Published: 1 July 2011
£6.99 Paperback ISBN 9781847800060
Frances Lincoln Publishers
In a captivating tale about two teenage girls divided by decades and racial prejudice, Na'ima B Robert weaves an absorbing story about how the fight for land has shaped Zimbabwe's colonial legacy.
Far From Home is told by Tariro and Katie, worlds apart but linked through the war over the fertile land surrounding a baobab tree in Masvingo, and a terrible family secret. Tariro is a ‘daughter of the soil’, born beneath a baobab tree in the land of her ancestors, surrounded by her loving family. Her story begins in Rhodesia in 1964 when she is a young teenager in love with broad-shouldered, brave Nhamo who makes ‘fireflies dance’ in her belly. But their lives are hit by tragedy when the Native Land Husbandry Act is enforced by the brutal Deputy District Commissioner, Ian Watson.
Tariro's fighting spirit is awoken when her people, the Karanga, who have the totem of a lion, are driven off their fertile land. Their homes are destroyed by fire in a swift and bloody battle and they are moved to a Reserve, ‘a place of death’ where the soil is dry and tired and the people are starving.
Katie's story begins in 2000. She is a 14-year-old privileged, care-free farm girl with a doting father and a love of their sprawling Masvingo farm, which has a giant baobab at its centre. But her life is changed forever when her beloved farm is reclaimed by war-veterans and her family
is exiled from the dust and heat of the land she loves, to the cold of a desolate council flat in rainy London.
As their two world's collide, Tariro and Katie are forced to confront their prejudices, dark family secrets and the truth of their turbulent history.
Robert's writing is simple but evocative, her connection with Zimbabwe is evident in the raw
emotion of her story. It is obvious she engages more with Tariro, thrilling in the rich detail and earthy descriptions of her life in her rural homestead.
Katie is not as easy to identify with, possibly because her story is shorter – although no less
absorbing – and Robert is less sympathetic to her. In places her story is light on detail, we do not learn much about Tariro's role in the bush war and how it affects her family or the aftermath of Katie's loss of her farm and her disintegrating family life. The story ends at the point it gets most interesting, when the different worlds of the central characters collide far from the land they love.
Despite this, Robert's vivid imagery bring to life the sights, sounds and smells of rural Zimbabwe and it is an engaging tale with an interesting twist on Zimbabwe's recent and turbulent history.
Post published in: Arts