Hope Deferred
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The fifth volume in the Voice of Witness series presents the narratives of Zimbabweans whose lives have been affected by the country’s political, economic, and human rights crises. This book asks the question: How did a country with so much promise—a stellar education system, a growing middle class of professionals, a sophisticated economic infrastructure, a liberal constitution, and an independent judiciary—go so wrong?
In their own words, they recount their experiences of losing their homes, land, livelihoods, and families as a direct result of political violence. They describe being tortured in detention, firebombed at home, or beaten up or raped to "punish" votes for the opposition. Those living abroad in exile or forced to flee to neighboring countries recount their escapes, of cutting through fences, swimming across crocodile-infested rivers, and entrusting themselves to human smugglers. This book includes Zimbabweans of every age, class and political conviction, from farm laborers to academics, from artists and opposition leaders to ordinary Zimbabweans: men and women simply trying to survive as a once thriving nation heads for collapse.
Peter Orner is the author of two novels (Love and Shame and Love and The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo), two short story collections (Esther Stories and Last Car Over the Sagamore Bridge), and editor of two books of non-fiction/oral history (Underground America and Hope Deferred). He is co-host of a radio program on KWMR/ Point Reyes, CA called Casual Footsteps with John McCrea and co-owner of a bookstore called the Book Exchange.
Annie Holmes was born in Zambia and raised in Zimbabwe. She has taught high school, run a book editing department, made documentaries and television, and led communications for feminist organizing and health research in the U.S. and UK. She now lives in London, but Zimbabwe is always home.
Brian Chikwava is a London-based Zimbabwean writer and author of the novel Harare North, which won the Outstanding First Creative Published Work category in Zimbabwe’s National Arts Merit Awards and was also longed listed for the George Orwell Prize. He is a previous winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing and a former Charles Pick Fellow at the University of East Anglia. Chikwava is currently working on his second novel.