Chinongwa

​Author: Lucy Mushita
Publisher: Weaver Press and Modjaji Books
Reviewer: Hazel Makuzeni
Chinongwa is a glaring reminder of the countless horrors faced by many young girls, from mostly impoverished and deeply patriarchal societies, around the globe. It’s a sad indictment on mankind and the abhorrent treatment meted out to the truly vulnerable and most deserving of our love, protection and care. Even though the novel is set in the early twentieth century in rural 

Zimbabwe, similar experiences are still felt by girls living in countries like Afghanistan, Yemen, South Africa and where child marriages occur even now. Lucy Mushita’s poignant novel explores the consequences of these marriages.
Protagonist Chinongwa, knew earlier on that she would soon be married off. Even though she was only nine, her grandmother did not shy away from revealing to the child that: “Your sister was even younger when she was given”. Truth is, Chinongwa had resigned to her fate. Why would anything be different? She already knew that two of her aunts were given away in exchange for food and cattle.  Her family, like many in the village, were dirt poor. This hasn’t always been the case. Once they were people of affluence living on fertile grounds rich with cattle and game. But everything changed as soon as the colonisers arrived. They were now displaced people, living on arid land with few or no cattle, or indeed anything else.  So it was that daughters were given away to feed the family.  
The journey to finding a husband for Chinongwa was tiresome and humiliating. To her father’s and aunt’s dismay, nobody wanted to take her as a child-wife as she was neither plump, tall nor beautiful enough. Just skin and bones really. Their fortunes changed when, during an unforgiving hailstorm, they crossed paths with a childless woman. This woman offered to take the young girl for her elderly husband as a second wife. At that point life as a child ceased for Chinongwa. Her pursuit of  independence in the face of so much adversity and treacherousness, is extraordinary.
Can there ever be any justification for continuing the practice of child-marriage? I solemnly ask with a heavy heart. When guardians of children turn into predators devouring their young, what future is there for humanity? Thanks to the author for this touching, timeless read.    ​