Dambudzo Marechera
@dambudzo-marechera.bsky.social
Charles William Dambudzo Marechera
Zimbabwean author
June 4, 1952 - August 18, 1987
Official Page
(In association with the Dambudzo Marechera Trust)
Marechera Archive: https://rs.cms.hu-berlin.de/marecheraarchive/pages/home.php
Zimbabwean author
June 4, 1952 - August 18, 1987
Official Page
(In association with the Dambudzo Marechera Trust)
Marechera Archive: https://rs.cms.hu-berlin.de/marecheraarchive/pages/home.php
Pinned
A Dambudzo Marechera primer.
Marechera was the first African winner of the Guardian Fiction Prize in 1979 with his debut book The House of Hunger. He was born on the 4th of June 1952 in Rusape, Zimbabwe and died in Harare on the 18 August 1987.
Marechera was the first African winner of the Guardian Fiction Prize in 1979 with his debut book The House of Hunger. He was born on the 4th of June 1952 in Rusape, Zimbabwe and died in Harare on the 18 August 1987.
My Arms Vanished Mountains by Dambudzo Marechera, excerpt, part eight, read by Dambudzo Marechera.
(Published in Cemetery of Mind: www.amazon.com/dp/B093QV5796
(Published in Cemetery of Mind: www.amazon.com/dp/B093QV5796
November 23, 2025 at 1:32 PM
My Arms Vanished Mountains by Dambudzo Marechera, excerpt, part eight, read by Dambudzo Marechera.
(Published in Cemetery of Mind: www.amazon.com/dp/B093QV5796
(Published in Cemetery of Mind: www.amazon.com/dp/B093QV5796
My Arms Vanished Mountains by Dambudzo Marechera, excerpt, part seven, read by Dambudzo Marechera.
(Published in Cemetery of Mind: www.amazon.com/Cemetery-Min... )
#AfricanLit
(Published in Cemetery of Mind: www.amazon.com/Cemetery-Min... )
#AfricanLit
November 4, 2025 at 4:01 PM
My Arms Vanished Mountains by Dambudzo Marechera, excerpt, part seven, read by Dambudzo Marechera.
(Published in Cemetery of Mind: www.amazon.com/Cemetery-Min... )
#AfricanLit
(Published in Cemetery of Mind: www.amazon.com/Cemetery-Min... )
#AfricanLit
My Arms Vanished Mountains by Dambudzo Marechera. Excerpt, Page SIx, read by Dambudzo Marechera. (Published in Cemetery of Mind.)
July 13, 2025 at 1:45 PM
My Arms Vanished Mountains by Dambudzo Marechera. Excerpt, Page SIx, read by Dambudzo Marechera. (Published in Cemetery of Mind.)
My Arms Vanished Mountains by Dambudzo Marechera. Excerpt, Page Five, read by Dambudzo Marechera. (Published in Cemetery of Mind.)
July 13, 2025 at 1:40 PM
My Arms Vanished Mountains by Dambudzo Marechera. Excerpt, Page Five, read by Dambudzo Marechera. (Published in Cemetery of Mind.)
My Arms Vanished Mountains by Dambudzo Marechera. Excerpt, Page Four, read by Dambudzo Marechera. (Published in Cemetery of Mind.)
July 13, 2025 at 1:38 PM
My Arms Vanished Mountains by Dambudzo Marechera. Excerpt, Page Four, read by Dambudzo Marechera. (Published in Cemetery of Mind.)
My Arms Vanished Mountains by Dambudzo Marechera. Excerpt, Page Three, read by Dambudzo Marechera. (Published in Cemetery of Mind.)
July 13, 2025 at 1:33 PM
My Arms Vanished Mountains by Dambudzo Marechera. Excerpt, Page Three, read by Dambudzo Marechera. (Published in Cemetery of Mind.)
My Arms Vanished Mountains by Dambudzo Marechera. Excerpt, Page Two, read by Dambudzo Marechera. (Published in Cemetery of Mind.)
June 20, 2025 at 1:16 PM
My Arms Vanished Mountains by Dambudzo Marechera. Excerpt, Page Two, read by Dambudzo Marechera. (Published in Cemetery of Mind.)
The Undying Testament
(Soweto, June 16 & Sharpeville)
Late afternoon
Blood-red
Before shrapnel twilight
The Scream
Of conscience in flight!
— Damubudzo Marechera, excerpt, Cemetery of Mind.
📚💙 #protest #blackbooksky
(Soweto, June 16 & Sharpeville)
Late afternoon
Blood-red
Before shrapnel twilight
The Scream
Of conscience in flight!
— Damubudzo Marechera, excerpt, Cemetery of Mind.
📚💙 #protest #blackbooksky
June 16, 2025 at 10:09 AM
The Undying Testament
(Soweto, June 16 & Sharpeville)
Late afternoon
Blood-red
Before shrapnel twilight
The Scream
Of conscience in flight!
— Damubudzo Marechera, excerpt, Cemetery of Mind.
📚💙 #protest #blackbooksky
(Soweto, June 16 & Sharpeville)
Late afternoon
Blood-red
Before shrapnel twilight
The Scream
Of conscience in flight!
— Damubudzo Marechera, excerpt, Cemetery of Mind.
📚💙 #protest #blackbooksky
My Arms Vanished Mountains by Dambudzo Marechera. Excerpt, Page One, read by Dambudzo Marechera. (Published in Cemetery of Mind)
June 13, 2025 at 2:30 PM
My Arms Vanished Mountains by Dambudzo Marechera. Excerpt, Page One, read by Dambudzo Marechera. (Published in Cemetery of Mind)
China Mieville named Mindblast by Dambudzo Marechera as one of "The Books That Made Me", and quoted from it in his Hugo award winning The City and The City.
🪐📚💙
🪐📚💙
Book of a Lifetime: Mindblast by Dambudzo Marechera
From The Independent archive: China Mieville on ‘Mindblast’ by Dambudzo Marechera
www.independent.co.uk
June 9, 2025 at 1:29 PM
China Mieville named Mindblast by Dambudzo Marechera as one of "The Books That Made Me", and quoted from it in his Hugo award winning The City and The City.
🪐📚💙
🪐📚💙
"When all else fails, don't take it in silence: scream like hell, scream like Jericho was tumbling down, serenaded by a brace of trombones, scream.” — Dambudzo Marechera, The House of Hunger. #protest 📚💙
June 9, 2025 at 11:17 AM
"When all else fails, don't take it in silence: scream like hell, scream like Jericho was tumbling down, serenaded by a brace of trombones, scream.” — Dambudzo Marechera, The House of Hunger. #protest 📚💙
1/ "...And then he leaned over and threw the rest of his beer into my face.
I half rose and froze in that position.
All conversation had ceased in the whole room. All eyes were fixed on me and they were inscrutable. I had never looked at anyone so devouringly before and his eyes too were steady -
I half rose and froze in that position.
All conversation had ceased in the whole room. All eyes were fixed on me and they were inscrutable. I had never looked at anyone so devouringly before and his eyes too were steady -
May 23, 2025 at 2:43 PM
1/ "...And then he leaned over and threw the rest of his beer into my face.
I half rose and froze in that position.
All conversation had ceased in the whole room. All eyes were fixed on me and they were inscrutable. I had never looked at anyone so devouringly before and his eyes too were steady -
I half rose and froze in that position.
All conversation had ceased in the whole room. All eyes were fixed on me and they were inscrutable. I had never looked at anyone so devouringly before and his eyes too were steady -
1/ "Reason and good sense have not rid me of anxiety. The best is beyond in all cases; giving to each enough rope to knot the noose of life. Is it enough to say, 'What a waste all effort chases'? A root that always grows in the direction of the available water.
May 9, 2025 at 12:51 PM
1/ "Reason and good sense have not rid me of anxiety. The best is beyond in all cases; giving to each enough rope to knot the noose of life. Is it enough to say, 'What a waste all effort chases'? A root that always grows in the direction of the available water.
“Nothing lasts long enough to have been. These fragments of everything descend upon us haphazardly. Only rarely do we see the immanence of wholes. And that is the beginning of art.” — Dambudzo Marechera, House of Hunger.
April 10, 2025 at 11:18 AM
“Nothing lasts long enough to have been. These fragments of everything descend upon us haphazardly. Only rarely do we see the immanence of wholes. And that is the beginning of art.” — Dambudzo Marechera, House of Hunger.
"Hate me," I said
"But with generosity."
I have suckled too much of the city
The wide tarred streets
Jacarandas in serenade are my fate
Out here the heave and toil of boredom
"But with generosity."
I have suckled too much of the city
The wide tarred streets
Jacarandas in serenade are my fate
Out here the heave and toil of boredom
April 4, 2025 at 1:59 PM
"Hate me," I said
"But with generosity."
I have suckled too much of the city
The wide tarred streets
Jacarandas in serenade are my fate
Out here the heave and toil of boredom
"But with generosity."
I have suckled too much of the city
The wide tarred streets
Jacarandas in serenade are my fate
Out here the heave and toil of boredom
"To see takes time; and within time are countless transmutations. Therefore, the evidence of our own eyes is always provisional; therefore, the element of fantasy, in terms of metamorphosis, becomes the only fact we are truly capable of." — Dambudzo Marechera.
March 7, 2025 at 2:26 PM
"To see takes time; and within time are countless transmutations. Therefore, the evidence of our own eyes is always provisional; therefore, the element of fantasy, in terms of metamorphosis, becomes the only fact we are truly capable of." — Dambudzo Marechera.
Interview with Dambudzo Marechera's Cemetery of Mind French edition translator Xavier Garnier (in French).
#AfricanLit
#AfricanLit
Chemins d'écriture - Quand le Zimbabwéen Dambudzo Marechera transforme le trauma en poésie
C’est un recueil posthume de poèmes, superbement traduits de l’original en anglais, qui est au menu de la chronique littéraire de ce dimanche. Son titre : Cimetière de l’esprit. Son auteur, le Zimbabw...
www.rfi.fr
February 28, 2025 at 1:39 PM
Interview with Dambudzo Marechera's Cemetery of Mind French edition translator Xavier Garnier (in French).
#AfricanLit
#AfricanLit
1/2 "Language. Knotted tightly around my eyes like a bandage made of headaches. Language. Shards of a broken glued-together mirror. In it knotting my tie. English images came out of the barn with a thousand Zulus at my heels.
February 21, 2025 at 2:08 PM
1/2 "Language. Knotted tightly around my eyes like a bandage made of headaches. Language. Shards of a broken glued-together mirror. In it knotting my tie. English images came out of the barn with a thousand Zulus at my heels.
"Those for whom the notion of art without money was incomprehensible thought of this group as self-indulgent, posturing—their problems self-inflicted. From the outside it did look like that. For the people on the 'outside' thought only in terms of money. Nothing but profit and gain.-
#AfricanLit
#AfricanLit
January 24, 2025 at 1:51 PM
"Those for whom the notion of art without money was incomprehensible thought of this group as self-indulgent, posturing—their problems self-inflicted. From the outside it did look like that. For the people on the 'outside' thought only in terms of money. Nothing but profit and gain.-
#AfricanLit
#AfricanLit
1/33 The Christmas Reunion by Dambudzo Marechera excerpt from The House of Hunger.
"I had never killed a goat before. But it was Christmas. And father who had always done it was dead. He had been dead for seven years. My sister, Ruth, could not possibly be expected to kill the goat.
#AfricanLit
"I had never killed a goat before. But it was Christmas. And father who had always done it was dead. He had been dead for seven years. My sister, Ruth, could not possibly be expected to kill the goat.
#AfricanLit
December 25, 2024 at 12:27 PM
1/33 The Christmas Reunion by Dambudzo Marechera excerpt from The House of Hunger.
"I had never killed a goat before. But it was Christmas. And father who had always done it was dead. He had been dead for seven years. My sister, Ruth, could not possibly be expected to kill the goat.
#AfricanLit
"I had never killed a goat before. But it was Christmas. And father who had always done it was dead. He had been dead for seven years. My sister, Ruth, could not possibly be expected to kill the goat.
#AfricanLit
1/4 In Jail the Only Telephone Is the Washbasin Hole: Blow and We'll Hear!
Write the poem not from the classroom lectures
But from the barricade's shrieking defiance
From the mortuary's brightly frozen monocle
From day's gunburst to night's screaming human torch
#AfricanLit #BlackSky
Write the poem not from the classroom lectures
But from the barricade's shrieking defiance
From the mortuary's brightly frozen monocle
From day's gunburst to night's screaming human torch
#AfricanLit #BlackSky
December 22, 2024 at 12:50 PM
1/4 In Jail the Only Telephone Is the Washbasin Hole: Blow and We'll Hear!
Write the poem not from the classroom lectures
But from the barricade's shrieking defiance
From the mortuary's brightly frozen monocle
From day's gunburst to night's screaming human torch
#AfricanLit #BlackSky
Write the poem not from the classroom lectures
But from the barricade's shrieking defiance
From the mortuary's brightly frozen monocle
From day's gunburst to night's screaming human torch
#AfricanLit #BlackSky
1/2 "Where to sit still
And slam the door
Against fear of tomorrow?
Brute black rain
Pummels my brainpaths
Unleashes areas of despair
In my once sunlit memory
#AfricanLit
And slam the door
Against fear of tomorrow?
Brute black rain
Pummels my brainpaths
Unleashes areas of despair
In my once sunlit memory
#AfricanLit
December 20, 2024 at 2:07 PM
1/2 "Where to sit still
And slam the door
Against fear of tomorrow?
Brute black rain
Pummels my brainpaths
Unleashes areas of despair
In my once sunlit memory
#AfricanLit
And slam the door
Against fear of tomorrow?
Brute black rain
Pummels my brainpaths
Unleashes areas of despair
In my once sunlit memory
#AfricanLit
Ghetto Maestro song tribute to Dambudzo!
ECHOES OF DAMBUDZO MARECHERA - GHETTO MAESTRO!
YouTube video by GHETTOMAESTRO!
www.youtube.com
December 19, 2024 at 12:48 PM
Ghetto Maestro song tribute to Dambudzo!
The House of Hunger (1983) Directed by Chris Austin
Based on the award winning novel by Dambudzo Marechera, on growing up black in white Rhodesia, and the exiled writer’s return to the newly liberated Zimbabwe. #AfricanLit
House of Hunger film + Documentary
YouTube video by TheGoodSpaceInc
www.youtube.com
December 19, 2024 at 10:33 AM
The House of Hunger (1983) Directed by Chris Austin
Based on the award winning novel by Dambudzo Marechera, on growing up black in white Rhodesia, and the exiled writer’s return to the newly liberated Zimbabwe. #AfricanLit