Rumbi Munochiveyi is Zimbabwean mother of four and lives in Massachusettes USA. She is a new writer who loves African Contemporary writing and hopes to contribute to it in the future.

We introduce Zimbabwean writer Rumbi Munochiveyi, with her coming-of-age story, “Before the Husbands, the Boys We Knew”. Read a story that explores the familiar landscape of growing up, while filtering the idiosyncrasies of it’s characters. Enjoy this new voice, and look for more work from her.

“My friend Memory should have married Suspicion from down the street or Audacity from next door but she was a little suspicious about their names.

I do not quite recall what it is that Memory despised more, the name Suspicion or his yellow wet-and-wear jump suit that he wore almost always, as though it came from his ancestors. And to further repel a girl, Suspicion wore it with matching yellow tan boots, and the look just yellowed him beyond appeal. Sassy, as his mother and friends called him, was also one of those boys who walked senselessly up and down the streets most of the day. If he wasn’t sitting by the little bridge at the end of the street whiling up time and waiting for his mother to finish cooking the next meal, he was bouncing up and down the street with his friends, pants in hand, the whole lot of them talking in loud deep voices as though they owned the streets themselves. Why Sassy and his friends let their pants fall almost below their butts, and not simply wear belts, still beats me. They did enjoy the attention they got around the neighborhood, and like it or not, you knew Sassy and his boys, more for their purposelessness than anything else.” Read More