Shebeen Tales

Messages from Harare

Chenjerai Hove

 

  • Baobab Books
  • Harare
  • 1994
  • English
  • Paperback
  • 129 pages
  • eBook
  • Kindle pages

The book is out of print, but now available on Kindle.

Synopsis

Throughout southern Africa, shebeens are where jokes are born, news is embellished and exchanged. They are unique vantage points where men go after a day's work, both to escape from the troubled world around them and to observe and comment on it. In Shebeen Tales, Zimbabwe's leading author offers a view of his country not from the privileged and insulated perspective of a well-heeled visitor, but that of the ordinary person who, with the help of dry wit and illegal beer, pokes fun at the rich and mighty.

Review

… it is lightness of touch which carries his points about the unfulfilled promises of independence far more powerfully than rage or the dour functionality of political language ever can. - Mail & Guardian

Author

Chenjerai Hove was a Zimbabwean poet, novelist and essayist who wrote in both English and Shona.