Mhenenguro

REMEMBERING YVONNE VERA THE HISTORIAN In the introduction to Charles Mungoshi: A Critical Reader, Professor Zodza Motsa (2006) made this submission: “Certain members of society may not even believe that literary creations can create and narrate history from alternative sites as well as authorized versions of literary history that can interrogate official historical accounts” This submission is equally so to one of Zimbabwe’s literary giants in the Yvonne Vera. She has a huge literary corpus to her name, which to me can be read along the grand narrative of our national history since the late 1900s up to the present day. Her narrative doesn’t read our history as a saint. Vera views history as a point where we can learn from as we realize the mountainous task in our struggle beginning at individual till we reach the national level. History thus becomes a river to learn of our mistakes, our successes as we commit to our aspirations. Thus, Some of Vera’s literary imaginations read...