Author: Ndaba Sibanda

What piques your interest When you walk into a forest? Its interrelated patterns, aura? Its processes, fauna and flora? Its fertility and biodiversity? Its leafiness, calm and novelty? I see diverse plants like I detect our cultures For forests are home to 80% of land creatures Plants cover 31% of the world`s total land area Trees push out pollutants, give us scent hysteria Greenery ably absorbs greenhouse gas emissions What a slight, chaotic tree cutters are temptations! Did I mention that a billion souls depend on forests For their incomes and daily subsistence requests? 40% of global renewable…

Read More

I had shrunk in the noises of a slighting silence, However, when the King of Mthwakazi appeared, he pointed at the sun and its rays regally poured on me like a shower, and I started to feel home and honored; He also pointed at a cute clock and an array of chiefs. There was a constellation of stars, like local footballers, movie directors, socialites ,authors, educators and motivators. There was a galaxy of award-winning actors, sportspersons and journalists. I saw icons and great thinkers. What remarkable talents! There was a throng of human rightists, a bench of uncaptured…

Read More

if ever there was a beautiful brook, then she is the one she is a brook whose waters are destined to deal once and for all with Bulawayo`s perennial droughts & dupes our royal city has a capacity to produce game-changers andBusisiwe is one of them Busisiwe is Bulawayo`s pride a philanthropist whose work speaks a lot about her love for humanity and the city what lurks within her soul is not a malady but a melody exemplary is her track record: orphanages, scholarships, jobs a sleaze-buster, a bold builder of homes ,hopes and horizons her song is a doer…

Read More

They lit into life at a lively and lovely pace her eyes were the divine stars whose grace drew a striking streak between a nightfall and the glowing & growing of a windfall their warmness gave his quietness a chase that shone a sun set to surge & embrace they saw in him a museum: a depository of memories, they told her of a love story

Read More

Pregnant with cultural idioms, satire and other literary devices and motifs, Timebomb takes one on a journey of reflection, introspection and self-invention as it mirrors and unearths a cancerous culture of corruption, rot, cronyism, chauvinism, chaos  and oppression and the consequent actions of those who are the hapless victims. In essence, the story stirs at an explosive pace the moment the security officers pounce upon a young writer at his place of work and drag him into an over-crowded holding cell – where there are lice, lies and truths; reality of prison-life; but more importantly things seem to come to…

Read More

A notorious worshipper of pleasure and leisure, Mchazeko wasn’t blue and heartbroken when his father finally passed on after a long illness, not by virtue of that he, by chance thought that his dad was in a better place, but because he had been waiting, and the waiting was over; to his uncle`s dismay, he jabbered about an apt time to count his eggs that had been hatched, he gabbed about being in wealth and in charge! Who wants to grab the inheritance? Just relax, I`m not a seizer. Values of humanity are far better than fights for…

Read More

His heart has taught Africa and the world that love is lovelier than indulgence or gold. One who would rather give money to charity than live a lavish lifestyle. Incredible maturity. He made a substantial donation to help build a school in his home village. He’s kind and skilled. He once gifted 300 Liverpool shirts to his home village, and helped build a hospital to cut a patient`s voyage. The people whose lives he has impacted are awestruck, they see Sadio Mane as a star who frees them from muck.

Read More

I’m telling you they are serious They are threshing and shelling They grow and harvest crops Tell  you what, they shell groundnuts They grow ,grind and winnow crops and dry them in the sun before dehulling

Read More

Her brain is on the grain that is being prepared and processed. There is no maze in a common sight and sound as the  maize  grain is threshed and pounded by crude mortar and pestle . She is grinding corn in a mortar. A mother of 5, in a village where the mill is far, she has no choice but to manually process all her grain. It is a backbreaking, laborious chore. She learnt the traditional principles of hulling and milling when she was a little  girl since her parents couldn’t afford paying for commercial grain-milling services.…

Read More

Love, Love, Loved the Moyos Lived in the Moyos She sang of scratches She was deaf to matches She heard of a better light But held on to her knight The drumbeat of his life Was none other his wife A poetess by avocation, A rhythmist by profession Like a heart needing a beat She called him her sweetheart Perfected perfectly by imperfections And together they discussed their limitations

Read More

Deadly droughts drained And bubbled because of A ferocious flash of furore Let loose were temperatures That made the world fierier Than at any time in noted history Seas acidifying, species on the brink Of death, the earth barked a bitter welcome To an unwelcoming upheaval of heat and hell

Read More

Who Is A Boy? you had better decoy a boy, I see a misnomer in all  this: stated a man they sought to interview for the position of office boy, however, he reminded the caller that indeed he had applied for a job as a 45 year-old man, not as a little boy!

Read More

She was short and slender Her voice vivid and tender It beamed an invisible smile Infectious even from a mile She was a blessing to her patients As she treated them like her parents She told them high blood was manageable With diet and lifestyle changes all was doable One day one foreign suitor charmed away the adorable The one doctor whose services poor elders found invaluable Aunt’s Words Versus Rita’s World Conspirators and isolators Seemed to be on a mission To thrust Rita into a fleabag She felt like an unwanted email In spam filters, a candidate for Deletion,…

Read More

Sweet Vibrations In The Air  let the plot thicken in quest for their centres she was looking for her heart, low and high he had just sent her a little  morning message “I hope your day is off to an enchanting start” she read the note over and over, and never got enough of the text and its texture and tastiness her heart had  vanished into his, and his into hers in a powerful paroxysm of gravitation and fusion Madam Towels with silky hands sweaty hills and marshy logs. The reaction is the same phlegmatic snorting. It’s her sweat…

Read More

Intoxicating Songs and Sights I just like to stray into the forest each time l visit the countryside How I like to immerse myself into its thickness and feel the awesomeness of Mother Nature surge into my veins The proximity to a life undiluted intoxicates my spirits I heed the birds` advice as they sing their happy harmonies in their charming and chirping ways Their serenading expertly makes love to my eardrums I can`t tell you how the creepy reptiles wow me to no end as they wiggle and  jiggle  in their amazing fashion to their hazy habitats I marvel…

Read More