To feel deeply is also to remember deeply. If you are a young woman entering the women’s movement, there are generally two kinds of more established women you encounter. The first are circumspect and cautious, even unwelcoming at times. Though you may try, your chances of winning their favour are low and with time you learn that there are impenetrable cliques even within the work … Continue reading Go well, Patience
On this day ten years ago, Chiwoniso Maraire passed on. Just as it was for many others who were inspired by her music, the news was personally shocking and shattering. I have continued to be inspired by her legacy and the many teachings in her works. To commemorate her life, I reflect on my experience of her in the following verses which are vignettes of … Continue reading Ten Verses for Chiwoniso Maraire Ten Years On
It is a warm Accra evening in May. On every morning and afternoon of my almost two-week stay there, the weather is unbearably humid and close. And the only escape from it is the ubiquitous air conditioning. Air-conditioned buses. Air-conditioned hotels. Air-conditioned auditoriums. But once the sun sets, the heat that it passes through the Atlantic Ocean begins to recede. A short reprieve. As if … Continue reading The Inimitable Ama Ata Aidoo
Sticky post
I meant to write this reflection at the beginning of the month of July which – by the end of June – I had begun to dub the second beginning of the year. Being the first month of the second half of the year, July was cause for celebration. In the mire of fear and anxiety that the months of March and April had brought … Continue reading A Wondrous Testament to Survival
I distinctly remember a friend visiting me one December day towards the end of 2016. I was having a particularly down morning because of a few issues that just weren’t resolving themselves as I had hoped they would. In my despair, I was blasting my Oliver Mtukudzi playlist on my laptop and cleaning every corner of the house to avert any further frustration. “Fungi!” she … Continue reading What Tuku meant for a ‘musalad’ girl like me
OVER recent years, the language of creating and sustaining safe spaces has become one I hear more and more often, especially in feminist spaces. For a time, I accepted this language uncritically, neither thinking more broadly about what a safe space truly requires nor introspecting around the various problematics that such spaces often bring with them. As such, I think it’s important to reflect on … Continue reading Are safe spaces really safe?
We were sitting on the old cushioned chairs in the dormitory reception where the temperamental TV set mounted overhead was not giving us any news about the election results. It was just before 8 pm on a Sunday night, and I had just arrived back in Bulawayo from Harare, a trip of almost 450 km and many jaunty hours in a kombi. I was sweaty … Continue reading Why I’ve Chosen Social Media Silence About Zimbabwe
A man in a workman’s suit stands at an open grave. A coffin has just been lowered into the freshly dug pit as family and friends eulogise the deceased; a wife, mother, grandmother, probably also an ardent member of a local church group and women’s societies and clubs in her community. In essence, family and friends are gathered to bury a woman of high repute … Continue reading Why ‘Lameck’ Struck A Chord With Me
This article is based on reflections I gathered at Independence Day commemorations in 2014. The early morning April sun is high and hot when I arrive at Harare’s National Sports Stadium where Zimbabwe’s annual Independence Day commemorations will shortly commence. Buses and cars jam the driveway that leads to the stadium entrances, and queues of people bend and wind with the railing that runs round … Continue reading A Flag of Many Colours – A Reflection on Zimbabwe’s Independence
fungaineni.wordpress.com 