Tradition and Innovation in Shona Literature

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Periodical article

Title:	Tradition and Innovation in Shona Literature
Author:	Kahari, G.P.
Year:	1972
Periodical:	Zambezia
Volume:	2
Issue:	2
Period:	December
Pages:	47-54
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Zimbabwe
Subjects:	Shona novels Literature, Mass Media and the Press Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
External link:	https://journals.co.za/doi/abs/10.10520/AJA03790622_671
Abstract:	Patrick Chakaipa's first novel, Karikoga Gumiremiseve, was published in 1958, tweaty-six years after his birth in Guvamombe, a village in the Mhondoro Tribal Trust Land. Karikoga Gumiremiseve stems directly from the world of fantasy and the world of reality, and this is a synnthesis of romance and reality. To understand or appreciate this novel one has to go to the study of the folke tale (rungano; pl. ngano), for Chakaipa's work is clearly based upon one of the many stories in Zezuru folklore, which is called 'Karikoga'. Chakaipa's real achievement and contribution to nascent Shona literature is that he is the first writer to use a plot of an old rungano and so to give it a new form and dimension. His genius lies in an ability to synthesise reality with fantasy: the reality of a world of historical legends of the Ndebele raids into Mashonaland, the fantasy of traditional folk-tale characters. The result of this fusion is a new rungano. Ref.