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Petina Gappah

@VascoDaGappah

16 Aug

0/28 Here for you is a Sunday story from ROTTEN ROW called ‘Anna, Boniface, Cecelia Dickson’. It’s directly inspired by the children’s rhyme from my era and by Robert Altman’s take on Raymond Carver’s stories in SHORT CUTS. Enjoy.

1/28 If you come with me this way, straight past Town House on Speke Avenue, cross the flyover into Julius Nyerere, walk past Robert Mugabe and stop before we get to Kenneth Kaunda, we will find ourselves outside the downtown supermarket that used to be called Amato.

2/28 ‘Ndikati nzvee, kwaAmato, wandiona!’ They are long gone, the Brothers Amato, as are many of their brethren and indeed, there has not been a Bar Mitzvah here for more than ten years but that is all by the way.

Read 29 tweets

Petina Gappah

@VascoDaGappah

14 Aug

1/10 I’m sleepless with no hope of gaining any so I will do a quick social history of one of my favorite streets in Harare, the street called Rotten Row that is now supposed to be called Gamal Nasser Road. The name comes from French: Rotten Row is a corruption of Route de Roi.

2/10 This is because our Rotten Row is named after Rotten Row in London, established in 1690 to allow the double monarchs William and Mary to connect quickly across Hyde Park between two Palaces, Kensington and St James’s, hence it was called Route de Roi or “the King’s road”.

3/10 Over time Route de Roi became Rotten Row and it is now the only equestrian promenade in London. I had the pleasure of writing about Hyde Park and Rotten Row for the FT Life and Arts section back in 2015, as it’s one of my favorite places to sit and watch people and horses.

Read 10 tweets

Petina Gappah

@VascoDaGappah

12 Jul

Some fascinating history for you. Charwe (Nehanda) was hanged together with her brother Chibaga, and others who included Hwata and Gumboreshumba (Kaguvi).

The daughters of Chibaga and Gumboreshumba fled to the newly established Chishawasha mission to seek refuge.

Gumboreshumba’s daughter was called Dziripi. Chibaga’s daughter had been named by her aunt Charwe Nehanda, as their tradition demanded. Charwe gave this daughter the name Musodzi. Musodzi then took this name as her last name, was baptized Elizabeth and became Elizabeth Musodzi.

She grew up to be one of the first black women to receive a formal education in Rhodesia. She also went on to start a variety of women’s clubs. For her community work, she was honoured at a reception with King George VI when he made a royal visit to Southern Rhodesia in 1947.

Read 5 tweets

Petina Gappah

@VascoDaGappah

7 Apr

@TheOrwellPrize

1/20 Those who know me know translaton is my big passion. And that I love Orwell. A few years ago, I started translating Orwell’s ANIMAL FARM. I got permission from Orwell’s estate @TheOrwellPrize and was joined by a bunch of people on Facebook. It was the most enormous fun.

2/20 We agreed to honour the main Shona variants in the dialect, so some animals speak in Manyika, others in Karanga, some Zezuru, and others Slang. So of the pigs, Squealor is Manyika, Major is Karanga, Napoleon and Snowball Zezuru. The narration is in neutral Standard Shona.

3/20 Here is part of the first chapter, which I translated myself with Tichashe Muchuri. As you see, "Meja" speaks in the Karanga variant. Next week, I will post a section of Squealor speaking in Manyika, and the sheep speaking in Slang, so you see what we tried to do.

Read 20 tweets

Petina Gappah

@VascoDaGappah

15 Mar

Because it’s the Ides of March, and because I am on a train speeding to see my boy child in a few hours, I am going to do an off the cuff translation, from memory, into the language of my ancestors, of Mark Anthony’s “Friends, Romans, countrymen” speech.

The Ides of March, baby!

Shwamwari dzadiwa, vagari veRoma nenyika ino,
Dondipaivo zheve,
Handina kuvuya pano kuzotutumadza Siza bodo, asi kuhomuviga,
Zvivi zvemunhu zvinorangarigwa warova,
Zvene zvaaiita zvichifushirwa nemapfupa ake,
Ngazvive zvimwezvo pana Siza.

Iri jinda renduramo, Brutus,
Rataura pano, kwahi Siza waiva mutongi waiva nohundyire,
Kana zvirizvo, zvokwadi Siza wakaresvesa,
Kuresva kwacho kukamuvinga, ndokumubaya nerakagomara,

Ndinotaura nemi nomvumo
YaBrutus nevamwe vake,
Brutus munongomuziva,
Kuti muchinda ane nduramo.

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Petina Gappah

@VascoDaGappah

14 Mar

1/6 In Covid-19, it’s clear the Government of Zimbabwe has no communications plan for crisis management. I don’t know if the crisis mgment plan is itself there, but if so, it is being so poorly communicated it suggests there is no plan as communications is an essential component.

2/6 Crisis Management aims to prevent or lessen damage from a crisis. A good comms plan is absolutely vital in supporting this aim. Among others, a good comms plan must be clear, truthful, time sensitive, authoritative, consistent and should aim to reassure and gain public trust.

@nickmangwana

3/6 One trusted comms spokesperson should be chosen, to deliver expertise in simple, clear language. This should be an institution.

It’s a mistake to have @nickmangwana @Jamwanda2 or @InfoMinZW as spokespersons simply because for obvious reasons, they only enjoy partisan trust.

Read 7 tweets

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