Cremation of the Scarecrow by Dzikamayi Chando

Dzikamayi Chando was born and raised in Gweru, Zimbabwe. Some of his works appear in several online literary publications and Cremation of the Scarecrow is his debut collection.

‘Cremation of the Scarecrow is an impressively diverse and generous collection that talks to the truths of blackness, the ghetto experience and plight of poverty, unemployment and drug abuse, dilemma of immigration, identity crisis and discovery of self, depression and death, love and hope, to name but a few. Chando’s metaphoric luminosity offers invasively honest perspectives of life as he sees it:

“We are lustful angels only here for a one night 

stand with death, we catch gold fever 

and comb the dust for death

leaping into gloomy mirrors like ghosts 

muddled by their own darkness.” (Gaslighting the Alchemist)

Chando’s employment of auditory, tactile and visual imagery is second to none. His voice, often ethereal, carries messages transcending lifetimes and realms to deliver powerful instructive memoranda to the unenlightened juvenile and imprudent, the prejudiced gatekeepers, power-hungry fascist dictators and so forth:

“This poetry is prophecy of my ancestor’s bones

falling from his hands like rinsed meteorites

spilling out of the nomenclator’s mouth

his bellow bursting into a trance vibrating 

in my veins five centuries later… 

This poetry is DNA- a preserved message

on the cusp of a falling sky, a failing realm.” (The Reading)

Refreshingly, it is Chando’s custom to pay homage to women, venerating feminine sacredness, shunning societal norms that disadvantage them, illuminating their mental health challenges and empowering them. In his own words to me, “Women are the grass where two elephants are fighting, victims of their own ignorance in oppressive politics, culture and religion.” I find it enchanting that in his poems, Chando often personifies his messages of love and hope as women:

“everyone’s a poet i’m just the selfish one

who took everything from mother’s womb

these words they bleed

to cleanse the place of their origin

period” (Womb of the Words)

Cremation of the Scarecrow is a honeyed acerbic journey of self-discovery, Chando’s overriding missive being, to find your life purpose, you must be able to control the fire.’

By Samantha Rumbidzai Vazhure

Editor