Zimbabwe’s Literary Giant Has Fallen

S.A – One of Zimbabwe’s prolific writers, actor, literary critic, editor and poet, David Sunny Mungoshi is no more. David passed on last night just before 10pm at Avenues Clinic, Harare. He was born in 1949 in Bulawayo and was brother to prodigious writer, Charles Mungoshi who died last year in February.

David is the author of Broken Dream and Other Stories (1987), Stains on the Wall (1992), The Fading Sun (2009) and the poetry anthology, Live Like an Artist (2017). The Fading Sun won a National Art Merit Award (NAMA) for Outstanding Fiction in 2010.

In 2017, David was among the fourteen African prominent writers presented with the Grand Patron of the Arts Award by the Pan African Writers Association (PAWA) in Accra, Ghana. David has 2 poems (The Living Dead and a Group Portrait) published in Kizito Muchemwa’s Zimbabwe Poetry in English (1976), 9 poems in the 2011 Zimbabwe Publishing House (ZPH) poetry anthology, ‘Ghetto Diary and Other Poems’ among many other anthologies he contributed.

He has written articles for Mahogany Magazine and a column in The Herald, Zimbabwe among many of his literary accomplishments.

David starred in the local popular soapie ‘Studio 263’ as John Huni, ‘Secrets’ (a feature film directed and produced by the late Ngugi Wa Mirii) and in ‘The Postman’ (a 22-minute short film directed by Larry Mutasa and produced by George Vera).

Mungoshi was a teacher most of his life. He taught at Selukwe Chrome Secondary School until 1982 and helped write the English Syllabus for upper top schools at the government-owned curriculum development unit. He then moved on to teach English at Mkoba Teachers’ College before joining the University of Zimbabwe in 2002 where he was a lecturer in Linguistics/Communication Skills.

He retired from UZ in 2014 and went into editing and full-time writing. He mentored quite a number of upcoming writers over the years and his contributions to the literary world will surely be missed.

“This is precisely what my brother’s life was all about. His pen, paper and the elite people around him!!!! His works will forever be cherished long after he’s gone. MHSRIEP,” said Tokozile Mungoshi, David’s sister.