Zenzele - Nozipo Maraire

Written as an extended letter from a black Zimbabwean mother to her daughter leaving for a university place in America, this refreshing and poignant first novel draws back a veil to reveal life in Africa today. Using the lyrical African tradition of dialogue through storytelling, she weaves her tales into a complex fabric of experiences and so reveals the texture of her culture and the rich colours of her own life. The stories, a blend of traditional African folklore, personal tragedy and candid observations, speak of the beauty of love and passion, the burden of oppression and the pain of loss. Through Zimbabwe`s fight for independence, ZENZELE reveals the inner struggles of a woman to render comprehensible the contradictions of the revolution and define a role for herself as a woman and mother.