Harare Review of Books

180 pp. Published October 8, 2024 by House of Anansi. Fiction anthology.

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Part of this elegant, polished and extremely accomplished collection is an enquiry into that Diasporan sorrow: What happens when your parent or grandparent dies while you’re gone? Because when you leave, it’s hard to drop everything and come back at a moment’s notice. And it’s equally hard to find the time to come back and wait, stand vigil as a loved dies. This is a theme in the first of the linked stories in Who Will Bury You? But there are additional questions: What happens when you find yourself after you’ve left, and that self isn’t acceptable back home? Several of the protagonists here are lesbian, and from Zimbabwe, a profoundly homophobic country (officially, anyway). What will your mother tell Mai Mfundisi, the reverend’s wife, about that, when she comes to visit?

Muchemwa wrote and published several of these stories years ago, but they all fit seamlessly into this beautifully conceived anthology. The preoccupation is death, heartbreak, loss—like when Tino’s mother, a widow, wonders who will bury Tino since Tino shows no sign of partnering up (for reasons soon made clear)—but the stories examine different aspects of this, and range across continents. A couple of intriguing stories are set in Kariba, and feature Nyami Nyami and the disruption to the traditional lifeways of BaTonga from the building of the dam wall. A favourite is Paradise, about Wickington, the only surviving one of a series of W-named brothers; he spends all of his time at the cemetery where his siblings are buried. It’s a poignant depiction of the fractures of African family systems brought about by immigration and yes, much death.

Another one stands out because it’s not primarily or obviously about death, but is a tribute to African fatherhood (said tongue-in-cheek): Chasing Elephants. It’s a warm, lightly humorous story about a father-daughter trip to Mana Pools, replete with the awkwardness of a father who’s never understood the modern compulsion to express affection—because isn’t it clear in how he provides for his child? But eventually, through his daughter’s eyes, we see how much love there is, even unexpressed.

Who Will Bury You? feels like a Diasporan love letter to Zim life and culture, but also a eulogy for what’s inevitably lost as time and people move on. People change, or are forcefully changed by outside forces. Colonialism happens, and they’re moved from their homes at gunpoint because a dam is to be built; they move to the city from rural areas, and things do not go as dreamed; they move overseas, and come to realise their sexual orientation is one that doesn’t fit in back home. This anthology is about community and its wounds, both those from internal pressure to conform, and those from external impacts.

If she isn’t already, Chido Muchemwa is set to be a leading light of modern Zimbabwean and African literature. Because of her skill, readers will be completely absorbed from the first page to the last. Very highly recommended. Thank you to House of Anansi Press for providing me with a review copy.

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