Overview

Tafadzwa Taruvinga's groundbreaking memoir The Educated Waiter: Memoir of an African Immigrant gives voice to the unheard plight of the faceless immigrant Uber driver, waiter, graduate and gardener in South Africa. Released in October, it is hugely relevant at a time where our country is experiencing devastating levels of xenophobic intolerance and violence. When Tafadzwa Zimunhu Taruvinga, a young Zimbabwean, enrolls to study economics at Rhodes University in South Africa, he has no idea that his life is about to be a tumultuous trial of survival. As a foreign student, the fees are exorbitant, exacerbated by the fact that currency has become increasingly problematic in the ailing economy back home. This doesn't deter him; with a sharp sense of self-preservation, Tafadzwa pursues his studies while unpacking groceries, cleaning shit-splattered toilets and waitering for a pittance.Constantly cash-strapped, most nights he goes to sleep hungry. I poured the boiled water into the bowl of crumby Kellogg's Cornflakes and carefully added a few granules of Knorr powder soup over the crushed smithereens. I mixed it all together, gnashed my teeth and forced down each bite with ample struggle. I was hungry. For most it would be unfathomable, eating a meal that wasn't one. But I wanted to graduate with a Rhodes University degree so badly that `Knorr cornflakes' seemed like a reasonable supper to allay the aching pangs. `This is not so bad,' I tried to convince myself as I forced down the putrid slush. In truth, it was horrible. I was all too aware that the inedible concoction was the price I must pay for my education. When the plate was clean, I washed down the meal with a glass of warm water. Then I rinsed my zebra bowl, the plastic spoon and the glass and wiped them dry. For dessert, I wept quietly. The Educated Waiter is both witty and poignant. It indefatigably confronts poverty, racism, xenophobia and classism with refreshing honesty that gives previously unheard insights into the reality of the immigrant's experience both in South Africa and abroad. Tafadzwa's drive to conquer a world steeped in impenetrable hardships and prejudice is inspirational. His spirit shines as he shares his journey of survival. He reminds us all that we all can overcome hardship, regardless of the dire circumstance. The Educated Waiter is a story we all know all too well, it's the story of survival and a story of hope.

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9781928420583

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Tafadzwa Zimunhu Taruvinga is a Rhodes University economics graduate. Over the last decade he has written non-fiction prose, including motivational pieces for a local newspaper in Zimbabwe. Driven by his passion to tell African stories, he has self-published four books including The Redwood Poetry Collection and Serve Your Customers Excellently, Or Not At All! Tafadzwa has also worked and lived in Europe, East Africa and the UAE, where he has observed the unique ideologies and cultures of people from these regions. Tafadzwa presently lives in Johannesburg and spends his Christmases creating tasty gourmet indulgences for his mother and sisters at their family home in Harare, Zimbabwe.

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