Promotional Information

Written as a letter from a Zimbabwean mother to her daughter, a student at Harvard, J. Nozipo Maraire evokes the moving story of a mother reaching out to her daughter to share the lessons life has taught her and bring the two closer than ever before. Interweaving history and memories, disappointments and dreams, "Zenzele" tells the tales of Zimbabwe's struggle for independence and the men and women who shaped it: Zenzele's father, an outspoken activist lawyer; her aunt, a schoolteacher by day and secret guerrilla fighter by night; and her cousin, a maid and a spy.
Rich with insight, history, and philosophy, "Zenzele" is a powerful and compelling story that is both revolutionary and revelatory--the story of one life that poignantly speaks of all lives.

About the Author

J. Nozipo Maraire wrote the 1996 New York Times Notable Book of the Year Zenzele: A Letter for My Daughter. She was born in Zimbabwe in 1966, where she stayed in until she was 18, and moved to the United States to study at Harvard University. She left Zimbabwe during the war and fulfilled her dream of someday returning as a doctor who could assist both Africa’s economy and health care. She currently splits her time between Zimbabwe and the United States.

Reviews

Maraire, a Harvard-educated native of Zimbabwe now living in the United States, has written a beautifully poignant first novel about what it means to be a woman in Africa. The novel is written in the form of a letter from a mother to her daughter, Zenzele, who is just beginning her studies at Harvard. The mother writes of her girlhood in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe's colonial name), the struggle for Zimbabwe's independence, and her hopes and fears for the next generation. She has watched villagers send the best of her generation to Europe or America for an education, with the hope that they would return with their newly learned skills to better the lives of their compatriots. Instead, she is saddened when they do not return home to live but come back only for visits, seeming to have lost all remnants of African culture. The mother offers her own stories in hopes that her daughter, while creating herself, will never forget whence she came. Highly recommended for women's studies collections and to general readers seeking an intimate view of another life.‘Debbie Bogenschutz, Cincinnati Technical Coll.