Shimmer Chinodya

Shimmer Chinodya is one of Zimbabwe’s most celebrated post-independence literary writers. He won The Commonwealth Writers Prize, Africa region in 1990, for his critically acclaimed novel, Ha...

Chairman of Fools

Shimmer Chinodya

Chairman of Fools explores the plight of Farai Chari, a supposedly successful writer, professor and self-acclaimed artist, living in an African culture in which tradition weighs heavy and middle class aspirations are crude. Farai yearns for a world in which men and women can freely associate with one another and gratify their passions without moral chastisement.

In the novel told with sympathy and affection, humour and irony, Chinoyda has created a meditation on male chauvinism, moral self- righteousnessand mental break-down, continually posing the question: Is the hero an ingenuous and self-indulgent fool, or a deeply self-aware, but misunderstood character, who is pushing at the boundaries of prejudice?

"While clearly representing an upper-middle class socio-economic status, Chinodya’s character is one that men in general can relate to. Masculinities in Zimbabwe, and indeed, around the globe, are such that men are often put into positions of expected power, success and responsibility. Should they not meet these expectations, their masculinity can be called into question, affecting not only their own identity and self-esteem, but the ways in which they relate to their families and communities. Chairman of Fools is a dark, and at times depressing representation of the despair that can consume, but also demonstrates thevery real effects of the pressure often put on male heads of family."
- Reviewed by KarolineKemp, a Commonwealth of Learning Young ProfessionalIntern with Fahamu.

African Books Collective, Oxford