A remarkable essay by Brian Chikwava in the ’sex’
issue of the current Granta involving figs, wasps, Zipra guerillas and
an erotic rural dance. Zimbabwean Chikwava is the author of Harare
North, published in the UK last year, about a charismatic Green Bomber
(Mugabe militaman) who lands up in a delinquent squat in Brixton
after claiming asylum, and is trying to earn enough ‘termites’ – British
pounds – to get back to Zim and pay off his militia commander. The book
is extraordinary – A Clockwork Orange meets Amis’s London Fields – if
Keith Talent was a childish smooth talking killer from Zimbabwe. I
finished it two weeks ago and it’s still spinning smooth jazz numbers in
my head. More on Harare North later. Here’s The Fig Tree and the Wasp.