Episode description

A '70s London squat was home to the writer Dambudzo Marechera when he was writing his first novel The House of Hunger (1978), which was published in the Heinemann African Writers series and has now been issued as a Penguin Classic. Tinashe Mushakavanhu is researching his story and writings. Mufaro Makubika has adapted the coming of age story published by NoViolet Bulawayo in 2013 as a play, which is now touring England. Jocelyn Alexander is involved in creating an archive and oral history documenting Southern Africa's liberation armies and has researched experiences of political imprisonment over 50 years in Zimbabwe. Rana Mitter hosts the conversation.

Producer: Ruth Watts

We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo, in a new adaptation by Mufaro Makubika is a Fifth Word and New Perspectives co-production directed by Monique Touko. It tours to Derby, Manchester, Newcastle, Peterborough, and Bristol The House of Hunger is available as a Penguin Classic You can find more discussions about African writing and history in a collection called Exploring Black History on the Free Thinking programme website https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08t2qbp They include Pettina Gappah on African Empire Stories https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000fgxm Louise Egbunike on Pan-Africanism and Nana Oforiatta Ayim on her African encyclopedia https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000c4mf A focus on Wole Soyinka's writing with novelist Ben Okri, academic Louisa Egbunike and playwright Oladipo Agboluaje https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000k35s An exploration of the politics and writing of Amílcar Lopes da Costa Cabral https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001ghhz