The Fire Inside

by Tawanda Gumbo

Overview

Picture a black Zimbabwean man living under a ferocious dictatorship. He falls in love with a white liberal American woman. Their ideologies and families collide amid AIDS, death and infidelity. The ensuing chaos is like a fire upon their souls.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780759667976
Publisher:	AuthorHouse
Publication date:	12/01/2001
Pages:	196
Product dimensions:	6.64(w) x 8.72(h) x 0.54(d)

Editorial Reviews

NEW YORK ? Shattered dreams and crushed hopes ? that's what it's all been about. For the better part of our independent lives. Relief can only come with change, or so we hope.

Disillusionment ? shattered dreams and crushed dreams. That's what became the order of the day for most Zimbabweans and Tawanda Gumbo, a Zimbabwean academic currently in the United States, captured all that and more in his just-released book The Fire Inside.

A social commentary, The Fire Inside takes a candid look at a disillusioned people ? people who have had their hopes crushed. Set up in a "wicked" fictitious city of Gomorra, a city filled with lies, corruption and sin, the story is told through a family whose father has associations with Gomorra's corrupt ruling party. Although in the beginning they bring wealth and the "good life", in the end these associations inevitably lead to shame, sorrow and despair.

An assistant professor of medicine and an infectious disease physician, Gumbo uses "medicalese" ? medical jargon and symbolism ? to bring his subject matter to light. His poignant portrayal of the city under discussion is nothing short of a medical diagnosis:

"The city. Our city. This city was infected with three great viruses. Exactly like they had taught me in those biology lessons in secondary school, we were all infected with viruses causing lethal disease. This city has a disease called government . . ." goes the book's first person narration.

In addition to a corrupt government, Gumbo's Gomorra is also plagued by economic collase. Interestingly, the book cites "docility" among citizens as yet another "virus" infecting the troubled city. Gumbo calls these citizens "spineless" for allowing the ruling party to get away with all the sin, the corruption, the wickedness and whatever else.

Written in English but spiced up with vernacular Shona proverbs and sayings, the novel makes for an interesting read. Also fascinating are the biblical names, references and parallels which resonate in the whole book from beginning to end, making it apparent that the author draws a lot of lessons and the prophetic quality in the book from the Christian faith.

Also notable is the style of story-telling Gumbo lends to this revealing plot. The plot is tinged with elements of Zimbabwean culture, spiritual beliefs, folklore, racial tension, war and the triumph of love threaded in the whole narrative of the captivating story.

Although the characters are fictitious, Zimbabweans reading the story will identify with the themes, issues, laughter, pain and, most of all, disillusionment in The Fire Inside.

Gumbo himself is one of many Zimbabweans who "cry the beloved country". Having grown up in Rhodesian times, Gumbo was one of many who waited patiently for the good times at last ? for peace, prosperity and success for the country and its citizens at large ? but to much disappointment watched as the repressive colonial government was replaced "like the beasts in The Apocalypse" by another more gruesome than itself.

After obtaining some training and education in the US, Gumbo returned to Zimbabwe to help Zimbabweans deal with a real virus this time, HIV. On finding the society "undergoing a steep spiral towards the precipice" economically and politically, he was so disillusioned and disappointed he couldn't watch his beloved country in such a downward spiral. He left after only a year.

He is just but one of thousands upon thousands of "self-exiled" Zimbabweans who wake up everyday hoping for change. Hoping that Zimbabwe will one again.
— Financial Gazette

Maggie Mzumara