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Limitless Africa

"Women bring a subversive perspective" - Novuyo Rosa Tshuma on Zimbabwean literature

Season 2, Ep. 4
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Novuyo Rosa Tshuma is an award-winning Zimbabwean novelist who teaches at the acclaimed Iowa Writers Workshop in the US, like many literary icons before her. And she's only 36 years old. 


Her debut novel House of Stone is set during the Gukahurundi massacres that took place immediately after Zimbabwean independence and remain shrouded in secrecy.  Her second novel Digging Stars also received glowing reviews. It deals with an equally uncomfortable history. She charts the similarities between the reserves allocated to native Americans in the US and those allocated to indigenous people in South Africa and Zimbabwe.


This is a must listen for anyone interested in African fiction, interested in reading it of course but also interested in how it is produced. Novuyo gives us a peek behind the scenes of some of the most prestigious writing institutions in the US, telling us what it's like to be a young African woman professor there. She's equally clear-sighted about the situation in Zimbabwe and what it's like to come back home with your partner when you are queer.



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