunya is taking exception to Veit-Wild's
allegation (Parade, November 1995) that black Zimbabwean writers did little to
help Marechera in the final years of his life. Zimunya, however, reveals another
by
agenda referring to his own interview with Veit-Wild for her book Patterns of
Poetry in Zimbabwe which presented'an edited version which selectively left out
some of the more profound statements... creating a distorted impression of me
and my poetry. '
4 As her (Teachers) indicates, Veit-Wild is more a social historian
main work,
than literary critic and the central thrust of the Source Book has a sociological and
socio-anthropological, rather than literary, perspective. Veit-Wild's position is
perhaps better understood and appreciated as that of the social historian, rather
than that of the literary critic. Kevin Foster (1994) had this comment on Teachers
in his review Regimes of Silence: Untold Zimbabwe', 'It [Teachers] is impressive
in its scope and meticulous in its analysis of the cultural and educational policies
that shaped the lives of generations of writers. However, it is marked by the
theoretical shortcomings that result in certain striking omissions, not least of
which ...is its failure to substantially engage with the literature. '
5 Ahmed Rashid, 'Death Observer Review (London: Sunday
of the novel', the
25th February 1996), p 16.
6 The first English by black Zimbabwean, Stanlake Sanikange's On
work in a
Trial for my Country, was published as recently as 1966. The second and third
Mungoshi's short stories, Coming of the Dry Season, and Sithole's The
Polygamist, appeared six years later in 1972. It was to be another three years
before black Zimbabweans began publishing with any regularity, for example,
Samkange and Mungoshi (1975), Katiyo (1976), Sithole (1977), Samkange,
Mutswairo and Marechera (all 1978).
293
7 Michael Chapman, SouthernAfrican Literatures ( London:
Longman, 1996),
P312
After the Hunger and the Drought, Moonlight Productions,Harare, 1988.
9 Flora Veit-Wild, Survey of Zimbabwean Writers (Bayreuth:
Bayreuth
University Press,1992), p9.
10 Although Veit-Wild makes several
referencesto the work of the Literature
Bureau, very few of the writers published by the Bureau feature in the
survey.
This (apart from considerationsof her statedcriteria) may be on the groundsthat
the Bureau only published '...trivial and folklorist writing' which, arguesVeit-
Wild, ensured that indigenous writing followed a completely separate
development to black writing in English (Teachers p74). In an infon-nation
pamphlet published in 1994, the Bureau acknowledgesmistakes from the past
when [as a result of publishing ] '...love stories and mediocre historical stories
with very little relevanceto what was going on at the time... The credibility of the
Literature Bureau sank very low indeed.' The aims and policies may have
but
changed the ambitions of the Bureau are still conditionedby its view of the
potential audience. A bulletin dated September1994 exhorts 'Come on writers.
Why not produce a Shonaor Ndebelebook on Carpentry,Building, Welding, and
so on,,to be by
used workers in the co-operativesand self-helpprojectswhich are
so common these days? The ball is in your court!' No doubt these are worthy
aims as the Bureau has moved from a folklorist literature to one with a more
practical base in social realities. Quite obviously it is not the aim of the Bureau,
to producework that will featurein the Zimbabweanliterary canon.
Progresshere appearsto be very slow. For example,in the most recentreview
of Southern African writing, New Writing From Southern Africa ( London-
JamesCurrey, 1996), Emmanuel Ngara (ed.), Chinodya, Dangarembga,Hove
and Zimunya are featured. In addition Essays On African Writing - Contemporary
Literature (London- Heinemann.1995), Abdulrazak Gurriah(ed.), has essayson
Hove,,Dangarembga,and Marechera. The Arnold Anthology of Post-Colonial
Literatures in English (London: Amold, 1996), John Thierne (ed.) makes
referenceonly to Dangarembga. Inclusion in works of this nature does sugges,
that they are, notionally at least, part of the emerging canon, it also appears to
confirm that very few new writers are emerging.
12 Bernth Lindfors,, 'The Teaching of African Literature in AnglophoneAfrican
Universities', Wasafiri (London'.ATCAL, Spring 1990), pp13/16.
13 Michael Chapman, SouthernAfrican Literatures (London. Longman, 1996),,
p162.
4 McLoughlin, T. 0. 'Black Writing in English from Zimbabwe'. The Writing
East Central Africa, G. D. Killarn (ed. ) (London: Heinemann, 1984),
of and
p105.
5
Veit-Wild is referring to Vambels An III People (London:
-Fated
Heinemann,, 1972), Sarnkange'sYear of the Uprising (London: Heinemann, 1978)
Mutswairo's Mapondera: Soldier of Zimbabwe (Washington: Three
and
ContinentsPress,, 1978).
16A has little. In an interview for the Herald (Harare
situation that changed very
SaturdayAugust 5th 1995 'Read more books, urges minister. ') the Minister of
Higher Education, Dr Ignatius Chombo, said,, 'If writing is a form of
the circuit can only be complete when there
communication,, then communication
lies in the dearth of a readership. As
is a readership.One of our greatestproblems
294
a nation, we are not doing enoughto nurture the readerswho are to read what we
write. '. Supporting this view an unnamedSouthernAfrican publisher reportedin
The Zimbabwe International Book Fair Bulletin (Number 16 March/April 1998)
'For me, the greatest benefit at ZIBF was meeting and sharing problems with
other small publishers from Africa. Discussion revealed that most of us are
struggling in the face of tremendousodds. All of us faced the desperatepoverty
of our audience and the absenceof a readingculture.'
17 With one exception: when Marechera sent his first
manuscriptto Heinemann
his letter, dated 17th February 1977, refers to 'my friend Mr CharlesMungoshi
whose book 'Waiting For The Rain' cameout sometime agoSB p 180.
18 Ranga Zinyemba, 'Zimbabwe's lost novelists in search direction', Moto,,
of
August 1983,pp 7-10. Seealso Teachers,p258.
'9 MusaemuraZimunya, Those Yearsof Drought Hunger (Gwelo: Mambo
and
Press,,1982),p97.
20 T. 0. McLoughlin, 'Men at War: Writers and Fightersin RecentZimbabwean
Fiction', Current Writing (Natal: University of Natal Press,No 3,1991), p152.
21 rd
Telephoneinterview with David Pattison,3 June 1998.
11
- T. 0. McLoughlin, 'Black Writing in English from Zimbabwe', The Writing
of East and Central Africa, G. D. Killam (ed. ) (London: Heinemann, 1984),
pl 12.
3 Jones's article referred specifically to Chencherai Hove,, Bones (London:
Heinemann, 1988), Alexander Kangengoni Effortless Tears (Harare: Baobab
,
Books, 1993), Nevanji Madanhire, Goatsmell (Harare: Anvil Press, 1992) and
Yvonne Vera, Nehanda (Harare:BaobabBooks, 1993).
24 Michael Chapman,SouthernAfrican Literatures (London: Longman, 1996),
301.
ý has deal
Becauseof her stance Dangarembga attracted a great of attention
it
although should be pointed out that Hove's Bones deals very powerfully with
the plight of Zimbabwean women as does Barbara Makhalisa whose collection of
The Underdog published in 1984 and whose first work (in
short stones was
Ndebele)was published in 1969.
26 Nervous Conditions won the African section of the CommonwealthWriters
Prize in 1989. In 1991 Dangarembgamoved to Berlin to pursue a career in the
film industryý^ careermove that hasmet with somesuccessas Andrew Meldrum
in Guardian (4th April 1997) she was awarded honours at Af rica's
pointed out the I
film festival FESPACO 1997for Everyone's Child, a film shewrote and directed.
27
A comment made by Davison Maruziva in his column'Book Fair
111File' in the
HarareHerald dated Saturday August 5th 1995.
28 Telephoneinterview with David Pattison,28thMay 1998.
29 Telephoneinterview with David Pattison,3'djune 1998.
30W. B. Yeats,Explorations (London: MacMillan, 1962),ppl58/159.
31 Taken from Ray Mawerera's obituary in Parade (Harare) October 1987,,
which appearsin the Source Book p379.
32 Yvonne Vera spoke of a 'very small handful' of 'serious writers' - telephone
interview 28hMay 1998.
33Eldred Jones,,'Land,,War and Literature in Zimbabwe', African Literature, Vol
20 (London: JamesCurrey, 1996), p55.
34 Stanley Nyamfukudza said: 'The years around Independencewere ve,
to say. Independence seemed to act as a
exciting for writers - there was so much
295
release. But after that initial sur y things
I slowed down and the literary sceneis
much quieter now' (Interview, 3 June 1998).
35 Flora Veit-Wild refers to the Budding Writers Association on p382 of the
SourceBook. JonathonNunu, a graduateof the University of Zimbabwe devoted
his final year (1994/1995) project to a study of Marechera;the letter I refer to is
dated26th November 1995.
36 Nfichael Chapman, SouthernAfrican Literatures (London: Longman, 1996),
v31 1.
7 Telephoneinterview with David Pattison,3rdJune 1998.
31 All the work published by Heinemann,House of Hunger, Black Sunlight and
The Black Insider, is on current worldwide distribution. Mindblast, Cemetery of
Mind and Scrapiron Blues are still in print in Zimbabwe.
39 Heinemann reader John Wyllie commented on Marechera's '...tragic
of being black in a too white world', SB p204 (and above).
circumstances

296
 APPENDIX ONE

Chronology of Marechera's Life

4 June 1952 Bom; Vengere township, Rusape

1958-1965 Primary school at Vengere

1966-1971 Secondary school at St. Augustine's Mission,, Penhalonga

1972-
July 1973 English Honours course at the University of Rhodesia

October 1974- )
March 1976 ) Undergraduate studies-at New College, Oxford

On leaving New College Marechera'slife style becameincreasinglyperipateticas

he tried to becomeestablishedas a writer. He had no regularemploymentand,
until 1985, no fixed abode-

March 1976 -)
September 1977) Oxford

October 1977 -)
January 1978 ) Wales

February 1978
January 1982 London (with periods at Sheffield University and in West
Berlin in 1979)

February 1982 -)
August 1987 ) Harare

18 August 1987 Died in Harare

297
 APPENDIX TWO

Ftly y% *Dr
ýy
.(ko
40.

m AA tD
mcatchera
Damhuay I

ROOK
Joe ZtMgABW9' N IERNATiONAL
t:
r,
ANb 'ARIr 'S
c ý4010pt

Iq V

Above is the first page of Marechera's notebook in which he wrote 'Fuzzy

Goo's Guide ". The inscription 'The Children Theme fior The Zimbabwe
International Book Fair and Writer's Workshop, 1987' seems to indicate an
intention to present the work at the workshop (see Chapter Six above).

298
 APPENDIX THREE

The story that I am going to tell begins around the middle of the last
century. It is a story of family betrayal. But I believe Dambudzowould
it
want recorded because it explains so much about his backgroundand his
temperament.

When we buried Tambu (Dambudzo)I was an angry man. For someyearsI

had been aware that there was a family secretthat people wantedto keep
hidden. I began to ask questions,,to put togetherthe pieces.Tambu would
appearin my dreams while I was doing this. But as soonas everythingwas
clear to me he stopped.That is how I am surehe would want the storytold.

It begins around 1850. My great-grandmother(our mother'sgrandmother)

was a Nyamaropa - they were a powerful family who lived in the Nyanga
area. This woman was a dangerous witch, so dangerous that she caused
many deaths in the community. Eventually the people decided that they
must kill her. They took her into the bush, tied her to a tree and left her to
be torn apart by Wild animals.

But her spirit powers did not die with her, asI shall explain.

I should also say that the Nyamaropas were somehow related by marriage
to the Marechera family. When my mother was a small girl she actually
went to stay with them for a while and it was understood that she would
marry into the family when she grew up.

When she returned to the Nyamaropas something happened that was to

her life. When the spirit of a dead person needs to be appeased, a
change
held. Beer brewed for two days and a young girl is
special ceremony is is
be the "bride" the dead person. This is what happened to my
chosen to of
When later for real.,any children that she bears
mother. such a girl marries
belong to the dead person - not to her living husband!

his family (the

When our father, Isaac,, later marned our mother,
Marecheras)were outraged. He had not properly consultedthem and when
because they knew her
he brought home his bride they were very angry
did know her past because he had grown up
secret. Father not about
elsewhere.

Towards the end of 1969, Mother became mad. She went to consult a
... the problem by passing it on
n1anga.who told her she could only get rid of
Lovemore because he was her
to one of her children. She did not choose
favourite. She did not choose me because I was named after a powerful
from such things. She chose
ancestor whose spirit would protect me
Dambudzo.

299
In 1971he beganto suffer delusions.He was suretwo men were following
him everywhere. Only he could see them. He was then writing his 'A'
levels and I don't know how he managedbecausehe was taking so many
tranquillizers.

SubsequentlyI felt he must have known what Mother had done.When later
he left for England my bones told me he was running away from
something. When he returned to Zimbabwe he refusedto see Mother -I
now understandwhy.

it is difficult to explain such matters to those who do not know our culture.
But I feel this story explains why Dambudzo always said he had no family
he saw himself as an outcast. (SB pp53/ 54)
and why

300
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