Quote by Yvonne Vera: “Memory is a political act.”

Remembering the past, especially difficult histories, isn't just a personal thing; it challenges existing power structures and shapes how a society sees itself, often making it a fight for truth and recognition.

Zimbabwe, having gained independence in 1980, was grappling with its post-colonial identity and the legacies of settler rule. Vera's work often explored the silenced histories and traumas of women during this period.

Zimbabwean novelist whose lyrical and often disturbing fiction addressed silence, violence, and the interior lives of Zimbabwean women. Her 1994 novel Nehanda drew on the life of the spirit medium who led the First Chimurenga uprising against British colonisation. She received the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Africa and died in Toronto at forty in 2005.