The Zimbabwean novelist and poet Dambudzo Marechera emerged in the late 1970s as a new voice in African literature, but his writing career lasted less than a decade. His iconoclastic, dense style expressed the psychological fragmentation prevalent in Africa during this period and challenged the fundamental beliefs of both the nationalist and postindependence eras. Defying the limitations of nationality, race, and culture, his writing explores universal issues, particularly urban existence in the late twentieth century. Marechera's life and work were closely linked. His outspoken views and unorthodox lifestyle brought him into frequent conflict with the authorities and made him a cult figure. Through his work and personality he became a major inspiration and role model for the younger generation of writers in Zimbabwe and other African countries. His work is of great importance in the debate about postcolonial literature.

Marechera was born on 4 June 1952 in Vengere township near...