Celebrated Zimbabwean Arts Curator, David Mungoshi passes on

Within the space of One year, Zimbabwe has lost two arts titans dealing the country’s arts sector a huge blow. Author, poet, and actor, David Mungoshi kicked the bucket Saturday night at the age of 71, the second death of the arts sector in a row.

Mungoshi wrote ‘The Fading Son’ a book that won an award at the prestigious 2010 NAMA Awards. The novel is also on the literature set book in schools. Mungoshi’s work in poetry featured many anthologies and had his own collection of poems, Live Like An Artist.

As an actor, he played the role of John Huni in the popular Studio 263. He also featured in Larry Mutasa’s short film, the postman and Ngugi Wa Mirri‘s feature film, Secrets.

According to Memory Chirere, who worked closely with Mungoshi and David’s late brother, Charles who was also a renowned author and actor; Chirere said “The passing on of Mungoshi is a big blow considering he was a prominent writer, actor, teacher, and an arts mentor. You will also remember that he has written a lot. We are going to miss him. Once upon a time, he went as far as Rushinga to teach young people how to write. I also joined him at the Chimanimani Arts Festival.” Reading his column in The Herald week in week out would make you feel Mungoshi understood the local musical scene, he was an encyclopedia of Zimbabwean music.” It is a pity that he has gone without putting those bits and pieces together.

“As we mourn David, we also celebrate his life because he has been in our midst, he was a good friend, joyful, generous, kind, and extremely intelligent. What makes his death more painful is to those of us who know him is that it comes barely a year after the passing on of his brother Charles,” said Chirere.

“We are deeply saddened by passing away of David Mungoshi. Mungoshi was a brilliant writer who was will to share his expertise with upcoming and established writers.” As an editor, he helped to polish a great number of manuscripts that are great pieces of work today. Mungoshi is also a former lecturer in Linguistics at the University of Zimbabwe.

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