Coming Soon to Munyori: Interview with Memory Chirere
The next issue of Munyori Literary Journal will feature interviews on the recent Dambudzo Marechera Festival at Oxford. Among the writers interviewed is Memory Chirere, who presented a paper on the influence of Marechera on University of Zimbabwe undergratuate literature majors. Below is an excerpt:
Question: The Standard report stated that your presentation was on the influence of Marechera on UZ undergraduates. What influence has Marechera had on these literature students? Do they appreciate him more than previous generations? What books of Marechera, for instance, do they read these days at the UZ?
Memory Chirere: At UZ’s English department we read various Marechera texts at different levels. I talked specifically about how the first contact with Marechera literature, especially the novella House of Hunger is a moment of transformation for our undergraduate students. For the whole Marechera series, students rarely miss classes or come late and you are assured of a full house. Reading ‘House of Hunger’ is a rite of passage of sorts. However, at least a third of the students immediately begin to be overly outspoken. They begin to grow their own dreadlocks. They begin to smoke and drink. They begin to scribble their own poetry and prose and you are waylaid by young men and women who plead with you to look at what they are writing.
Question: The Standard report stated that your presentation was on the influence of Marechera on UZ undergraduates. What influence has Marechera had on these literature students? Do they appreciate him more than previous generations? What books of Marechera, for instance, do they read these days at the UZ?
Memory Chirere: At UZ’s English department we read various Marechera texts at different levels. I talked specifically about how the first contact with Marechera literature, especially the novella House of Hunger is a moment of transformation for our undergraduate students. For the whole Marechera series, students rarely miss classes or come late and you are assured of a full house. Reading ‘House of Hunger’ is a rite of passage of sorts. However, at least a third of the students immediately begin to be overly outspoken. They begin to grow their own dreadlocks. They begin to smoke and drink. They begin to scribble their own poetry and prose and you are waylaid by young men and women who plead with you to look at what they are writing.
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