{"product_id":"high-class-natives-the-alf-e-f-muronda-9781965398319","title":"High Class Natives - The Ballroom Dancers \u0026 Mbira Players","description":"\u003cp\u003eSet in the charged twilight of 1970s Rhodesia, \u003cem\u003eHigh Class Natives\u003c\/em\u003e is a sweeping musical stage play that brings to life the inner struggles of the Choto family-torn between ancestral roots and Western aspirations, tradition and modernity, resilience and ambition. At its center is Majasi, a recently widowed elder whose rural homestead in Mhondoro African Reservation was set ablaze by Rhodesian Army forces. His wife was brutally killed, punished for the simple act of feeding guerrilla fighters who came seeking a warm meal and brief sanctuary. Displaced, grieving, and carrying the heavy weight of a crumbling world, Majasi finds refuge in Beatrice Cottages-the modest yet socially ambitious home of his eldest son, Rwizi.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBeatrice Cottages, an enclave of relative prosperity within Salisbury's African township, is a symbol of mobility and fragile hope-where lawn manicures and ballroom dancing lessons serve as armor against a society built on exclusion. But within the Choto home, fault lines begin to rupture. Rwizi's wife, Sally, elegant and refined, sees herself as ascending into a higher social caste-one shaped by European etiquette and sensibilities. In a moment of candor whispered across their bedroom, she makes her intentions plain: Majasi and his youngest son, Andrew, are not to overstay their welcome. Their presence, she insists, is disruptive to her vision of raising their six-year-old son, John, as a polished and cultured young man, free from the perceived backwardness of village life and tribal custom.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCaught between his reverence for tradition and the pressures of modern domestic life, Rwizi is paralyzed. His heart belongs to his father, the man who sold most of the family's cattle to put him through school, and who later loaned him the money to buy the very house Sally now seeks to keep free of \"rural clutter.\" Yet his loyalty to his wife and child-and to the aspirational, middle-class respectability they represent-is equally strong. What unfolds is a slow-burning domestic drama, steeped in cultural tension, political fear, and the aching dissonance of identity in transition.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLaced with stirring music that dances between the elegance of European ballroom and the soulful cadence of the Shona mbira, \u003cem\u003eHigh Class Natives\u003c\/em\u003e is not merely a story of a family in conflict-it is an excavation of memory, belonging, and the legacy of colonialism. It asks, with grace and power: What happens when the past we carry threatens the future we desire? Who do we become when the music of our ancestors plays in a room where no one listens?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Alf E. F. Muronda\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1965398316\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781965398319\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Masaka\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 04\/30\/2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 170\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.06lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.63d","brand":"Alf E. F. Muronda","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":48487375995135,"sku":"9781965398319","price":26.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_dc744979-747f-4338-8105-6fbb2bb7f270.jpg?v=1778060134","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/high-class-natives-the-alf-e-f-muronda-9781965398319","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}