Virtually Yours #03 Tendai Huchu
A series of online discussions - Virtual Gatherings - with the award-winning author Zukiswa Wanner exploring contemporary African Literature with authors.
Tendai Huchu was born in 1982 in Bindura, Zimbabwe. He studied mining engineering at the University of Harare and dropped out in the first semester. He then worked various jobs, including in a casino. Since 2010 he has been writing stories that have appeared in Lightspeed, Interzone and AfroSF, among others. He won the Nommo Award for African SF/F and was shortlisted for the Caine Prize and the Grand Prix de L'Imaginaire. In between his novel projects, he translates fiction from Shona into English and vice versa. Following his novels 'The Hairdresser of Harare' and 'Maestro, Magistrate, Mathematician' (both published by Peter Hammer), he is now publishing the Edinburgh Nights series with Penhaligon.
1890s Sudan. When Akuany and her brother are orphaned in a village raid, they are taken in by a young merchant, Yaseen, who promises to care for them – a vow that tethers him to Akuany throughout their adulthood. As revolution begins to brew, led by the self-proclaimed Mahdi, Sudan begins to prise itself from Ottoman rule, and everyone must choose a side.
Yaseen feels beholden to stand against this false Mahdi, a decision that threatens to splinter his family. Meanwhile, Akuany is moved across the country alone, sold and traded from house to house, with only Yaseen as her intermittent lifeline. Their struggle mirrors the increasingly bloody struggle for Sudan itself: for freedom, safety and the possibility of love.
River Spirit is the unforgettable story of a people who, against the odds and for a brief time, gained independence from foreign rule through their willpower, subterfuge and sacrifice.
If you missed the session, you can watch the record here> Virtually Yours #03