Literature & Ideas
Landmark
Charles Mungoshi
1947 – 2019
Twice a PEN International award winner, writing in Shona and English
Landmark is level 2 of 4 in the Zimbabwe Hall of Fame: a first that opened a door, or the pre-eminent figure of their generation in this country. See how the levels work.
Why they are here
He wrote in both Shona and English, won two PEN International awards, and is the Zimbabwean writer most read by Zimbabweans.
Charles Muzuva Mungoshi grew up in rural Chivhu and left school early. He worked for the Literature Bureau and then as an editor, and wrote in two languages at once — not translating himself, but producing separate bodies of work in Shona and in English.
Waiting for the Rain and the Shona novel Ndiko Kupindana Kwamazuva both appeared in 1975, and both won awards that year. His subject is almost always the same and is rarely political in the direct sense: a family coming apart under pressure, the son who has been to the city and the father who has not, the obligations that cannot be met and cannot be refused. Coming of the Dry Season had been banned by the Rhodesian authorities in 1972 for far less than it was accused of.
He won the PEN International award twice and the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Africa twice. Because he wrote in Shona as seriously as in English, he is read by ordinary Zimbabweans rather than only studied abroad — the school syllabus runs on him.
He also wrote for children, acted, and worked on Zimbabwean film. He suffered a long illness from 2010 and died in 2019; the cost of his care became a public argument in Zimbabwe about how the country treats its writers.
Waiting for the Rain and the Shona novel Ndiko Kupindana Kwamazuva both appeared in 1975, and both won awards that year. His subject is almost always the same and is rarely political in the direct sense: a family coming apart under pressure, the son who has been to the city and the father who has not, the obligations that cannot be met and cannot be refused. Coming of the Dry Season had been banned by the Rhodesian authorities in 1972 for far less than it was accused of.
He won the PEN International award twice and the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Africa twice. Because he wrote in Shona as seriously as in English, he is read by ordinary Zimbabweans rather than only studied abroad — the school syllabus runs on him.
He also wrote for children, acted, and worked on Zimbabwean film. He suffered a long illness from 2010 and died in 2019; the cost of his care became a public argument in Zimbabwe about how the country treats its writers.
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