Dambudzo Marechera: A Celebration

Full Programme (last updated 6th May 2009)

All events in the Danson Room, Trinity College, unless stated otherwise.

Friday, May 15: "The Text"

09:00 - 10:00Registration
10:00Opening remarks
10:15 - 11:30Panel 1: "Marechera's self-making" (Chair: Jane Bryce)
  • Nhamo Mhiripiri, "Visualising Marechera and Seeing the Self-Performer: Marechera on Film and Video"
  • Özlem Görümlü, "The Portrayal of Marechera as a Young Writer: Rereading The Black Insider from the Reader's Perspective"
  • Brendon Nicholls, "Dambudzo Marechera: A Reflection ... Or Two"
11:45 - 13:00Panel 2: "Marechera's textual innovations" (Chair: Drew Shaw)
  • Carolyn Hart, "A Postmodern at the Margin: Language Innovations in Marechera's Texts"
  • Tiro Sebina, "Literary Adventures: Inter-textuality in Marechera's Fiction"
  • Afam Ekeh, "Morbidity as Metaphor: Sensory Anguish in the Poetry of Marechera"
14:00 - 15:15Panel 3: "Marechera: Misogynist or feminist?" (Chair: Brendon Nicholls)
  • Gerald Gaylard, "Love in the Time of Illness: Marechera's Love Poetry"
  • Jane Bryce, "'Bits and Pieces I Picked up and Pocketed': the Tangential Feminine in Marechera's Fiction"
  • Drew Shaw, "Mercurial Marechera: Champion or Spoiler?"
15:15 - 16:30Panel 4: "Marechera and the Zimbabwe crisis" (Chair: Memory Chirere)
  • Tinashe Mushakavanhu, "Dambudzo Marechera and the Zimbabwe Crisis"
  • Jennifer Armstrong, "Marechera' Shamanistic Approach to Reading History"
  • Julie Cairnie, "Fuzzy Goo's Stories for Children: Children's Literature for a "New" Zimbabwe?"
16:45 - 17:45Roundtable: Marechera criticism 10 years on (Chair: TBC)
  • Flora Veit-Wild
  • Drew Shaw
  • Jane Bryce
  • Gerald Gaylard
18:00 - 18:30Comrade Fatso, Danson Room, Trinity College
19:30-20:30Servants' Ball and Blitzkrieg, Moser Theatre, Wadham College
21:00Restaurant Dinner, Ask (Italian Restaurant), George Street

Saturday, May 16: "Life and Legacy"

09:30 - 11:30Panel 1: "Dambudzo Marechera: The writer, the man, the myth" (Chair: Dobrota Pucherova)
  • Flora Veit-Wild
  • James Currey
  • Norman Vance
  • Robert Fraser
  • Alastair Niven
12:00 - 13:00Panel 2: Narrating Marechera's biography across media (Chair: Flora Veit-Wild)
  • David Pattison, "Absurd, Futile and Transitory"
  • David Caute, Title TBC
14:14 - 15:45Panel 3: Marechera's legacy in Zimbabwe and beyond (Chair: Heeten Bhagat)
  • Memory Chinere, "Marechera-mania and Zimbabwean Literature"
  • Tinashe Mushakavanhu, "In Marechera's Shadow: A Heteredox Fascination"
  • Heeten Bhagat, "I am the Rape: Introducing Marechera to new audiences through film"
16:00 - 17:15Double book launch (Trinity College Lawns or Sutro Room if raining)
  • Dambudzo Marechera, The House of Hunger (Heinemann, 2009)
  • Brian Chikwava, Harare North (Jonathan Cape, 2009), interview by Lizzy Attree
19:00Gala Night (Moser Theatre, Wadham College)
  1. Prelude
  2. A Shred of Identity by Nana Oforiatta Ayim
  3. Awoken by Gloria Huwiler and Patrick Ssenjovu
  4. I am the Rape by Heeten Bhagat
  5. "Reflections on Shona Sculpture" by Jonathan Zilberg
20:00 - 21:00A Portrait of the Artist in Black and White (Rehearsed reading)
21:00 - 1:00Dinner and afterparty with Chimanimani, University Club, Mansfield Road

Sunday, May 17: "Beyond The House of Hunger"

11:00 - 13:00Marechera Memory Tour of Oxford (meet in front of Trinity College)
14:00 - 15:30Talk with performers, film-makers, directors
16:00 - 17:30Round table:
"Beyond The House of Hunger: Literature and Transgression, 1984-2009"

“After a quarter of a century of increasing internationalisation of writing and publishing in English, in what ways has the oppositional view of the writer espoused by Dambudzo Marechera adapted itself to new and ever-changing circumstances, in Africa and elsewhere?”

    This round table is sponsored by Wasafiri: The Magazine of International Contemporary Writing to celebrate Wasafiri's 25th birthday.

  • Robert Fraser
  • Brian Chikwava
  • Elleke Boehmer
  • Ranka Primorac
18:00Restaurant dinner, Las Iguanas, Park End Street


Harare, 1986
With Charles Mungoshi, Harare, 1986. © Ernst Schade

Copyright © 2009 Marechera Celebration. All Rights Reserved.