In which I rouse the wrath of one Peter Moyo and irritate him with my "crass, trite and unauthentic" book

I wrote a few weeks ago that I was doing a massive piece on education in Zimbabwe. I have completed the fieldwork potion of my project and am now writing the essay. I am immensely excited by this. The essay was commissioned by Writers Inc, a group that includes writers I love like Zadie Smith, Rachel Holmes and Hari Kunzru. They invited me to take any angle I chose and after grappling with different approaches, I was hit by a flash of inspiration: to write about my old schools, a then and now perspective, examining how they were when I was a pupil and how they are now, and asking the question, what would be the fate of a child like me, a child from a modest background, a child whose parents could not afford to spend a tonne of money on education, what is the fate of such a child in today's Zimbabwe?

Scrolling through my unmoderated comments last night, I came across one signed "Peter Moyo". Mr. Moyo is most definitely not a fan. He was particularly irritated by the education project, irritated without even knowing what I was writing about, and told me clearly that I was not qualified to write about education in Zimbabwe. Peter Moyo will be reassured to now that I am writing about how I was educated, unless of course he believes that I am not authorised, entitled or qualified to write about my own schools!

And as for my book, I am sorry indeed that Peter Moyo did not like it. On the bright side, you can't like everything. And you know, Peter Moyo, nothing stops you from writing your own "authentic" book on Zim that is not "crass" or "trite". And you see, I have not only posted your comment, I have devoted a whole blog post to it, so we can at least agree that I am not a "fraud".

And you will, no doubt, be cheered to know that I have been living in Harare for 7 months now, having moved back in September, no doubt this makes me more authentic!

And it is Dr. Gappah to you.

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"I am doing a massive piece on education in Zimbabwe"

Ms Gappah, given that you have been out of the country for several years and are not an educationalist by profession, can I ask what qualifies you to presume to know nearly enough about this complex subject to write an authoratative piece about it? Indeed, I ask because you seem to feel nowadays that you are an authority on just about everything.

I wonder whether you are "getting too big for your boots"? Just because you are a writer does not make you an expert an anything and everything. You seem to think you are. My advice: stick with what you know, which appears, at this stage, to be the law and Switzerland.

We Zimbabweans are not hoodwinked -everyone who lives here and has actually suffered the pain this government has inflicted on us over the past decade read right through your short story collection. You may buy sympathy with Europeans who don't know about Zimbabwe but think they do through your writing, but those of us who have experienced it (and of course living in tidy Switzerland means you are NOT one of us) realised right away that your stories were crass, trite and totally unauthentic.

So I suggest you do some soul searching before proclaiming you are the voice of this country - trust me, we all know you are NOT.

And of course, seeing as you reserve the right to "approve" all comments means that you will delete this remark without ever daring to post it on your blog. So much for democracy and freedom of speech. I dare you to post it - let people say I'm either right ot wrong! If you don't post it, I'll know for sure what a fraud you are.