Day 134 and we speak to poet Togara Muzanenhamo at his writing desk in Harare, Zimbabwe.

We spoke at an incredibly tense time in Zimbabwe and covered what was happening out on the street, but also how Togara was carving out space during the crisis to write.

Including at the end of the episode a beautiful quiet and transporting reading of one of his works that he had written during lockdown - an extract from long form poem, Sundogs.

* Zimbabwe's economy in collapse and the very real danger of a pandemic in this context, with healthcare workers striking to protest Government corruption

* a new wave of protests were taking place as we spoke sparked by the arrest of a prominent journalist and activist and it was suspected that the Government was using Covid to implement a crackdown on protestors and to put a curfew in place

* we speak about working within a crisis and how to create a refuge in writing when the world is going mad around you

* the surprising new intimacy created during this time

This episode was recorded on 10 August 2020

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Guest Insights

Togara read from his poem, Sundogs, that he has been working on during lockdown.

It details the 1910-12 Japanese Antarctic Expedition lead by Lieutenant Nobu Shirase. Sundogs will appear in Togara's  collection of poems ‘Virga’ published by Carcanet Press in August 2021. Virga retells stories of the twentieth century using the weather and the memory of the wind.

Read more of Togara's work here: 

https://www.poetryinternational.org/pi/poet/10960/en/tile

And listen to Togara reading more of his work:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taKJyLC67rc&ab_channel=poetryinternational

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