Welcome to Zimbabwean poetry - October 2006
We are very pleased to be able to introduce the poet and writer Ignatius Mabasa in this new issue of our page, accompanied by an introduction to his work by Clement Chihota.
Mabasa’s thoughtful, reflective poetry engages with the complex issues of personal morality in the day to day life of individual in a society challenged by the constraints of hardship.
As Chihota explains to those of us who can only read his poetry in translation, much of the subtlety, nuance and associative depth of the Shona is lost or diminished in English. We can, nonetheless, feel the depth of quiet passion invested in Mabasa’s work: the gaps between ideals and reality, the perceived hollowness at the heart of wealthier societies complacent in their power and value systems, and his concern for what it means to be truly human.
