Being arrested won’t end my fight for Zim, says top author
Tsitsi Dangarembga is accustomed to being a trailblazer. Nominated for the coveted Man Booker Prize this year, the 61-year-old was the first black Zimbabwean woman to direct a feature film. Now she can add the unfortunate title of arrestee to her list of achievements, for Dangarembga was among those arrested last week during protests against President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s regime.
“At the moment, Zimbabwe’s future looks rather bleak. Whether we weather this storm to turn the nation around or not will depend on the calibre of Zimbabwean citizens and our ability to face up to crisis,” Dangarembga said in an interview with Times Select.
“I’m inspired by the world around me, the inconsistencies and imbalances (regrettably, her home country is a good start), the emptinesses and attempts at filling the void, the desire to be more than what we are and the fear of that change and, at the same time, the fear of who we are.”
But Dangarembga was also the first to acknowledge the solidarity and support from her follow citizens after being bundled into a truck full of police armed with AK-47 rifles and riot gear in Harare on Friday, while protesting against state corruption and a dying economy. After being released on bail, she tweeted: “Friends, thank you for your solidarity. Everyone who spread the news of my and Julie Barnes’ arrest contributed to our safety and highlighted the ongoing erosion of civil liberties and clampdown on the nation in Zimbabwe. Let’s keep acting for reform in #Zimbabwe. It’s ours too.”
Dangarembga was arrested for carrying placards calling for reforms in Zimbabwe and the release of Hopewell Chin’ono, a journalist arrested recently under a government crackdown on protesters.
She was charged with incitement to commit violence and breaching anti-coronavirus health regulations after staging the demonstration with Barnes. The two were freed on bail on Saturday and have been ordered to return to court on September 18.
“The clampdown under the guise of Covid-19 regulations signals another sad chapter in Zimbabwe’s history,” said Dangarembga. “If the issue were Covid-19, they would be equipping hospitals, resourcing medical personnel, expanding health delivery.
“Instead, freedom of movement is curtailed, freedom of expression is labelled insurrection, pallbearers at high-level funerals are clothed in full personal protective equipment, while medical personnel struggle to obtain a mask,” she said.
Despite the challenges facing her native country and the continent, Dangarembga is optimistic about the future for African female authors.
“The present is already very good for the younger generation of writers, just as my generation had an easier time than did writers like [Ghanaian writer and academic] Ama Ata Aidoo, who came before us.
“We are one group of people whose stories have hardly been told, particularly not from our own point of view. As the world looks for new ways of being to save itself, these new perspectives become increasingly relevant. Inclusion and knowing the other are self-preservation reflexes,” said the author.
At the age of 25, Dangarembga published her first novel, Nervous Conditions. It gained international success and is now considered one of Africa’s most important novels of the 20th century. It became the first of a trilogy, followed by The Book of Not and This Mournable Body, which is on the longlist of 13 books for the 2020 Booker Prize. The novel focuses on a woman’s struggle for survival in Zimbabwe, mirroring her country’s struggles.
Dangarembga grew up in Zimbabwe, then spent a few years in England, before moving to Germany. She was accepted at the German Film and Television Academy in Berlin, where she studied from 1989 to 1996, before doing a PhD in Africa Studies and returning to Zimbabwe with her family in 2000.
“As a young woman, when my social consciousness began to develop, I read a lot of African-American women writers Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Maya Angelou ... I also read some African classics early on, like Camara Laye, Chinua Achebe, Ngugi wa Thiong’o,” said Dangarembga.
The author also tells her stories through film, having directed her own documentaries and features, including Everyone’s Child, the first feature film directed by a black Zimbabwean woman. Most of her work focuses on women’s struggles. Dangarembga is currently running a crowdfunding campaign to finance the production of her new film, Nnenna, adapted from the novel Trapped in Oblivion by Ifeoma Theodore Jnr E. It’s about a young girl discovering her sexuality, a topic she cannot discuss with her mother.
Her favourite advice for aspiring authors is “keep reading, keep dreaming, keep writing”.