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Zimbabwean legendary novelist Charles Mungoshi, dies at 71
HARARE, Feb 16, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Zimbabwean revered and internationally
celebrated novelist and poet Charles Mungoshi has died aged 71, after a long
illness, his family said on Saturday.
“He had been ill for 10 years, from a neurological condition to which he
succumbed this morning at Parirenyatwa Hospital (in Harare),” the family said
in a statement.
He published 18 books including “Coming of the Dry Season”, a 1972
collection of short stories which was banned under colonial rule in the then
Rhodesia.
His novel “Waiting for the Rain” 1975 won him the International PEN Award.
Twice he won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize of Best Book in Africa and
also received the Noma Award for Writing from Africa four times.
His works included novels, plays, poetry and short story collections in
English and his native Shona language.
Some of his works have been translated into various languages including
German, Russian and Japanese.
His Shona novel “Ndiko Kupindana Kwamazuva”, loosely meaning how time
passes, was translated into French.
In 2011, one of his poems was on permanent display at the Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation headquarters in Seattle.
He was also a stage actor, literary editor and translator.
“Zimbabwe has lost a great writer. He was a writer of integrity and
sensitivity who understood the weight of words,” his publisher Irene Staunton
of Weaver Press, told AFP.
Born in the southern rural farming region of Chivhu on December 2, 1947,
Mungoshi is survived by his wife Jejesi and five children.
BSS/AFP/MSY/1707 hrs