THE political and economic meltdown that afflicted the country in the wake of the 2002 disputed elections that pitted the late former President Robert Mugabe and Movement for Democratic Change founding president Morgan Tsvangirai inspired author Shelton Mununuri to pen his debut novel.
The recently published novel, When the Evil Reign, is an indictment on Africa’s failed political systems.
Mununuri, who is based in Mozambique, told NewsDay Life & Style that he was disturbed to discover that many young Zimbabwean women flocked to the former Portuguese colony to eke out a living through prostitution.
“I was saddened and angry at the same time when I discovered that many Zimbabwean young girls and women had fled from Mugabe to Mozambique and were exposed to prostitution, or to put it politely, they were employed in sex trade,” he said.
Mununuri said he only summoned the courage to put pen to paper in 2018, adding that his hope was to follow up the debut publication with two others to constitute a trilogy.
He said while there was hope for Africa to enjoy real freedom and democracy, hope alone was not enough.
“We need to reinforce it with action. Action, first in our education system, which at the present moment is useless. Schools teach students how to retain information, but do not teach them critical thinking. Our schools drill on grasshopper thoraxes, but nothing is taught about political literacy,” he noted.
“The mass exodus which happened in Zimbabwe since early 2000 and is still going on today is because of bad politics. Africa needs to raise a new breed of politicians who are not taken in by greed and the love of money.”
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Mununuri said the title of the book was a suggestion that nothing good comes when evil people are in power.
“The African story is always bleak and depressing, and my life also as an African citizen hasn’t been a walk in the park. No matter how hard I try to look for Africa’s positives, they are always outweighed by the negatives, sadly, which are man-made,” he said.
Mununuri noted that it was tragic that some people in Africa still died of hunger when the continent had vast tracts of land and abundant mineral resources.
“Africa is a proverbial Sleeping Giant who needs strong men and women to wake her up so that she can realise her full potential,” he said.
Mununuri said African writers had the responsibility to conscientise, educate and challenge citizens to think critically.
“Writers have the capacity to arouse the people for a revolution, they have the capacity to shape the future,” he said.
