Alexander Kanengoni Explained

Alexander Kanengoni
Birth Date:	1951 9, df=yes
Birth Place:	Chivhu, Zimbabwe
Death Place:	Harare, Zimbabwe
Occupation:	Novelist
Nationality:	Zimbabwean
Alma Mater:	Kutama College University of Zimbabwe

Alexander Gore Kanengoni (17 September 1951 – 12 April 2016) was a Zimbabwean writer and veteran of the Zimbabwe War of Liberation.

Life

Kanengoni trained as a teacher at Kutama College. He joined the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA) in 1974, before enrolling at the University of Zimbabwe following independence in 1980. Kanengoni later worked for the Ministry of Education and Culture, the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation and the Patriot newspaper.^{[1] [2]}

He is best known for his war novel Echoing Silences, which has been described as 'an extraordinarily powerful novel, on a par with Bao Ninh's novel of the Vietnamese struggle, The Sorrow of War.'^[3] Alexandra Fuller dedicated her second novel,Scribbling the Cat, to Kanengoni. Fuller had never met Kanengoni, but considered him the metaphorical ‘godfather’ to her novel after she discovered Echoing Silences in Johannesburg airport.^[4]

Works

• Book: Kanengoni, Alexander . Vicious Circle . . 1983 . English.
• Book: Kanengoni, Alexander . When the Rainbird Cries . . 1987 . Harare . English . 2.
• Book: Kanengoni, Alexander . Effortless Tears . Baobab Books . 1993 . Harare . English . 2.
• Book: Kanengoni, Alexander . Echoing Silences . . 1998 . London . English . 2.
• Book: Kanengoni, Alexander . Writing Still . Waever Press . 2003 . Harare . English . 2.

External links

• Literary Encyclopedia

Notes and References

1. Web site: Mail . The Sunday . 'In Kanengoni we have lost a giant' . 2022-10-29 . The Sunday Mail . 14 April 2016 . en-GB.
2. News: Zimbabwe: Prominent Writer Kanengoni Dies - Report . allAfrica.com. 12 April 2016 . Chipato . Victor .
3. Chan . Stephen . 2005-03-01 . The Memory of Violence: trauma in the writings of Alexander Kanengoni and Yvonne Vera and the idea of unreconciled citizenship in Zimbabwe . Third World Quarterly . 26 . 2 . 369–382 . 10.1080/0143659042000339164 . 144446384 . 0143-6597.
4. Book: Norridge, Zoe . The Need to Go Further?: Dedication & Distance in the War Narratives of Alexandra Fuller & Alexander Kanengoni . The Need to Go Further? . http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7722/j.ctt1bh2m0v.12 . ALT War in African Literature Today . 13 August 2023 . 26 . 103–11. Boydell & Brewer . 10.7722/j.ctt1bh2m0v.12 . 9780852555712 .