Songs to an African Sunset is the story of a Zimbabwean woman returning to her country after many years of living in the West. Sekai Nzenza-Shand captures the texture of life in an African village: mourning rituals, village courts, polygamy, traditional beliefs about fertility, ancestral spirits and witchcraft. Her book also offers a moving account of the impact of AIDS on her family, as well as looking at drought, deforestation and the breakdown of traditional structures. An unforgettable picture of contemporary Zimbabwe seen from the perspective of an African women.
About the AuthorSekai Nzenza-Shand was born in Zimbabwe and currently works for an aid organisation in Harare. She has published a novel and several short stories.
Sekai Nzenza Shand was born in Zimbabwe, where she trained as a nurse, before doing additional nursing studies in England and subsequently going to live in Australia. Her book Songs to an African Sunset describes her return to her family's village in the early 1990s. She has a Ph.D. in International Relations from the University of Melbourne.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and was finished rather quickly. She captures the contradictions between traditional african n western way without being judgemental. She leaves the reader to judge for themselves; the patriachal nonsense and the stupid christian hypocracy all taking a turn to suppress and subjugate women in African societies. She refuses the "Feminist" tag and shies away from openly contradicting all these or even giving some well aimed advise to ignorant but hope to impress a different outlook with aubtle messages. Well I hope ahe had been stronger in all nasty situations. Thank you Sekai. Even though you not a Tsitsi Dangaremgba u hit a spot in ur own awkward n humourfull way. Zimbabwean women are strong despite letting men treating them poorly they still rise up above the odds.
I liked this book with her stories of local customs and lore which she questions as well as does her mother. It refreshed my memory of what I knew and enlightened me with specificity about other stuff like the celebration of a death on the 2 year anniversary or the family's complicity on the husband's infertility with sending a brother (of the husband) to impregnate the wife! It's a quick read which I enjoyed and couldn't put down when I should have turned off the light to get some sleep.
Set in the late 90s. Zimbabwe is, more or less, still a promising country with a mildly troubled past. As a historical document, this is interesting, if hopelessly outdated and significantly irrelevant. This, together with the fact that many of the book's chapters aren't much of a continuing story but a collection of individual events make the book only mildly interesting.
Interesting "memoir" about Sekai's return(s) to her Zimbabwean village after living in Europe and Australia for at least 15 years. Males certainly have a lot of power over women in traditional Zimbabwean culture, although some aspects of the culture are matriarchal.