WRITERS TAP INSPIRATION FROM MUSIC

Beaven Tapureta



David Mungoshi

Harare, Zimbabwe: About twenty five writers, playwrights, and poets met at the British Council on Saturday, March 10, to discuss the relationship between music and their writing.

Illustrious songwriter and musician Leonard Karikoga Zhakata, who was expected to grace the occasion, failed to attend as he was reportedly having a show in Bulawayo on the same day.

In their presentations, writers David Mungoshi and Primrose Dzenga re-lived moments when their creative processes were largely influenced by music playing in the background.

“I use music very often. Music puts me in a certain mood,” said Mungoshi who, as part of his presentation, played favourite songs from Leonard Cohen (Canadian musician), John Lenon, and Nina and Frederik.

Mungoshi looked thoughtful, drifting away to some far place when he played “Because of” and “Dear Heather” by Cohen, echoing the stanza in “Because Of” which said, “They become naked/In their different ways/ and they say/Look at me, Leonard/Look at me one last time.”

Participants at this meeting were so thrilled that they popularized the line “Look at me one last time” as Mungoshi related passages from his book Fading Sun with the song. Another writer, Memory Chirere, told Mungoshi that he read Fading Sun with music playing in the background.

As he grew up, Mungoshi said he was a neighbour to the legendary township jazz and mbaqanga outfit, The Cool Crooners, and on many occasions they would let him get into their shows for free. This he said sharpened his taste for music.

“There is a lot of stuff that goes on in my head as I walk in the street. Probably this could be the reason why I walk slowly. My notebook is in my head,” remarked Mungoshi when asked how he wrote his stories in Broken Dreams and Other Stories (1987, Mambo Press) in one sitting.

“I also may have been eager to break into print,” added Mungoshi.

Explaining how he started as a writer, Mungoshi said he was an impressionable boy who at some point fancied phrases such as “It was a long long time ago”, which an actor breathed out in a movie that Mungoshi watched in his boyhood. For some reason, these phrases fascinated the boy-to-be-writer and his love for language and storytelling was immediately registered.

Primrose Dzenga, a writer of note, was not spared by the ekphrastic relationship between music and her writing process.

“How I create? I don’t know if I create my poems or they create me,” said Dzenga whose presentation was rich with witty memorable short sayings.

Dzenga, who told participants that she grew up in the country, amazed participants with her cultural insight which one writer Mashingaidze Gomo remarked it contrasted very much with her accent and contemporary personality.

“When I look at you, the way you talk and are dressed, you look modern. But on the other hand, you have a deep cultural consciousness. We have not lost our daughters completely after all,” commented Gomo.

“I am a romantic person. Romanticism helps me address situations using relationships. In our culture, the singular belongs to the communal,” said Dzenga.

Her writing, she explained, is nothing phenomenal as it is part of who she is and her inquisitive nature propels her to search more. Music, she added, inspires her too.

“I am privileged our culture is an art. I love traditional music like mbira. Sometimes when I write poetry I like listening to classical music in the background. I don’t hear the words/lyrics but my heart responds to it and I keep writing. Music speaks to me as I always have been spoken to as a child,” she said.

Dzenga, who authored The Unsung Hero: Auxillia Chimusoro (ZWW, 2009), a biography of inspirational AIDS activist Auxillia Chimusoro and Destiny In My Hands (2011), an anthology, read one of her poems called “Dancing Feet” which she dedicated to women, especially her mother who used to tell her stories and would later ask her lessons learnt from them.

Chairperson of Zimbabwe Writers Association (ZWA) which organized the meeting, Musayemura Zimunya, said his organization is planning various events which include an outreach programme in Gweru.

Zimunya, who also chairs the Zimbabwe International Book Fair, urged the writers to determine their own topics for this year’s Writers Workshop which will take place on August 4.

“We own the literary sector because we are the creators. If we are committed, we will return to those days when the ZIBF represented maximum joy for the writers,” said Zimunya.

Mbizo Chirasha aka The Black Poet entertained participants with poems from his recently published anthology Good Morning President. Lawrence Hoba, author of The Trek and Other Stories, directed the ceremony. Other writers who were part of this meeting include Aaron Chiunduramoyo, Memory Chirere, Virginia Phiri, Beatrice Sithole, Eresina Hwede, Blessing Hungwe, Chipo Musikavanhu, Jerry Zondo, Karukai Ratsauka, Davison Maruziva, Fanuel Jongwe, Shepherd Mutamba, Dakarai Mashava, Charles Mutyavaviri, Prof. Jeffrey Wills who is a visiting Professor at the University of Zimbabwe, and others.