The Portrayal of Moral Perversion in Selected Detective Shona Novels

This paper interrogates moral insanity as expressed in selected detective Shona novels. The novels under study are Kawara’s Sajeni Chimedza (1984), Masundire’s Mutikitivha Dumbuzenene (1991), Mahanya’s Munzwa Mundove (1999), and Zvaita’s Dandemutande (1998). Moral insanity includes acts such as theft, nepotism, embezzlement of funds, corruption, falsification, and abuse of public authority with the intent to extract personal rewards at the expense of the public. The publication of many novels discussing moral perversion is a clear testimony that the theme is topical in literature. In these novelistic discourses, writers portray people in influential positions as having a voracious desire for self-aggrandisement and wealth accumulation at the expense of the general citizenry. Nevertheless, this study argues that negative images of people in influential positions portrayed by the writers foster what Chinweizu (1987, xii) calls “intellectual meningitis” which cripples the development of purposeful literature as it is anchored on blaming the victims of a system. Guided and informed by Afrocentricity, the study argues that novelists should go beyond satirising and chastising people in influential posts and provide home-grown solutions to the problem of moral perversion.