Vera as a Storyteller

Generation to generation, mouth to ear and down the line, the stories circulate. From pre-colonial Africa until today, oral tradition has been used by its residents to pass history through the generations. Grandfathers to fathers to sons, myths, histories, struggles, births, deaths, and victories. As the stories and histories pass from one mouth to another, each storyteller leaves a mark in the way in which it is retold. The story becomes a part of the storyteller and the storyteller becomes the story.

But, what happens when outside forces intrude on the progression and circulation of history? In Zimbabwe, in the almost one hundred years in which it existed as a colony, European forces relinquished the power of the storyteller. Silence was the result of colonization. Many stories were not told. And for many reasons. Terrible consequences were in order for those who spoke against the new story that was developing. And why would the “natives” need to speak anyways? The colonizers held the power, and therefore became the tellers of their story.

The greatest power of these new storytellers was that they possessed the ability to speak through words on a page. These pages could be broadcast back to Britain for the entire nation, if not the world, to see and hear. They were able to gain the support of their nation and others in the fight to modernize the native savages of Rhodesia. This forced Rhodesians into a tough position. Not only were they reprimanded for breaking the silence, they had no one to listen to them. With the British commanding their history with the written word, the Rhodesians needed a way to fight back.

Leading up to the time of the revolution and afterwards, storytellers were forced to become authors. In the case of Yvonne Vera, she was able to rise above the forces of the colonizers and make herself heard. But, she had to do so outside of the traditional African way of storytelling. Forced to Europeanize herself, Vera wrote instead of speaking her stories. While allowing herself to become the stories and vise versa, she compromised part of herself by submitting to the colonizers method of telling history. Or did she? Once her stories were written, there was never again the opportunity for new elements to be added, parts to change, characters to evolve, or Vera’s new experiences to be inserted. The storyteller was finished with the story forever? But, is that necessarily bad?
Without Vera’s written accounts of the images and experiences of the war, the stories of the Rhodesians, now Zimbabweans, may have never been told. In order to take back the power of storytelling, Vera had to use the British’s weapon against them. By commanding the written word, now her histories could be translated, copied, and sold across the globe, submitting people to the atrocities that occurred during the revolution. Instead of seeing writing as a product of colonialism, Vera embraces the opportunity to share her stories with the world, opening a space for others to follow her lead.

With her death this past Thursday, April 7, 2005 (??), a question arises as to what will happen to her stories. With her no longer alive, will they still be told? Even though they are written and published, will the stories still be shared and will an impact still be made? Just because she has passed on from this world, a part of her remains in her stories. But, doesn’t that also mean she has taken some of her stories with her. At the age of 40, working on her sixth novel, she still had more to share with the world. While her works compose a portion of the post-colonial writings from Zimbabwe, hopefully, someone will pick up where she, unfortunately, had to leave off and continue to tell the story of the struggle.

Finally, who is left to tell the story of Yvonne Vera? Several days following her death, in newspapers and on websites, I searched for articles written about her life. To my dismay, only one such article existed, which had been copied dozens of times for various publications. In 360 words, the life of an amazing woman, writer, artist, activist, African and so much more was outlined for the world. Without prior knowledge of her literary works and talents, the great impact of her life could not be drawn from the articles, or should I say article, that I found. So, I propose, that this website shall exist to help share the stories and histories of the woman who was and still is Yvonne Vera.
By Megan Lehnerd

Comments

[allen]

gling nman ni vera

[tatah]

I do find your article quite insightful and interesting.I will go a long way to open the minds of us who are still grappling to understand the tensed works of vera,which of are cousre very interesting.

[MaydayJex]

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