Dambudzo Marechera
| Dambudzo Marechera | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Charles William Dambudzo Marechera 4 June 1952 Rusape, Zimbabwe (then known as Southern Rhodesia) |
| Died | 18 August 1987 (aged 35) Harare |
| Cause of death | AIDS |
| Nationality | Zimbabwean |
| Alma mater |
University of Zimbabwe (expelled) University of Oxford (expelled) |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Notable work | The House of Hunger |
Dambudzo Marechera (4 June 1952 – 18 August 1987) was a Zimbabwean novelist, short story writer, playwright and poet. His short career produced a book of stories, two novels (one published posthumously), a book of plays, prose, and poetry, and a collection of poetry (also posthumous).
Charles William Dambudzo Marechera was born in Vhengere Township, Rusape, Zimbabwe (then known as Southern Rhodesia), to Isaac Marechera, a mortuary attendant, and Masvotwa Venenzia Marechera, a maid.
In his 1978 book, The House of Hunger, and in interviews, Marechera often falsely suggests that his father was either run over by "a 20th century train" or "came home with a knife sticking from his back" or "was found in the hospital mortuary with his body riddled with bullets". Such incorrect accounts may be part of Marechera's penchant to revise even the "facts" of his own life. German researcher Flora-Veit Wild seems to give too much weight to an account given by Marechera's older brother, Michael, about the destructive element in the younger Marechera's life. Michael suggests that Dambudzo was a victim of their mother's muti, implying that he was cursed in some way. Interestingly, when Marechera returned from London and was made writer-in-residency at the University of Zimbabwe, his mother and sisters attempted to come and meet him but he rejected them offhand, accusing the mother of trying to kill him. Still, it is known that Marechera never even made an effort to meet with any member of his family before he died in 1987.
He grew up amid racial discrimination, poverty, and violence. He attended St. Augustine's Mission, Penhalonga, where he clashed with his teachers over the colonial teaching syllabus, the University of Rhodesia (now the University of Zimbabwe), from which he was expelled during student unrest, and New College, Oxford, where his unsociable behaviour and academic dereliction led to another expulsion.
His first book, The House of Hunger (1978), is the product of a period of despair following his time at Oxford University. Among the nine stories it contains, the long title story describes the narrator's brutalized childhood and youth in colonial Rhodesia in a style that is emotionally compelling and verbally pyrotechnic. The narrative is characterized by shifts in time and place and a blurring of fantasy and reality. Regarded as signalling a new trend of incisive and visionary African writing, The House of Hunger was awarded the 1979 Guardian Fiction Prize. Marechera was the first and the only African to have won the Guardian Fiction Prize in its 33 years (it was replaced in 1999 by the Guardian First Book Award).
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