Vera, Yvonne
VERA, Yvonne (1964-2005),
 Zimbabwean
short-story writer and novelist, was born in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe and educated
at Luveve and Mzilikazi Secondary Schools. She attained a doctorate in literature
from York University, Canada and was a writer-in-residence at Trent University,
Canada in 1995. Upon her return to Zimbabwe, she devoted most of her time to
creative writing. Her first publication, Why Don’t You Carve Other Animals?
(1992), is a collection of short stories set in colonial Rhodesia during the
liberation war. Caught in the conflict are a vulnerable people who have never
had much control over their lives: men anxious to hold on to the little they
have and women dreaming about fulfilment and achievement for their children.
This collection, although uneven in its handling of the short-story form, is
notable for its delicately chiselled poetic language. Her second publication,
Nehanda (1993), is a novel based on the 1893 uprising in Zimbabwe. As the settlers
gain a stranglehold on African land and invade African space, Nehanda becomes
the centre of African resistance. She displays courage rooted in an African
beliefs and values, in contrast to the materialistic outlook of her detractors.
What emerges is an African world view rendered in a poetic style that captures
African modes of expression and thought. Also implicit in Vera’s creative reconstruction
of the war is the central role played by women in the shaping of Zimbabwean
history. In Without a Name (1994), a poetic novel in a surrealistic idiom, a
woman who is raped during the liberation war later commits infanticide. Under
the Tongue (1996), also written in a highly lyrical style, deals with a young
girl’s intense, painful relationship with her father. Her most recent work is
Butterfly Burning (1998). Vera’s work reveals a serious artist experimenting
with the novel form and a poetic style.
Yvonne Vera passed away in April 2005 in Canada, where she had moved for treatment.
She had been ill for some time before her death.
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