In the dark times, will there still be singing? The Imagination and Constraints in Zimbabwe

Tinashe Mushakavanhu presents a timeline of literary production in Zimbabwe, focusing on 3 critical waves that have shaped the country's black writing and intellectual traditions. Although Zimbabwean writers have longed for a secure place within the hierarchy of professions, their social status has remained ambiguous. At the same time, even though the successful development of literary infrastructure in the 80s salved persistent anxieties about Zimbabwe's place in Africa after a prolonged period of isolation under Rhodesia's unilateral declaration of independence, things disintegrated during Robert Mugabe's long tenure in power. In this talk, he interrogates the discord and harmony of Zimbabwe's recent post-independence history through the prisms of his digital archive, readingzimbabwe.com.

Tinashe Mushakavanhu is a writer and editor from Zimbabwe. He is the 2018 Andrew W. Mellon Writer in residence at Rhodes University, South Africa. He is the principal researcher for readingzimbabwe.com