ISBN 9781928215769
Pages 82
Dimensions 210 x 148 mm
Published 2019
Publisher Modjaji Books, South Africa
Format Paperback

Agringada: Like a gringa, like a foreigner

by Tariro Ndoro


You wear silence
sitting on the concrete floor of a library
a shroud like speech
Language does not belong to you…

 

An honest exploration of dislocation and (un)belonging in its forms: exile from language, exile from country, and exile from sanity. In her debut collection of poetry, Ndoro divides and intermingles national and personal history in an attempt to reach herself. Within its fragmented prose and lyrical poems, Agringada is not only a celebrated capture of language but also of its intriguing subversion as it navigates meetings of class, gender, nationality and race.

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Reviews

“Tariro Ndoro wields many tongues to give a testament of the innumerable ways humans survive. She is not concerned with comforting you with hope: poems end with severed limbs, and you too are dragged through southern African borders. She leaves you panting, too afraid to stop for a sip of self-pity, and she has made you too familiar with her foreignness to want belong disappears, yet, you are acutely aware that you are alive. Agringada is a powerful way of speaking life into things that suffocate when we are too afraid to name them.”

Katleho Kano Shoro (Serurubele)

“A love song to language, and all her betrayals and liberations; a linguist’s dance through political, psychological and psychic borders. My favourite 2019 read so far.”

Megan Ross (Milk Fever)

About the Author

Tariro Ndoro

Tariro Ndoro is a Zimbabwean poet and storyteller. Born in Harare but raised in a smattering of small towns, Tariro holds a BSc in Microbiology and an MA in Creative Writing. Her work has been published in numerous international journals and anthologies including 20.35 Africa: An Anthology of Contemporary Poetry (Brittle Paper, 2018) Kotaz, New Contrast, Oxford Poetry and Puerto del Sol. Her poetry has been shortlisted for the 2018 Babishai Niwe Poetry Prize and awarded second place for the 2017 DALRO Prize. Agringada is her debut collection.

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