Alexander Kanengoni
29 August 2009
book review
A review of Coming Home by Olley Tsino Maruma
The book is an interesting account of the critical six months between Lancaster House Conference and independence on 18 April 1980. That was the time when the narrator, Simon Nyamadzawo, returned home from eight years exile in England.
He was an extremely optimistic man to return at such a time before the conclusion of the talks at Lancaster House. Less optimistic people would have waited a little longer, perhaps until the end of the talks. Indeed, as it eventually turned out, some would take years before they risked returning.
But of course, not Nyamadzawo. Perhaps he wanted to capture "live" the mood, the atmosphere and the turbulence that characterised that unprecedented time. People had entirely different expectations, fears, uncertainties and dilemmas to grapple with. Therefore, because of its historical location, the story is a highly charged political account. The war raged across the country and over the seas in London, the country's political leaders were locked in make-or-break talks to end the war and usher in independence. This was the cauldron that Simon flung himself into.
When he arrived in the then Salisbury, he stayed with a cousin in the Avenues. From there, he would later visit his parents in Highfield, his relatives in the townships and his ancestral home in Mhondoro. It was also from there that he would look for a job and eventually strike new friendships at places like the Quill Club.
From there, he would also go partying, o-oh those parties. There was one in Mt Pleasant for Prince Charles and Lord Soames; my goodness, what a party! There, British royalty and top military brass threw away their tunics and frolicked like teenagers, kicking up dust in the air. Camilla Parker Bowles, the current wife of Prince Charles, and her husband, an officer with the Commonwealth monitoring force, were both there; fascinating stuff for a romantic thriller.
Because whites controlled all institutions in the country, both public and private, Nyamadzawo's effort to find a job was considerably made easier by the mere fact that he was from Reading University. They readily called him for interviews at the two places he applied for a job and he had the luxury to turn down one, at ZBC, because the pay was low and they had offered him a job different from that he had applied for.
In Coming Home, the Quill Club symbolised heated political debate and alienation. It was there that the media fraternity met for its daily dosage of gossip in the name of the news. Highfield symbolised Nyamadzawo's reconnection with his roots and the people. It was there that he was cleansed of the evils of exile and his visit home to Mhondoro crowned the reconnection. In that respect, Coming Home is a cultural excursion. It is also a stroll down memory lane. Names like Gordon Avenue, Charter Road, Kingsway, Cecil Square, The Golden Grill, and Bonanza Nightclub are jogged up memory and we struggle to place them with amusement. Was there ever a street called Kingsway? It is now called Julius Nyerere Way!
Gonamombe did a fine job. The cover design, a flaming rising sun bathing the countryside represents the beginning of that new era. Although the picture can easily be viewed as the image of a setting sun, Nyamadzawo was too much of an optimist to regard the world in sinking terms. Such a pessimistic interpretation is best left to Rhodesians.
The text has a few typographical errors that could have been eliminated with tighter editing. The narrative could also have been tightened with finer editing. But otherwise, Coming Home is a valuable story about the emotions of a decisive and delicate time in our history handled superbly by someone who went through those motions.
But if the story is a deeply felt attempt by Nyamadzawo to reconnect with his roots, judging by the strong urge he leaves England to throw himself into an unresolved political situation, the fact that he comes back and stays in the Avenues, space created by whites as they "fled" to the quietness of the northern suburbs, away from the encroaching, noisy blacks, it becomes interesting the sort of reconnection he had in mind. His father instinctively wanted to support the reconnection process when he asked him to come and stay in Highfield and eventually buy a house there. But interestingly, Nyamadzawo says he found it "bizarre to hear my father suggesting that he expected me to live in Highfield...... Highfield would always be my spiritual home but I had no desire to live there anymore". It becomes even more interesting when one realizes that the places he frequents and the people he mostly associates with are predominantly white. Nyamadzawo is definitely charting new waters, giving a new definition to the word "roots".
When he returned from England, many people were tempted to believe Nyamadzawo akanga afunga Dande kudzoka ayamwe as the legendary Oliver Mtukudzi sang in one of his popular tunes. What sort of reconnection was this now?
There is also the issue of the war: the dominant factor straddling that period. It is there, but sadly on the periphery: at Salisbury International Airport after Nyamadzawo touches down, in the distance in the form of military planes at the nearby military airbase, in the city in the form of soldiers on the streets or picking up drunken brawls in city bars off-tour-of-duty, in the form of the military police frisking people shopping in the city centre. But it is almost entirely absent in people's discussions, no allusion to it even in the heated political debates at the Quill Club.
And yet it was the single most powerful force reshaping the destiny of the country. The Lancaster House talks were because of the war. The internal settlement was because of the war. When Nyamadzawo visits his ancestral home in Mhondoro, you feel here was at last the opportunity to come face to face with the war because that was where the guerrillas were operating.
But again, there was nothing; just another cultural outing that ended with the symbolic spiritual invocation at the family graveyard at the edge of the village. If Nyamadzawo could argue at the Quill Club Bishop Muzorewa had no chance to win a single seat in the rural areas, it was because of the war raging there. Therefore, the absence of any talk and trace of the war in Mhondoro is to be honest, disappointing.
Especially when you consider that Nyamadzawo's blood brother was in the bush fighting with the guerrillas. "My brother was still in the bush fighting with the guerrillas. None of us knew exactly where he was operating." It is quite disappointing.
The story ends with the independence celebrations on April 18 at Rufaro Stadium. There, Prince Charles lowered the Union Jack and replaced it with the new Zimbabwe flag. It is an emotional moment, one that would never be re-lived. The people are wild with joy as the legendary Bob Marley sings a song especially dedicated to the new nation of Zimbabwe. It is a fitting ending not only to a tumultuous six months, but also to an entire era.
Gonamombe did a fine job. The cover design, a flaming rising sun bathing the countryside represents the beginning of that new era. Although the picture can easily be viewed as the image of a setting sun, Nyamadzawo was too much of optimist to regard the world in sinking terms. Such a pessimistic interpretation is best left to Rhodesians.
The text has a few typographical errors that could have been eliminated with tighter editing. The narrative could also have been tightened with finer editing. But otherwise, Coming Home is a valuable story about the emotions of a decisive and delicate time in our history handled superbly by someone who went through those motions.
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