BY ELINERA MANYONGA AWARD-WINNING author Phillip Chidavaenzi never seems to run out of ink to give colourful characters enthralling storylines. His latest offering, Chasing the Wind, echoes how people often lose purpose in life by going after fireflies — things that look intriguing at face value, yet they are vain. The title is a biblical allusion extracted from Ecclesiastes 1:14, “I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.” Chasing the wind is a metaphor for pursuing futility. Reading Chasing the Wind, an average mind would conclude that it’s one of those Christian fables meant to convert people to Christianity. But there is more to the book and it’s certainly not for monolithic thinkers. The book vividly explores contemporary Zimbabwe through themes like prostitution, religion, atheism, gender-based violence, sexual abuse (rape), forgiveness, betrayal, bitterness, brokenness, sisterhood, corruption, love and lust. The book is centred on Bianca, who is raped by her father at the age of 13 and turns to Christianity for soothing with the help of her father’s sister, Tete Mandisa. Haunted by her childhood ordeal, Bianca, a devout Christian, “unexpectedly” marries Terrence, a self-proclaimed atheist. She, however, keeps her secret and only discloses it to Terrence when he is susceptible and pleading for forgiveness after his serial cheating ways. Terrence cheats with a business associate, Darlene, and his secretary Sharon. No doubt Chidavaenzi has mastered the art of suspense, and with the story unfolding, readers get to wonder about the source of Bianca’s bitterness towards her father, Rodgers, and it leaves one drooling throughout the pages. The ordeal Bianca faces at the hands of her father simply mirrors the brokenness of today’s society as fathers abusing their own daughters seems like the “new normal” and this has resulted in family disintegration, with fathers getting arrested and daughters being traumatised for life. Rodgers, a symbol of patriarchy, has problems with his wife, Rebecca, giving birth to a daughter (Bianca) and not a son. And this results in him physically abusing his wife, who could not give him another child due to medical reasons. The duo divorces and later, Rebecca dies after being beaten by Rodgers who failed to accept that the once submissive wife had left him. However, Rodgers, like a cat with nine lives, escapes jail time because being a Member of Parliament and a man of authority worked to his advantage. Rodgers is later arrested for raping his daughter and sentenced to 16 years in prison, but only serves 10 as he is released through a presidential amnesty. He is truly apologetic for his transgressions, but Bianca remains unforgiving. Although Tete Mandisa had long forgiven her brother, she does not pressure Bianca to do the same. In the midst of all this, Bianca, like a phoenix, rises and shines as a law student at the University of Zimbabwe and starts working as a prosecutor at the Harare Magistrates Court. An atheist, T
