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Without literature, people die – Phillip Chidavaenzi

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Literature provides a platform for self-expression and for the display of artistic abilities in the same way that it helps people to reveal their expectations and narrate the realities of their lives in a given community.

In a poetry anthology titled General Emeritus – Wisdom, Mysteries and Dark Sayings, there is a poem titled General Emeritus, the Ambassador of Literature. In this poem there is a stanza that says:

Even though literature is as old as far back as life can be traced

Its impact is always as fresh as the morning of everyday

Literature is an art, literature is an invention, and literature is creation

Literature is reason showcased, literature is emotion expressed.

On that note, in celebrating and appreciating the role and impact of literature in our society, zwnews24’s Brian Kazungu caught up and did an interview with one of Zimbabwe’s award winning and passionate author Phillip Chidavaenzi who is also promoting literature through his Writers Clinic in order to understand more about his inspiring writing career.

Zwnews24: Briefly describe yourself (background, personality, passions, dreams and aspirations etc.) so that the readers (audience) can have a clear picture of who you are, and what you stand for as a writer/blogger/author etc.

Phillip Chidavaenzi: My background in writing is quite long and rich. I have always been in love with words from the time I was first able to read. From an early age, I was exposed to a lot of literature, and that ingrained in me the love for reading and writing. But my first serious attempts at writing were in high school from the early to the late 1990s, during which time I wrote a lot of poetry and short stories.

Zwnews24: What is your greatest reason and or motivation behind your writing career? What do you seek to achieve and why? If you have already published anything both in print or online, do you think you have achieved your goal or do you see yourself achieving those goals through your literary work?

Phillip Chidavaenzi: All I desire to do is to tell a good story that will move people and can stir the readers’ emotions — be it joy, sadness or shock. At the end of the day, I want to deliver certain important life lessons through writing. As long as one person reads my book and say to me, “Thank you… I loved that story… It made me cry… It really touched me’, then I would have achieved my goal.  

Zwnews24: What has been the impact of your writing career on the people around you, including family and friends?

Phillip Chidavaenzi: My family believes in my writing more than anybody else. But it’s actually funny that all this started with English Compositions when I was in Form 3. A friend wrote a short story and it so touched me that I said, I think I can do that, and so I started off writing short stories from there. Ironically, I have not done a short story collection, but only novels and some spiritual texts.

Zwnews24: What are the titles of the books that you have written so far? Would you describe what each of these books is all about and the intended benefit of each of these books to your audience? 

Phillip Chidavaenzi: I would need acres and acres of space to do this because I write voluminous novels, by Zimbabwean standards, that is. My novels are The Haunted Trail (2006), The Ties that Bind (2015), The Latter Rain (2016) and Chasing the Wind (2019). End of this year, I will release Sword in the Wilderness, which is almost complete now. I have also written Christian texts: Walking in the Spirit, The Gospel of Grace, Give Me Souls or I Die, and I Am Prayer. All these are about how to live a victorious Christian life as a new creation and how to fulfil certain objectives of the gospel and exercising spiritual disciplines.

The Haunted Trail is an HIV related story that also included the meltdown in the financial services sector during the time of Gideon Gono, the then Governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. The Ties that Bind is its sequel, exploring how individuals can go on with life even after testing HIV positive while Chasing the Wind is about living in faith, sexual abuse and the struggle to forgive. The Latter Rain is about two teenage girls who flee their Mt. Darwin village in search of a better life in Harare, but experienced mixed fortunes. One ends up dead 10 years later after committing suicide while the other one pursues a life of faith.  

Zwnews24: If people want to buy your books or invest in your work, where can they find the books and how do they get in touch with you either for feedback on your work or any other related correspondence?

Phillip Chidavaenzi: They can link up with me on social media, through my author page on Facebook: Phillip Kundeni Chidavaenzi and even on the Royalty Books page. I am also on whatsapp at +2637719952851. More so, I have a blog called A Writers Scroll at http://philchida.blogspot.com/

Zwnews24: What are your guiding values which determine what and how you write? Are there things that you do not write about at all or is there a certain approach to writing which you do not use because of these values? Share your insights. 

Phillip Chidavaenzi: Tricky, tricky, tricky! I am wildly creative, I must say. I write about the abuse of women, I do a bit of romance and I also write about people’s struggles to survive against difficult odds… For some reason, all these things tend to creep in when I write. Of course, I wouldn’t write anything that goes against my faith and beliefs as a Christian. A reader once described me as a feminist writer, can you imagine! Well, I don’t think I am a feminist writer. Perhaps, I can just say I have a strong inclination towards women’s issues. 

Zwnews24: What has been the impact of your writing so far, both to you and to your readers and how has it made you feel? 

Phillip Chidavaenzi: I am always excited about my writing, obviously. Those readers that are personally known to me, I believe my writings have had a profound impact on them. In fact, I have received quite a number of messages from some youngsters that are doing my second novel, The Ties that Bind, at A-Level. I think they have really enjoyed the book and it has impacted them in a positive way. 

Zwnews24: What is it that makes you to continue writing regardless of the various challenges that are associated with this profession or undertaking? How do you overcome the related hurdles?

Phillip Chidavaenzi: Writing is first and foremost a passion, it’s compelling and obsessive. Whether I sell a thousand or just ten copies of a novel, I will not stop writing. When I started writing, I wasn’t thinking about money. I just loved to write, and I did. It’s still the same. When the money comes, we thank God, but if it doesn’t, no problem. Of course there are a lot of challenges. The production of hard copy books is expensive, but we just take the small step, print a few books here, a few more next month and so on.

Zwnews24: What are your words of advice and motivation to other writers, both the established and aspiring ones in their pursuit of literature, either as their hobby or profession?

Phillip Chidavaenzi: My heart bleeds because too few writers, novelists in particular, are producing. The spell is just too dry. Charles Mungoshi is gone, and the likes of Shimmer Chinodya are no longer producing as much. Where is the new crop of creative writers? I think we are too slow on the ball, and as such, the output in terms of new publications is very slow. I know we are going through a dark spell economically, but let us not allow that to hinder our creativity.  

Zwnews24: What do you think is the relevance and impact of literature in your community, in your country or across the whole world? Do you think literature should be recognised, celebrated and be promoted? Share your reasons.

Phillip Chidavaenzi: Definitely! Definitely! Without literature, people die. Literature enables us, more than anything else, to capture moments, history and developments in a country from the human perspective. The ordinary man or woman might not get a chance to speak, let’s say: through a newspaper. So, let us give them a voice through literature, by telling their stories for future generations.

Zwnews24: How deep is your passion for literature? What have you already done, what are you planning to do and how far would you go to promote literature in your community, in your country or across the whole world?

Phillip Chidavaenzi: It’s virtually my life! Of the books that I have written, one got an award, and the other two got nominated for awards. In fact, through our Writers Clinic platform and Royalty Books publishing company, we are promoting literature.

Zwnews24: Have you ever won an award or have you ever been nominated for an award on your literary work? If yes, please share your story about this award and the impact it had on you.

Phillip Chidavaenzi: My debut novel, The Haunted Trail, won the First Outstanding Published Creative Work award at the National Arts Merit Awards (NAMA) in 2007. The Ties that Bind and the Later Rain were nominated for the Outstanding Fiction award at NAMA 2016 and 2017 respectively.

Zwnews24: If there was or if there is a Global Literature Ambassador Award, who would you nominate for the prize and more so, based on your own works of literature, do you think that you would be able to win a prize for your literary contributions? How would you feel if you were to be locally, nationally or globally recognised for your input in the field of literature?

Phillip Chidavaenzi: I have no idea who I would nominate. There are too many authors doing great work across the world. I think I am still a little green for an award of that magnitude.

Zwnews24: What has been some of the best works of literature that you have enjoyed so far (Books, blogs, poems etc.)? Share the reasons why you rate them so high and value them so much. Based on what you have benefited personally, what do you think must be done in order to broadly develop, promote and celebrate literature in your community, country or across the world?

Phillip Chidavaenzi: I have read thousands and thousands of literary works. Off head, I guess I would say Jack Hoffenberg’s Reaping in Tears, Beauty, and The Bottom-line etc. They are just too numerous to mention. These are excellently crafted works. 

Zwnews24: Are there people or organisations that you would like to acknowledge and credit, be it for their emotional and material input or contribution (support) towards your works of literature? 

Phillip Chidavaenzi: I would say the Culture Fund in Zimbabwe, which funded a lot of arts and cultural products and activities, including my own, The Ties that Bind and then of course, the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe for celebrating outstanding artists and artistic works.

The questions in this interview are adapted from the book, General Emeritus – Wisdom, Mysteries and Dark Sayings, a poetry anthology written by Brian Kazungu: https://amzn.to/2T8sEQX