I have the same jacket - almost

Okay folks, this is a portrait of the late Dambudzo Marechera, a fine poet and writer. Like most poets, he was unappreciated for most of his short life. He also drank a lot and was sent down from Oxford for refusing to admit that he was insane. He was hailed as the primary literary voice of Zimbabwe, but when he declined to be the government's propaganda puppy, found that he could not get his work published by the government controlled publishers.

Marechera believed that a writer must write in opposition to the government under which he writes. He once staged a one-man protest, marching through the streets of Harare holding a banner, with citizens staring at him from all sides and none daring to join him. Notable here is Marechera's insight into the newly independent Zimbabwe. Long before anyone dared to mention it, in the early 80's, Marechera was aware of, not to mention outspoken about the (at that stage) barely visible, totalitarianist leanings of Mugabe's Government.

Marechera died in 1987. His work is hard to come by these days. If you're reading this, I urge you to hunt it down. I am sure you will be moved by his sense of humour; his biting political insight into not only the Colonialist regime but most features of most governments; his dedication to his art which, while at times left him eating raw cabbage in the public gardens, never saw him abandon his typewriter; and most notably, his literary style: - honest and confronting, yet soft and lyrical.
I go on.

back for an instant

That's half of it.