Dambudzo marechera: a source book on his life and work.!
Dambudzo Marechera
Zimbabwean writer (1952–1987)
Dambudzo Marechera (4 June 1952 – 18 August 1987) was a Zimbabwean novelist, short story writer, playwright, and poet.
His short career produced a book of stories, two novels (one published posthumously), a book of plays, prose, and poetry, and a collection of poetry (also posthumous). His first book, a fiction collection entitled The House of Hunger (1978), won the Guardian Fiction Prize in 1979.
Dambudzo Marechera is as well-known for his eccentric autobiography as he is for his prodigious writing talent.
Marechera was best known for his abrasive, heavily detailed, and self-aware writing, which was considered a new frontier in African literature, and his unorthodox behaviour at the universities from which he was expelled despite excelling in his studies.
Early life and education
Marechera was born on 4 June 1952 in Vengere Township, Rusape, Southern Rhodesia, to Isaac Marechera, a mortuary attendant, and Masvotwa Venenzia Marechera, a maid. He was the child of Shona parents from the eastern-central part of Rhodesia.[c