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half_book_and_co's review against another edition
5.0
These Bones Will Rise Again is part of the Mood Indigo Essay Series. In this short book, Chigumadzi looks back at Zimbabwe's recent and not-so-recent history and how it is narrated. Starting with the coup-not-a-coup in November 2017 which brought the end of Robert Mugabe's thirty-year-long presidency Chigumadzi dives into the history and legacy of Chimurenga (the revolutionary struggle put very simplistic). Another starting point for her exploration is a photo of her late grandmother as a young woman, or rather the memory of said photo which Chigumadzi had lost due to a school project. Shaken by the death of her grandmother and the knowledge that she won't be able to ask her many questions about the past, Chigumadzi sets out to interview other older relatives (like her remaining grandmother). In the end, Chigumadzi weaves together family history, astute political observations, and the fascinating history of mediums and ancestral spirits, Nehanda being one of the better-known ones, focussing in on people often marginalized in history. She interrogates the roles of women or the way Shona-ness is constructed. The writing is poetical and gripping, I wanted to underline so many sentences.
shonatiger's review against another edition
3.0
3.5. A good (short) read! Interesting angle into Zim's history. Got me thinking quite a lot, even when I didn't necessarily agree with things. Family history gives an interesting perspective, but was particularly taken with the medium aspect.
archytas's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
3.75
"After years of staring up at the looming portrait of Mugabe waiting for our lives to change ‘when the old man goes’, a moment we came to think could only be occasioned by death, the moment has come and gone and we find ourselves where we were when we first began the wait. The wait for his departure weighed down so heavily on our hearts and minds that it constrained the spirit of radical political imagination that has allowed us to make and remake ourselves time and again over the centuries. In the same ways we limited our political imagination to the end of colonialism, with dire consequences for our post-independence years, Mugabe’s end represented the end of our political imagination."
This fascinating extended essay looks at Zimbabwean history, focusing on the stories of women who act over men who talk. Chigumadzi weaves her desire to 'know' the woman who became her Mbuya with the story of one of a Shona resistance fighter and concepts of cyclical re-emergence to examine the movement against Mugabe as part of a bigger pattern/shift. If all that sounds intimidating, this is a readable account, even if real understanding, might require more depth with the subject
This fascinating extended essay looks at Zimbabwean history, focusing on the stories of women who act over men who talk. Chigumadzi weaves her desire to 'know' the woman who became her Mbuya with the story of one of a Shona resistance fighter and concepts of cyclical re-emergence to examine the movement against Mugabe as part of a bigger pattern/shift. If all that sounds intimidating, this is a readable account, even if real understanding, might require more depth with the subject
joemkl's review against another edition
challenging
slow-paced
3.5
Interesting but not my usual thing.
afilmfatale's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
3.5
Her story will always rise. I have a lot of further research to do on mboya nehandra
mcipswitch's review against another edition
I put this one down and never got back to it. I'll take it as a sign to let this one go for now.