Joy and lamentations greet NoViolet’s Caine Triumph

For a country that has been in the news for the wrong reasons recently [President Mugabe’s intransigence and the leaping inflation rates being just a few], NoViolet’s triumph was reason for cheers. Her face adorned the chhhover of some prominent Zimbabwean dailies and a wave of optimism has hit the Southern African nation. Ironically, NoViolet’s […]

For a country that has been in the news for the wrong reasons recently [President Mugabe’s intransigence and the leaping inflation rates being just a few], NoViolet’s triumph was reason for cheers. Her face adorned the chhhover of some prominent Zimbabwean dailies and a wave of optimism has hit the Southern African nation.

Ironically, NoViolet’s winning short story, ‘Hitting Budapest’ is a disturbing portrait of hunger, poverty and child abuse in that country. It focuses on a group of children from a poor Bulawayo suburb who go to steal guavas from a neighbourhood called ‘Budapest’ and end up robbing a corpse for a loaf of bread.

There is no denying the quality of her story-telling craft which helped her see off competition from four other quality works in other Africa writers and heralds the birth of another potential literary icon on the continent.

But in Zimbabwe, there are other concerns aside the immediate euphoria. NoViolet is based in the United States and has been there for long – since she was a child. Zimbabwean daily, The Zimbabwean, while celebrating the triumph, laments that Zimbabweans have to leave the country’s shores to realise their dreams, contributing little to the growth of their own country in the process.

While it may be true that NoViolet may have lived outside her country for long, her story depicts, rather graphically, the human condition in her native country and her triumph has given her countrymen hope and a renewed belief in themselves.

And with this feat, the young writer will now join other illustrious Zimbabweans like Tsitsi Dangarenbwa and Brian Chikwava in projecting something positive coming out of Mugabe’s fort.