The Hairdresser of Harare
Review: Hairdresser of Harare by Jane Bryce
The Hairdresser of Harare by Tendai Huchu
A personal comment by Jane Bryce
Professor of African Literature and Cinema, University of Barbados, Cave Hill.
I enjoyed this novel at a number of levels: in the context of Zimbabwean literature, there hasn't been that much humour (apart perhaps from the short stories in Laughing Now) since Dambudzo and it's encouraging to encounter it here. I also felt it was an interesting fit with Brian Chikwava's Harare North (set in London) in the revealing of the more savage sides of Zim politics and social inequalities through the eyes of an unreliable narrator.
And that's the other level – the perfectly judged ambiguity of tone rendered as an effect of point of view Vimbai starts out comically vain but keenly observant, and a lot of the early humour arises from her observations on the salon, its clients, its owner, the other hairdressers, cumulatively amounting to a microcosm of late-Mugabe Zimbabwean society, with its hypocrisies, hierarchies and narcissism. The use of suspense is good too, with Vimbai's gradually unfolding backstory explaining why she lives alone in a large suburban house, why she's fallen out with her family, why she's a single mother, etc. There are plenty of hints even at this stage as to her shallowness and selfishness, but she remains a likeable charcter with plausible motives.
After Dumi moves in with her, the plot thickens and characterisation becomes more complex as Vimbai's relationship with him becomes more ambiguous. Because the reader knows well in advance of Vimbai that Dumi is gay, the dominant tone shifts from comic to ironic. Vimbai's entrancement with Dumi's much richer family and their reception of her spells out the way cronyism and corruption have permeated the society. She appears innocent, but, dazzled by luxury, is she complicit in their buying of her as cover for their son's gayness? In the material conditions of a city where money has no value – and everyone has to hustle to survive – even if she's aware she's being bribed, can she be blamed?
By the time she finds out Dumi is gay, her reaction is clearly rendered as an effect of the social brainwashing which is more clearly dramatised in Harare North. In the latter the persona is one of Mugabe's Green Bombers, and the novel is unsettling partly because he never backs down from the ideology of violence-as-control espoused by the Bombers. At the same time, he is mentally unstable and can't be relied on as a narrator. Vimbai is similarly unreliable in the sense that, while she may suffer at the hands of the elite and is sexually abused by her daughter's father, she fully subscribes to the leadership's designation of gays as 'worse than pigs and dogs'. Her reaction is an effect of the violence and corruption of Zimbabwe's ruined economy, the way poor people take refuge in pentecostal churches, which similarly preach homophobia, and the need for scapegoats. However, the writer's balancing of comic and serious maintains ambiguity so effectively that even Vimbai's betryal of Dumi doesn't destroy our sympathy for her. Which is quite a feat!
Review: The Hairdresser of Harare
LOVE AND HIGHLIGHTS IN HARARE
Tendai Huchu: The Hairdresser of Harare
Reviewed by NICKI LEONE
“I tell you that a clever, thoughtful, ambitious hairdresser wields a power beyond the comprehension of most men.” —John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley
Review link from Round Table
For the article by Ranka Primorac and Stephen Chan on The Hairdresser of Harare, 'Postscript: Making do in a Hybrid House' see http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00358533.2010.530415
Free access to this article has been kindly granted us by the publishers Routledge, a member of the Taylor and Francis Group. The article was first published in The Round Table, Vol. 99, No 411, December 2010. This was a special issue on Zimbabwe entitled 'The Space of
Many Voices - Zimbabwe since the Unity Government' edited by Ranka Primorac and Stephen Chan.
Review of The Hairdresser of Harare - Rosetta Codling
The Hairdresser of Harare: Politics of life through hair
Rosetta Codling, European Literary Scene Examiner
September 8, 2011
Continue reading on Examiner.com The Hairdresser of Harare: Politics of life through hair - National European Literary Scene | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/european-literary-scene-in-national/the-hairdresser-of-harare-politics-of-life-through-hair-review#ixzz1XRIqr12K
Author: Tendai Huchu
Title: The Hairdresser of Harare, 2010 http://www.amazon.com/Hairdresser-Harare-Tendai-Huchu/dp/1779221096/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie;=UTF8&qid;=1315455810&sr;=1-1
Attention readers: Atlanta is the Black hair capital of the world. Atlanta is renowned for the sensational hair shows and competitions that have contributed to the fame of this city. TendaiHuchu ’s book may provide insight into the mystique of this culture of Black hair. The work is set in Zimbabwe, but the politics, culture, ‘sex’, and life of hair are proven to be international through this work.
Synopsis: Vimbai is the main character and heroine of this book. She carves a lucrative business and reputation as one of the best hairdressers and stylists of Harare, Zimbabwe. Yet, her fame and her ego suffer a reshuffling when a male hairdresser comes into the shop offering his services. Dumisani is the mysterious, male hairdresser that rivals Vimbai. Hair and the processes of uncurling, heating, treating, and defeating it form the fiber of the lives of the characters in this novel. Tendai Huchu illustrates universal notions well as her characters wind their way through the hustle and bustle of the dense, congested city streets and lives of the people of the Harare community. Yet, the rivalry of the characters Vimbai and Dumisani slowly morped into a kinship based upon need, understanding, and the sharing of similar tragedies.
Critique: The ability of Zimbabweans to find humor and solidarity in the face of adversity was certainly evident in this novel. I enjoyed reading about Vimbai and her philosophy of life…it was illustrated through the combs, picks, and curling irons that she welded. I also enjoyed seeing Dumisani emerge as the head ‘peacock’ on the hair scene. The tools of his trade were his best defense mechanism against the challenges he faced in life. But, it was the utter raw, emotional bond that developed between these two that endeared me to the book most. Dumisani changed Vimbai’s world. She was introduced to a social circle that was previously forbidden and inaccessible to her. And Dumisani found that something which was ‘lost’ from this social circle. It was replaced by something more chaste and durable. This book is a testimony to the universal nature of man and the human condition. Tendai Huchu teaches us that we are all one with ‘hair’…no less and no more.
Continue reading on Examiner.com The Hairdresser of Harare: Politics of life through hair - National European Literary Scene | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/european-literary-scene-in-national/the-hairdresser-of-harare-politics-of-life-through-hair-review#ixzz1XRJ0Lrkn
Links to Bloggers Reviews of The Hairdresser of Harare
1) http://thebookdivasreads.blogspot.com/2011/07/book-168-hairdresser-of-harare-review.html
2) http://tc-bookedup.blogspot.com/2011/07/book-review-hairdresser-of-harare-by.html
3) http://www.bookerellareviews.com/2011/07/hairdresser-of-harare-by-tendai-huchu.html?zx=83f7916623e4854c
4) http://pandareads.blogspot.com/2011/06/hairdresser-of-harare.html
5) http://onabookbender.wordpress.com/2011/06/24/review-the-hairdresser-of-harare-by-tendai-huchu/
6) http://www.bookerellareviews.com/2011/07/hairdresser-of-harare-by-tendai-huchu.html
7) http://thebookdivasreads.blogspot.com/2011/07/book-168-hairdresser-o f-harare-review.html
8) http://tc-bookedup.blogspot.com/2011/07/book-review-hairdresser-of-harare-by.html
9) http://bibrary.blogspot.com/2011/08/review-hairdresser-of-harare-by-tendai.html
10) http://www.boroughofbooks.com/2011/08/hairdresser-of-harare-by-tenda i-huchu.html
11) http://letsbookit.blogspot.com/2011/08/hairdresser-of-harare-by-tend ai-huchu.html
12) http://www.belindaotas.com Blog: http://www.bebeotas.blogspot.com
13) http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00358533.2010.530415
14) http://www.pamelastitch.com/books/291-do-you-know-the-hair-dresser-of-harare-tendai-huchu-shares.html Another blogsite (with audio podcast)
15) http://antoroblog.wordpress.com/2011/11/25/the-hairdresser-of-harare/
16) http://thepenmuse.net/?p=3662
17) http://amckiereads.wordpress.com/2011/12/06/review-the-hairdresser-o f-harare-by-tendai-huchu/
18) http://www.bibliobuffet.com/a-reading-life-columns-193/1727-love-and-highlights-in-harare-032512
19) http://leeswammes.wordpress.com/2012/04/13/book-review-the-hairdresser-of-harare-by-tendai-huchu/
20) http://bandofthebes.typepad.com/bandofthebes/2012/04/moroccan-magazine-and-launched-just-last-month-rainbow-sudan.html
21)http://thenewpodlerreviews.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/hairdresser-of-harare-by-tendai-huchu.html
22) http://romancing-the-book.com/2012/08/review-the-hairdresser-of-harare-by-tendai-huchu.html
23) http://cvanhasselt.wordpress.com/2012/09/01/the-hairdresser-of-harare-by-tendai-huchu/
24) http://literarykitty.wordpress.com/2012/10/04/the-hairdresser-of-harare-makes-it-feel-real/
25) http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&q;=http://www.chicagotribune.com/site/newspaper/entertainment/ct-prj-1014-human-rights-book-club-20121026,0,181202.story&ct;=ga&cad;=CAcQAhgAIAAoATAAOABA6ZGxhAVIAVgBYgVlbi1VUw&cd;=RIflA6n9bkw&usg;=AFQjCNEWodo17g3BUx1R5dvfGc2pos-aKQ
26) http://www.worldliterarycafe.com/content/hardresser-harare-author-tendai-huchu
27) http://wordvagabond.com/2012/12/31/the-hairdresser-of-harare-by-tendai-huchu/
28) http://www.list.co.uk/article/49761-tendai-huchu-the-hairdresser-of-harare/
29) http://madhousefamilyreviews.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/book-review-hairdresser-of-harare.html
31) http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/08/hairdresser-harare-tendai-huchu-review
Review of The Hairdresser of Harare by Peter Merrington
Wordsetc. Issue No. 9
The Hairdresser of Harare by Tendai Huchu
Reviewed by Peter Merrington
The Hairdresser of Harare is a very readable, entertaining, engaging and perturbing novel. It opens up a universe of insight into aspects of contemporary Zimbabwe and Harare. Tendai Huchu presents us with a first-person narrative. The narrator is a young woman from the impoverished Budiriro Township in Harare who carried the burden (in a markedly patriarchal society) of real physical beauty. She works as a talented hairdresser in MaKhumalo’s salon. Her life is shaped by accident, from the peculiar blend of opportunity and injustice that seems to exemplify the paradoxical nature of Zimbabwean urban postcolonial modernity. She moves as an ingénue through the sequence of chance and contingency in her life and Huchu succeeds in this by his light touch, his light irony that sets her up even as she candidly tries to reflect on events.
The hair salon is a classic locus in African cultural representations. Huchu lets the vernacular speak for itself – vanity and lotions, curling and braiding, black hair, “European” hair, music, magazines, gossip and the commercial underground network, reputation and word of mouth, petty rivalry and ambition, loyalty, talent and clientele. It is a wonderful alchemical space that blends personal lives, public culture, gross materialism and homespun philosophy.
The narrator, Vimbai, is (like Cinderella) set to rise from her poor roots. Her likeable modesty and naivety make this possible. In the relatively small urban mix of Harare, in the egalitarian world of a people’s democracy, anything is possible for a self-made, determined and talented woman. However as soon as she stands out from the crowd, she attracts attention from the small, elite, closed crony world of disproportionate power and wealth.
Cinderella draws attention and is invited to the ball. Prince Charming buys her expensive new clothes and she goes with him to his magic realm of wealth and privilege. He is all too charming, and decent, and generous, and she fails to read the signs.
She takes him to her only place of entertainment, the independent Pentecostal “Forward in Faith Ministry”. She and her fellow congregants, in their cinema seats are given their wonted emotional extension through four hours of songs of praise and worship, signs and wonders, and the rapture of the pastor’s charismatic voice. His blazing sermon on the un-African and unscriptural evils of homosexuality bound them in a spell, given the deep taboo on sexual discussion of any kind in the traditional conservative African society. But it doesn’t fascinate Prince Charming.
He, Dumi, son of a wealthy self-made businessman, has – like his siblings – a top education, a modern mind, and globe travel under his belt. His family is delighted with the beautiful but modest Vimbai and her little daughter. They see Vimbai as a charmingly pliant addition to their clan. More so, they see her as a “cure” for Dumi.
Vimbai fails to recognize the signs of gayness. Her traditional background prompts her to read Dumi’s sexual modesty towards herself as a most welcome indication of his morals, his sense of respect. Vimbai, as a narrator, is unable to read the many signs that Tendai Huchu puts before us through her own narration. Again and again she misinterprets. We predict the outcome, we are invited by Huchu to do so, and the intrigue falls on how Vimbai will realize, how she will react, how the social implications will be resolved. The implications are also political. Grace Mugabe herself is a client of Vimbai; so is a powerful female cabinet minister whose husband takes to grazing on illicit pastures. “War Veterans” are called in; there is fear and violence; and this is the price others pay as a consequence of Vimbai’s new success and public profile, and her naivety.
The Hairdresser of Harare is a well-constructed, carefully positioned, but unambiguous critique of the paradoxes of urban modernization, corruption, prejudice and brutality in contemporary Zimbabwe. Huchu’s use of an ingénue as first person narrator, as sole focaliser or interpreter, is well managed and very effective. Despite the violence that takes place, despite the prejudicial actuality that this novel is prepared to challenge, the narrative is gentle, wishful, hopeful, loyal and generous – qualities that are credibly expressed by the narrator as her own.
Huchu almost teases his own story-teller, and almost teasing her, he teases us. For her it is a journey of delayed discovery even as she speaks it.
Despite this overarching structure of irony, Huchu does not mock Vimbai. She grows in stature, she keeps her integrity, and she learns new things about the heart, and love and social values. While we watch and wait, we remain in sympathy with her, and her journey becomes ours too.
I hope that The Hairdresser of Harare will make its mark in southern Africa.
REVIEWER: Peter Merrington is an author and literary historian affiliated to the University of Western Cape, and holds an MA and Ph.D from the University of Cape Town. He is working on a book length study of the Union of South Africa 1910 and questions of public heritage. He also runs his own ceramics studio.
Review of The Hairdresser of Harare - Sarah Norman
Monday, 7 February 2011
http://booksof2010.blogspot.com/2011/02/hairdresser-of-harare-by-tendai-huchu.html
HAIRDRESSER OF HARARE by Tendai Huchu
This is a really charming little tale of contemporary Zimbabwe.
We've recently discussed in this blog (here) how much Zimbabwean literature is about either a) the war or b) ticking the boxes of international interest. THE HAIRDRESSER OF HARARE triumphantly does neither.
The story focuses on Vimbai, a top hairdresser at Mrs Khumalo's salon. Her life changes when their first ever male hairdresser, Dumi, begins work at the salon, and proves to be serious competition. He is however a pleasant and retiring man, and eventually becomes her lodger. He invites her to a family wedding, and she is surprised by the great wealth of his family (from whom he is mysteriously estranged), and also by the fact that he refers to her as his girlfriend.
She begins to come round to this idea, and he becomes a big part of her life. She does indeed eventually become his girlfriend - in all ways except the pesky physical.
I think you can guess that this well-dressed hairdresser, with little interest in Vimbai, is as G-A-Y as you like. She is horrified, and when she discovers that he has a high profile lover in the government, lets his wife know. Dumi is duly beaten to a pulp by the CIO, and Vimbai is filled with remorse. In at not very believable turn of events, he forgives her, and then somewhat more believably, flees the country.
So, an interesting tale, well told. Lots of very sharp comic writing, with a warm heart behind it. Most impressive though is its lively and unselfconscious evocation of contemporary Harare. The kombis, the sugar queues, the Churchill boys; they are all handled with a lightly comic touch, and given a warm reality. The lack of 'explanation' (for some imagined international audience) is sort of remarkable. THE HAIRDRESSER OF HARARE is not perhaps a perfect book, but it is one with a genuine and unaffected contemporary Zimbabwean voice, and I haven't come across too damn many of those. So many congratulations to Mr Huchu.
Posted by Sarah Norman at 01:31
Labels: african literature, hairdresser of harare, tendai huchu, zimbabwean literature
Review of The Hairdresser of Harare - Cape Argus (City Late)
The art of storytelling
By Ambrose Musiyiwa
The Zimbabwean, October 31, 2010
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storytelling&catid;=37&Itemid;=37>http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/index.php?opt
ion=com_content&view;=article&id;=35218:the-art-of-
storytelling&catid;=37&Itemid;=37
Vimbai is one of Harare’s top hairdressers: she has worked out that her clients will be happy if she can make them leave the salon feeling like white women. However, the only white woman she knows is Trina, who makes ends meet once her farm has been taken over by a cabinet minister, by supplying the products the salon needs. This is just one of the complex relationships in The Hairdresser of Harare by Tendai Huchu. Here, he talks about what inspires him to be a storyteller.
When did you start writing?
I have been writing since I was in school. I was sub-editor of The Churchill Times, my school newspaper. I even won a couple of national essay contests. But that was mainly articles. I started writing fiction when I was 23 because I felt I had a story to tell. I wanted to express myself and share ideas with other people.
I knew I wanted to get published round about the time I started writing ... so ... I wrote and pitched to publishers ... four years later, here I am.
How would you describe your writing?
I hope it is literary fiction. I come from an oral tradition so I am mainly a storyteller. I enjoy a good plot with great characters and dynamic set pieces and I hope these things are reflected in my work.
Who is your target audience?
I don’t have a specific target demographic or anything like that. I might write for my readers but, remember, the first reader of my stories is me. If I like a tale I've come up with then I think maybe, just maybe, others will too.
In the writing you are doing, which authors influenced you most?
Dostoevsky, Dostoevsky, Dostoevsky ... this man and his thinking dominated my early 20s. I still love the depth of his ideas. Reading his book Crime and Punishment for the first time was like being in the middle of an 18 megaton thermonuclear explosion. I also like other authors like Amin Maalouf, John Grisham, Alexandre Dumas, Orwell and a whole raft of other great storytellers. Each author I read helps me
improve my craft and gives me incredible pleasure in the process.
How have your personal experiences influenced your writing?
Perhaps at a subconscious level they have. Different sub-personalities of me are probably floating about in the text, but I have never actively sought to insert aspects of my personal experience directly into my work.
What are your main concerns as a writer?
Having a roof over my head and at least one square meal a day.
Do you write every day?
I don’t write every day. I wish I could but, between trying to earn a living and having an active social life, there are simply not enough hours in the day. I write in fits and starts. There are periods when I am extremely creative and focused. During these periods I close myself off from the world and do nothing but write, eat, sleep. I work very quickly with the door locked in case debt collectors or the landlord
show up. These sessions sometimes end when I have a workable draft of a novel, but quite often I come away with nothing but red eyes and sore wrists.
How long did it take you to write The Hairdresser of Harare?
The Hairdresser of Harare is about Vimbai, a young single mother who is trying to make a life for herself amidst Zimbabwe’s political and economic chaos. She falls in love with a dashing young man who turns out to be something we all didn’t quite expect. I started writing the novel on Christmas day 2009 and 14 days later I was finished with the first draft. I wrote quickly because the narrator had a distinct voice and I was afraid if I stopped I might lose it. The novel was published this August 2010 by Weaver Press who I chose because they had formidable authors in their stable that I had read and enjoyed. The main advantage of working with Weaver Press for this book is that my editor was based in Harare and had intimate knowledge of the locations and types of characters who were in the book. Because I live in Scotland, we couldn’t have face-to-face meetings but we still managed to build a good working relationship and I enjoyed the process immensely.
Which were the most difficult aspects of the work you put into the novel?
I struggled to let my characters roam free and live the story out according to their own personalities. Every writer enjoys playing God ... so when you see your characters living their lives outside of the rigid pre-planned plot priorities you had set for them ... it can be difficult to let go. What I usually do is to call the characters by a litany of obscene names and let them go off to do their own thing.
Which aspects of the work did you enjoy most?
I enjoy how everything in The Hairdresser of Harare comes together in the end, how certain things that happen in the first chapters only make sense towards the end. I also like the subliminal links in the text that even I, as the author, only discover with each re-reading.
What would you say has been your most significant achievement as a writer?
Staying the course. Not giving up even when I thought no one would ever read my work
CAPE ARGUS (City Late)
Monday, 1 November 2010, p.9
The Zimbabwean life left out of the headlines comes alive in this novel
The Hairdresser of Harare
Tendai Huchu (Jacana)
IN A PLACE where coffins are deliberately damaged before burial to thwart the efforts of grave robbers, there is scant time or place for rose-tinted spectacles. This is the home of Vimbai, hairdresser extraordinaire at Khumalo Hair and Beauty Treatment Salon and narrator of The Hairdresser of Harare. Her life is the centre of this story, which weaves a colourful, vibrant pattern around events both humorous and tragic.
Vimbai's world is thrown off-balance by the sudden arrival of Dumisani Ncube, a hairdresser threatening to steal both her customers and her pride. Dumi, however, is not only in possession of a great talent, but the most charming manner to be found in Harare. One thing leads to another and when Dumi finds himself without lodging, Vimbai opens her home, (and heart, albeit reluctantly) to him.
From then on events take an unexpected turn, and despite her cautious nature Vimbai finds herself entangled in a situation both heavenly and worrying.
From the beginning The Hairdresser of Harare dives into a world so alive and full of feeling that it is hard to reconcile the image with that of dying Zimbabwe which is so often portrayed in the news.
Characters bubble with life and the plot is both well-crafted and paced. Vimbai, as the narrator, is a well-balanced combination of cynicism and wit; her past has scorched her sufficiently to cure her of naivety, yet not enough to crush her spirit. Her ambition is great and her confidence lies solely in her skill as a craftswoman – as she says, "the salon was my personal fiefdom and I was queen bee."
In contrast to the rich prose, there is always an undercurrent of brutality, uncertainty and despair – a hint of the Zimbabwe shown in the media. Vimbai often finds herself alternately compliments and verbally accosted by men on her way to work: " I felt an atmosphere of friendliness, violence, innovation, poverty, joy but the one thing that hung over everything else was despair; an air of hopelessness as if everyone was in a pit that they could not climb out of."
The narrative is retrospective, which allows you, the reader, to anticipate the twist while at the same time observing the self-deception of characters. The climax, when it unfolds, demands you to open your mind to the philosophies and attitudes of those involved, rather than ploughing ahead with only your own ideas in mind. A common theme is explored in an unfamiliar way and in different circumstances to what readers might be used to.
The characters span a vast variety of classes, backgrounds and ideologies, from the boy selling Freezits on the streets to the wife of the president. Each one is deliciously described by Vimbai. It is a striking achievement that no character is purely good or evil; each is instead a subtle contrast of intentions, self-preservation and human foibles.
Tendai Huchu has crafted a wonderful novel out of a simple, yet emotionally complex situation. He is described as " a qualified podiatrist" – and it can safely be said that anyone who reads his work will hope that this future is focused solely on literary endeavours.
Lara Sadler
Review of The Hairdresser of Harare - Mukai
Page 1
A SINGLE MOTHER TELLS HER STORY
The Hairdresser of Harare, by Tendai Huchu.
Weaver Press, Harare, 2010, pp. 190.
Published in Mukai/Vukani 54 October 2010
This novel was recommended to me as ‘light enjoyable reading’, ‘hilarious and full of humour’, ‘a book you can relax with’. The goings-on in Mrs. Khumalo’s salon, the stern Catholic owner who earns some extra bucks by selling female condoms, are indeed hilarious. The author introduces us to the world of Vimbai who tells us of her life as a single mother who has ‘given up on men’, or so she says. The majority of
young women in their mid-twenties seem to be ‘single mothers’ these days, most of them the victims of bruising encounters with brutal and selfish men. Chiwoniso, Vimbai’s cute little daughter, was conceived when her mother was raped by a rich married man. It is certainly worthwhile for the (male) author to look into the lives of this lost generation of young women. But life and work in Mrs. Khumalo’s salon is not idyllic. The little wars between the girls working there may be hilarious, but the sinister side of Zimbabwean life (at a time when we still paid our bills with ‘bricks’, before ‘dollarisation’) cannot be
hidden.
A male colleague pushes Vimbai out of her No. 1 position, fabulous young Dumisani, who through his skill as a hairdresser makes “women feel like women again”. First she loathes him, but then he becomes the beloved ‘uncle’ of little Chiwoniso, and Vimbai falls in love with him, son of a family who used to shun him. When Vimbai accompanies him to the lavish wedding of his brother, all is forgiven and forgotten, and she becomes the darling as the new ‘muroora/daughter-in-law’ of his incredibly rich family, though she does not know why. She is impressed by the Shona wedding ceremony in the Cathedral and the African style music. In her evangelical church it is all English-American. His wealthy parents fulfil her dream and splash money on her own ‘exclusive’ salon in posh Sam Levy’s village. They seem to hope that she will cure him from his unspeakable condition. But gradually the evil side of Zimbabwean life comes to the surface. Vimbai discovers her glamorous friend’s wrong ‘orientation’. He is being beaten to a pulp by professional CIO hit men and nearly dies. This is what they do to opposition members and gays. He escapes. Vimbai loves him still, ‘perversion’ and all, most remarkable for one who ‘is through with men’. There are also women, e.g. the female minister with “degrees in violence”, one of Vimbai’s clients, who can blackmail and terrorize as wickedly as the rest of them.
This is not a political novel. But the disastrous effects of politics on ordinary people, e.g. single mothers, are visible everywhere. The most political statement in the novel is this: “Could it really be that independence had become a greater burden than the yoke of colonial oppression?”
Review of The Hairdresser of Harare - Drum
The Hairdresser of Harare by Tendai Huchu
Jacana 125
When the rich and famous need the best hairdresser in Harare, they come to Vimbayi here at Makhumalo's Hair and Beauty Salon. Her secret is simple and taught to her by the master herself. A satisfied client, Mrs Khumalo keeps telling her staff, is one who walks out of the salon feeling like a white woman.
So even when an overweight mama sits down, clutching a picture of a famous American star, Vimbai never says no. Her standard answer is, "Nxi, it's just the style for you!" then she makes it work. So she doesn't feel threatened when charming new boy Dumi joins their team.
But women just adore Dumi, and soon jealousy rears its ugly head. Nothing however, can prepare Vimbai for the shock of discovering that Dumi is not only abducted but tortured too for being gay ...
Drum says: A stunning debut, funny, dramatic with a powerful punch in the end.