Tsungayi Hatitye

Born outside Harare. Attempted first novel at 16, ran out of steam after 5 pages.Was unemployed for a while after high school - learnt to go more than 24 hours without food; if one got the food it was sadza and green vegetables or at best soya chunks [de facto vegetarianism by any other words.] wallowed in self pity, became depressed, drank like fish and smoked like a chimney [ I have since reduced drinking and quit smoking after learning to accept that there is no life without struggle.] Later got job as a primary school still to qualify teacher. Taught grade six for a while but later roped in to teach special class [for retarded kids], neither hated nor enjoyed it as I was melancholy and sanguine at the time. After a year at it – besides being unhappy with salary level – I felt I was also becoming special so I ran away to Zim’s second largest city Bulawayo and hooked job with country’s largest supermarket chain as butchery assistant/management trainee; chinks of sunshine cracked into my life, used my position to indulge in red meat in the name of testing /tasting for quality [to make up for all those anaemic de facto vegetarian days], washed down the meat in the liquor warehouse. After two years at it, I felt neck was becoming red, started writing short stories and journalistic articles for an obsecure religious and political magazine to keep my mind sharp and supplement my income. Got bored by lack of intellectual challenge in supermarket; applied and got place at teacher training college to study French and English . got involved in two or three political disturbances, almost choked to death from tearsmoke in the last one and started soul searching and began work on the script that has now culminated as Shadows in the Hearts of Men (Molotov Cocktail). Quit college a semester later for lack of financial support coupled by the strong [misguided] belief that publishing a novel was easy. Came back to Ha