An Evening with Shimmer Chinodya
Shimmer Chinodya glows. He races back and forth across the ages with his words and holds his young audience captive for three full hours. He is a happy man and as he laughs at his first attempts at being a writer when he was just 8 years old we are drawn into his glow and laugh with him. We are laughing all evening.
Above: Shimmer Chinodya reads from his book “Harvest of Thorns”. It is one of his most celebrated novels. He finished it when he was 27 years old and at it’s peak as a set book for high schools it sold over 30,000 copies a year for 3 straight years.
The venue is the Alliance Française in Harare. Shimmer has been invited to talk to a group of young writers belonging to the newly formed Talent Writers Group.
Shimmer’s phone beeps. He picks it up and looks at it. “It’s my sister,” he laughs, “she’s saying happy birthday. It’s my birthday today.” He has just turned 51. The date is May 30th 2008.
He then goes on to talk about how his first attempts at writing were poetical. He credits one of his Goromonzi High School teachers, Jill Greig for being instrumental in the development of his talent. “I would write dreadful poetry and she would correct me. She would realise in one or two lines that I had some talent somewhere…”
“Those formative years are terrible, but don’t ever give up,” he advises.
Shimmer grew up in a “very Christian home” and wonders what his father would think of some of the books he has written. Born in Gweru in 1957, he was the second child in what he calls a large and happy family. He says it was thanks to his father who brought him many books to read that he developed a passion for writing.
His first attempts at story writing were greatly influenced by his Christian background and by the Eurocentric nature of the books he was devouring. He recalls writing about God looking down at this “sinful” world and wanting to snuff it out. Then he wrote a novel called the “Runaway Servant” which was set in the Mabelreign suburb of Harare. All the main characters were blue eyed, fair haired children.
“I had been taught to laugh in English, dream in English- go to the toilet in Egnlish,” he remonstrates with a twinkle in his eye. He sent the book to Longman but it- like many other initial works- was declined.
But he has come a long way since then. He has written 43 books to date. These include English text books, novels and collections of short stories. He has also written numerous academic papers. His first published novel, Dew in the Morning, was written when he was just 18 years old- although it was published much later on in 1982.
One of the attendees at the meeting asks him: “Is writing financially rewarding or is it a commitment to the art?”
Another hearty laugh. “Writing is a long term investment. But I have been lucky. A number of my books have been made into set books. Harvest of Thorns, for instance, sold over 30,000 copies a year when it was a set book. My Step Ahead text books have also done well. They are the most popular English text books, not only in Zimbabwe, but in Malawi, Zambia, Lesotho, etc. Now I’m also invited to speak and lecture at various universities. That also has its benefits. I don’t do it for nothing.” More laughter all round.
Shimmer has toured the United Kingdom, United States, Germany and other countries and has given talks at Universities around the world.
About his source of inspiration, Shimmer says he loves people. Talking to them, arguing with them, studying them, reading about them. “I read a lot books from different genres. Right now I am interested in books in translation, you know why? Because they give us insight onto the thoughts of other cultures.” He also loves listening to Jazz.
Someone else asks how he gets to write so much. “I do other things with my life. Out of a month I’ll get six to seven good days to thresh out a short story or do a chapter of a novel. I don’t wake up religiously to write. I have other things to do like paying the bills, taking my kids to school and stuff like that.”
“I try to divide my year so that I have time to go to writers’ colonies, time to lecture and time to do other things I love. I wrote Fools in five weeks flat at a writers’ colony in Italy.”
Shimmer recalls once bumping into the late Zimbabwean writer, Dambudzo Marechera, at Norfolk Hotel in the UK. The latter was sitting at a nearby table, talking to a young lady and telling her: “I am going to kill you on page 24…”
His advice for aspiring writers? The comment above about never giving up is one. He also says- with a laugh- to read his friend Tsitsi Dangarembga’s book, Nervous Conditions. “I prescribe it to anyone who wants to be a good writer.”
He goes on to say: “We Africans have the best material to write about. When I did my MA in Creative Writing in the United States, I was writing Harvest of Thorns and other people were writing about their dead cats. Look at what’s happening to us. Look at what’s happening in Zimbabwe. So why aren’t we writing classics? The world is waiting.”
“What does our generation have to say about being African? Achebe, Sonyika and their peers started something. We need to take it from there.”
Shimmer was recently announced the winner of the NOMA award for his novel, Strife, and will be travelling to Namibia in two weeks to attend a ceremony where the former Namibian head of state, Sam Nujoma will present him with the award. His excitement as he tells us this juicy piece of news is almost tangible…
Written by fungaijames on June 2nd, 2008 with
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Unofungei? Unoitei? I capture the stories that often escape the lenses of big media. I record the life of a pregnant nation. This is a door into the country that I love. These are my thoughts. These are my memories... 
