Rutendo Tavengerwei

Esperança para voar, de Rutendo Tavengerwei, jovem escritora do Zimbábue, é a história de superação e amizade de duas adolescentes, Shamiso e Tanyaradzwa. Shamiso retorna com a mãe do Reino Unido para o Zimbábue, após a morte do pai, jornalista de oposição ao regime ditatorial da época. Tanyaradzwa, sua grande amiga, luta contra o câncer. O cenário é o Zimbábue, em 2008, ano de grave crise política nesse país africano. A narrativa é emocionante e mostra como duas jovens procuram compreender uma realidade tão brutal, e como aprendem a lutar contra adversidades sem perder a sensibilidade.… (més)

Tumi is fourteen-years-old. He lives with Mkoma, his elder brother, and throughout his short life has faced bullying on a daily basis because he is an albino. Even his supposed friends joke that he is ‘too white to be black, or too black to be white’ but he’s a talented swimmer and when he’s in the pool can forget about the colour of his skin and feel less excluded from his peer group. He’s desperate to be selected for the Zimbabwean national swimming team, not only to be able to demonstrate his prowess, but because he hopes this will enable people to see beyond his albinism. The date for the trials is imminent and he is training hard, eager to prove to his coach that he is worthy of a place on the team. However, a family emergency forces Mkoma to make alternative childcare arrangements for Tumi and Noku, his pre-school daughter, when his job takes him away. When Tumi discovers that this means they are going to have to spend a week in the countryside with Thandiwe, his ambuya (grandmother), he’s worried that, with no swimming pool available, his dream will be shattered because he won’t be able to keep up with his training.
Overwhelming memories of the terrifying experience of being abducted when he was a small child by his uncle, Thandiwe’s son, come flooding back, making him feel very anxious and fearful. Although his uncle is now in prison for the crime and so poses no immediate threat, Tumi hasn’t seen his grandmother since the abduction happened. However, vague memories of her laughing with his uncle and half-heard, mysterious phone calls, have convinced him that she played a part in the abduction and he worries about whether he will be safe with her. He also recalls being disturbed by the alarming scars on her face. He doesn’t know how she got them and when he once asked his uncle about them, was beaten for being disrespectful.
When he is packing for the trip he discovers a cache of numbered letters she had written to his brother when Mkoma lived in America for a time. Each letter included pages from the diary she wrote in 1975/6, when Rhodesia was still under British colonial rule and the fight for Zimbabwean independence was becoming ever more violent. A quick glimpse at the content makes him realise that they must be important so he grabs the first two wondering what family secrets they’ll contain, whether he’ll learn more about her part in his abduction and whether he’ll finally discover how she got the scars on her face.
This story is told through the alternating voices of Tumi and Thandiwe and I found the way in which the author wove together the two storylines and the two timelines to be very effective. Each of the switches – between the two voices and between modern day Zimbabwe and 1970s Rhodesia – always felt smooth and timely, enhancing the storytelling rather than distracting from it.
I don’t want to go into any details about what Thandiwe’s diary reveals about the brutal and heart-breaking experiences she faced as a young girl because the gradual revelations are central to contributing to making this such a powerful, disturbing, moving, and yet ultimately compassionate, story. However, his grandmother’s revelations enable Tumi to not only gain insight into these experiences and the ways in which she has managed to come to terms with her past, but also to understand more about his family’s history and his cultural inheritance and demonstrate that confronting what we fear helps us to reduce the power of our nightmares. Both characters carry emotional and physical scars from their experiences but the time they spend together not only helps them to bond, but also enables Tumi to learn some important life lessons as he discovers how his ambuya managed to find room in her heart for forgiveness.
Although this is, at times, a deeply disturbing and upsetting story it is not devoid of humour, much of which is provided by Tumi’s delightful young niece, Noku. There were so many moments when, with her droll observations, she amused not only her family but made me chuckle too! One of the strengths of the author’s writing is her ability to draw characters who seem to leap off the page and, for this reason, I know that not only will her story remain with me for a long time to come, but so too will her characters, each of whom was impressively nuanced.
Rutendo Tavengerwei lived in Zimbabwe until she was 18 and, as her family had been deeply affected by the war, she had grown up knowing about how they had been mistreated and discriminated against, about the atrocities they’d witnessed and for some years had wanted to write a story based on this awareness. Although I’m familiar with the history of colonial rule in the country and the hard-fought fight for independence, seeing this through the eyes of Thandiwe and being reminded of the endemic discrimination and brutal ill-treatment which was meted out to the native population, purely because of the colour of their skin, felt truly shocking and upsetting. A sign above the door of a restaurant read “EUROPEANS ONLY, DOGS AND AFRICANS NOT ALLOWED” – the order of the exclusions making the discriminatory message even more shocking.
However, I appreciated the fact that, in an admirably even-handed way, the author included illustrations of the fact that atrocities were committed on both sides. One way in which she did this was by making a group of white missionaries central to the 1970s story. These characters were based on the Elim missionaries of Vumba, people who had lived as part of the black community, providing schooling and medical services rather than seeing their role as “saviours” of the indigenous population. She’d grown up feeling inspired by the fact that they had lived their lives with love, not hatred, in their hearts and, in part, she dedicated this story to their memory.
There was another story she had been burning to tell and that was of the way in which albinos were, and still are, treated in certain sub-Saharan African countries. The superstitions which surround the condition can lead to people with albinism being kidnapped, sold across borders, having limbs chopped off or even being killed, all because of a belief that their bodies have supernatural powers. In the end she decided to combine both stories because both are about ignorance, hatred, prejudice and being discriminated against purely on the grounds of skin-colour.
She poses the question “will we let our misconceptions about each other, especially where colour is concerned, allow us to perpetuate hate? And if we do, when and where will it end?” However, she also points out that these are issues which also face anyone who, for whatever reason, is perceived as being “different” and challenges her readers to “ultimately refuse to tolerate injustice in any form”. A challenge which is pertinent at any time but perhaps particularly so in view of recent events and the consequential mass-protests now taking place across the world.
Although this novel is being marketed as a YA story and is written in a rather simple style, the range of important, thought-provoking themes it contains challenges such a narrow targeting. I’m sure it will appeal to anyone who has an interest in exploring their own assumptions and prejudices, whatever their age. It would also be an excellent choice for book groups.
With my thanks to Readers First and Hot Key Books for a copy of this story in exchange for an honest review.… (més)

Shamisa barely remembers her life in Zimbabwe before her parents moved to Slough, a move made to enable her father to continue his work as a journalist, one who is prepared to be critical of the regime in his country of birth. Therefore, when the family is forced to return to Africa she desperately misses the only friends she has ever known. When they don’t keep in touch she can’t understand their lack of contact, especially as she thinks that they must realise what she is suffering following her father’s sudden death in a car crash. After his death she would like to return to the only home she has ever known but, without the necessary immigration papers, she and her mother are unable to travel back to Britain. Instead she is sent to boarding school and, feeling hurt about her friends’ apparent rejection, is convinced that friendships can’t be trusted so she is determined to remain aloof from her fellow pupils. However, Tanyaradzwa, a girl in her class whose life has also been turned upside down by a diagnosis of cancer, but who continues to hold onto the hope of a better future, persists in holding out the hand of friendship. Her persistence eventually starts to break through the defences Shamisa has erected, particularly once Tanyaradzwa reminds her that it was through his journalism that her father had offered people hope, reminding them that “hope is our only wing out of a stormy gale….”
This is a lesson which, for a long time, Shamisa finds hard to accept, believing that hope is a dangerous thing, something which leads only to further hurt and disappointment. However, without it, is it ever possible to come to terms with the past and to find ways of moving forward? For very different reasons, both girls must confront their fears, come to terms with the fact that in relationships people often make mistakes and accept the risks inherent in getting close to, and trusting, others. They must also recognise that it is only through the combination of understanding and a capacity for forgiveness that people are able to trust and to move on with their lives.
This story is set in Zimbabwe in 2008, a time of systemic corruption and of increasing political and social unrest. Rampant inflation has led to even middle-class Zimbabweans facing a daily struggle to afford food, to gain access to housing and healthcare and to cope with an erratic electricity supply. In times of such despair, holding onto hope isn’t easy, it requires determination and courage and in this debut novel the author manages to convey a very moving if, at times distressing, picture of daily life in the country which was once known as the “bread basket of Africa”. Central to this life is an acute awareness that anyone who opposes the dictatorial regime is in mortal danger. However, the author’s reflections on the political and social unrest never overwhelm the heart of this story which is, essentially, about the developing friendship between two young girls who are struggling to come to terms with loss, to trust in hope and to believe in a future which holds the promise of a better quality of life. Both Shamiso and Tanyaradzwa must confront their deepest fears if they are to cope with the challenges which confront them and I thought that the author captured their individual struggles in a convincing and very sensitive way. The developing friendship between them felt credible and at times very moving as each of them grappled with losses, both real and feared.
Although this book is aimed at a Young Adult readership and is written in a rather simple style, the story deals with some weighty themes, including grief, loss, life-threatening illness, corruption, poverty, food shortages, political assassinations, in a thought-provoking way and so is certainly one which can be appreciated by older readers. The author evoked a powerful sense of the countless deprivations people were facing in their daily lives as well as the searing heat they also had to contend with. This may be a rather short novel but it is a powerful one, one which is full of humanity and gentle wisdom – a paean to friendship and the need to retain a sense of hope, even during the darkest experiences of life. It is an impressive debut.

My thanks to Readers First and Bonnier Publishing for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.… (més)