Togara Muzanenhamo is a Zimbabwean poet and writer and the author of four poetry collections. He was born in Zambia, raised in Zimbabwe, and studied in England, France, the Netherlands, and the United States. His most recent collection, Virga, was awarded the Glenna Luschei Prize for African Poetry, among other honors.
Togara Muzanenhamo’s fellowship project is Sentinels: African Lighthouses and Coastal Histories. A diptych of poems and essays examining the history and symbolism of Africa’s lighthouses, Sentinels also explores the continent’s coasts through lighthouse sites across Africa’s Atlantic, Indian Ocean, and Mediterranean shorelines. It understands maritime history, trade, colonial expansion, and African resistance through these coastal structures and the worlds surrounding them. The poetry collection consists of 44 poems set in every African country with a coastline, with each poem centered on a specific lighthouse as its central figure or backdrop. The accompanying essays draw on the same sites and histories, offering broader reflections on coastal life, empire, migration, memory, and the enduring resilience of African shoreline communities.