Dambudzo Marechera (1952-1987) was a Zimbabwean novelist, poet, and short story writer. The House of Hunger, published two years before Zimbabwe gained independence, is a collection of short stories that drift between memories, violence, politics, and psychic fragmentation. It won the Guardian Fiction Prize in 1979 and remains a classic of African literature.
Marechera's writing is combative and brutal, driven by a contempt for authority that he had no interest in concealing. It is boldly political. He was fearless. This fearlessness is shown in his writing, and through the stories he chooses to tell. Though he lived a troubled life, and died a terrible death, Marechera was a man who stood firm in his beliefs and The House of Hunger shows this – it shows a writer with an uncontainable spirit whose words were an act of defiance.
In The House of Hunger, Marechera writes of life under violent oppression. “Arrests became so much a part of one's food that no one even turned a hair when two guerrillas were executed one morning and their bodies later displayed to a group of schoolchildren.” He writes of geurillas and resistance often, forcing us to bear witness to the oppresive regime he lived under.
He writes of self-hatred, and fear. Fear of change, acceptance. In “Black Skin What Mask,” he writes of his skin “It is like a silent friend: moody, assertive, possessive, callous – sometimes” and later goes on to say “I had such a friend once” – a friend who turns out to be a character that takes his life.
He writes of internal discomfort – “This eternal gnawing in the gut. Racking, always, one’s brain in the doorway.”
Reading these stories is a turbulent journey through highly intense experiences. The stories are disorienting, and aggressive, and yet refreshing and honest. Each story records more than the chosen narrative; it take us into the psyche of its characters, and holds up a mirror in which readers are forced to see themselves and the structures around them.
Marechera belongs alongside writers like K. Sello Duiker and Ayi Kwei Armah: authors whose work demands that you release the part of yourself that needs comfort and safety. Writing like this is necessary. Stories like the ones told in The House of Hunger are necessary – necessary for change and transformation, internal and external.
About the reviewer
Moon Mokgoro
Moon Mokgoro studies physics and mathematics and is a writer based in Johannesburg, South Africa. She is the founder of Protest Poster Project, a non-profit organisation focused on fighting against gender based violence and building a library/archive of activist, anarchist and feminist literature. She's written for the Are.na 2023 Annual and others as well as occasionally writing on her Substack. Archiving and documenting, collecting and remembering are what Moon aspires to do in all her work.
More information
This review is part of the Book of the Month series 2026 from the Goethe-Institut South Africa. A new review by South Africans for South Africans will be published every month, check back regularly.
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The AFRO-Freedom Book Club is a public book club that focuses on African writers to inspire dialogue and civic engagement in the community. We strongly believe in the voice of Africans and the importance of telling our own stories. Everyone is invited to join our circle!
Silent Book club is about meeting other like-minded readers, chatting about what other people are reading and then reading together in companionable silence.
