The Ngozi of Kanyemba

In the far reaches of northern Zimbabwe, where the red earth of Kanyemba meets the shifting currents of the Zambezi River, the borders between nations are clearly defined by maps and fences. But there is another border in this valley—one far more porous and dangerous—that separates the world of the living from the ancient, watchful realm of the spirits. The Ngozi of Kanyemba is a story born from the heart of this landscape. It is a tale of the modern African man caught between two worlds: the glittering promise of commercial success and the unyielding weight of traditional obligation. At its center is Nyasha Chapoto, a man who believed he could manage his family with the same cold efficiency he used to manage his safari empire. He sought to bridge the gap between the old and the new by taking two wives—one to hold his history, and another to embody his future. However, Kanyemba is a place that does not tolerate the discarding of the old. Beneath the neon lights of modern nightclubs and the sterile white walls of medical clinics, there are shadows that remember every slight, every betrayal, and every broken vow. This novel explores the devastating alchemy of jealousy and the terrifying reality of the ngozi—the avenging spirit. In the Shona culture, a debt of blood is never truly settled by the grave; it is merely transferred to a different plane of existence, where it gathers interest until it returns to strike down the living. As you walk through these chapters, you will hear the rhythmic ticking of a nurse's watch where no clock should be and feel the damp chill of the Zambezi mist inside a locked room. You will witness the fall of a king and the tragic price paid by those who think they can use the "deep bush" to settle modern scores. In Kanyemba, the dust eventually settles over everything. But as Tarisai Mushumbi and Nyasha Chapoto would eventually learn, the truth is the only thing that the dust cannot bury.