Refugee to reveal secrets of ancient Africa, Great Zimbabwe
Joseph Druivenberg - 28.11.2010 16:30
Meeting new author Tabi Burunda, officially-recognised political refugee from Robert Mugabe government, as she gets ready to tell dramatic story of escape from Mugabe agents, and to reveal astonishing secrets of a great ancient African civilisation. A glimpse of stunning book manuscript by African author, who speaks Dutch too!
Mysterious stone ruins at Great Zimbabwe, photo by Mark Abel (Creative Commons)
On one cool day I had been at a morning meeting in Brussels, and decided to take a coffee at Brussels' North station as I waited for my train back to the Netherlands.
At the railway station café, I chanced to meet a very special young woman from Africa, Tabi Burunda, as she was finalising a manuscript of an upcoming book, a remarkable piece of writing that may end up profoundly changing how the world looks at Africa and Africans.
Fortunately, I was allowed to peek at the manuscript, and to hear some of its story first-hand, from this tiny, pretty black African woman who was born in Zimbabwe's countryside. I am still stunned by what I heard, and by what this upcoming book by Tabi Burunda will reveal to the world.
Tabi has a great story to tell, partly about how she barely escaped alive out of Zimbabwe, where she worked on the inside of the Robert Mugabe government. In that job, Tabi had access to secret government files, until Tabi's connection to dissidents nearly got her killed in Mugabe's jails.
Tabi managed to escape, and that is by itself a remarkable story, dramatic enough to make a great movie. I am sure it will become a Hollywood film, as Tabi's book gets picked up by American host Oprah and her book club.
But even more profound than that, is what Tabi has to reveal about a mysterious lost African civilisation from the past, and how it may have been some of that 'ancient African magic' that helped Tabi to get out of Zimbabwe alive, and which may have a key to Africa's future.
Tabi's book is formally a novel, with much 'fiction' and invented characters, to protect innocent people in Zimbabwe who are still in danger of being killed, but her book has a core of truth, and it reads like first-person history.
So let me tell you about meeting Tabi.
As I entered the train station café, my eyes were quickly drawn to this petite African woman, who was working on her second cup of coffee while monopolising a table with a large stack of papers, she making notes on the pages of double-spaced print. She did not seem like an office worker, but seemed to be doing something very important.
The reason I was intrigued, is that my 'hobby' is the major subject I studied at university, world literature focusing on Africa and Latin America. Like many people interested in literature, I have a 'normal job' now, working in information technology, but I have not lost my passion for literature and for hearing writers when I can. I wound up being very happy I introduced myself to Tabi Burunda, and got an advance peek at the pages of her beautiful forthcoming book.
Being the typically bold Dutchman, I walked up to her table and asked her in English if she was a writer. Detecting my accent, she asked me in nice musical Dutch, if I was Flemish, from the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium. No, I said, I was from Holland, and I complimented her on her wonderful Dutch. I was actually surprised to hear Tabi speak Dutch. Most Africans in Holland or Belgium never bother to learn Dutch because they can get by in English, but Tabi speaks nice Dutch with a lovely African accent.
And yes, Tabi answered, she is indeed a writer, this was her first book getting finished. She was there at the train station working on the manuscript, while waiting to meet a retired Canadian chap who has been helping her with the editing and story organisation, and who would rendezvous with her there later.
So I asked if I could sit down and hear about her book and her story. I told Tabi that literature is my hobby, and that I read a lot from Africa, and that I have myself travelled to South Africa
Tabi's story was so compelling I willingly missed my train, and wound up taking another one two hours later.
As we talked, I was allowed to look at the book manuscript, and know some of its treasures, after solemnly promising that I would not reveal the secrets of the book until after publishing day.
In addition to the book itself, there are several remarkable things about Tabi as a writer and as a person. She is quite unlike the stereotypes of Africans and African refugees.
For one thing, as a refugee, Tabi is the real deal, a true political refugee who had to leave Zimbabwe because she faced jail and death under the Mugabe government, for whom she had been working. - In Europe, many African 'refugees' are really 'economic' migrants, poor people just looking for a better life, often claiming they lost their passport, and pretending they don't know how they got to Holland - Ha! - and with only vague stories about why or how they claim to be seeking 'political' asylum.
But Tabi's plight and the danger to her life were very real, and as a result Tabi is the exceptional case, who had her asylum application approved quickly, and Tabi will soon have full European citizenship.
Tabi is about 40 years old, but looking younger with her lively eyes and animated conversation, and she is utterly surprising in the way she talks about Zimbabwe and about Africa. Usually, when I talk with African migrants and asylum seekers, I hear lots of ranting about the political situation in their home countries. But with Tabi, there was no ranting at all - in fact, she is able to speak with great sensitivity and subtlety about Mugabe and Zimbabwe government, even though Mugabe's men would have been willing to jail her and kill her.
Despite all that, Tabi is able to talk about the appeal that Mugabe has for many people in Zimbabwe, and also how personally charming and magnetic Mugabe can be when you meet him, when he puts his ruthlessness aside.
Tabi understands politics, but it is not at the heart of her interests, as well as being a subject on which Tabi has a kind of European-style scepticism. She rolls her eyes and laughs, "Politicians! I'm not sure they are the best hope for fixing things in Africa."
What interests Tabi more than politics, are the deeper aspects of culture, and African culture is something about which she has a lot to say, and a lot to reveal to the world. In particular, Tabi is very moving in speaking about the role of African women, about the continuing power of traditional cultures, and about ancient African legends that have long been kept secret.
What Tabi has to reveal in her book is absolutely beautiful, and I wish I could speak of it here. But I will keep my promise to Tabi.
Another thing impressive about Tabi is that she has little interest in money, less than I've ever noticed among newcomers to Europe. For Tabi, being a writer is not about money or about being successful or about being famous, it is the passion to communicate a story. Tabi feels called, as if by the ancient African spirits, to be the one to publicly tell some of the tales that have been secretly passed by African women for several hundred years. And they are great stories indeed.
Revealing the inner secrets of Mugabe's government, and the drama of Tabi's escape from Mugabe's thugs, are enough to carry Tabi's book all on its own. But for Tabi, the drama of deadly danger and escape, and the heroism of Africa's unsung native women, is all a route to tell a yet bigger story, about what Africa really was like in past centuries long ago, and thus who Africans should be today.
Tabi's writing reminds me of the 'magical realism' of the great Latin American authors. In Tabi's prose, there is a mixture of real-life and a mist of African magic, with the realism strong enough that the reader must decide for himself or herself, if there is magic involved, or if it is just perhaps an amazing set of 'coincidences'.
Tabi has a remarkable message about Africa, and maybe now is the right time in the world for her to speak. Tabi says that above all, Africans need to recover a lost heritage, which she shows was there in a beautiful African past.
Sitting there hearing Tabi explain things to me, and glancing through her manuscript pages, I heard and read many astonishing things. About the quasi-magical sculptures of the 'Great Bird of Zimbabwe' represented on the Zimbabwe flag. About the ancient stone ruins at the 'Great Zimbabwe' site in the Zimbabwean heartland, the 'Stonehenge of Africa' (see photo with this article). These ruins are regarded as totally mysterious in the Western world, but as it turns out, Tabi learned the secret of those ruins, and what kind of civilisation and society existed there centuries ago.
But I am maybe saying too much already. Tabi left me with the feeling that she is herself almost a magical person, and hers is indeed a magical book. The book was untitled yet on that day I met her, "The title I think will be the last thing," said Tabi. I asked Tabi if she had made any connections to the publishing industry, and how did she know if it would get published.
Tabi said her retired Canadian friend, had shown her how to contact literary agents, and that she would start doing that after the book was finished, and in fact it was now nearly done with just another round or two of editing left. Tabi also said she was being connected through some links to leading black American cultural figure Oprah, and between everything, Tabi felt sure that the book would be published. She smiled at me as if teasing me, and told me that the ancient African spirits would help guide the book to a home with an agent and publisher.
Sitting there, spellbound reading Tabi's manuscript pages, I did not doubt that Tabi's beautiful book will find a home. The story is dramatic throughout, with hints of magic right in the first chapter, but then in the last chapter, as the secrets of ancient black Africa are fully revealed, the reader comes away with the realisation that here is one of the great stories of the world.
It is my honour to say a few words about Tabi before her book appears. Her book indeed tells a story that the world needs to hear, and Tabi's tale of Zimbabwe, its modern scandals, and its ancient legends, will doubtless also be the basis of one of the very great films made about Africa.
Joseph Druivenberg works in IT, but has a hobby reading world literature, especially African and Latin American. His British friend Devon helped correct the English for this article.
Joseph can be reached at:  j.druivenberg@gmx.com
Photo credit: Photo of mysterious stone ruins, 'Great Enclosure at Great Zimbabwe', by Mark Abel on Flickr, reproduced under Creative Commons Licence:
 http://www.flickr.com/photos/markabel/409827432/
 E-Mail: j.druivenberg@gmx.com
|
