Tinashe Muchuri, who covered the Harare launch of NoViolet Bulawayo’s We Need New Names, comes back with a report on the launch of Ignatius Mabasa’s novel Imbwa Yemunhu. Writing in Shona, Muchuri reports that the launch, held in Harare on December 20th, was organized in conjunction with Kwayedza newspaper’s prize-giving day. The recipients of the prizes were budding poets from schools across Zimbabwe. Addressing attendees to the launch of his third novel, Mabasa said that each book a writer produces is like a child with unique qualities, so it is important for readers to treat the books as distinct from each other. His three children are Mapenzi, Ndafa Here? and, now, Imbwa Yemunhu.
Mabasa was also the judge of the Kwayedza Shona poetry competition, which promotes writing in Shona. The competition is run weekly and the winners for each week receive awards every quarter. Mabasa encouraged Kwayedza to facilitate poetry workshops for winners of their weekly competitions. Such workshops can help these talented budding poets acquire more skills that help them transform their poetry into stronger works of art. Prizes, while inspiring, may also be a handicap to those poets who may think that being featured in Kwayedza already proves that they are accomplished poets, Mabasa said. He sometimes asks these poets to revise, edit, and resubmit their works but often, the works never come back.
Mabasa also urged all writers to be avid readers: “Read until your eyes fall out, but pick them up and continue reading.” He said teachers should help talented students to edit their works until they achieve their maximum potential as works of art. Mabasa observed that although they show much potential, some of the works students are sending are riddled with editing and proofreading errors. Budding poets need instruction on craft, on understanding punctuation, and other craft elements that turn a draft into a work of art.
As Muchuri reports, this was an informative and exciting double event, a celebration of Mabasa’s growing corpus of Shona novels and an acknowledgment of new writers. Read the rest of the report in Shona here.
