On Saturday 28 July 2018, Zimbabwean-born novelist and journalist Panashe Chigumadzi, one of the country’s leading young writers of the ‘Born Free’ generation, will be launching her highly anticipated book, These Bones Will Rise Again. Chigumadzi will be in conversation with renowned writer and critic Memory Chirere.
These Bones Will Rise Again reflects on the November 2017 ‘coup that was not a coup’, through the telling of history and manipulation of time and the ancestral spirts of two women – her own late paternal grandmother and Mbuya Nehanda. The book brings together bold reportage, memoir and critical analysis to radically reframe the political and cultural history of the country, recognising the role of women, workers and urban movements in its liberation struggle. [See this recent article by Chigumadzi in the New York Times, ‘In Zimbabwe, the Enduring Fear of Women Independent of Male Control’]
In a searing account, These Bones Will Rise Again explores the heady post-independence days of the 80s, the economic downturn of the 90s, through to the effects of the fasttrack land reform policies at the end of the century. Out of Zimbabwe’s official versions of history, Chigumadzi wrests a complex and personal history of the past and present.
This is an inspiring work exploring loss, recovery and memory that reminds us of the universal and timeless human impulse to freedom, a shared sense of belonging and the will to hope.
Join Chigumadzi in conversation with Memory Chirere as she hosts the Harare launch at the historic Theatre in the Park, Harare Gardens on 28 July at 10 am. She will also host a book launch in Bulawayo on 1st August. Details to follow.
Panashe Chigumadzi will be in Zimbabwe 25 July–2 August 2018 and will be available for interviews in this time. Panashe Chigumadzi launches These Bones Will Rise Again in Harare and Bulawayo
‘Chigumadzi successfully nests the intimate charge of her poignant personal story in the
sweeping historical account and mythology of Zimbabwe.’ – Brian Chikwava, author
of Harare North
‘These Bones Will Rise Again by Chigumadzi is a mind-blowingly brilliant book centering
family, women and Shona religion as a way of understanding recent events, the past and the
future.’ – Tendai Huchu, author of The Hairdresser of Harare
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Panashe Chigumadzi is a Zimbabwean-born novelist. Raised in South Africa, she is the
author of Sweet Medicine (BlackBird Books, 2015), which won the 2016 K. Sello Duiker
Literary Award. She is the founding editor of Vanguard magazine, a platform for young black
women coming of age in post-apartheid South Africa. A columnist for The New York Times
and contributing editor to The Johannesburg Review of Books, her work has featured in titles
including The Guardian, Transition, Washington Post and Die Zeit.