Speak, Memory

_19.00_speak, memory
Villa Oppenheim

Yvonne Vera: Souls in exile
Introduction: Flora Veit-Wild
Reader: Tatiana Nekrasov
The images produced by Yvonne Vera (Rhodesia [present-day Zimbabwe] 1964-2005) in her short stories provide an insight into the longing of the “Souls in Exile”. The stories tell of the country that Vera left and that nevertheless never left her. They deal with the themes of Zimbabwe and its inhabitants: with the armed struggle for independence, her life and all its violent alterations, and the connection with the red earth and her forefathers. Yvonne Vera was a member of the jury from 2001-2004 in the programme section “Literatures of the World” at the international literature festival berlin.

_21.00_speak, memory
Villa Oppenheim

Dambudzo Marechera: The House of Hunger
Introduction: Flora Veit-Wild
Reader: Astrid Gorvin
“I got my things and left“ – what the nameless character in Marechera’s “The House of Hunger“ left behind and continues to leave behind can perhaps be called a place of hunger, a hunger for the country that, since colonialism, no longer exists. In this way, Marechera’s (Rhodesia [present-day Zimbabwe]; 1952-1987) first book can be read as a metaphor for the fight for Zimbabwean independence. A fight that cannot be related in normal prose, but demands its own style.