Chirikure Chirikure

Chirikure Chirikure ( born March 17, 1962 in Gutu in Zimbabwe ) is a poet and storyteller in Zimbabwe. He studied history and religious studies at the University of Zimbabwe in Harare.

Performance

Chirikure is a critic of the political elite and a lawyer of ordinary people of Zimbabwe. Having grown up in the time of the liberation struggles and a sharp polarization of the races play these subjects as resistant recaps a crucial role in its publications. Chirikure studied in Harare religion, literature and historical sciences and wears his socially critical, satirical and the identity of Africa evocative poems during his performances in Shona and English before, often with musicians.

After independence in 1980, he devoted himself increasingly to his own Shona language as the national language. Many of his poems were set to music, from which finally resulted in a collaboration with various music groups. Meanwhile occurs Chirikure himself on his poems set to music. This music is urban, but based on traditional mbira of the Shona. His style is increasingly dramatically, become satirical and symbolic. Meanwhile, he is considered the most powerful satirist of the country.

In 2011 he was a guest of the DAAD Berlin Artists Programme.

Publications

• Rukuvhute (College Press, 1989 )
• Chamupupuri (College Press, 1994 )
• Hakurarwi, We Shall not Sleep ( Baobab Books, 1998 )
• Views of their own shadow, poems ( Verlag Das Wunderhorn, Heidelberg, 2011)