OBITUARY: On the road with the Julius Chingono

It was my first ever trip outside Zimbabwe. The trip was up in the air up until the last minute, but thanks to the intervention of my then boss, Irene Staunton, we made it. And the journey remains my longest bus ride ever. We left Harare aboard the luxurious Greyhound on a Thursday evening and arrived in Port Elizabeth on a Saturday morning.

On the Road

It was the best road trip ever despite the fact that we had no booze, no weed, and no women like Jack Kerouac and his literary gang. Between us, we had 50 rand, and a few Zim dollar bills for the return trip. The lack of money didnt dampen our spirits or the excitement of it all. We talked, we read, we wrote, we slept, we told jokes and laughed and the cross-country journey became shorter.

I remember we had had no time to prepare for our presentations and we scribbled on the bus and at Park Station waiting for the transit connection to the Eastern Cape. We asked each other definitions of words, tested the appropriateness of expressions and literary examples on each other. We bounced ideas back and forth all the way. Until then, writing was a private exercise for me. Chingono not only encouraged me. If writers are born, then Chingono, was the surrogate father to my desire to become a writer. His humility, his wisdom and his vision were who he was all the time.

The trip forged for me a respectful relationship. We often met and sat in the Harare Gardens and every time he always had a message for me from mai Chingono. Over the years, his short and often hurried emails kept me updated on his life and work. He was more than just a writer, he was my family. On our very last meeting he gave me a copy of his book signed: To Tinashe the poet, from Julius a poet. He said, I have done my part, do yours. So long baba Chingono. I will.

Chingono always had time to work with the new generation of Zimbabwean poets. He regularly attended events at the Book Caf and his influence is undoubtedly legendary. He was a common fixture at HIFAs Poetry Caf and even had a popular outing at Intwasa. When Alex Kaposa established The New Voices Magazine, Chingono, was roped in as an Advisor whose experience and wisdom was invaluable to the editorial collective. Until his death, he was also an advisory board member of Writers International Network Zimbabwe (Win-Zimbabwe), a new organization established last year by young writer, Beaven Tapureta.

Legacy

Chingono started writing poetry in the 1960s in both Shona and English but spent most of his working life in the mines. It is sad that his first collection of poetry in English, Flag of Rags, published in 1996 in South Africa has largely remained unknown to Zimbabwean readership. His second book, Not Another Day, published by Weaver Press in 2006 received critical acclaim and illuminates the everyday worlds in which Chingono lived and knew too well. I understand a forthcoming book, Together, which he did as a collaboration with John Eppel is set to be published by amaBooks early this year. Julius Chingono was a wonderfully charming and humble man who has left us with an incredible heritage of poetry. He had the ability to turn the mundane, the everyday into poetry with an unassuming genius. He is without doubt the poet laureate of the everyday Zimbabwean experience. He will forever be remembered. May his soul rest in peace.