Musaemura Bonas Zimunya (born 14 November 1949) is one of

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...

's most important contemporary writers.

Life

Zimunya was born in Umtali, Rhodesia (now

Mutare Mutare (formerly Umtali) is the most populous city in the province of Manicaland, and the third most populous city in Zimbabwe, having surpassed Gweru in the 2012 census, with an urban area, urban population of 224,802 and approximately 260,567 ...

, Zimbabwe), to Mandiera Watch and Kufera Zimunya. In 1973 he was expelled from the

University of Rhodesia The University of Zimbabwe (UZ) is a public university in Harare, Zimbabwe. It opened in 1952 as the University College of Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, Rhodesia and Nyasaland, and was initially affiliated with the University of London. ...

for 'disturbing the peace'. While exiled in Great Britain he studied at the

University of Kent , motto_lang = , mottoeng = Literal translation: 'Whom to serve is to reign'(Book of Common Prayer translation: 'whose service is perfect freedom')Graham Martin, ''From Vision to Reality: the Making of the University of Kent at Canterbury'' ...

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. ...

. He got a

Bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

in 1978 and a

Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

in 1979. His MA dissertation was later published as ''Those Years of Drought and Hunger: The Birth of African Fiction in English in Zimbabwe''. In 1980, he returned to newly independent Zimbabwe where he settled and married Viola Catherine, and took a

University of Zimbabwe The University of Zimbabwe (UZ) is a public university in Harare, Zimbabwe. It opened in 1952 as the University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, and was initially affiliated with the University of London. It was later renamed the University o ...

position as a professor of English that he has kept since. He has been secretary general of the Zimbabwean Writers' Union. In 1992 he received a

Fulbright The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of ...

scholarship to the

Pratt Institute Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York (state), New York. It has a satellite campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The school was ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

.Fulbright 1982/2006 African Senior Fulbright Research Scholars
. Accessed 2007-10-09 He left Zimbabwe in 1999 for the USA and is currently Director of Black Studies at

Virginia Tech Virginia Tech (formally the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and informally VT, or VPI) is a Public university, public Land-grant college, land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. It also ...

Work

Zimunya's poetry deals with the beauty of Zimbabwe, but also with its poverty and history of suffering, and with urban alienation from spiritual heritage. Most of his published work is in English, but he also writes in

Shona Shona often refers to: * Shona people, a Southern African people * Shona language, a Bantu language spoken by Shona people today Shona may also refer to: * ''Shona'' (album), 1994 album by New Zealand singer Shona Laing * Shona (given name) * S ...

. Zimunya began publishing poems when he was still at school, in literary journals like ''Two-Tone'' and ''Chirimo''. His early poetry often revealed an imaginative appreciation of the beauty of nature. While his collection ''Thought Tracks'' (1982) represents a generation that felt marginalized by colonialism, ''Kingfisher, Jikinya and other poems'', published in the same year, is a celebration of love and nature. ''Country Dawns and City Lights'' (1985) takes a disillusioned look at the idealization of rural life, while also confronting the difficulties faced by the urban dweller. ''Perfect Poise'' (1993) and ''Selected Poems'' (1995) are collections that contain both the lyricism of his earlier work and the cynical perspective of the critic. Zimunya has published one collection of short stories, ''Nightshift'' (1993), and a volume of literary criticism. His work has also been published in British and Amerikan anthologies, in Kizito Muchemwas ''Zimbabwean Poetry in English'' (1978), and in the collection he co-edited with Mudereri Khadani, ''And Now the Poets Speak'' (1981). In the afterword to the Serbian/English version of his ''Collected Poems'' in 1995, Zimunya described his poetry thus: ''When you read these poems, it is my cherished hope that you will gain some insight… into the brutality of colonialism, the vagaries of growing up permanently dispossessed in a racially structured society, the tortuous quest for reconciliation of a shattered old culture with a hostile and spiritless new world cultivated to disadvantage the African and… the undying quest for harmony with nature… And then also you may wonder about the chaos artistic rhythms and traditions forever tussling for my creative attention.''

Bibliography

Poetry

*''Thought Tracks'' Longman, 1982. *''Kingfisher, Jikinya and other poems'' Longman Zimbabwe, 1982. *''Country Dawns and City Lights'' Longman Zimbabwe, 1985. *''Perfect Poise'' College Press, 1993. *''Selected Poems'' Longman, 1995

Short stories

*''Nightshift'' Longman, 1993.

Literary criticism

*''Those Years of Drought and Hunger: The Birth of African Fiction in English in Zimbabwe'' 1982.

As editor

*''And Now the Poets Speak'' Mambo Press, 1981. With Mudereri Khadani *''The Fate of Vultures: New Poetry of Africa'' Heinemann International, 1989. With

Kofi Anyidoho Kofi Anyidoho (born 25 July 1947) is a Ghanaian poet and academic who comes from a family tradition of Ewe poets and oral artists.

and Peter Porter. *''Birthright: Selection of Poems from Southern Africa'' Longman International Education, 1990.

References

External links

Profile on the Poetry International Web
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Zimunya, Musaemura 1949 births Living people People from Mutare Zimbabwean poets Zimbabwean male writers Male poets Alumni of the University of Kent Academic staff of the University of Zimbabwe Zimbabwean expatriates in England Zimbabwean expatriates in the United States Zimbabwean exiles