72 BOOK REVIEWSequality of sources that he calls for when he says that 'Scripture should beregarded as a source of theology equal to others' (p. 41). Another is hisambiguous assertion that the Bible contains 'but a small part of the divineacts of God in human history' (p. 42). The author is also not convincingwhen he argues that 'Church creeds and doctrines are almost irrelevantand meaningless to our context' (p. 42). Furthermore, he discounts thenotion of an eschatological kingdom of God as 'garbage' to the Shona andNdebele people. He regards the mediatorship of Christ at the Parousia as'meaningless and nonsensical', again, within the context of the under-standing of the Shona and Ndebele people.Undoubtedly, there is a lot at fault about a theology that emphasizesthe local context at the expense of the essential faith and beliefs held bythe Universal Church. Banana's model distorts the Christian context andfoundation that it purports to build upon. Instead an authentic AfricanChristian theology should 'be ready to discover traces of God's naturalrevelation outside the Christian religion', in this case, from the Africancontext, without, however, calling into doubt the uniqueness and 'centralityof the Christ event' (Crossroads, Oct./Nov. 1991, 26).Any Christian theology, be it African, Asian, Latin American or WesternEuropean, has to engage faithfully with the Scriptures and Church tradition.Christianity not only enjoys the status of having 'sacred writings', it is alsoa historical religion. As such, Scripture and Church tradition in the form ofgreat conciliar teachings and creeds form part of the Christian heritagethat cannot be dispensed with as easily as Banana implies. To undervalueor distort this heritage is to renege on the faith into which Christians areinitiated.While Come and Share is meant to challenge the Zimbabwean Churchfrom its characteristic complacent slumber, the overly extreme stancethat the author takes is counter-productive. It stands in the way of, ratherthan facilitates or encourages, further experiments in evolving local theo-logies. A more conciliatory attitude in subsequent editions of the book willbe necessary in order for it to be given a warm reception by the Church.University of Zimbabwe P. H. GUNDANIChakwesha By H. Chimhundu. Harare, College Press, 1991, 198 pp.,ISBN 0-86925-906-7, Z$12,95.Chimhundu's first novel Chakwesha is a most welcome and overduecontribution to the slowly developing genre of Shona prose fiction. Theauthor's experimentation in terms of plot and characterization makes thiswork unique in more than one way.The title of the novel (Chakwesha can be loosely translated as meaning'confidence trickster') is derived from the anti-social character andbehaviour of Moses Marufu, a University student in the colonial educationsystem who chooses to betray the goals of the Chimurenga War for hispersonal benefit and who is paid as«n informer by the Rhodesian CentralIntelligence Organization. At Independence he returns from self-exile theBOOK REVIEWS 73same hypocritical man to scramble for the independence 'cake' and risesto join the emergent 'whisky' class. But after a short-lived enjoyment ofpetty-bourgeois life, he dies in mental and physical torment.Interwoven with the story of the protagonist are the stories of severalother characters, each of whom has a different background but all ofwhom experience difficulties under colonialism and, later, neo-colonialismwhich contribute significantly to their different destinies. Characters arerealistically and sympathetically depicted. Through the multiplicity ofplots the author competently captures the spirit of nationalist politicalactivities in the rural areas and at the University of Rhodesia in the 1970s.He also manages to relate different events to mainstream history, alternatingbetween the narration of individual stories and historical events. It is nomean task to research history and then to fictionalize it, but, unfortun-ately, some chapters tend to be overloaded with historical data which isnot fully exploited in the fictional sense. Sometimes the setting ispropounded too discursively, forcing the reader who is immersed in thestory to emerge in order to grasp the historical context before returningto the plot.Chimhundu is, however, a sensitive observer and analyst of socialhistory. He relates the various traumas in different characters to politically-induced social ills. His focus ranges from economic problems, the betrayalof socio-political ideals, the crisis of the AIDS epidemic to tendenciestowards millenarian spiritualism in the economically depressed.The individual story lines are given verisimilitude by the author'sinclusion of every minute but significant detail of life in the country andthe city before and after Independence. This makes the novel quiteoutstanding as prior to this work there were no real Shona historicalnovels. Chakwesha traverses the past and the present and ends facing thefuture. This historicity, especially the focus on contemporary life, givesthis novel social relevance and will help to develop society by stimulatingpassionate discussion. It depicts the inalienable relation between theindividual and the history of his people.A noticeable achievement in the narrative style of the novel is theabsence of the overtly intrusive moralistic voice which hitherto has per-vaded Shona novels, often reducing them to moralistic fables. Restraint ismaintained even in the condemnation of Moses to purgatory.The length of the novel as well as the breath of its setting (HartzelHigh School, Goromonzi, Harare, Botswana and London) offer a widecanvas in which to portray historical action in detail. This wealth of detailcreates the illusion of reality which is the hallmark of good fiction. OtherShona authors such as Giles Kuimba, Charles Mungoshi and RaymondChoto approximate such breath of vision but are not quite as successfulas Chimhundu has proved to be in this work.The author is very enterprising in his diction, freely drawing from therich vocabulary of traditional and modern Shona. The novel abounds inproverbs, idiomatic expressions and loan words. This gives the novel anaffinity with the complex reality with which it grapples. Language puristswould have lots of surprises when reading this novel but the author'ssuccessful attempt to weave adoptives not only into dialogue, as would be74 BOOK REVIEWSnormal, but also into the third person narrative itself is an achievementwhich is as yet unsurpassed. His resourcefulness shows the dynamic andtransitional nature of the Shona language, as well as the possibilities offuture literary development. A long poem forms a satirical epilogue to thenovel, summing up the vision of the artist in a brief but vivid way.Notwithstanding the national problem of a shortage of good qualitypaper at the time, College Press could have improved the quality of thecover by using a little more imagination.University of Zimbabwe E. M. CHIWOMEThe Sound of Snapping Wires Compiled by T.O. McLoughlin. Harare,College Press, 1990, xxii, 225 pp., ISBN 0-86925-910-5, Z$17,55.Professor T. 0. McLoughlin's selection of Zimbabwean short stories,published under the intriguing title, The Sound of Snapping Wires, isindicative of his long-standing interest in promoting the works of (young)Zimbabwean writers. One is reminded of his earlier anthology, New Writingin Rhodesia, published by Mambo Press, which was a selection of poetry,short stories and drama.1The latest collection focuses on the 'poor relation of Zimbabweanliterature': short stories. The perceptive introduction neatly posits themajor critical issues raised by the short story as a genre. It also providesan interesting historical overview of the chequered history of the shortstory in Zimbabwe. His essay highlights the pervasive influence of censor-ship, which effectively meant that there were very few outlets for shortstories with an overtly socio-political theme. A contrast is drawn with thecreative ferment that occurred in South African literary circles, where theshort story was a powerful medium of exploring the lot of the urbanizedBlack South Africans.The selection spans the period 1910-89 and introduces the reader toa number of Zimbabwean writers, from established literary figures likeArthur Shearly Cripps, Doris Lessing, Charles Mungoshi, Shimmer Chinodya,Dambudzo Marechera, Tsitsi Dangarembga and Pius Wakatama, to otherless well-known writers such as P. N. Katsande, Noel Masvosvere andDennis Matangara. Some of the stories are carefully crafted, while othersshow less skill in the writers' handling of language and theme.This is, nevertheless, a welcome selection, as many of the shortstories published in Zimbabwe appear in magazines and newspapers ratherthan in book form. It covers a variety of themes and the introduction ispitched at a level which will encourage both the informed reader and thesecondary-school pupil, to read around the subject. The editor pays duetribute to periodicals such as Moto, Parade, Prize and Mahogany whichhave done much to encourage the Zimbabwean short-story writer.University of Zimbabwe M. Z. MALABA1 T. O. McLoughlin (comp.), New Writing in Rhodesia (Gwelo, Mambo Press, 1976).