Chenjerai Hove (b. February 9, 1956 – d. July 12, 2015), was a Zimbabwean poet, novelist and essayist who wrote in both English and Shona.
Chenjerai Hove was born on February 9, 1956, in Mazvihwa, Rhodesia. His father was a local chief with many wives and dozens of children. The younger Mr. Hove attended Roman Catholic schools run by the Marist brothers and, after graduating from a teacher training college, taught literature in rural high schools. He studied for degrees in language and literature at the University of Zimbabwe and then, in the 1980s, was a literary editor at Mambo Press and Zimbabwe Publishing House.
“Up in Arms” (1982), his first book of poetry, depicted in taut, lyrical verse the emotional devastation wrought by the independence struggle. “These poems ring with the self-evident truth of one who had suffered and survived, one who has been there,” the Zimbabwean novelist Charles Mungoshi wrote in his introduction to the book.
“Red Hills of Home,” published in 1985, reflected Mr. Hove’s inner conflict over the brutality he witnessed while teaching in the countryside. In his 1998 collection, “Rainbows in the Dust,” he lamented the broken promises of the independence movement.
He turned to prose fiction in the mid-1980s, writing, in Shona, about the plight of Zimbabwean women in the novel “Masimba Avanhu?” (“Is This the People’s Power?”), published in 1986. He followed up on the success of “Bones” with “Shadows” (1991), a harrowing tale of two lovers coping with poverty and the violence of the bush war. In the fable-like “Ancestors,” he told the story of a young boy, growing up on the eve of independence, who is haunted in his dreams by ancestral female voices.
Mr. Hove also published two collections of political essays, “Shebeen Tales: Messages From Harare” (1994) and “Palaver Finish” (2002). Speaking last year on the BBC radio program “Focus on Africa,” he said that it was his responsibility “as a citizen, as an African, as a Zimbabwean” to take a critical look at his own country — “to look at our lives and at whether our leaders are enhancing our dignity or taking it away.”
Mr. Hove was a founder and board member of the Zimbabwe Human Rights Association, and in 1984 he became the first president of the Zimbabwe Writers Union, a post he held until 1992. In addition to his wife, he is survived by six children and many siblings.
“Up in Arms” (1982), his first book of poetry, depicted in taut, lyrical verse the emotional devastation wrought by the independence struggle. “These poems ring with the self-evident truth of one who had suffered and survived, one who has been there,” the Zimbabwean novelist Charles Mungoshi wrote in his introduction to the book.
“Red Hills of Home,” published in 1985, reflected Mr. Hove’s inner conflict over the brutality he witnessed while teaching in the countryside. In his 1998 collection, “Rainbows in the Dust,” he lamented the broken promises of the independence movement.
He turned to prose fiction in the mid-1980s, writing, in Shona, about the plight of Zimbabwean women in the novel “Masimba Avanhu?” (“Is This the People’s Power?”), published in 1986. He followed up on the success of “Bones” with “Shadows” (1991), a harrowing tale of two lovers coping with poverty and the violence of the bush war. In the fable-like “Ancestors,” he told the story of a young boy, growing up on the eve of independence, who is haunted in his dreams by ancestral female voices.
Mr. Hove also published two collections of political essays, “Shebeen Tales: Messages From Harare” (1994) and “Palaver Finish” (2002). Speaking last year on the BBC radio program “Focus on Africa,” he said that it was his responsibility “as a citizen, as an African, as a Zimbabwean” to take a critical look at his own country — “to look at our lives and at whether our leaders are enhancing our dignity or taking it away.”
Mr. Hove was a founder and board member of the Zimbabwe Human Rights Association, and in 1984 he became the first president of the Zimbabwe Writers Union, a post he held until 1992. In addition to his wife, he is survived by six children and many siblings.
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