You Are Oceanic
By Tapiwa Mugabe
All she wanted
Was find a place to
Stretch her bones
A place to lengthen
Her smiles
And spread her hair
A place where her
Legs could walk
Without cutting and
Bruising
A place unchained
She was born out of
Ocean breath.
I reminded her;
‘Stop pouring so
Much of yourself
Into hearts that have
No room for
Themselves
Do not thin yourself
Be vast
You do not bring the
Ocean to a river’
Filed under African Lit, For Lovers, Readers and Me
Wilfred Mhanda, whom I had the pleasure of meeting in Harare last year, pens a detailed and intriguing account of the the guerrilla war in Rhodesia, Zimbabwe’s subsequent independence, the rise of the ZANU party, and the rise President Mugabe. This is a must-read narrative containing first hand accounts of political rivalries and perhaps the most in-depth account of President Mugabe’s rise within the ZANU-PF party.
I tagged this one as “Afro-European Lit” because Andrea Levy is perhaps one of the most well-known Afro-authors and pioneers in the United Kingdom. However, this is an Afro-Caribbean epic about slavery and the struggle for abolition in Jamaica. Following a young slave woman named July, The Long Song weaves in and out of history telling a story that is at times engaging and suspenseful but at other times painfully slow moving. Honestly, I’m still trying to decide whether I will read her entire body of work this year as planned as I am not completely blown away this far. Stay tuned . . .
Filed under African Lit, Afro-European Lit, What We're Reading
The Afro-Librarians 