IHRAM Writing laureate Mbizo Chirasha in Conversation with Zimbabwean Prolific Writer Eresina Hwede

MC: Who is Eresina Hwede and how long have you been writing?
Eresina Hwede: I don’t know who Eresina is but I started writing before my I learned my ABC. I was the best storyteller for the family. I picked it from my grandmother. By the time I could read, I would read anything that I could lay my hands on. I grew up in the rural areas where books were for school and nothing more. I read everything and even the bible would fascinate me. It took me time to view the Bible as a religious book.

MC: List few of your publications 
Eresina Hwede: When I started writing I also dreamt of my picture at the back of a book but I have only been published in anthologies. Poetry and short stories. Most of my work was on the radio and the stage. For years I worked around Communication for Development (C4D). I created content for development communication. I have been published in books like Speaking for the Generation; contemporary stories from Africa, Light A Candle, Ghetto Diaries and other poems, Totanga Patsva etc.  I am also an editor, script writer, a playwright and a producer.

MC : How books and stories have you written so far?
Eresina Hwede: No book of my own has been published but stories I can’t remember. I have however been published on radio, stage and in print. One of my plays was at HIFA in 2007, Heaven Illegal.

MC: Is the Zimbabwe Women Association still in existence  and What their current projects?
Eresina Hwede: Yes Zimbabwe Women Writers (ZWW) is still alive and the current project a collection of stories focused on the transition of women from one right of passage to another eg from a girl to a married woman, to a widow, to a single mother etc .

MC: What do you think should be done to revive the International Book Fair in Zimbabwe?
Eresina Hwede: I feel ZIBF like all the arts in Zimbabwe has depended heavily on funding. Commercial activities around the arts are almost impossible but I think it's high time this becomes a self-funded project. Craft programmes that would bring money, create synergies that will make ZIBF a commercial entity rather than a mundane activity that does not seem to be taking writers anywhere.   

MC: What has killed the writing and book industry in Zimbabwe?
Eresina Hwede: The publishing industry is almost non-existent and writers have resorted to self-publishing and printing houses also masquerading as publishers. Piracy has also eroded writers’ royalties. For those publishing houses that are still paying, the payment is low that one doesn’t even bother to go and collect. I have survived this industry for more than 20 years because I went into communication for development programmes. I don’t have much presence on bookshelves but my creativity is elsewhere and I have been motivated to keep creating unlike some real talent that had been forced into early retirement because of what has happened to the book industry.

MC: Does your work include themes of gender equity, social justice, and creative justice?
Eresina Hwede: Yes a lot of that I should say.

MC: How are writers treated in Zimbabwe, do you think they command some respect?
Eresina Hwede: Writers are respected but not when it comes to paying for their work. Their work is public pirated and law enforcement does very little or nothing about it.

MC: Do we have copyright laws in Zimbabwe and are they respected or followed?
Eresina Hwede: Yes the laws are there but very little respect for them.

I was an avid reader and by seven I wrote my own story. I loved writing but my parents insisted that I do well academically so I went as far as University getting two degrees majoring in languages and Economics. At night I attended creative writing lessons with the late Chenjerai Hove.  On leaving school I worked as a teacher and writing at night. My first break came when I submitted a piece of my writing to Media for Development Trust who persuaded me to join them as a creative writer on their HIV and AIDS project with CDC. I went on to work with Soul City, Zimbabwe Women Writers, Communication for Development, PSI, and many other organizations specialising in writing for developmental projects. I did several courses in writing for radio, digital storytelling, a producer, writing for screen and arts and culture management. Today I work as freelance consultant in the art and literature sector and have been a judge for Cover to Cover writing competition for school children for over five years. I love books and writing and I am working on a collection of books and building a memorial library in my name in Borrowdale.