Thinking about un-becoming a writer

When I started this blog about five years ago I was still in `commentary on Zimbabwe' mode. I keep up with the beloved country's news, even now after my personal situation is radically changed but I find it harder and harder to believe that there is any point in continuing to comment. Cathy Buckle does a brilliant 'on the spot'job; there are countless memoirs (mine is written but I need a publisher, better still, an agent), other contemporary books, a newspaper The Zimbabwean, on whose Board I serve but do nothing but read, and a book I helped Daniel Compagnon to write is out. Titled "A Predictable Tragedy - Robert Mugabe and the Collapse of Zimbabwe" tells it all.Daniel and I collaborated in the writing over many years (and across more than one ocean). Daniel, being the serious academic (a political scientist) quite rightly took the leading role and eventually brought the MS to completion. His name, as author, appears on the cover. The publishers, University of Pennsylvania Press (2011) erred, in my opinion, in refusing Daniel's demand that the words "assisted by Diana Mitchell" should also appear on the cover. I receive no mention (and be sure I am not motivated by money), except in Daniel's wholly truthful acknowledgement of my part in the writing. My blog's readers will find this in the Acknowledgements which are placed, unaccountably, on its very last page.

And now I must tell you, dear readers, that this book is a `must'. Everyone interested in Zimbabwe's story, as told (with my assistance) by the brilliant French academic, Daniel Compagnon, should read it, digest its contents and be thankful to the publishers for venturing into its publication. I should creep away silently, accepting Daniel's heartfelt apology and write off my part in its creation to experience. But I am nearing the end of my productive years in political, analytical, biographical and whatever writing of the kind I have seen published over many decades as a 'native' of Zimbabwe. There is no time left for me to elbow my way in among the teeming ranks of scribes who still have something of value to contribute to the ongoing discourse.

I rabbit on. Perhaps I should take flight with Twitter instead.
Copyright © 2004 Diana Mitchell