Masvingo ne Carpet by Thamsanqa Ncube

The girl stood by the side of the road, her skirt lifted up to her stomach, her womanhood exposed. She gesticulated insanely at her private parts, while sticking her tongue out, and as the truck passed her by she ran after it for a few metres. Amai Tafadzwa craned her neck to try and see whether what she was seeing was true, but the girl was out of view. She turned her head to her husband and asked, ”And that, Baba Tafi, and that, what was that?” The shock in her voice clearly evident, coming out as it did in a screeching high tone above the engines of the big truck.

This story has been selected for the StoryTime anthology African Roar 2011, please go to the African Roar site for more info.

Masvingo ne Carpet was written by Thamsanqa N. Ncube.


Copyright © Thamsanqa N. Ncube 2010.

I am a citizen of the world, who happened to be born in a beautiful country called Zimbabwe, a country I love and adore with all my heart.

I have traveled around the world, including Europe, the Americas and Africa and walked and lived with people of different races, tribes, affiliations and afflictions, and that has built in me a huge understanding of the concept of the Global Village, and my place in it.

I was born more than 30 years ago, (am growing old and therefore sensitive about my true age!!), in the beautiful hills of Matopo, just outside Bulawayo, and sometimes I like to think that the beauty of that area was my first inspiration towards writing.

I started writing when I was probably eight or nine, and had my first published work in the Sunday News in Bulawayo, around 1994, a story about the returning from the war of Liberation of the so-called Comrades, the expectations that they had, and how it all came to nothing for some of them…So the issues of the politics of my country have always, and will continue to be close to my heart.

My first poetry Anthology, “Mureza, in the Shadow of the Flag” is currently doing the rounds in the various ezines, including Munyori Literary Journal; Ascent Aspirations in Canada, ibhuku.com, as well as a few hard copy anthologies including Timbila Poetry Journal, and the Consumnes River Journal in the USA.

Zimbabwe, its history, its people and the journey that my country has taken from a long time ago, is surely the subject of long, sweet poetry…It is the story of a people who have valiantly and proudly shaped their own destiny, and Mureza is an acknowledgement that whatever happens to Zimbabwe, our flag, our Mureza, will continue to flutter and give us shelter, and no matter how desperate thing s may appear now, things will, as they always do, get back to normal.

I believe that poets and writers are like the Biblical prophets of old; they are the mirrors through which society can look at itself and reflect upon its past, its present, and the journey which that society is facing into the future.
I believe my job as a poet is to reflect the feelings and “heart of a Nation”, so indeed, as a poet I need to be involved in the politics of my nation, but only as a mirror does; it will show you that your face is dirty, but the first time it reaches out to clean that face, then you know you have problems!!

I am in the final stages of securing a publishing deal for this anthology, and hope it will be in print by the end of the year.

I am also in the process of completing my first collection of short stories, from which I have extracted most of the work you will read on Storytime.

Keep reading and writing!!

Thamsanqa N. Ncube.