Vhakale Vha Hone brought back to life

A new trade edition of the first Tshivenḓa poetry anthology, Vhakale Vha Hone, has just been published and the brains behind this project are local literary pioneers Maano Tuwani and Thiathu Nemutanzhela.

The anthology was co-published through Tuwani’s Guyo Buguni and Nemutanzhela’s Mangalani Publishing.

“About four years ago, we jointly issued a school edition of Vhakale Vha Hone for primary schools after we came to the realisation that there were no appropriate Tshivenḓa poetry books for primary schools,” Nemutanzhela said.

Vhakale Vha Hone was first published in the late 1950s and widely used in schools until the early 1970s. Fourteen poets contributed to the anthology, although most of the poems are by the compiler, Daniel Malivhadza Ngwana, who was popularly known as DM Ngwana.

“Poems of some of the well-known pioneers in Tshivenḓa poetry such as ES Madima, Z Mutsila, PR Ngwana and AP Sigame are included in the book,” Tuwani said. The book also includes sections of orature (oral literature) that DM Ngwana painstakingly collected and arranged.”

According to Ṱuwani, publishing the trade edition served to give recognition to Vhakale Vha Hone as a classic in Tshivenḓa literature. “We are not publishing this book as a commercial venture,” said Tuwani. “Our main aim is to make the book available to the general public, so that they can read and enjoy the poetry of the first poets to be published in Tshivenḓa.”

Tuwani said that the fact that the anthologies prescribed for the high schools did not include the poems of DM Ngwana and the others who were first published in Vhakale Vha Hone was regrettable. The only exception is those of Z Mutsila, whose poems are included, but only for Grade 12.

Prof TW Muloiwa, who was a lecturer in the Tshivenḓa language and literature for many years, sung high praises for the new trade edition of Vhakale Vha Hone. “This is a well-produced and readable anthology of poems, and the sections on orature are re-organised in a useful way,” Muloiwa said.

The book is currently available at Guyo Buguni in Louis Trichardt and Mangalani Book Centre in Siloam (Nzhelele), as well as all bookshops in Thohoyandou.

Entertainment - Date: 12 August 2021

Tshifhiwa Mukwevho

Tshifhiwa Given Mukwevho was born in 1984 in Madombidzha village, not far from Louis Trichardt in the Limpopo Province. After submitting articles for roughly a year for Limpopo Mirror's youth supplement, Makoya, he started writing for the main newspaper. He is a prolific writer who published his first book, titled A Traumatic Revenge in 2011. It focusses on life on the street and how to survive amidst poverty. His second book titled The Violent Gestures of Life was published in 2014.

Email: [email protected]