Dambudzo Marechera

Quick Facts

Full Name	Dambudzo Marechera
Occupation	Poet
Date Of Birth	Jun 4, 1952(1952-06-04)
Age	72
Date Of Death	1987-08-18
Birthplace	Rusape
Country	Zimbabwe
Birth City	Manicaland
Horoscope	Gemini

Dambudzo Marechera Biography

Dambudzo Marechera is one of the most popular and richest Poet who was born on June 4, 1952 in Rusape, Manicaland, Zimbabwe. A Zimbabwean poet and novelist of the Twentieth Century He is well-known for his novels Black Sunlight and The House of Hunger. A lot poetry of his were released after his death in a collection titled Cemetery of Mind.

His style of writing is often compared with that His writing style has been compared to that of James Joyce.’s style. His writing style has been compared to that of James Joyce..

His first book and magnum opus, The House of Hunger (1978), came immediately after his largely disappointing time at New College, Oxford University. Among the nine stories it contains, the long title story describes the narrator’s troubled childhood and youth in colonial Rhodesia in a style that is emotionally compelling and verbally pyrotechnic. The narrative is characterized by shifts in time and place and a blurring of fantasy and reality. Regarded as signalling a new trend of incisive and visionary African writing, The House of Hunger was awarded the 1979 Guardian Fiction Prize. Marechera was the first and the only African to have won the Guardian Fiction Prize in its 33 years (it was replaced in 1999 by the Guardian First Book Award).

In his 1978 book, The House of Hunger, and in interviews, Marechera often falsely suggests that his father was either run over by “a 20th century train” or “came home with a knife sticking from his back” or “was found in the hospital mortuary with his body riddled with bullets”. Such incorrect accounts may be part of Marechera’s penchant to revise even the “facts” of his own life. The German researcher Flora-Veit Wild gave considerable weight to an account given by Marechera’s older brother, Michael, about the destructive element in the younger Marechera’s life. Michael suggests that Dambudzo was a victim of their mother’s muti, implying that he was cursed in some way. When Marechera returned from London and was made writer-in-residency at the University of Zimbabwe, his mother and sisters attempted to come and meet him but he rejected them offhand, accusing the mother of trying to kill him. Still, it is known from anecdotal accounts that Marechera never made an effort to meet with any member of his family before he died in 1987.

He was the son of Zimbabwean descent of a mortuary employee and a maid.

Dambudzo Marechera Net Worth

Dambudzo Marechera is one of the richest Poet from Zimbabwe. According to our analysis, Wikipedia, Forbes & Business Insider, Dambudzo Marechera 's net worth $5 Million. (Last Update: December 11, 2023)

He was a student at St. Augustine’s Mission school and was dissatisfied with the school’s emphasis on European culture.

He passed away in his 30s from an AIDS-related pulmonary disease.

Dambudzo Marechera (4 June 1952 – 18 August 1987) was a Zimbabwean novelist, short story writer, playwright and poet. His short career produced a book of stories, two novels (one published posthumously), a book of plays, prose, and poetry, and a collection of poetry (also posthumous). He was best known for his abrasive, heavily detailed and self-aware writing, which was considered a new frontier in African literature, and his unorthodox behaviour in the universities where he excelled at but was expelled from.

Height, Weight & Body Measurements

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Who is Dambudzo Marechera Dating?

According to our records, Dambudzo Marechera is possibily single & has not been previously engaged. As of December 1, 2023, Dambudzo Marechera’s is not dating anyone.

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Marechera remains Zimbabwe’s most important cultural product on the creative writing front. Since his death, dozens of younger writers and many of his colleagues have written numerous accounts and biographies detailing his troubled life and works. In the 1990s, the most prominent were foreigners, especially the German scholar Flora Veit-Wild, who has written both a biography and a sourcebook of Marechera’s life and works. What Wild misses dismally is the fact that Marechera edited his own life as he went along. Wild seems to take many of the things she got from Marechera as facts. In an article in Wasafiri magazine in March 2012, Wild replied to the question about why she “did not write a proper Dambudzo Marechera biography” by saying: “My answer was that I did not want to collapse his multi-faceted personality into one authoritative narrative but rather let the diverse voices speak for themselves. But this is not the whole truth. I could not write his life story because my own life was so intricately entangled with his.” She then described in detail her very personal involvement with him over an 18-month period.

Facts & Trivia

Dambudzo Ranked on the list of most popular Poet. Also ranked in the elit list of famous people born in Zimbabwe. Dambudzo Marechera celebrates birthday on June 4 of every year.

At Oxford University, Marechera struck his professors as a very intelligent but rather anarchic student who had no particular interest in adhering to course syllabi, choosing rather to read whatever struck his fancy. He also had a reputation for being a quarrelsome young man who did not hesitate to fight his antagonists physically, especially in the pubs around Oxford. He began to display erratic behaviour, which may have been a result of excessive drinking or culture shock but which the school psychologist diagnosed as schizophrenia. Marechera threatened to murder certain people and attempted to set the university on fire. He was also famous — or notorious — for having no respect for authority derived from notions of racial or class superiority. For trying to set the college on fire, Marechera was given two options: either to submit to a psychiatric examination or be sent down; he chose the latter, charging that they were mentally raping him.

What happened Dambudzo Marechera?

Marechera’s health deteriorated, and he soon died of AIDS. Posthumous publications of his works, compiled by Flora Veit-Wild, include The Black Insider (1990); Cemetery of Mind (1992), a powerful collection of his poetry; and Scrapiron Blues (1994), a collection of stories, plays, and a novella.

Was Dambudzo Marechera mad?

Marechera was coming face to face with the reality of life in a typical post- colonial society. He grew increasingly despondent and bitter towards the end of his life : “I no longer have the initial anger I had when I was writing The House of Hunger and Black Sunlight.

Where was Marechera born?

Rusape, Zimbabwe

What township was marechera the author born?

Marechera, Christian name Charles William, was born in Vengere Township, Rusape, Southern Rhodesia , to Isaac Marechera, a mortuary attendant, and Masvotwa Venenzia Marechera, a maid. He was the child of Shona parents from the eastern-central part of Rhodesia.