Dambudzo Marechera was born in 1952 in Rusape, Rhodesia (modern-day Zimbabwe) and was a short story writer, playwright, and poet. Known for his eccentric personality and pioneering fiction, Marechera was awarded a scholarship to Oxford University but was shortly expelled. Three years later, Marechera won the 1979 Guardian Prize for First Fiction for his novel, The House of Hunger. Leeds University and the University of Sheffield later offered him positions as a Writer in Residence.

Marechera went on to publish Black Sunlight in 1980 and wrote a collection of plays, prose narratives, and poems but lived in frequent poverty during his time in England, suffering through various health issues. On his return to Zimbabwe in 1982, Marechera fell further into ill health and homelessness, dying only five years later at the age of 35. His work continued to influence a generation of writers, inspiring a movement of social criticism that focused on independent Zimbabwe.