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Featured Award Winning Artistic Intervention . . .
Home Means Nothing to Me
Tinashe Mushakavanhu talks about his mapping project, “Home Means Nothing to Me,”
which documents the life and movements of author Dambudzo Marechera in the the city
of Harare between 1982 and 1987 upon his return to Zimbabwe after forced exile in the
United Kingdom. Created in collaboration with Nontsikelelo Mutiti, with whom his runs
Black Chalk & Co. and readingzimbabwe.com, and Simba Mafundikwa, the map
appears in full in The Invention of Zimbabwe, the new edition of Chimurenga’s Chronic.
This piece was shortlisted for the 2018 Brittle Paper Awards which seek to recognise
the finest original pieces of writing by Africans published online.
Excerpt from "Home Means Nothing to Me":
Harare and Zimbabwe merge in Marechera because of his own experience. Before
exile, Marechera’s experience is in a small town, in Rusape at St. Augustine’s,
Penhalonga, where he went to school, so in the east of Zimbabwe. He leaves
Zimbabwe, comes back and his experience of Zimbabwe is just Harare. So he interacts
with Zimbabwe from Harare. And in a lot of ways nothing has changed in Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe has always been Harare-centric. So the Zimbabwean experience has always
been centred around Harare. So, you know, Bulawayo has its own fascinating history
but in the big scheme of things it’s a peripheral, footnote to the history of Zimbabwe. So
locating Marechera in Harare was also trying to complicate that because in a way, yes
he has become an everyday man, or an every man, but then we are also forcing him
into a space that is repulsive to him. So we’re trying to play around with his identity as a
writer. Is he a writer from Harare or is he a writer from Zimbabwe? So while it was
locating him in a space it was also poking fun at that idea of labeling a writer or locating
a writer in a specific place.
Clinic and / or Pharmacy to Rent
Invitation for bids to rent a Clinic and / or Pharmacy at Cancer Associations of
Zimbabwe (CAZ)
CAZ will be renting out its offices with effect from 1 January 2019 (clinic and pharmacy)
as separate units.