#Patterns of Poetry in Zimbabwe

[tamsoj]

Dambudzo Marechera, from Patterns of Poetry in Zimbabwe (1988), “The Passive Existentialist”

[bibliobuddy]

What to Read When You've Run Out of Reading Material

for the reader who just can't get enough.

Books in your bookshelf. Rereading is like greeting former friends. It means re-entering familiar worlds and receiving warm "welcome home" greetings from your favorite characters.

Poetry. From Edgar Allan Poe to Lang Leav, some poems are as short as five words, others take 1.8 million words. Reading poetry can enhance your language and cognitive skills, open your mind and stimulate your imagination, and make you more aware of the world and the people around you. Here's a compilation of free online poetry sites you can visit.

A topic you're interested in. Ever wondered how the government of Zimbabwe works? The Internet is home to everything you may be wondering about and longing to know. Take time to research and immerse yourself. You'll be armed with trivia that you can bring up in conversations. Stuck? Try experimenting with these weird-but-wonderful topics.

Discarded newspapers, magazines, pamphlets, etc. Besides using them as cat litter box liners and placemats, there's a lot of usefulness in reading them. You can find how-to articles, political opinions, and one-line comic strips. Maybe there's hidden treasure in their text.

Text from cereal boxes and other food containers. Want to know how much calories you consume from your Mars bar? Check the back of its packaging. Before long, you'll learn about terms like monounsaturated fatty acids and disodium guanylate. You are what you eat.

Your old writings. Take a trip down memory lane. It can be your third grade homework, confession letters to your middle school crush, or a story about dragons you made up when you were six. You'll notice how much you've grown as a reader and a writer.

Something from your book list. Your list consists of the books you want to read. These may be recommendations from your friends or interesting books you've seen online. Now's the time to tackle the books on your list. Haven't started on your book list? Take a look at these books!

Similar books from the ones you've previously read. Perhaps your favorite author wrote other books than the ones you've already read. Or maybe you want to keep reading about dystopian communities. Either way, the literary world is interconnected with millions of books for you to read.

Encyclopedias and dictionaries. These were invented for you to read them. Long before Google and other browsing sites existed, your ancestors looked up information from these thick, dusty hardcovers. Time to brush up on your knowledge, buddy.

Your last resort. This is the topic of your nightmares; something that you find boring or useless. You would never, ever dream of reading about this. But with your boredom and desperation to read something, you might find these topics interesting. Learning about the migration patterns of redwings could be useful someday.

[solowonderer]

Mozambique: History, Culture, Religion, and Food

Like other colonies, Mozambique’s history is also written in a way that it began with the arrival of the Portuguese, but there is much to the country before that period. Various complex communities developed in this region based on agriculture, mining, cattle raising, crafts, and trade centuries before the arrival of Portuguese Settlers in the 16th century. Tourists visit from all over the world to explore the history, culture, food, and religion of Mozambique. 

Ethnic Groups

Just like any other country in Africa, you will find ethnically diverse people that reflect the country’s colonial history in Mozambique also. When the Portuguese came to this country in 1961, they created some ethnic groups like Makua-Lomwe. Along with this, you will find other classifications including Tsonfa, Ndau, Sena, Chewa, Chopi, Makonde, Yao, and Ngoni. The benefit of booking a tour package from the best corporate travel company in Mozambique is that they structure the trip in a way where you can meet and talk to locals without any time boundary. 

1.Languages

Portuguese is the official language of the land but only a fraction of the population considers it the main language. Around two-fifths of the inhabitants of the country speak it as a lingua franca. You will find the Portuguese-speaking population primarily in the capital of Maputo and other urban centres. 

People often speak languages from the Niger-Congo language group, basically the Bantu branch. In this group, Lomwe, Makua, Sena, Tsonga, Shona, and Chuabo is the most widely spoken. You will find wide linguistic and cultural diversity in Mozambique because it shares languages with surrounding countries; for example, Yao with Tanzania and Malawi, and Swahili with East African countries. The Group of people speaking Asian and European languages is largely limited to the port cities of Beira, Maputo, Nacala, Quelimane, and Pemba. 

2.Religion

Before the independence of Mozambique from Portugal in 1975, a large chunk of the population, almost one-third of people were nominally Christian will a small number of Muslims. After Independence, religious expression was discouraged for a brief period of time (persecution of more than 20,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses). However, the government changed its approach by the end of the 1980s and things went back to normal.  

About half of the population practices Christianity, and less than one-fifth adheres to Muslim customs and religious practices. The Islamic communities are widely seen in the cities only, Muslims are found in the majority population of the northern coastal region between Rovuma and Lurio. Almost one-fifth of Mozambique’s population claims no religious affiliation. 

3.Cultural Life

Being a neighbour of Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe, this country exhibits a wide variety of cultural and linguistic diversity. One can witness the common theme of dynamic and creative cultural expression in dance, song, oral poetry, and performance even after having a variety of languages, artistic expressions, social traditions, clothing, and embellishment patterns. You can explore the most artistic tradition of the people of Mozambique in form of carved wooden sculptures and mapiko initiation masks. 

4.Food

Mozambicans usually take cassava (manioc) or Massa as their daily food staple. Among them, cassava is cooked and turned into a soft mound for serving with a sauce, while Massa is a cornmeal porridge that is also served with a sauce. Matapa is a common sauce you will find in several dishes; this sauce is prepared by mixing shredded coconut or ground peanuts with cassava leaves or other green leaves and cooking it usually in coconut milk. Sometimes, they add shrimp or meat to the sauce, there are multiple local variations of matapa. Top corporate travel management companies in Mozambique often offer local food items in the meal. 

Rice is another basic item you will find in the local meals and they are often served along with beans. You will notice Indian influence in the varieties of rice pilaf (pilau) where one can put vegetables or meat in the rice while cooking. Another item you are likely to find in the local dishes is chilli pepper sauce, popularly known as Piri-Piri. Prawns are also part of the Mozambican cuisine found in the Mozambique Channel. The coffee shops in the Urban regions are a clear indication of how Portuguese taste has influenced Mozambique’s food culture. 

[tamsoj]

Dambudzo Marechera, from Patterns of Poetry in Zimbabwe (1988), “The Passive Existentialist”