BY THE BOOK: Mbizo Chirasha 

Mbizo Chirasha  is a poet ,writer, publisher, creative arts projects catalyst and a citizens' justice activist. He is the instigator of the Zimbabwe We Want Poetry Campaign.

His poetry, writings and blog journals are widely published across the globe.

Chirasha is also the Founder and Creative Director of Girl Child Creativity Project. He is the Zimbabwe Resident Coordinator of the 100 Thousand Poets for Change-Global and the Women Scream International Poetry Festival.

He has led a number of Creative Interventions and Arts-based projects. He  was the  Poet in Residence of the United Nations Information Centre, Zimbabwe (2001-2007) performing  and  reading  Poetry at annual United Nation Days and other reputable UN events, Young Writers Delegate of Zimbabwe International Book Fair to Sweden (Goteborg Book Fair, 2003).

He spoke to Nation.co.ke about his work.

You are known to have been a fierce critic of former president Mugabe and his Government. Do you feel that things are bound to get better now?

I am not a critic of anyone or anyone’s government.

I am a voice trying to put political systems in the right path through verse and opinion articles, because we are tired of being the cannon fodder of revolutions that roast peasants for supper and munch our dreams for their breakfast.

The Mugabe-led regime had become a symbol of political nonsense and sign post of economic rot. I can’t safely say now things will quickly change for the better. I am not pessimist but we need the new regime to shake off the autocratic and dynastical dust choking the masses as we speak right now.

Any political system that fails to realise and respect the  rights , freedoms and needs of the citizens must fall.

Tell me the three books that excited you the most in 2017?

African Cook Boy by David Dinwoodie Irving . It depicts  the rot of the apartheid regime, how the  present political leaders in black led South Africa were runners and dirty work hands of the rich apartheid  time whites  and how those blacks graduated from being illegal dealers of cheap alcohol and drug cartels into cartel owners, again into powerful veterans of the

struggle and then rich ministers and political masters.

The book exposes that the illegal money oiled the black movements during that time. So some of our freedoms are a paradox and you come to believe that we are all led by crooks and jailbirds.

Secondly, there is Seventh Street Alchemy and Other Stories by Brian Chikwava and other writers. It’s a mind-raving collection of stories published through the Caine Prize in Africa. The collection is an exhibition of the political and moral decadence in Africa.

Your fauvorite childhood books? Why?

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe comes to mind. The book reflects on the  cultural stereotypes  presented by the old African society but  as it reaches towards  its climax, we are reminded of how Christianity came into Africa as an agent of imperialism and how many were duped that it was great way of living a life.

There is also Animal Farm by George Orwell. It is one of the books that invited me to reading and made me the reader I wanted to be. AnimalFarm awakened the revolutionary in me.

Tell us a little about your published works.

A lot  of  my poetry is  published in international journals , weblogs , anthologies   and collections .I  think  I am featured in more than 300 platforms  by now. I have coedited   more than three collections by Writers in Africa and Germany. My collections are published in different countries. Furthermore, I run my own publishing blogs on Wordpress.

If you were to dine with three writers dead or alive, who would they be and why?

Wole Soyinka for his bravery tenacity. Secondly, Tsitsi Dangarebwa. Her novel NervousCondition is something out of this world. The story in there is timeless. It spoke for our grandmothers, for our mothers, for our sisters, for our daughters. It will continue to voice for generations to come. The third person would be Zakes Mda of Many Ways of Dying.

What’s the most important writing lesson you have learnt in your years of writing?

A good writer is a good reader and without reading, you can't write. Writers must not be relegated to pen and paper; they must stand up and be counted in national processes.

Do you think book festivals, literary prizes and writing workshops are important?

These platforms and events are very important and they helped me personally. I attended a lot of writers’ workshops at a tender age. These workshops motivated and inspired me and made me grow a little better.

We were trained on basics of publishing and editing as well as aspects of creative writing for many years through Budding Writers Association of Zimbabwe, thanks to Dudziro Nhengu and the Zimbabwe Writers Union and the prominent Writer David Mungoshi.

I attended book fairs in Europe, Southern and West Africa and  participated in Photo Novel Writing workshops in East Africa. My first trip outside Zimbabwe was to a book festival in Sweden the Goteborg International Book Fair.

Among your contemporaries, who do you consider the most exciting newcomer in the writing world and why?

Brian Chikwava. He has a different way of telling a story. His pen is bold and authentic. His voice knows no sacred cow. His short story titled SeventhStreetAlchemy is something out of this world.

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BY THE BOOK is a literary series that covers authors, bloggers, actors, academics and poets of note in the African continent. For comments or inquiries, e-mail: [email protected]