Chisungu

A deeply personal exploration of grief, race and belonging, reframing a traditional rite of passage through family history, cultural displacement and loss.

A nod to Zambian-British poet Kayo Chingonyi’s collection entitled Kumukanda, referring to the male initiation ceremony, Chisungu is the initiation ceremony of young women in the Bemba tradition. The work is a series of lyric essays and poetry, which explore loss and the history of a family centering on the suicide of a brother. It examines parental relationships in an interracial context, the possibility of new love in the wake of grief and the ongoing trauma of racism. There are echoes and slippages between and across individual narratives, layering experiences and personal histories. Both lament and wry commentary, the collection immediately establishes a displacement from community and cultural traditions as the writer proclaims herself a ‘watered down, diluted, genetic and cultural bastard’ who questions her right to the ‘authentic rite’ of Chisungu.

Nonetheless, this is an incendiary exploration of identity and the injustice of race. Rather than participating in the traditional rite, the author describes her initiation through loss and liminal experiences. Working within and across aphoristic statements is the longing for a lost brother who visits in dreams, speaking to the grief and fear of inherited mental illness. The collection encompasses shifts of mood and focus: loss, wit, identity tension, absurdity, with vernacular asides, polemical statements, lyrical prose and images of great beauty.