Harare Voices and Beyond

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I also found some of the chapters confusing because it would switch between characters’ POV without always putting the name of the character at the top of the chapter so that you would know who is telling the story now. So you would think you were reading the mom’s story, Doris, POV but then you’d actually be in Rhys’ POV. Daring. Harare Voices & Beyond is full of intrigue and brutality. An unflinching portrait of broken families and a broken society.”

A drunken confession exposes a dark family secret. Rhys appears to have it all. A white Zimbabwean living in affluent Borrowdale Brooke area he gets involved in a freak traffic accident. Therein unfolds a confession which unleashes a cathartic chain of events in the family’s hitherto well-choreographed life, a family whose lived experience becomes microcosmic and an eye opener to Zimbabwe’s seemingly closed, forgotten, white minority community. The rating simply reflects technical shortcomings, but this will not be a barrier to many readers, so that needs to be clearly stated. Getting this story out is an admirable undertaking.

The Return of Andrew Chatora… “Harare Voices and Beyond”

Fari’s reverse trip is a story about the human body, a tight memory test and a duel between geography and anticipation… This opens up the broader conversations surrounding addiction in Zimbabwe as many young people are recruited into drug rings early. Another ugly aspect of the drug trade is the way in which it tears apart families as addicts care less and less about the people around them as they chase the next high. Chatora capably describes Julian’s downward spiral into stealing from his family to feed his meth habit: Where The Heart Isoffers a nuanced view of one family’s struggle to negotiate cold Britannia as they face dicey neighbourhoods, sketchy liaisons, and perennial ill-fate. Chatora’s diaspora is not the glorified El Dorado; it is an honest place of grit and survival. A stellar contribution.” David Chasumba’s The Mad Man of First Street and Other Short Stories heralds the emergence of a refreshing and pertinent voice on the Zimbabwean and diaspora literary landscape. A wonderful read Chasumba’s prose is engaging with its empathetic charac David Chasumba’s The Mad Man of First Street and Other Short Stories heralds the emergence of a refreshing and pertinent voice on the Zimbabwean and diaspora literary landscape. A wonderful read Chasumba’s prose is engaging with its empathetic characters.

Harare Voices and Beyondis an enlightened piece of literature, significantly beyond what we are currently reading about race relations. Finally, a book comes in which all points of view are shared, where the question is presented, “What do we do to rehabilitate race relations?” Andrew Chatora’s debut novella, Diaspora Dreams (2021), was approvingly received and nominated for the National Arts Merit Awards (2022). As Chatora wrote this story, he showed all sides of Julian’s addiction, highlighting the circumstances that often lead to drug use and abuse in Zimbabwe, which is an important theme as drug abuse in Zimbabwe is on the rise owing to youth unemployment and poverty. As one of Julian’s drug dealers note: Daring. Harare Voices and Beyond is full of intrigue and brutality. An unflinching portrait of broken families and a broken society. ─ Paida Chiwara

Harare Voices and Beyond: A story of the predator, the prey and everyone else in between

While one of the characters, murder victim Julian, blames his addiction on many things outside himself, the realities of his life are very hard to live with. And you can’t help but empathize when you get to a point in the book where he has an argument with his brother Rhys (later charged with his murder, along with his mother Doris), and we learn that Rhys is part of a sex ring. The worst thing about his involvement in this is that, as a part of this ring, he is not being hurt himself in any way, actually, taking advantage and hurting others for his own benefit. Harare Voices and Beyond gets me to a point where I say to myself, “No one has the right to really judge another’s actions.” Because, when it comes right down to it, while Julian easily lends himself to judgement for hurting himself, his brother, still holding on to his dignity, is hurting others for his own profit. When you judge the two, it turns out not to be what it seemed.

He lives with his wife Priveledge and their two children in Bicester, England where he teaches English and Media Studies.As I think about that, I realise that perhaps, a big take away from this novel is the author’s ability (which may surprise Muponde) to skillfully showcase and dramatize to the reader that the land reform in Zimbabwe has its sharp and irreconcilable contradictions. There are many versions of the land reform story of Zimbabwe, depending on who is telling which part of the broad story, where… and who is listening! Harare Voices and Beyond delves into the racial politics and turmoil that consumes life in Zimbabwe. It explores the drug addiction, abuse, grief, and loss that festers due to the political chaos that influences a majority of the characters’ life’s and decisions.

Where The Heart Isoffers a nuanced view of one family’s struggle to negotiate cold Britannia as they face dicey neighbourhoods, sketchy liaisons, and perennial ill-fate. Chatora’s diaspora is not the glorified El Dorado; it is an honest place of grit and survival. A stellar contribution."What happens in Zimbabwe is essentially stripping one race of control and putting in a detached elite who makes no real change, just more damage