WAR FICTION AS ROMANCE OF ADVENTURE

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In the previous Chapter attempts have been made to argue that writers of Shona war fiction tended to romanticise the war largely because they were influenced by the advent of independence and afreedom, the dominant mood of euphoria and celebration, the dominant ideology at the time, as well as the situation of literary competitions. The war novel gives an accurate picture of the surface life and shows the dominant interests of post-independent Zimbabwe. It is an expression of the meaning or the spirit of the time. This means that Shona war fiction writers represented more than themselves. They were spokespersons of an epoch and of their country. The war novel was written at a time of celebration and self-congratulations. It gave its approval to the spirit of the time by idealising and romanticising the war. While the argument that Shona war fiction is a product of its historical and social epoch is plausible, its pitfall lies in the fact that it does not consider the nature of the theme that writers were writing on. This chapter turns to the question of theme with the intention of presenting the argument that writers’ perspectives are often shaped by the type of theme they write on, and in this case the theme is that of war.

THE THEME OF WAR

Writers of Shona war fiction were writing on the theme of war. If one writes on the theme of war the chances of him or her writing a romance of adventure are very high, because more often than not war tales tend to stress its romance rather than its tragedy. This is their nature. Romances are stories of marvel and adventures written with little regard for probability and with no sense of history. Usually romances show no knowledge of and no feeling for historical accuracy (Boas and Smith, 1925). Because the writer is writing about war, he is keenly aware that his readers love to read about people like themselves in everyday scenes, and about the marvellous, the fantastic, the adventure that passes beyond bounds of reality in time, place and psychology (Spearman, 1966:144). Although he is drawing his material from a historical event, the writer is not a passive instrument like a mirror that reflects what its face captures. Rather, he is a selective instrument, like a computer, that selects what he knows his readers like. It must be borne in mind that these war novels should be recognised, “not as original creations, but as the re-fashioning of ready-made and familiar materials. Even here, the writer keeps a certain amount of independence, which can express itself in the choice of material and in changes in it which are often quite extensive” (Freud, 1972:41). The events of the war depicted in these Shona war stories are the familiar materials that writers were re-fashioning. Their novels are a re-organisation of the mythical and legendary stories that they heard told during the liberation war and most of these stories were stories of courage, peril and marvel. Therefore, in so far as the material is already at hand it is derived from the popular treasure-house of myths, legends and fairytales (Freud, 1972:41). One can therefore conclude that these myths, legends and fairytales are the raw material of which Shona war romances of adventure are made. This chapter sets out to postulate that whether writers liked it or not as long as they were writing about war they were likely to produce romances because by its very nature war always provides an opportunity for adventure and adventure is an essential ingredient of a romance. It is argued that writers would most probably have come up with romances notwithstanding the factors discussed in Chapter 2 that helped to give the Shona war novel its character, quality and shape. As long as they were writing about a war, especially a guerrilla war such as the one that liberated Zimbabwe and a war they did not participate in, they were bound to fantasise. It has been pointed out in Chapter 2 that all the Shona war fiction writers were non-participants in the war they were now fantasising about. They were depending on what they saw from a distance and on the numerous stories told about the war which they heard, some of it reaching them as second hand information. There were numerous mythical stories about the guerrillas. For example, there were stories told about guerrillas that they could disappear into thin air, that if captured by Rhodesian soldiers the guerrillas would turn into cabbages by the time they got to the police.

PORTRAYAL OF FEMALE CHARACTERS IN THE SHONA MAINSTREAM NOVEL: AN OVERVIEW

The general trend that one observes in Shona literature in the mainstream is that women always play secondary roles to those of men. Female characters are usually portrayed as being subordinate to men. Gaidzanwa (1985) discusses the images of women in Shona, Ndebele, and English literature written by blacks. She observes that women in Zimbabwean literature are largely depicted as mothers, wives, divorcees, and widows, single, jilted and as prostitutes. As wives and mothers they are usually expected to be nice, good, comforting and nurturant, passive and unassertive. If they are like this then they are depicted as good and well behaved. If they are single, divorced, jilted, widowed and prostitutes they are portrayed negatively as bad. In that sense women characters hardly break new ground in the context of Zimbabwean, and, indeed, African literary discourse (Zhuwarara, 1996:41). Powerful women characters are relatively rare in African literature (Makgamatha, 1992:85). In Shona fiction in the mainstream writers tend to confine their female characters to what may be termed the domestic sphere. When writers allow their female characters more space in which to practise their professions they give them roles such as nursing, teaching, secretary-typist, which are, to all intents and purposes, extensions of their domestic responsibilities. It is thought so because as girls, mothers, wives and grandmothers in the home their role is seen as that of ‘teaching’ the young, ‘nursing’ the family members, and providing other social services. It is quite uncommon to find women characters playing the roles of heroines in Shona fiction. However, women are frequently created as main characters in the novels in which they feature but when that happens they are usually depicted in very bad light, either as difficult spouses, criminals, prostitutes, or victims of the actions of the male protagonists. Rarely, if ever, do women characters play the role of heroines. Zhuwarara (1996:41) therefore makes a correct assessment when he points out that the actual significance of the female character has either been neglected or distorted. Chigidi (1998) has shown that in Shona detective fiction women play the roles of wives, mothers, nurses, secretaries/typists, victims of murder and criminals, but never that of detective heroines. That role is reserved for men. That shows, as Makgamatha (1992:85) observes, that the African world has been depicted in written literature as a man’s world. The above overview is quite essential as it provides a useful background to the understanding of the role women characters play in Shona war fiction.

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WOMEN AS RELIGIOUS LEADERS, ENTERTAINERS, SELL-OUTS

Women in Shona war fiction often share the role of religious leaders with men. Writers have not hesitated to make women play the role of national or tribal spirit mediums. As spirit mediums women achieve high status in Shona war society and they gain a lot of esteem and respect. In this capacity women are consulted and they give guidance and protection to the guerrilla fighters. They foretell and forewarn guerrillas and the ordinary people of dangers or imminent enemy attacks. They provide rain, charms and advice on routes to follow as well as on rules of conduct. Some women provide entertainment, especially at rallies addressed by the comrades. One such woman is Chimoto’s wife whose dancing prowess solicits generous applause from the crowd and comments from Comrade Tumirai, but at the same time generating feelings of bitterness in Chimoto, her husband who does not quite like the way his wife is dancing like a young unmarried chimbwido. However, she achieves the writer’s artistic purpose of providing the gathering with entertainment. On the other hand a woman character in Makata’s Gona ReChimurenga (1982) is made a sell-out. The woman, who has no personal name given, volunteers to give information to Rhodesian soldiers that leads to the discovery of a landmine that was planted by Mabhunu and his fellow comrades. In the exchange of fire that ensues several Rhodesian soldiers and two comrades perish. When the woman is captured by the comrades and asked why she sold out she admits that she wanted the money that had been promised as reward to anyone who volunteered such information; Vana’ngu ndiri shirikadzi, murume wangu akafa asina kana kai kaakandisiira. Saka ndanga ndichida mazana avanotaura (p.36-7). (My children I am a widow, my husband died and left me with nothing. So I wanted the hundreds of dollars that they [Rhodesian regime] talk about.) In an uncharacteristic gesture of benevolence Mabhunu gives her money she wants and release her with a warning not to do it again. After all, Mabhunu says, she is not the only one who is poor.

PERSPECTIVES ON THE WAR AFTERMATH

Various chapters of this thesis have looked at Shona war fiction writers’ perspectives on Zimbabwe’s war of liberation. Different writers’ perspectives on the war have been discussed and the factors that shaped those perspectives have also been analysed. Having looked at the various perspectives the Shona war fiction writers had on the actual guerrilla war itself, this chapter turns to look at how the writers see the independence and freedom that are the products of the liberation war. Zimbabwe’s liberation war that is the subject of the literature under study resulted in a free and independent nation state. This chapter now focuses on discussing how the various authors of Shona war fiction view the meaning of this freedom and independence to those who were at the centre of the armed struggle.

AT THE HOME FRONT

It was noted in Chapter 1 that a war novel, among other things, might be a domestic setting (at the home front) where the characters are recovering from war. This chapter on the war aftermath looks at how the characters in the war novels are settling down and recovering from the war situation. Not every war novelist studied in this research, however, goes beyond the end of the war itself to speculate on the post-war era. The stories in some of the novels analysed in this thesis end before or at independence. Nyawaranda’s Mutunhu Une Mago (1985) and Makata’s Gona ReChimurenga (1982) end well before the actual end of the war itself. Pesanai’s Gukurahundi (1985) ends at the time of the ceasefire. Both Makata and Pesanai write the formulaic expression ‘Magumo’ (used by the traditional sarungano/story-teller) to indicate that they have come to the end of their narratives. However, a few writers did try to speculate about the war aftermath. These include Makari and Choto in Zvaida Kushinga (1985) and Vavariro (1990), respectively. It is possible to speculate and say when other writers felt that victory celebration was over they decided to stop and they ended their novels. However, others were probably

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Preamble
1.2 Aims of the research
1.3 Objectives of the research
1.4 Justification of the research
1.5 Research methods
1.6 Literature review
1.7 Theoretical framework
1.8 Scope of research
1.9 Conclusion
CHAPTER 2 POST-INDEPENDENCE SITUATIONS AND THE BIRTH OF SHONA WAR
FICTION
2.1 Introduction
2.2 War actions and memories: The unpublished materials
2.3 Independence and freedom
2.4 Euphoria and celebration
2.5 Dominant ideology of post-independence era
2.6 Literary competitions
2.7 Conclusion
CHAPTER 3 WAR FICTION AS ROMANCE OF ADVENTURE
3.1 Introduction
3.2 The theme of war
3.3 War as adventure
3.4 Spiril of bravado and adventure
3.5 The call
3.6 Test of adequacy
3.7 The crisis (the hero must not die)
3.8 The folktale motif
3.9 Fighting a duel
3.10 Exaltation and fulfilment of the quest-myth
3.11 Conclusion
CHAPTER 4 FICTIONAL REPRESENTATION OF HISTORICAL MATERIAL
4.1 Introduction
4.2 The history factor
4.3 Titles
4.4 Use of dates
4.5 Recreating actual historical events and incidents
4.6 ‘Rubbing shoulders’ with historically prominent people
4.7 Wars have causes
4.8 Echoes from the past
4.9 Preserving the ‘fabric of the times’
4.10 Guns, cooking sticks and pens
4.11 Conclusion
CHAPTER 5 CULTURAL ASPECTS OF THE WAR
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Identifying the culture
5.3 Cultural genocide
5.4 Cultural reviva
5.5 The role of religion
5.6 Mythical stories
5.7 Taboos
5.8 Shona nomenclacture as weapon of aggression
5.9 Conclusion
CHAPTER 6 THE ROLE OF FEMALE CHARACTERS
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Portrayal of female characters in the Shona mainstream novel: an overview
6.3 Women as emotional caretakers of the family
6.4 Women as victims
6.5 Women as religious leaders, entertainers, sell-outs
6.6 Women as war collaborators-zvimbwido
6.7 Factors that shaped writers’ perspectives on women’s role in the liberation war .
6.8 Conclusion
CHAPTER 7 PERSPECTIVES ON THE WAR AFTERMATH
7.1 Introduction
7.2 At the home front
7.3 Appeasing the ancestors
7.4 Perspectives of the pessimist
7.5 Perspectives on the land issues
7.6 Conclusion
CHAPTER 8 CONCLUSION