Moving Spirit

This book was the result of a symposium at Oxford University on Dambudzo Marechera, who was expelled from both Rhodesian educatiom and Oxford and is usually considered either a cult figure or an African postcolonial writer. The authors come from a variety of backgrounds; African voices are strongly represented. Some of the US and European pieces are from academics, many of the Zimbabwean pieces are from non-academic artists, and many of the authors cannot easily be easily pigeonholed. Most struggle honestly in the first person with the myth of Marechera, the myths of Rhodesia becoming Zimbabwe, crossing borders too separated to bridge, and the making of myths out of real people and experiences. Most pieces are short. They deal with issues from being a white Zimbabwean outside Africa to figuring out how to put Marechera's work on stage or teach Zimbabwean schoolchildren about one of the nation's most influential writers, whose work documents savage and sexual violence and is usually banned. Perspectives from writers, journalists, academics, poets, performers, and filmmakers are included. The book includes a DVD of work by the authors (the films or performances about which they write in the text) and interviews and readings by Marechera. The latter reveal a writer who is smart, charismatic, deeply aware of both self and situation, and often ill and self-medicated with alcohol and drugs. A generation later, people on both sides of the colonial divide he fell into still struggle with the legacy. The book is edited by Julie Cairnie (English and Theatre Studies, University of Guelph, CA) and Dobrota Pucherova (African Literature, University of Vienna, AT). Distributed in the US by ISBS. Annotation c2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)