“In my work there is a constant conversation between the earth, nature and the sky:” Conversations inside and outside of conversations in Chenjerai Hove’s Ancestors

Abstract

Chenjerai Hove’s novel of 1996 called Ancestors is intriguing because of its wide variety of methods of narrating that operate side by side in one novel. Sometimes the story is told by a realistic male character called Mucha. He is the immediate and major narrator who tells us his story and the story of his family from a personal and realist point of view. At another level, Mucha narrates the family story from the point of view and spiritual instruction of Miriro and to a less extent, Tariro. Then the reader fi nds out that Miriro, who remained deaf and dumb throughout her short life occasionally tells us directly from the grave about what she ‘heard’ during her lifetime! She even remembers the sounds of birds and animals, people’s songs and conversations. Miriro remembers all the things that are normally not available to those who are deaf and dumb. Therefore, a mathematical and accurate reading of this novel by one of Zimbabwe’s internationally acclaimed writers is not quite possible. To read it is an exercise akin only to moving towards an estimation of meanings.