|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 'Writing is a Compulsion, an Addiction' |
| Lilian Masitera explores how society clips women's wings |
|
Ambrose Musiyiwa (amusiyiwa)  |
 Email Article
 Print Article
|
|
|
|
Published 2006-08-10 10:40 (KST) |
|
|
|
Lilian Masitera inspires a lot of things in a lot of people.
She has been described as a feminist writer, and her books are discussed in the same breath as those by fellow Zimbabwean writers Yvonne Vera, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Barbara Makhalisa, Spiwe Mahachi-Harper and Vivienne Ndlovu, who all explore the way a deeply patriarchal society clips women's wings.
Masitera published her debut poetry anthology, Militant Shadow (Minerva Press, London) in 1996 and the following year received a merit award from the International Society of Poets for her poem, "Enter the Teetotaller," which also appears in Militant Shadow.
One of her poems became a protest song when women's organizations took to the streets of Harare to protest against a medical doctor who was conducting illegal and life-threatening experiments on black Zimbabwean women.
She inspires a sense of wonder. She is a lecturer in the Mathematics Department at Belvedere Technical Teachers College in Harare. In 1989, while teaching at Queen Elizabeth High School in Harare, she formulated a way through which the vertical angles of cones could be calculated. The formula was accepted as original by the University of Stanford in the United States of America and is now widely used by high school students.
How does she manage teaching mathematics with writing poetry, short stories and novels?
She says she writes because she wants to share her experiences with others.
"I want people who read my books to know that what they go through is also experienced by others. I want others to experience the same joy I experienced when I read other people's books, and yes -- writing is a compulsion, an addiction."
Masitera also inspires fear. One columnist who writes for a church-owned newsletter would not write about her novel, The Trail because he was afraid doing so would cost him his job.
In 1994, she was among a group of Zimbabwean women to publish the first anthology of short stories by female writers. Local critics described the book as "a landmark in the history of Zimbabwean literature."
In 1999, she self-published her best selling collection of short stories, Now I Can Play and followed it up with the fast-paced and gripping novel, The Trail (Now I Can Play Publications, 2000).
In Now I Can Play, Masitera explores a range of themes that center on the problems that women face in their day-to-day lives. For example, in one story, a man's wife and his mistress compete for a man, and although one sympathizes with the wife, Masitera shows that they are both "captives" of men.
In another story, a girl escapes an attempted rape and is told by her mother to keep silent about it or she'll "be ruined for life" and will be "accused of having asked for it ... Besides, you'll be called a prostitute for the rest of your life."
Masitera says when, in 1994, she started working on The Trail, she was compelled by the need to empower women to question authority and unfair treatment.
"It's a feeling that started when I was at school myself and since that far back, I have always wanted to give vent to it. Then it grew and matured when I went into teaching myself, and the desire to talk about it grew even stronger."
The novel is set in the late 1980s, at a high school. It revolves around two girls, Lindiwe and Ruby, who become leaders of a group of discontented and daring students who question the way the school is being run.
"The story is about paving a trail for future generations. The girls are paving a trail, that's what I am saying. Those who come after them can choose the same trail, divert from it or cut their own," Masitera explains.
She points out that the central message behind The Trail is that women are the makers of their own destiny.
"I'm also saying, it's the people who go out and look for avenues, through which to achieve their goals. Who gets on in this world? It's those who go out and hunt who achieve rather than those who sit back and hope for miracles," she explains.
And, in August 2001, she won the Zimbabwe Book Publishers' Association's second prize for fiction writing in English, for two of her stories which appear in A Roof to Repair (College Press, 2000).
Although she is writing in different genres, Masitera's books are more similar than they are different.
"All of them carry social commentary because I am still looking at the weapons or tools of oppression, tools used by the authority or power-figure to subjugate the weak. I do that in all my books," Masitera explains.
While Militant Shadow and Now I Can Play identify men and culture as examples of such tools, in The Trail, it's religion that comes under scrutiny.
"I'm not questioning the church, really," Masitera says. "I'm questioning the place of religion, the way agents of religion interpret the religion and use it to their own advantage. That's what I'm really questioning."
In these three volumes, Masitera manages to marry incisive analysis and social commentary with no-holds-barred writing that is clear, crisp and easy to read.
A literary agent in the United Kingdom is currently reviewing Masitera's fourth book, Start With Me, a novel set in Zimbabwe, which explores the struggle of growing up in a society that neither values women nor supports them achieve their full potential.
|
|
 |
|
| This article is based on conversations between Ambrose Musiyiwa and Lilian Masitera conducted from the late 1990s onwards. |
|
|
©2006 OhmyNews
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Comments Note: Kindly refrain from personal attacks and profanity. |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
How worried are you about the H1N1 influenza virus? |
|
 |
| * Vote to see the result. |
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
RSS
Linked Story - 
Linked Story - 
Del.icio.us
Digg 
reddit
Y! MyWeb
.jpg)
