The Sunday Mail
SOCIAL media have impacted our lives on various levels, giving people the opportunity to communicate and share their views with ease.
Besides being a communication highway, social media platforms have also given poets, among other artistes, a platform to showcase their work, putting them on the limelight in a way.
Motivational speaker and author Rabison Shumba started a Facebook page last year, 263 Nhetembo, on which numerous poets have been using their creativity to promote the Shona language and culture. With impressive poems on this page, Shumba decided to harvest some and sew them together into a spectacular anthology, “Dzinonyandura: Svinga Renduri”. The book, edited by renowned poet Tinashe Muchuri, features poems from 17 upcoming and established writers from different backgrounds and professions, which gives it richness in terms of variety. Besides Shumba and Muchuri, other writers who contributed to the collection include Sharon Ngomani, Conarth Macheka, Rutendo Tapiwa, Brian Tafadzwa Penny, Chenjerai Mazambani and Mildred Jaricha, just to mention a few. In a generation where globalisation has been taking over, foreign languages reigning supreme and our mother tongue being deemed useless – this book paints a different picture.
On top of displaying the richness of the Shona language, numerous poems in this collection take the reader on a tour of various local traditional practices. The writers explored various aspects of the Zimbabwean society, moulding scenarios that the country’s citizens encounter on a daily basis, highlighting their relevance.
Urbanisation has led to the diffusion of our traditional way of life even in rural settings. Some practices that have survived for centuries are now being ignored as illuminated in Sharon Ngomani’s “Zvinondivhundutsa” where she appears to be bothered by living on the edge while ignoring traditional laws. “Zinondivhundutsa kuti ndinombomonera sadza mugate, kunge shambakodzi dzakapera kuputsika pachikuva,” goes one line in which the writer cannot stomach the fact that she is cooking sadza in a water storing pot rather than in the actual pot designed specifically for that.
The poet used brilliant skills and knowledge of Shona law, sugar-coating these with a splendid choice of words to create a radiant piece. With the writers boasting solid educational backgrounds, they also used their skills to put across motivational massages.
Some of the poems drip with inspiration while at the same time installing confidence in individuals who could be suffering from low self-esteem.
Ngomani also laid down another exceptional piece “Pasvomhu Yacho”, in which she puts across that beauty is not the key to success in life but rather the effort that one puts in.
Making use of similes and genius wordplay among other devices, she highlighted that looks alone will not position you at an advantage or disadvantage in life, but rather contribute little in the outcome of our future.
“Dai kunaka kwaipasisa chikoro, isu vamwe taifira muhudofo nekutambura. Dai kunaka ikoku kwaigovereswa chouviri, taifirazve mukurikichira maricho nekushuzha,” she says in one of the verses indicating that if beauty contributed to educational success then all those who are not good looking would have failed dismally.
Another poem that grabbed my attention was Rodwell Harinangoni’s “Handineiwo Nemi” where he used HIV and Aids as the narrator. The virus is saying that it should not be blamed for the deaths it causes since it does not go looking for people at their houses but rather it is the other way round.
“Dai maizvibata musinganetseki neni. Zvino moyo yenyu yakarembera seyepwere dzaona zvihwitsi. Vanhu vakuru kusanyara! Pedzezvo mondipomera mhosva ini zvangu mutsvene kuita sezvinonzi ndakakubatai ganyavhu,” goes one verse. In this poem, Harinangoni stressed the fact that the killer disease does not spread on its own but irresponsible people who do not abstain or use protection end up contracting the deadly virus. The variety in this collection as each writer brought their style into the mix makes for interesting reading.
From the rural lifestyle of cattle herding and field ploughing in Davison Mudzingwa’s “Fainos” to social media advancement in Evidence Makuni’s “Facebook”, this collection covered a wide range of issues. With 79 poems, this book is a pool of knowledge and insight into the state of our society.
