An invaluable study of life in Bulawayo

In this his latest work, which is such an invaluable study of life as lived by big and little people behind nationalist curtains in Zimbabwes second city between 1893 and 1960, the distinguished Africanist Professor Terry Ranger tells an amusingly annoying story about an un-named pompous twit at the University of Zimbabwe.

To those who enjoy reading the story of ordinary men and women treated like that under company/colonial and white racist rule in Rhodesia there are books a-plenty. But Terence Ranger and the Zimbabwean historian Enocent Msindo take Comrade Pompous Knowitall to task.

After referring to the late Yvonne Veras Butterfly Burning, which inspired him to write Bulawayo Burning, Ranger said after a literary seminar in Philadelphia: We teach Butterfly Burning at UZ. Of course, we admire its skill. But its too frivolous. Joy keeps breaking in. All one needs to know about Africans during colonialism is that they were smears under the white mans boots.

People dont wish to live their lives as mere smears, says Ranger. Adds Msindo: It is time to debunk the reductionism of the late 1970s historiography that saw everything in terms of specific pigeon-holes, such as class-struggle. In an interview, Ranger explained how and why he was so inspired by Veras masterwork Butterfly Burning and (modestly) describes his own latest and most commendable work as mere prose for your poetry.

If Yvonne could plumb the experience of townsmen and women in the 1940s without doing any academic research, what might I be able to achieve if I did lots of it? he said. Bulawayo Burning despite its high price in the UK and USA – is essential reading for those wanting to know Bulawayos timetable and role in history. It could also represent something brand new on the African literary scene an academic explanation and clarification of fiction that captured the publics imagination.

You loved the film, now read the book, used to the publisher cry. After this, the cry could be – You loved the novel now read the history. Bulawayo Burning contains seven easy to read, clearly sourced chapters ranging from the destruction of Bulawayo at the end of the 19th century through to the 1929 and 1960 uprisings (caused by economic inequalities and ingrained ethnic hatreds) and the arrival after a long absence abroad of Joshua Nkomo in 1960.

Bulawayo Burning part two is underway but it will not be written by Terence Ranger. He tells us that he has passed the baton on to younger hands. There is a pause. An expectation, reads the opening line of Yvonne Veras novel. A pause plus high expectation from all of us as we wait for the next part of a meaningful and enthralling story.