Thoughts on the Zimbabwe International Book Fair, Marechera and other writers
This year the Zimbabwe International Book Fair celebrates its 30-year anniversary ( ZIBF@30 ). Given its impact on the life of writers in Zimbabwe, especially during its heyday in the 90s, I felt it is timely to share my random thoughts, which meander from Dambudzo Marechera to my discovery of reading and writing in Mototi, back to the book fair itself. This piece is presented like a memoir, so there will be moments of creative recollection. I hope that this activity will inspire a more serious tribute, but for now, let's have some fun remembering ZIBF: whose lives it touched, and whose touched it. I never met Dambudzo Marechera in person, but I met The House of Hunger in 1987. I was still based in Mototi, attending a secondary school called Gwavachemai, where I had already installed myself as the local writer (in residence), always writing things, journalistic things, fictional things. In fact, by Form 3, I had managed to make myself the school's playwright, and I per...