Dunster Alum J. Nozipo Maraire Makes Good with Zenzele

On February 15, the Harvard African Students Association sponsored a talk by J. Nozipo Maraire, '87--'88, author of Zenzele: A Letter For My Daughter and Harvard alum, at Radcliffe's Agassiz House. From January 26 to February 15, Maraire has been on tour from Atlanta to Washington D.C. Harvard was the final stop on her itinerary.

Maraire was born in Zimbabwe, and spent most of her early years in Manicaland in the Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe. During the War of Independence, her family was forced to leave the country as political refugees. Maraire has lived in Jamaica, Canada, the United States and Europe, and she is fluent in many languages including French, English, Spanish and Shona, her mother tongue.

During the mid-1980's, Maraire, a former resident of Dunster House, left Zimbabwe to study Biology at Harvard. Afterwards, she attended Columbia University Medical School to receive her M.D. She is currently finishing her residency in neurosurgery at Yale while working towards a masters degree in public health.

The experience of travelling so much throughout her life has left Maraire with a belief in the importance of leaving home. "Leaving the comforts of one's culture is at once an enlightening and a shattering experience," she said. "One can no longer cling to the old familiar norms but has to search deep to somehow be true to one's heritage yet have the strength to explore new truths."

When questioned on her reasons for studying neurosurgery and public health, Maraire believes that one must have more skills than one degree has to offer. She explains, "If you're an educated African, you have an additional responsibility to do something...not a burden, just a responsibility."

The responsibility of educated Africans is one of the main concerns of her novel, where she discusses the problem of the "brain drain" in many countries like Zimbabwe. The "brain drain" is a crisis which arises whenever African students go abroad to gain knowledge and are supported by their family and neighbors, but do not return to Africa to reinvest their knowledge in their communities.

The narrator of Zenzele, a woman who writes words of wisdom to her daughter, a Harvard student, explains, "[O]ur churches and governments pour money into [these students], who ultimately drain our resources. If our brightest minds go and never return, then it is no wonder that we have no engineers to run our machinery, no doctors to staff our hospitals, no professors to fill our universities, and no teachers to educate the generations to come."

Maraire recognizes the difficulties in returning to Africa after living abroad. Even when a person would like to return to his or her country, the option is often non-existent because of the political situation. "I would not say go back during a war," says Maraire. "It's kind of foolish to get yourself shot. There are other options.... Maybe, [for example] Malawi does not have what you want to do. Maybe you can do it in Senegal, or Ghana or South Africa or Zimbabwe. Why do we rush off immediately to London? We could go to another African country."

Maraire herself plans to return to Zimbabwe after she completes her residency in 1998. She glows whenever she speaks of the widening of opportunities in her country after the war for independence. "Zimbabwe is a very special place because of the war for independence.... It opened a lot of opportunities, especially for women," Maraire says.

Zimbabwe, formerly known by the colonial name Rhodesia, has successfully erased apartheid-like laws. "There are hundreds of thousands of Africans who left Zimbabwe when it was called Rhodesia, to go to Australia, Britain, New Zealand and the States," Maraire says. "These people want to come back to Zimbabwe." She knows that it will be difficult to readjust to her return, but she maintains that each person who returns gives another person an incentive to return. She declares, "The adjustments are worth it."

When asked how other foreign agencies can help in the development of Africa, Maraire simply asserts, "I think there is a role for global partnerships. I think the important thing is [for other nations] to leave the paternalism at home." She urges Africans to take more action in allocating foreign aid instead of allowing foreign interests to dictate to the country what is needed to improve its condition.

Maraire's eagerness to return to Zimbabwe is complemented by her appreciation of the opportunities offered in America. She claims, "America really is a land where ideas can open doors. I can not say for sure that I could have done the same things if I didn't come to America."

During the talk, Maraire also answered queries on the reasons for writing Zenzele. She claims that she wanted to provide a new perspective on the post-independence experience of African women. She used the novel as a way to cope with the pressures of her neurosurgical residency. "I was doing my surgical internship, and it was very intense," says Maraire. "I was feeling very constrained. It [the novel] was not in the grand scheme. It just developed."

Most readers are surprised to discover that her father was the central inspiration for Zenzele. During her travels, Maraire received numerous letters from her father concerning politics, tradition and family. Maraire declares, "Letters have a very special meaning for me. It goes along with the African way of story-telling, in which you tell stories to your family. You communicate ideas, tradition and history."

Maraire encourages. Harvard students to pursue diverse activities despite their seeming lack of connection. Maraire cheers, "You just have to have faith in yourself and know what you're doing."