Dangarembga, Tsitsi
Genre:
Novel, film
Bio:
 Not many artists have been as versatile as Tsitsi Dangarembga, stuggling against many odds to come out not just as a prolific black woman writer, film maker and artist, but to come out as an icon of success in art in Zimbabwe.
Tsitsi's history reads of a struggle to assert herself, an assertion of the power that comes with sheer determination by an artist to identify a niche within her working environment.
Born in the hot enclaves of Mutoko during colonial Rhodesian times, Tsitsi did not get to enjoy her childhood in the country. Her parents moved to the United Kingdom when she was only two years old, and she aqcuired the English language there. The little shona that she had mastered was quickly replaced by the English, but this did not erase her African roots. She was to return to Rhodesia in 1965 and learn at a mission school in Mutare. She regained her shona, and for her secondary ducation she attended an American Convent School. In 1977 Tsitsi enrollled at Cambridge to study Medicine, but after three years, the call of home beckoned her and she worked for an advertising agency before enrolling at the University of Zimbabwe to study psychology.
Ever the person to question stereotypes and make a statement about herself, Tsitsi's passion for art saw her join a Drama club at the University of Zimbabwe's Theatre Arts Department. She was to produce three plays for the group, She no longer Weeps, The Lost of the Soil and The third one. Tsitsi was to explore a deeper theme, drawing parallels between the South African apartheird system and nationalist consciousness in her short Story, The letter, which got published in the Anthology Whispering land in 1985. The letter won her a price in a writing competition arranged by SIDA, and marked her determined choice to articulate women's voices through the use of a female protagonist.
In 1988 Tsitsi Dangarembga penned Nervous Conditions, a novel feted as a classic of its time. Debate has raged on whether this work was semi-autobiographical, and that Tsitsi is to be found in the character Nyasha. The author has disputed the assertion, preferring to state that there is a little bit of her in all the characters. No debate however has been sparked on the novel's quality, for Tsitsi articulates the struggle of the women and men in Rhodesia in the wake of colonial and patriachal hegemony.
Each epoch sees Tsitsi the rising star. Film in Zimbabwe is in its infancy. Thanks to efforts by people like her, it is getting new meaning. Tsitsi studied film in Germany at the Deutsche Film und Fernseh Akademie where she wrote the story of Neria, a film that has remained etched in the minds of many Zimbabweans to this day.
Tsitsi has been active in many other film projects in Zimbabwe to date. She has been responsible in organising international events like ZIFF and the International Festival for Images of Women which was recently held in the capital. As a spokesperson for fellow women film makers Tsitsi exudes a strength that is at once captivating.
Bio by Jameson Gadzirai
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