Alexander Kanengoni
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2019}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Alexander Kanengoni
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| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1951|9|17}}
| birth_place = Chivhu, Zimbabwe
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|2016|4|12|1951|9|17}}
| death_place = Harare, Zimbabwe
| occupation = Novelist
| nationality = Zimbabwean
| alma_mater = Kutama College
University of Zimbabwe
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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.{{Cite web |last=Mail |first=The Sunday |title='In Kanengoni we have lost a giant' |url=https://www.sundaymail.co.zw/in-kanengoni-we-have-lost-a-giant |access-date=2022-10-29 |website=The Sunday Mail |date=14 April 2016 |language=en-GB}}{{cite news |title=Zimbabwe: Prominent Writer Kanengoni Dies - Report |url=http://allafrica.com/stories/201604121333.html |work=allAfrica.com|date=12 April 2016 |last1=Chipato |first1=Victor }}
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.'{{Cite journal |last=Chan |first=Stephen |date=2005-03-01 |title=The Memory of Violence: trauma in the writings of Alexander Kanengoni and Yvonne Vera and the idea of unreconciled citizenship in Zimbabwe |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/0143659042000339164 |journal=Third World Quarterly |volume=26 |issue=2 |pages=369–382 |doi=10.1080/0143659042000339164 |s2cid=144446384 |issn=0143-6597|url-access=subscription }} 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.{{Cite book |last=Norridge |first=Zoe |title=The Need to Go Further?: Dedication & Distance in the War Narratives of Alexandra Fuller & Alexander Kanengoni |chapter=The Need to Go Further? |chapter-url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7722/j.ctt1bh2m0v.12 |journal=ALT War in African Literature Today |date=13 August 2023 |volume=26 |pages=103–11|publisher=Boydell & Brewer |jstor=10.7722/j.ctt1bh2m0v.12 |isbn=9780852555712 }}
Works
- {{cite book |last=Kanengoni |first=Alexander |title=Vicious Circle |publisher=Macmillan Education |year=1983 |location= |language=English}}
- {{cite book |last=Kanengoni |first=Alexander |title=When the Rainbird Cries |publisher=Longman |year=1987 |location=Harare |language=English |author-mask=2}}
- {{cite book |last=Kanengoni |first=Alexander |title=Effortless Tears |publisher=Baobab Books |year=1993 |location=Harare |language=English |author-mask=2}}
- {{cite book |last=Kanengoni |first=Alexander |title=Echoing Silences |publisher=Heinemann, African Writers Series |year=1998 |location=London |language=English |author-mask=2}}
- {{cite book |last=Kanengoni |first=Alexander |title=Writing Still |publisher=Waever Press |year=2003 |location=Harare |language=English |author-mask=2}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5878 Literary Encyclopedia]
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Category:Alumni of Kutama College
Category:University of Zimbabwe alumni
Category:Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army personnel
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