Zimbabwean Short Stories by Black Writers: Still-Birth or Genesis?

This paper is an attempt to describe the circumstances out of which the current Zimbabwean short story has evolved. It is itself a story which may help writers and readers first to understand why the genre has been so long emerging, second to appreciate the particular and embattled heritage at the disposal of new Zimbabwean writers, and third to encourage them by implication to think of new possibilities for the genre now that the historical conditions of pre-Independence no longer pertain.