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Ian Smith thought his Rhodesia would last 1,000 years: it lasted less than 15.

- Petina Gappah
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Petina Gappah
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I speak English. I dream in it. I cannot separate my English from my Shona; I see the world with those two languages.

I get irritated by the term 'African writer', because it doesn't mean anything to me.

Only al-Jazeera is allowed to report from Zimbabwe, but it is unwatchable. Their Zimbabwean reporter Supa Mandiwanzira was one of Zanu-PF's praise-singers at the reviled Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation.

What we are trying to do now, this new generation of African writers, is to write about what it is to be a human being living in a particular African country. These are stories that resonate with anyone, anywhere.

Publishing can be a cliquish and incestuous business; it is not uncommon for writers from the same agencies and publishers to review each other.

I actually don't sleep much; I only need about four hours a night.

I was eight when independence happened. I remember my mum and dad getting dressed up to go to the independence concert to go listen to Bob Marley. Independence was such a wonderful time; we had so many expectations of the kind of country we would become. The vision of the government then was a wonderful vision.

The struggle for Zimbabwe lit up the imagination of people around the world. In London, New York, Accra and Lagos, bell-bottomed men and women with big hair and towering platform shoes sang the dream of Zimbabwe in the words of the eponymous song by Bob Marley: Every man has the right to decide his own destiny.

My grandfather was a polygamous man, and he had two wives, and between him and his two wives, we are about 200 or so in our family.

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Ian Smith thought his Rhodesia would last 1,000 years: it lasted less than 15.

Ian Smith thought his Rhodesia would last 1,000 years: it lasted less than 15.

Ian Smith thought his Rhodesia would last 1,000 years: it lasted less than 15.

Ian Smith thought his Rhodesia would last 1,000 years: it lasted less than 15.

Ian Smith thought his Rhodesia would last 1,000 years: it lasted less than 15.

Ian Smith thought his Rhodesia would last 1,000 years: it lasted less than 15.

Ian Smith thought his Rhodesia would last 1,000 years: it lasted less than 15.

Ian Smith thought his Rhodesia would last 1,000 years: it lasted less than 15.

Ian Smith thought his Rhodesia would last 1,000 years: it lasted less than 15.

Ian Smith thought his Rhodesia would last 1,000 years: it lasted less than 15.

Ian Smith thought his Rhodesia would last 1,000 years: it lasted less than 15.

Ian Smith thought his Rhodesia would last 1,000 years: it lasted less than 15.

Ian Smith thought his Rhodesia would last 1,000 years: it lasted less than 15.

Ian Smith thought his Rhodesia would last 1,000 years: it lasted less than 15.

Ian Smith thought his Rhodesia would last 1,000 years: it lasted less than 15.