Harare Review of Books

184 pages.

First published in 1975.

Finished reading on 16 Oct 2021.

Genre: Fiction.

Supplied blurb: The award-winning writer Charles Mungoshi is recognised in Africa, and internationally, as one of the continent’s most powerful writers today. This early novel deals with the pain and dislocation of the clash of the old and new ways – the educated young man determined to go overseas, and the elders of the family believing his duty is to stay and head the family.

Only the foolishness of youth thinks there is anything you can do for children already born and waiting to die besides feeding them the little you have and just looking at them while they are there with you and forgetting they belong to you.

Old Mandisa

A wonderful read, set in pre-Independence rural Zimbabwe.

Lucifer is about to go overseas. He has been away at boarding school, and his worldview has been changed, causing a fair amount of anxiety and tension at home.

Lucifer’s brother, the firstborn and therefore rightful heir, Garabha, tends to wander, is possibly possessed by the spirit of his great-grandfather (“[He] sits in you”), and is a phenomenally gifted drummer. His wandering angers his father, who does not understand him, and who has decided Lucifer will be his heir instead.

There is a spell on the extended family due to an unlawful death (ngozi), which the family must deal with. There is, too, tension between the various members of the family at home for many other reasons, including the suspicion of attempted murder by poisoning.

This is the story of the conflict between traditional beliefs and the new values that have come through colonialism, between African cosmogony and Christianity. Lucifer no longer believes in the old ways, and has found quiet (so far) ways of rejecting them. His uncle, Kuruku, has found a way to blend the old ways and the new, to the disgust of his family (he has ulterior motives). The rest of the family values and honours the old ways.

Lucifer’s grandfather is old and has seen many things, including war against white settlers. He disapproves of the ways of the young. Lucifer’s father is a man under a lot of pressure, who feels he has not achieved what he should, and takes it out on his family.

The women in the book are not as strongly written as the men, but an outstanding character is Old Mandisa, who is nearly blind, but sees many things clearly. She has a stabilising role in the family.

The book surprised me by how much interiority the author wrote for the characters. Garabha is very finely and sensitively drawn. Lucifer really only enters the story towards the end, so we mostly get to know him through his family (a very African value). The interactions of the characters build up a striking and painful picture of the harm settler colonialism wrought, of the destruction of a way of life.

Rated: 9/10 (although easily a 10).