Mukoko Wenduri adopted as ZIMSEC Literature set book

Writes Chimeno Azriel 

Twenty-four Zimbabwean authors are on cloud nine after their anthology book, Mukoko Wenduri has been adopted as the country’s Zimbabwe Schools Examination Council (ZIMSEC) Literature set book.

People are often well versed with action books, remodelled and remade books for global appeal, but these Zimbabwean authors, some based abroad, gathered their poems and came up with this richly packed anthology that beat other poetic books to be considered for the ZIMSEC Literature set book.

Only a few have taken the great African history and put it on the same pedestal, among them Zim Online Authors Association’s book, Mukoko weNduri, which reincarnates the rich Shona Culture. The book matched the ZIMSEC’s bill of expectations, specifications and guidelines” and was accepted as a set book for the literature syllabus.

Mukoko Wenduri has been set for a Literature set book and was also recommended for every Zimbabwean from the primary to tertiary levels of education.

Speaking to this publication, UK-based author, Emmanuel Chimombe, who contributed to the book, said attitudes, ills, societal happenings, and values made them come up with the anthology that cuts across all the genres and is loaded with poetic missiles.

“Societal happenstances, values, ills, attitudes, dreams, aspirations and expectations and also the native readers have a serious literary thirst to quench. The book is loaded with poetic missiles in their diversity that are seen in thematic coverage, poetic styles, the art of word crocheting, and all ages embracement. We crowned ourselves as the best servant kings and queens to satiate the readers’ literary thirst. We were also itching to put a generation of young and innovative authors on the map.

“It is not just poems, but an explosively visual read that takes a person back into the world and makes them feel like they are physically present in the world we are living and serving,” said Chimombe.

The anthology book covers various themes and according to Chimombe, it covers a wide range of themes which are crucial to the contemporary world including gender, Ubuntu, climate change, and unity among others.

“In a bid to educate, entertain and inform, we covered a wide range of themes which are crucial to the contemporary world. They included but were not limited to gender, ubuntu, climate change, people and the environment, spiritual realms, drug abuse, technology, socio-economic ills, hopelessness, profanity, unity, alarming crimes, corruption, pandemics, cultural erosion, mental slavery, nuptials, moral decay, marital problems, and natural disasters,” said Chimombe.

The authors desired to see their content being among the best and that was illustrated so that it became the pillar of Zimbabwe’s education system and to mould the young and adults into the global society.

With more than eighty poems, Mukoko Wenduri is like a beehive of poetic dosages and is inspired by different authors with different tastes and it embraces diversity and inclusion of the rarely penned themes.

“Mukoko weNduri translates to The Beehive of Poetic Dosages. Semantically, Mukoko weNduri translates to the stage that hosts an assembly of poets with their differences and their different skill sets, inspired by different motives but the same vision to scribe fertile poems that lift readers to the highest level of literary ecstasy, just like how bees collaborate to source nectar from different flowers to brew a product that tops the list in the history of sweetness.

“Just like how honey is made of nectar that comes from different flowers and water sources, this anthology embraces diversity and inclusion of the rarely penned themes, hence it’s a multi-complexioned book with sections that are ribs-cracking, mouth-watering, tears-inviting, memories-triggering and mind staggering.” said the author.

Chimombe lamented the issue of piracy which is slowly but killing the writing industry where most people are reaping what they did not show thereby plunging those who sow their works into poverty.

“The most critical issue that is affecting our writing industry is the issue of piracy where not everyone will grab a copy that comes from the publisher or the accredited distributors but you will notice that some will make a killing from the pirated versions and reap the products of our sweat. I hope something is going to be done about it,” he said.

The author also encouraged the schools to promote reading culture which has lost touch in today’s youths.

“The other challenge is the decline of the reading culture in today’s youths than yester-millennials. I challenge the school authorities to revive reading in their school so that children will be able to read books,” he said.

Piracy hits writers badly. In this epoch that is peeping to the 4th industrial revolution, some can make soft copies of the book and store it in different media storage devices and distribute it like wildfire in a very short time interval.

Through technology, however, twenty total strangers had a platform to work together from the conception to the completion of the book.

“I can’t believe that we are yet to meet, even our publisher, but it’s good that our minds have met and conceived this beautiful book,” narrated Chimomb,e who is an Engineer by profession.

“The selection of the book as a set book is an honour of the highest magnitude to the team and it was our dream that was followed by hard work to see it come true.

“It is a passion project that we are excited to share with the students and as proud, patriotic Zimbabweans, it was always a desire to get to share what we feel inside for all around the world to read and this book became what we wanted,” he added.