Title: Can we Talk and other Stories
Author: Shimmer Chinodya
Publishers: Heinemann African Writers’ Series, London
No of Pages: 154
Reviewer: Edozie Udeze
Shimmer Chinodya, the author of Can we Talk and Other stories, was the winner of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize in 1990. In 2000 Can we Talk and Other Stories was also shortlisted for the Caine Prize in Literature. To date he is regarded as one of Zimbabwe’s most prolific and ardent writers. He is known to write with deep wits, using puzzling titles and themes to tease the resolve of readers. For this and more, his works have come to dominate literary circles in not only Zimbabwe, but the whole of Southern Africa and other parts.
He writes with a peculiar zeal aimed mainly at unearthing the socio-political and economic situations in his immediate surroundings. His penchant for social issues, and the attention he particularly pays to important problems of the common people are some of the themes he tackles in this collection. It is book of 11 short stories ranging from his childhood days to teenage years then to his adulthood in which he traces these stages to show a society where issues of race, vitimisation, inequality, tribal lineage, parental care and otherwise, government’s attitude to the citizenry and so on, manifest brazenly.
His power of description exposes a lot about the terrible situation in most African societies. In his first short story in this collection entitled Hoffman Street, he begins this way: “Our house was blue. It was not the end of the street. At the front there were banana trees and sugar-cane. At night the bananas shivered and shook.”
“There were ghosts in the banana. I dreamt about the ghosts. One of the ghosts had a sword. One night the ghost stabbed me with his sword and I died. Then I woke up. Mother was lighting the candle. She gave me a cup of tea and a scone. Then she said, go back to sleep.”
This is a story of a little boy growing up in a family of many relatives, each trying to dominate his attention. But the boy tries to learn from each person – his father, mother, uncle, cousin, all, on how to live and manage sensitive issues that matter in life. A very persuasive story, it teaches a way to be a wise child in a polarised environment, how to be a nice and responsible boy in the home front.
Using the boy as the narrator, Chinodya depicts a typical family to the fullest and the boy is allowed to learn through the exemplary lives of his people. “Then mother said to Kelvin and Dorothy and me, you’re too small to hold the baby. Then we went out to play.” Playing outside in the dirty fields and using the company of his peers to climb the ladder of life, proves the age-long aphorism that the child behaves true to his age.
In another story captioned the Man who Hanged Himself, he tells the story with unbridled suspense. It is the story of a ‘crazy’ teenager who finds himself in a ‘crazy’ society and then endeavours to do ‘crazy’ things to prove that he is a strong, smart and brave boy. The Matroko Bush is a symbol of funny happenings in the neighbourhood where Bhudi Edwin lives. His strange habits, however, often baffles his cousins and other relatives. At eighteen years of age, he finds himself between the age of maturity and innocence. In order to distinguish himself from the rest who are much younger than him, he begins to indulge in all sorts of mischief.
He invents stories to impress his younger ones. He also finds it convenient to enrich them in areas of local wisdom. To a large extent, the children try to stomach his stories, line, hook and sinker. But the story of the man who hanged himself in the forest of Matroko somewhat becomes an eye-opener to reveal the real Edwin who himself has suddenly grown into a murderer, a ‘terrorist’ and a little criminal,’ a suspicious character, sort of.
Eventually, when the true story is discovered by other equally inquisitive children, the real Edwin is also unmasked. Is he really the man who killed the Matroko man in the bush? Does he have any excuse not to inform the police or government officials that he saw the man dangling on a tree with a rope tied on his neck? Why is he evasive and secretive?
On page 19, the author brings the events leading to the discovery of the true killer of the Matroko man nearer home. “As I was looking around the place (bush) I detected a bad smell, then I almost stepped into a day-old mound of excrement. Stepping back, I spotted the last irrefutable evidence – a set of footprints in the dust, pacing away from the mound, round the two soft marks in the dust and the circle of Pafa trees and then heading in the unmistakable direction of the township. Size 8 tenderfoots”. And, of course, Edwin’s size fits the description of the footprints and the boots. Then, what other evidence do you need to reveal the real culprit? Here, indeed, lies the very unmistakable power of the prose style usually employed by the author to make his stories stick in the conscience of his readers.
In Going to see Mr. B. V., he situates the story of Indian shop owners in Zimbabwe who have come to occupy an essential part of that society. They use all sorts of cunning habits and wisdom to do business and cheat the people to their marrows. B. V. Wholesales is a departmental shop long known for its habitual tendency to hoodwink the people. In all his dealings with the people, B.V. shows that business does not have to come with a mixture of friendship and pleasure. This is what young George has just discovered as his father, one of the employees of B.V. sends him to the man.
The other stories that can easily capture your attention are: Among the Dead, Snow, Bramson, Can we Talk and more. Each story reveals a lot about the author and why, indeed, he is considered a master story-teller in Southern Africa. Since short story telling is a different craft in the prose genre of literature, Chinodya is world’s apart from his contemporaries. He knows the style, he rummages in the proper usage of prose to tell his tale. He has mastered how to create the necessary story ideas to suit the short story genre. And his style of telling them draws you gradually into the fold. Now, you’d like to be part of the story and then begin to imagine the circumstances and promptings of the story.
It is within this context that the book is viewed. And in 154 pages, it is a book that readily offers you the opportunity to travel through the pages to Zimbabwe, to Southern Africa and into the heart of the author.
