Ivor W. Hartmann
Yvonne Vera: The Fearless Taboo Queen by Ivor W. Hartmann
"I am against silence; the books I write try to undo the silent posture African women have endured over so
many decades” -Yvonne Vera
Yvonne Vera was born in 1964 and raised in Zimbabwe’s second largest city Bulawayo during British
colonial era and under the Rhodesian minority regime. Growing up, Vera was somewhat graced by her
family status. Her father was a prosperous businessman and her uncle was a former local football star and
manager of a top hotel (Ranger). Together they were both politically involved and friends of Joshua
Nkomo, who would become a pivotal figure in the second Chimurenga or Zimbabwean Liberation Struggle.
Vera’s mother (Mrs. Ericah Gwetai), was a school teacher and early on extended her love of books over to
her daughter to take up the mantle. Vera did so and between them they convinced her father to find a way
and successfully obtain an adult library card when she was twelve, in the “Whites Only” main Bulawayo
library (Ranger).
Vera’s parents did not go unrewarded for their attention; she became a top student at Mzilikazi High, and
went on to do the same at Hillside Teacher Training school. Vera's first teaching position was at Njube High
where she met her future husband John Jose, a math teacher from Canada. This was to prove a pivotal
point in Vera's life for through their growing friendship John would invite her to Canada, and she would
honour that invitation (Dunphy).
On the third visit to Toronto, Yvonne and John married and she began to attend York University. In only
eight years Vera completed her Undergraduate, Master's and PhD degrees. It was however during Vera's
Master's degree when she discovered her true joy and talent was writing. Diagnosed with HIV in 1989 Vera
undeterred and perhaps motivated by, began writing short stories. These would grow into an astounding
collection which became her first published book, Why Don’t You Carve Other Animals in 1991, released
by Tsar Press, a Canadian independent publisher. With this collection of vivid short stories Vera set the
landscape for her future novels.
In writing, Vera consciously and carefully sought to openly and honestly break what she perceived as the
crushing, enforced silence of her Zimbabwean countrymen for the last 100 years. A silence started by
colonisation that stemmed the ancient flow of oral traditions that held history, myth and legend. Vera sought
to bring these traditions alive again and be a voice for the silent to now emerge, and once more bring the
storyteller to prominence in society.
In 1993 through her first novel Nehanda, Vera affirmed her pledge and gave voice to the life and times of
Mbuya Nehanda Charwe Nyakasikana, who led the first uprising against colonial rule in 1896. A legend in
her own time Mbuya Nehanda was the spiritual leader of the Shona people. Nehanda is the name given to
the Lion Spirit, whose first incarnation was the daughter of the first King of the great Munhumutapa
Empire, Mutota Nyatsimba. Charwe Nyakasikana (a powerful spirit medium) bestowed this name on
Nehanda when she became, Nehanda Charwe Nyakasikana, and was considered to be the female
incarnation of the oracle spirit Nyamhika Nehanda Lion Spirit (Matshobana). Mbuya Nehanda together with
Mukwati and Kaguvi two other spiritual leader they instigated the 1st Chimurenga or uprising. After two
unsuccessful attempts Mbuya and Kaguvi were captured in 1897, a public press photograph was taken by
the British to display their success abroad and both were executed by hanging shortly after. It was this
photograph that survived time and found its way to Vera. She was reminded of her grandmother’s stories
and the reverence with which Zimbabwean's still hold for Mbuya Nehanda. As it was the actions of Mbuya
Nehanda that would (73 years later), read to the ten-year 2nd Chimurenga War of Independence.
Culminating in victory and independence of Zimbabwe in 1980, when Vera was sixteen. Taking on the
mantle of a true storyteller Vera unflinchingly wove a tale around Mbuya Nehanda creating a legend that
wove masterfully between mythology and fact. In her unique style, Vera through Nehanda began a literary
voyage that would cut to the bone, revealing the absurdity of many long-standing inequities against and
within her own people.
Yvonne Vera once said, “Our forefathers crafted a language (Shona) that made it difficult to address these
contentious issues. In African culture, for example, to talk to my father, I bow. If I am announcing that
somebody has died, I use a particular language, a particular tone...so as to convey the message. But for
subjects like incest and rape...you are not allowed to mention it. Even to your mother, who must
pantomime the news if she tells your aunt ” (Soros).
Without A Name was published in 1994 and gained Vera critical international acclaim by winning the
Commonwealth Writers Prize for Africa and the Zimbabwean Publisher’s Literary Award. During this time
she taught at Trent University until 1995 when she returned home to Bulawayo. Two years later in 1997
Vera released her third book Under The Tongue, through Baobab Books in Zimbabwe. That same year she
was named Director of the National Gallery of Zimbabwe in Bulawayo. But she continued to write and in
1998 released Butterfly Burning though Baobab. Two years later Farrar, Straus and Giroux publishers in
America, reprinted Butterfly Burning with international distribution. The novel gained a widespread fame
and became required reading and study in many university literary courses, and was awarded The German
Literature Prize. The year 2002 also saw the release of her fourth and last novel The Stone Virgins.
The Stone Virgins won the Macmillan Writers Prize for Africa later that year and undeterred as usual, Vera
set to work on her new novel Obedience, dictating to John, as she lay in bed too weak to rise (Dunphy).
Her fortitude took the upper hand and she seemed by 2003 to be on the way to a full recovery, but in April
2004 she was struck by virulent meningitis, and her condition deteriorated rapidly. John quickly flew her to
specialist care in Toronto. Aided by the care and John she began to once more recover and started work
again on Obedience, but the meningitis relapsed. On the day her mother arrived from Zimbabwe, Yvonne
Vera on the 24th of March 2005, finally succumbed to a 16 year adversary and died in hospital at the age of
40 (Dunphy).
Yvonne Vera leaves behind a legacy in her novels, short stories and many essays. In reading her works you
can see she stuck firmly to her initial intent; set out with Why Don’t You Carve Other Animals and ending
in The Stone Virgins. Through her writing she sought to expose and illuminate all aspects of life, and if they
were considered taboo she did not flinch but persisted in revealing the truth. This applies to her very style
of writing in which she broke and flaunted all manner of traditional forms to create a world that taught
directly through the experience of reading it alone. All of Vera's works depict a rich and multifaceted world
that questioned everyone and everything, sparring with no quarter in the true timeless voice of the
storyteller. Though there can be no other like Yvonne Vera, her voice will go onward and all who listen will
be forever changed by that journey. For Vera, writing demands full participation and cuts through the
barriers of disassociation to leave the reader marked and changed by the experience. So like all our
legendary storytellers of ages past, what Yvonne Vera left behind does continue to change the fabric of our
global society.
Works Cited
Ranger, Terence. “Britain Zimbabwe Society: Reminiscences of Yvonne Vera”. <http://www.britain-
zimbabwe.org.uk/VeraAppreciationTOR.htm>.
Dunphy, Catherine. “Yvonne Vera, 40: A powerful voice Quelled” by Catherine Dunphy. <http://www.
thestar.com/Obituary/TtoZ/article/108037>.
Ezika Matshobana. “Bulawayo 1872” . <http://www.bulawayo1872.com/history/nehandambuya.htm>.
Soros, Eugine. “Yvonne Vera: Breaking the Silence." World Press Review Online.
<http://worldpress.org/Africa/736.cfm>.
"I am against silence; the books I write try to undo the silent posture African women have endured over so
many decades” -Yvonne Vera
Yvonne Vera was born in 1964 and raised in Zimbabwe’s second largest city Bulawayo during British
colonial era and under the Rhodesian minority regime. Growing up, Vera was somewhat graced by her
family status. Her father was a prosperous businessman and her uncle was a former local football star and
manager of a top hotel (Ranger). Together they were both politically involved and friends of Joshua
Nkomo, who would become a pivotal figure in the second Chimurenga or Zimbabwean Liberation Struggle.
Vera’s mother (Mrs. Ericah Gwetai), was a school teacher and early on extended her love of books over to
her daughter to take up the mantle. Vera did so and between them they convinced her father to find a way
and successfully obtain an adult library card when she was twelve, in the “Whites Only” main Bulawayo
library (Ranger).
Vera’s parents did not go unrewarded for their attention; she became a top student at Mzilikazi High, and
went on to do the same at Hillside Teacher Training school. Vera's first teaching position was at Njube High
where she met her future husband John Jose, a math teacher from Canada. This was to prove a pivotal
point in Vera's life for through their growing friendship John would invite her to Canada, and she would
honour that invitation (Dunphy).
On the third visit to Toronto, Yvonne and John married and she began to attend York University. In only
eight years Vera completed her Undergraduate, Master's and PhD degrees. It was however during Vera's
Master's degree when she discovered her true joy and talent was writing. Diagnosed with HIV in 1989 Vera
undeterred and perhaps motivated by, began writing short stories. These would grow into an astounding
collection which became her first published book, Why Don’t You Carve Other Animals in 1991, released
by Tsar Press, a Canadian independent publisher. With this collection of vivid short stories Vera set the
landscape for her future novels.
In writing, Vera consciously and carefully sought to openly and honestly break what she perceived as the
crushing, enforced silence of her Zimbabwean countrymen for the last 100 years. A silence started by
colonisation that stemmed the ancient flow of oral traditions that held history, myth and legend. Vera sought
to bring these traditions alive again and be a voice for the silent to now emerge, and once more bring the
storyteller to prominence in society.
In 1993 through her first novel Nehanda, Vera affirmed her pledge and gave voice to the life and times of
Mbuya Nehanda Charwe Nyakasikana, who led the first uprising against colonial rule in 1896. A legend in
her own time Mbuya Nehanda was the spiritual leader of the Shona people. Nehanda is the name given to
the Lion Spirit, whose first incarnation was the daughter of the first King of the great Munhumutapa
Empire, Mutota Nyatsimba. Charwe Nyakasikana (a powerful spirit medium) bestowed this name on
Nehanda when she became, Nehanda Charwe Nyakasikana, and was considered to be the female
incarnation of the oracle spirit Nyamhika Nehanda Lion Spirit (Matshobana). Mbuya Nehanda together with
Mukwati and Kaguvi two other spiritual leader they instigated the 1st Chimurenga or uprising. After two
unsuccessful attempts Mbuya and Kaguvi were captured in 1897, a public press photograph was taken by
the British to display their success abroad and both were executed by hanging shortly after. It was this
photograph that survived time and found its way to Vera. She was reminded of her grandmother’s stories
and the reverence with which Zimbabwean's still hold for Mbuya Nehanda. As it was the actions of Mbuya
Nehanda that would (73 years later), read to the ten-year 2nd Chimurenga War of Independence.
Culminating in victory and independence of Zimbabwe in 1980, when Vera was sixteen. Taking on the
mantle of a true storyteller Vera unflinchingly wove a tale around Mbuya Nehanda creating a legend that
wove masterfully between mythology and fact. In her unique style, Vera through Nehanda began a literary
voyage that would cut to the bone, revealing the absurdity of many long-standing inequities against and
within her own people.
Yvonne Vera once said, “Our forefathers crafted a language (Shona) that made it difficult to address these
contentious issues. In African culture, for example, to talk to my father, I bow. If I am announcing that
somebody has died, I use a particular language, a particular tone...so as to convey the message. But for
subjects like incest and rape...you are not allowed to mention it. Even to your mother, who must
pantomime the news if she tells your aunt ” (Soros).
Without A Name was published in 1994 and gained Vera critical international acclaim by winning the
Commonwealth Writers Prize for Africa and the Zimbabwean Publisher’s Literary Award. During this time
she taught at Trent University until 1995 when she returned home to Bulawayo. Two years later in 1997
Vera released her third book Under The Tongue, through Baobab Books in Zimbabwe. That same year she
was named Director of the National Gallery of Zimbabwe in Bulawayo. But she continued to write and in
1998 released Butterfly Burning though Baobab. Two years later Farrar, Straus and Giroux publishers in
America, reprinted Butterfly Burning with international distribution. The novel gained a widespread fame
and became required reading and study in many university literary courses, and was awarded The German
Literature Prize. The year 2002 also saw the release of her fourth and last novel The Stone Virgins.
The Stone Virgins won the Macmillan Writers Prize for Africa later that year and undeterred as usual, Vera
set to work on her new novel Obedience, dictating to John, as she lay in bed too weak to rise (Dunphy).
Her fortitude took the upper hand and she seemed by 2003 to be on the way to a full recovery, but in April
2004 she was struck by virulent meningitis, and her condition deteriorated rapidly. John quickly flew her to
specialist care in Toronto. Aided by the care and John she began to once more recover and started work
again on Obedience, but the meningitis relapsed. On the day her mother arrived from Zimbabwe, Yvonne
Vera on the 24th of March 2005, finally succumbed to a 16 year adversary and died in hospital at the age of
40 (Dunphy).
Yvonne Vera leaves behind a legacy in her novels, short stories and many essays. In reading her works you
can see she stuck firmly to her initial intent; set out with Why Don’t You Carve Other Animals and ending
in The Stone Virgins. Through her writing she sought to expose and illuminate all aspects of life, and if they
were considered taboo she did not flinch but persisted in revealing the truth. This applies to her very style
of writing in which she broke and flaunted all manner of traditional forms to create a world that taught
directly through the experience of reading it alone. All of Vera's works depict a rich and multifaceted world
that questioned everyone and everything, sparring with no quarter in the true timeless voice of the
storyteller. Though there can be no other like Yvonne Vera, her voice will go onward and all who listen will
be forever changed by that journey. For Vera, writing demands full participation and cuts through the
barriers of disassociation to leave the reader marked and changed by the experience. So like all our
legendary storytellers of ages past, what Yvonne Vera left behind does continue to change the fabric of our
global society.
Works Cited
Ranger, Terence. “Britain Zimbabwe Society: Reminiscences of Yvonne Vera”. <http://www.britain-
zimbabwe.org.uk/VeraAppreciationTOR.htm>.
Dunphy, Catherine. “Yvonne Vera, 40: A powerful voice Quelled” by Catherine Dunphy. <http://www.
thestar.com/Obituary/TtoZ/article/108037>.
Ezika Matshobana. “Bulawayo 1872” . <http://www.bulawayo1872.com/history/nehandambuya.htm>.
Soros, Eugine. “Yvonne Vera: Breaking the Silence." World Press Review Online.
<http://worldpress.org/Africa/736.cfm>.
Ivor W. Hartmann currently lives, writes, and plays whilst rattling the shackles of
economic slavery and exile between Harare, Zimbabwe, and Johannesburg, South Africa.
Ivor was born in the 70's in the Sunshine City of Harare, Zimbabwe. He penned his first
short story at fourteen and twenty one years later, armed with a broad range of life
experience; from Literature and Fine Arts to Permaculture, Organic Farming, Computer
Animation, Special Effects and Music Videos. He finally felt ready to follow what had
always been his first love, writing. Beginning a journey that has led to StoryTime, an
African New Fiction Ezine, print publication of a fiction short story "Earth Rise"
(recommended for the Ursa Major 2008 Awards), in the sci-fi/horror magazine Something
Wicked, online publication of numerous fiction and non-fiction at various online ezines.
Behind the glare of print and screen, Ivor always has a novel on the go, and several short
stories nosing around the world.
economic slavery and exile between Harare, Zimbabwe, and Johannesburg, South Africa.
Ivor was born in the 70's in the Sunshine City of Harare, Zimbabwe. He penned his first
short story at fourteen and twenty one years later, armed with a broad range of life
experience; from Literature and Fine Arts to Permaculture, Organic Farming, Computer
Animation, Special Effects and Music Videos. He finally felt ready to follow what had
always been his first love, writing. Beginning a journey that has led to StoryTime, an
African New Fiction Ezine, print publication of a fiction short story "Earth Rise"
(recommended for the Ursa Major 2008 Awards), in the sci-fi/horror magazine Something
Wicked, online publication of numerous fiction and non-fiction at various online ezines.
Behind the glare of print and screen, Ivor always has a novel on the go, and several short
stories nosing around the world.
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