Chinongwa

In the village where Chinongwa lives, her family, displaced from their lands, are very poor. One desperate solution to hunger is to trade young daughters into marriage.

PRINT VERSION Buy the print version (hard copy) from Modjaji Books directly      

R290.00

DATE

October 2022

GENRE

Fiction
i

PAGES

244

ISBN

978-1-928433-46-0

Chinongwa

In the village where Chinongwa lives, her family, displaced from their lands, are very poor. One desperate solution to hunger is to trade young daughters into marriage. At first, to their shame, her father’s and aunt’s attempts to marry off their youngest child fail. No one is interested in this small, thin girl. Eventually, a childless woman, Amai Chitsva, offers Chinongwa as a second wife to her own husband who is old enough to be the girl’s grandfather. Chinongwa is forced to grow up very fast and rely on her survival instincts. She does her best to do what is expected of her and become a good wife and mother, but being very young, very alone, and a girl, the odds are stacked against her. Eventually, after spending her whole life doing the bidding of others, all Chinongwa wants is her independence. But how can one gain such a thing as a woman? Will she ever truly be free?

Lucy Mushita’s powerful novel is set in the early twentieth century, but sadly child marriage still occurs within Zimbabwe, driven by poverty, patriarchy, or faith in the healing properties of purity. Chinongwa will help us to understand and explore the effect of marriage on very young girls.

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Lucy Mushita

Lucy Mushita is a novelist, essayist, and speaker. Born in Zimbabwe, she grew up in a traditional village before going to France at the end of apartheid. After a short stay in the USA, she went back to France where she taught English in primary school, university and multinationals. Now writing full-time, she lives between France and Australia. She is published in English, Italian, French, and other languages.

Lucy Mushita's author page
Praise

Chinongwa is a stark portrayal of the horrors faced by the inhabitants of a recently colonized country. Lucy Mushita’s prose masterfully inhabits the lives of a child bride and her troubled vahosi. Both characters are achingly human and where each character has been dealt difficult cards, no one wins. A remarkable period piece. Tariro Ndoro – award-winning Zimbabwean writer

 

This is a deeply moving, thought-provoking, highly original novel. Some books inform. A good book informs and entertains. A great book changes your perceptions. Chinongwa is a great book. Glenice Whitting

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