Last time we featured Moses Magadza interviewing renowned Zimbabwean writer Chenjerai Hove. Now Magadza returns with an interview of another Zimbabwean writer, Beaven Tapureta, who says that too many people all over the world continue to turn their noses at writers, perpetuating the mistaken belief that they are essentially unemployed people. He says far from being part of the lumpen proletariat, writers are full-time workers and unless and until they are regarded as such, their rights would continue to be violated. Tapureta is the founding Director of Win Zimbabwe, an organisation that networks Zimbabwean writers through the internet and through workshops and readings. He was one of the key staffers at Budding Writers Association of Zimbabwe (BWAZ) when it folded a decade ago. Tapureta is a trained journalist.

 

Moses Magadza: You have been one of the longest serving officers at Budding Writers of Zimbabwe (BWAZ). What would you put down as its major achievements?

Beaven Tapureta:  BWAZ was like an academy where some writers of my generation were initiated into the real world of writing. It is no secret that some of my friends who are now recognised as poets or fiction writers passed through BWAZ and I think that’s one of its achievements.  It confirmed our passions as new writers. There is Lawrence Hoba, now a published writer, Tinashe Muchuri, an established poet and journalist, Mbizo Chirasha, a renowned performance poet, Tinashe Mushakavanhu, now an editor, critic, and academic, others and myself who are products of BWAZ one way or another. There is this generation of us now doing different things but in the same literary arena.

Moses Magadza: What were its short comings?

Beaven Tapureta: BWAZ started very well but its demise remains a mystery to me. From my own experience, BWAZ faced funding problems just like any donor-funded organization. While some organisations like Zimbabwe Women Writers had at least produced anthologies from which they were earning royalties, BWAZ had none to sustain itself. BWAZ did not publish royalty-earning anthologies or books apart from the print magazine and the first journal on the burning land issue.

BWAZ seemed to be male-oriented despite it being led by a woman well-educated in matters of gender equality.  Only a few female members are still writing today, the likes of Sympathy Sibanda and others.

Moses Magadza: Why did it fold when it did?

Beaven Tapurata: I left BWAZ in 2009 before it folded. I hatched the idea of forming WIN-Zimbabwe before even BWAZ closed and when it closed the way it did I had no idea what hit it. The problem BWAZ did when it folded was that it did not issue a public statement which would have helped its stakeholders, especially members, to figure out reasons for its abrupt dissolution.  For instance, I have heard enquiries from former members of BWAZ about their manuscripts. No one even knows where BWAZ assets are. A public statement should have been produced for transparency. CONTINUE READING…