Novel
Jikinya
Geoffrey Ndhlala · 1979
Synopsis
One night, warriors attack and destroy the farm of the Wilsons, European settlers. Chedu, a man of the Ngara village who is troubled by death because it is almost unknown among his people, finds their little girl, Jikinya, in the ruins, adopts her and brings her home, where his wife Tsitsi welcomes her. Raised in this village where peace and tolerance prevail, under the authority of the old Tichafa, she becomes one of the best dancers of the traditional dance. But other whites, who have arrived in the country, come to disturb this community.
Context
The book appeared in Salisbury from Macmillan in 1979, the year before independence, and was reissued in Harare by College Press in 1984, one hundred and eighteen pages. Rino Zhuwarara ranked it among the novels of the conflict of cultures, which show that in destroying African culture the colonist tramples on something irreplaceable. The title is that of a dance which the novel presents as a Shona tradition; in 2015, two academics saw in it a literary myth rather than an attested custom.
Who it is for
In English, about one hundred and twenty pages. It is best to know that the jikinya dance is a disputed motif, which some researchers regard as a myth.
Prizes and reception
Cited by Zimbabwean critics as early as 1987; Jairos Gonye and Irikidzayi Manase studied the myth of the dance in it.
Sources for this page 7
The pages consulted to check this page.