Coming Soon: Social Commentary

For the next several months, I  will be publishing a fictional short story on my blog every Sunday.

How it all started

I was attending my first ever writers` retreat in July last year when I declared, on the night of arrival, that a third generation descendent of mine would write on the golden anniversary of the retreat on 13 July 1972 that, “When they gathered for the writers` retreat on that Wednesday evening, I wonder if they knew that what they were about to do would change the course of history and inspire generations.”

The truth is that I didn't even have a solid reason for saying what I said that night. I  probably only did because I was asked to say something along those lines.

Little did I know that the retreat would unlock a side of me that had been locked for years; fictional writing.

I not only wrote a short story during the retreat but went on to write a couple of more short stories with the intention of publishing a short stories collection. 

I even contacted a publisher but owing to a number of issues; things like work, the power crisis, social media and outright laziness, I have failed to do so in almost a year.

Just this week though, to my pleasant surprise, I found myself writing a 1000 words long article with Blogger on my mobile phone. I had somehow forgot that I write better there than I do on WPS or even, in a way, on my PC.

That gave me ideas. What if I start publishing my short stories once every week, on a Sunday, until every short story has been completed?

In a flash, that is exactly what I have decided to do. Every Sunday, right here, I will post a short story as part of the Social Commentary Series. The longer ones can run for 2-3 weeks or more if need be.

When all is done, I will then compile everything and formally publish. 

Posts for the next five weeks, from Sunday, May 14th have already been uploaded and scheduled so stay tuned.

What is the Social Commentary all about?

Social Commentary is a compilation of mostly fictional short stories. I say mostly fictional because the stories in there borrow heavily from what I know, what I have heard and my surroundings which some people may relate to.

This may and will most likely touch some nerves and upset a few people but I am not really worried about that.

One of my writing inspirations, the writer Dambudzo Marechera (MHSRIP) often said that he wasn`t inspired by any writer but by the surroundings in which he grew up in. That is me a lot of times and especially in this short stories series. 

Social Commentary had another inspiration though besides my surroundings, a certain writer who wrote a short story she gave the title of Olikoye. I believe that her name is Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

Olikoye was part of the retreat assignments but I hadn`t even read it when I made my declaration. When I did, later that evening, a beast in me was awakened. I was deeply struck by how Chimamanda told a very interesting story while putting across some powerful lessons and brave ideas and when we had to do a writing assignment the following afternoon, her style of telling a story was all that I could think of and so, Mavhura Bridge, was born and so was Social Commentary.

I didn`t quite follow the same style in the rest of the stories though. I couldn`t possibly have done so because, well I first wrote one of them back in 2015 but had never had the courage to finish nor publish it. I still saw it fit to include it here because I realized that it is social commentary all the same.

More importantly to state though is the fact that I didn`t start writing any of the stories that I am going to publish in the series with the end in mind. Each story came out the way it wanted to and not the way I wanted it to. I merely allowed my thoughts and my pen to be swayed and mesmerized by my chosen characters.

To those of you who will enjoy reading the series, just one story told from different angles and by different characters, please do but to those of you who will take offense and be upset, tough luck but I am not sorry.

Social Commentary is simply me telling the stories of my life: the stories I have lived, the stories I have seen others live and the stories I have read and heard; both fact and fiction.

From the earliest days of childhood and my formative years as a writer, I have always wanted to tell these stories to the whole world and I am so relieved that I am finally going to do it!