When it comes to narratives about Zimbabwe's pre-colonial and colonial period, there's often not enough literature (especially by Zimbabwean writers). This period in the country's history feels under served and reflections on it are little more than a few lessons in history class. Furthermore events are convulated by propaganda.
Here lies the importance of Elton Ndudzo's Charwe. A debut novel by a young writer, that seeks to a tell a version of the events that surrounded one of Zimbabwe's most important spiritual figures. Beginning at the dawn of the Rhodesian empire, Charwe is the story of how a woman tried to hold her people together in the face of near destruction. It is the story of Nehanda Charwe Nyakasikana, the spirit medium and the spirit itself.
While the story of Nehanda is a familiar tale, Ndudzo's writing adds a certain humanity to her persona that is often missing from the reverence people give her. Charwe is presented as a vulnerable woman with internal conflicts and doubts that face every other woman in some way or the other. When the role of spiritual leader is thrust upon her, it is not one easily accepted. Such difficulty in not only accepting roles but responsibilities is something that she shares with closely related characters in the novel.
We see Nehanda as a loving mother, a fearful daughter, a dedicated sister, a caring leader and a fearless warrior. Details to a life that has often been limited to the two years that made up the first Chimurenga. The basic story of the medium are known but there's still so much to learn about her, and presented through the lens of fiction it becomes an engaging history. If only lacking in a deeper exploration of all these that surrounded Charwe's experiences during that time in her life.
Charwe is equally a story about the Hwata dynasty, as it is about Nehanda. Through the lives of the clan, we see long held issues between tribes, between races, the burden of being a monarch and also that of succeeding one. The demonisation of our indigenous religions and way of life, as people accepted all the tenets of an imported culture.
The storytelling is fast paced, and there are no surprising twists to the tale but the fictional lives given to very real heroes and heroines is everything that makes the book what it is. Ndudzo's debut manages to give us countless viewpoints to reflect on but yet feels like it ends too soon.
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