Published by the government of Zimbabwe
25 July 2008
Harare — WHAT kind of person is popular talk show hostess, Mai Rebecca Chisamba like in private?
Does the woman -- who is widely regarded as Zimbabwe's Oprah Winfrey -- also experience some of the issues she often addresses through her famous programme, Mai Chisamba Show?
These are some of the questions that a recently completed biographical book chronicling her life and works seeks to answer.
The book, titled An Account of the Celebrated Life and Times of Rebecca Chisamba, was written by a black Zimbabwean, Nigel Jack and is due to be published next month.
"There was need for her biography because she is one woman who has broken the bounds set for women by men in the realm of success.
"I also discovered that she is one kind of a person who has led a very interesting life, far away from the screen character she portrays," said Jack.
Chapter one deals with Chisamba's genealogy -- her upbringing in a Christian family in Bindura.
Remarkable about this chapter is that it revisits that colonial phase in a segregated black community, where the young Rebecca finds herself struggling to cope with the challenges of being black and above all a girl in a patriarchal society.
Another interesting chapter is The Rustic and Remote Times of Young Rebecca in which the personality's parents relocated to Madziva after buying a tract of land.
It is during this period that Chisamba learnt much of the social initiations and traditional functions that she seeks to perpetuate and safeguard through her programme. Life at a Mission chronicles her days at a mission-run school where vernacular languages were barred.
Also fascinating about the biography is that it seeks to crack the exterior that she normally projects on screen and delve into the private person underneath that she normally shrouds under the clock of social etiquette.
"She is very tolerant, her private and personal life are very different from what people are used to seeing on television. She likes jesting, calling people with nicknames. The more public she becomes that's the more private she becomes," said the author.
He further added that in order to have a deep insight into the kind of person that she is, Jack had also to interview some of Mai Chisamba's family members, children and husband.
Jack said the book -- that would be published by a private company -- was currently having its covers done and once these are through, the book would then be ready for public consumption.
He said it would be launched at a function to be held in the capital.
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