The Sunday Mail
THE Zimbabwe International Book Fair (ZIBF) has come and gone, leaving the literary scene with varying perspectives about the local book industry. The book fête, which ran from July 25 to July 30 under the theme “Igniting Interest in Reading for Sustainable Development”, was an eye-opening experience for many who found time to visit the venue.While this year’s attendance was poor, a display of the diminishing attraction of local literature, it still presented opportunities for writers, bookstores, publishers, librarians and readers to mix and exchange notes in various areas.
Since my high school days, local history has always fascinated me but I have realised that it could sometimes be confusing considering varying scholarly views on certain subjects.
While literature plays a significant role in giving us insight about where we have come from as a people, it is a struggle trying to patch up pieces of information from the many texts available.
As I was doing my rounds at ZIBF, I had an encounter with one prominent historian, Dr Aeneas Chigwedere, and we had a brief chat about his work. While the gentlemen has courted controversy, with some scholars discrediting some of his historical views, his vast knowledge is overwhelming.
With a writing career spanning over 35 years, Chigwedere has written many historical, educational and cultural texts.
Some of his popular books include “The Karanga Empire”, “The Roots of the Bantu”, “From Mutapa to Rhodes”, “The Forgotten Heroes of Chimurenga I” and the “Dynamics of History” series.
His recent work comprises a series of books dealing with totems and dynastic histories including “The Moyo Chirandu Dynasty”, “The Mutasa Manyika Dynasty” and “The Duma and The Moyo Rozvi”, among others. These books trace the roots of the various totems and the dynasties where they came from.
His previous books were published at numerous prominent publishing houses but he has since founded his own — Mutapa Publishing House.
“Most publishers are more interested in school books rather than general books, so I had to form my own company in order to publish these dynastic books because I appreciate the absolute need for Zimbabweans to know their history,” he said.
Historians are in the business of weaving together facts of events that transpired even before their time and out of curiosity, I also wanted to know how and where Chigwedere collects the information for his work.
“I have done my research over the past 40 years and these days when I go to the National Archives, it will be to check on one or two things that would have cropped up. I have read a lot of material from the archives, copying the information that I need and setting it aside all these years so I can simply say I now have my own personal archives.”
Chigwedere highlighted that some historical information concerning Zimbabwe cannot be found in local archives but rather in other countries.
“There is a lot of information that you will not find in Zimbabwe so whenever I travelled to countries like the UK or USA, I would visit their libraries and museums in order to get some of the information I need.
“These people colonised us and looted most of our artefacts so you will find that they have a vast collection of historical objects from the African continent.”
Historical facts are always subject to debate, with writers and scholars coming up with varying views on certain subjects.
Chigwedere stressed that his work is based on facts.
“Most of the people who go around saying that I peddle lies in my books are people who do not even read and that is how I silenced most of my critics. When my first book came out, ‘From Mutapa to Rhodes’ in 1980, people started debating about it with some saying I was getting my information from dreams, among other accusations.
“I then wrote ‘The Karanga Empire’, which was loaded with references and all my critics went quiet so you will notice that most people who try to discredit my work are not scholars but rather rumour-mongers who sit under trees and discuss hearsay.”
The discussion with this particular historian left me a bit wiser.
I have come to conclude that history is a constant battle of facts, with historians, written texts, oral knowledge, hearsay and legend, among other factors, playing a part in shaping events.
