The Mourning Bird

Paperback, 200 pages

Published Aug. 12, 2019 by Jacana Media.

ISBN:: 978-1-4314-2902-8
OCLC Number:: 1103708840

(2 reviews)

When eleven-year-old Chimuka and her younger brother Ali find themselves orphaned in the 1990s, it’s clear that their seemingly ordinary Zambian family is brimming with secrets: from HIV/AIDS to infidelity to suicide. Faced with the difficult choice of living with their abusive extended family or slithering into the dark underbelly of Lusaka’s streets, Chimuka and Ali escape and become street kids.

Against the backdrop of a failed military coup, election riots and a declining economy, Chimuka and Ali are raised by drugs, crime and police brutality. As a teenager, Chimuka is caught between prostitution and the remnants of the fragile stability from before her parents’ death. The Mourning Bird is not just Chimuka’s story, it’s a national portrait of Zambia in an era of strife. With lively and unflinching prose, Kalimamukwento paints a country’s burden, shame and silence that, when juxtaposed with Chimuka’s triumph, forms an empowering debut novel.

4 editions

Stephanie Jane reviewed The Mourning Bird by Mubanga Kalimamukwento

Such a sad tale

4 stars

The Mourning Bird is such a sad novel about the disintegration of a family following its patriarch's early death. From being a promising student from a reasonably affluent household, eldest daughter Chimuka finds herself rapidly descending into poverty after her father's family scavenge everything they can from her home at the end of his funeral - leaving his wife and three children behind in empty rooms. As the story progresses, we discover that Chimuka's childhood perception of a happy home wasn't exactly its reality. I appreciated Kalimamukwento's portrayal of Chimuka's increasing emotional maturity from child to young woman. It's as if the worse her predicament became, the more she grew up, yet she still remained an irritatingly passive character for me. I understand that, realistically, children and young women in her situation wouldn't have had a lot in the way of choices and personal autonomy, but I so wanted her …

The Mourning Bird is such a sad novel about the disintegration of a family following its patriarch's early death. From being a promising student from a reasonably affluent household, eldest daughter Chimuka finds herself rapidly descending into poverty after her father's family scavenge everything they can from her home at the end of his funeral - leaving his wife and three children behind in empty rooms. As the story progresses, we discover that Chimuka's childhood perception of a happy home wasn't exactly its reality. I appreciated Kalimamukwento's portrayal of Chimuka's increasing emotional maturity from child to young woman. It's as if the worse her predicament became, the more she grew up, yet she still remained an irritatingly passive character for me. I understand that, realistically, children and young women in her situation wouldn't have had a lot in the way of choices and personal autonomy, but I so wanted her to at least try to change things rather than always letting someone else take the lead.

Kalimamukwento manages to incorporate a range of interconnected social issues into The Mourning Bird, impressively without ever making it feel as though she is hectoring her readers about them. The terrible effects of Zambia's AIDS epidemic are at the root of Chimuka's orphaning, with glue, drugs and prostitution becoming almost inevitable as she slides down the social scale. Kalimamukwento's sympathetic understanding comes across very well so I was always rooting for Chimuka to find some inspiration to turn her life around before it really was too late for her.

The beautiful prose throughout The Mourning Bird made this novel a pleasure to read, even while its subject matter is so dark and distressing. It is a strong coming of age tale which has a lot to say about the people, especially the children, left behind at this turbulent time in Zambia's history.

Eric Beckman

rated it

Oct 24