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Tsitsi Dangarembga

ツィツィ・ダンガレンブガ

Tsitsi Dangarembga

Profile

Gender
Female
Born
1959-02-04 （Mutoko, Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe)）
Nationality
Zimbabwean
Languages
English, Shona
Religion
Methodist
Residence History
England (early childhood, ages 2–6) → Mutoko (birthplace) → Old Mutare (mission), Zimbabwe → Harare, Zimbabwe → Berlin, Germany

Career

Occupations
novelist, playwright, filmmaker, screenwriter, producer
Active Years
1983-
Affiliations
Nyerai Films (founder), Women Filmmakers of Zimbabwe (executive director), International Images Film Festival for Women (founding director), Institute for Creative Arts for Progress in Africa (ICAPA, founding member), Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge (Honorary Fellow)
Memberships
Royal Society of Literature (International Writer selection)
Influenced By
Virginia Woolf, African-American women writers (broad influence)
Influenced
Younger Zimbabwean and African women writers

Education

Sidney Sussex College, University of Cambridge
Medicine (studies)
Period: 1977–1980（在学・途中退学）
Country: United Kingdom
Experienced racism and isolation; left after three years and returned to Zimbabwe
University of Zimbabwe
Medicine and Psychology (studies)
Period: 1980年代（在学）
Country: Zimbabwe
Involvement in university drama club led to writing and directing plays
German Film and Television Academy Berlin (DFFB)
Film directing
Period: 1989〜1990年代（留学）
Country: Germany
Produced several films and a TV documentary while in Berlin
Humboldt University of Berlin
African Studies (doctoral)
Degree: PhD
Period: 2000年代（博士課程修了）
Country: Germany
Wrote a PhD thesis on the reception of African film

Awards

Commonwealth Writers' Prize (Africa region)
1989
Work: Nervous Conditions
Category: 地域賞（アフリカ）
Organization: Commonwealth Writers' Prize
Result: 受賞
BBC 100 books that shaped the world
2018
Work: Nervous Conditions
Organization: BBC
Result: 選出
Booker Prize (shortlist)
2020
Work: This Mournable Body
Category: 小説
Organization: The Booker Prize
Result: ショートリスト
PEN International Award for Freedom of Expression
2021
Organization: PEN International
Result: 受賞
Peace Prize of the German Book Trade (Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels)
2021
Organization: German Publishers and Booksellers Association
Result: 受賞
PEN Pinter Prize
2021
Organization: English PEN
Result: 受賞
Windham-Campbell Literature Prize (fiction)
2022
Category: フィクション
Organization: Windham-Campbell Prizes
Result: 受賞
Royal Society of Literature (RSL) International Writer
2022
Organization: Royal Society of Literature
Result: 選出
St. Francis College Literary Prize (finalist)
2019
Organization: St. Francis College
Result: ファイナリスト

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Nervous Conditions

1988 Novel (postcolonial literature) 208 pages

Set in colonial Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), the novel follows a rural girl navigating education and personal agency, exploring gender, race, class and family expectations.

colonialismfemale agencyeducation and classidentity
Adaptations
  • [Film (story credited)] Neria / Godwin Mawuru (1993)
Translations
  • Translated into multiple languages (including Japanese translations)

The Book of Not

2006 Novel (sequel) 256 pages

Sequel to Nervous Conditions that continues the protagonist's story, depicting struggles amid social and political change.

coming-of-age strugglespostcolonial societyeducation and exclusion

This Mournable Body

2018 Novel (conclusion of trilogy) 304 pages

The final novel of the trilogy, layering the protagonist's personal struggle for dignity against changes in post-independence Zimbabwe.

trauma and losspolitics and the individualfemale subjectivity

Bibliography

  • Lost of the Soil (play, 1983)
  • The Letter (short story, 1985)
  • She No Longer Weeps (play, 1987)
  • Nervous Conditions (novel, 1988)
  • The Book of Not (novel, 2006)
  • This Mournable Body (novel, 2018)
  • Black and Female (essays, 2022)

Adaptations

  • Neria (1993, story credit)
  • Everyone's Child (1996, directed)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
concise, direct narrationpostcolonial social analysisinterweaving personal and national histories
Recurring Motifs
education and independencefemale agencyfamily and community expectations

Legacy

Tsitsi Dangarembga, as a Zimbabwean writer and filmmaker, has brought postcolonial literature and women's voices to international attention. Nervous Conditions is regarded as a major African novel; through filmmaking and festival leadership she has also supported emerging creators.

Academic Societies

  • Royal Society of Literature (International Writer selection)

In Popular Culture

  • Credited for the story of the film Neria, which became widely known in Zimbabwe
  • Everyone's Child is noted as one of the first feature films directed by a Black Zimbabwean woman

Quotes

  • There were simply no plays with roles for black women, or at least we didn't have access to them at the time. I didn't see that the situation would be remedied unless some women sat down and wrote something, so that's what I did.
    Source: Interview (quoted in Wikipedia entry) (2004)

Trivia

  • Nervous Conditions is regarded as the first novel in English published by a Black woman from Zimbabwe.
  • Neria (1993), credited to Dangarembga for the story, became a major box-office success in Zimbabwe.
  • Everyone's Child (1996) is noted as one of the first feature films directed by a Black Zimbabwean woman.
  • Arrested in 2020 for participating in protests; convicted in 2022 but conviction overturned on appeal in 2023.