Creating While Black and Female: Tsitsi Dangarembga’s African Feminist Decolonial Imaginary

Tsitsi Dangarembga has long been that one woman Zimbabwean writer, filmmaker and activist who has gained and maintained international acclaim. She rose to fame through her book Nervous Conditions (1988), which became the first English novel written by a black woman in Zimbabwe and was subsequently named one of the top books that have shaped the world by the BBC. A survey by Shringarpure and Saint shows that Dangarembga is one of the most read and taught writers around the globe ( https://africasacountry.com/2020/08/african-literature-is-a-country ). She is one of a few African artists who can communicate through multiple creative media. Moreover, Dangarembga has done more work in nurturing creative talent in Africa, and especially among Zimbabwean women, through the International Images Film Festival for Women, Nyerai Films and Institute of Creative Arts for Progress in Africa (ICAPA) Trust, among other advocacy engagements for women’s artistic contributions in the continent. She has consistently been in the international limelight since her Booker Prize nomination for This Mournable Body (2018), the last novel in the Tambudzai trilogy and her role in citizen and/or political activism in Zimbabwe for which she has received the 2021 PEN award for freedom of expression. She was appointed the inaugural International Chair of Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia for the 2021–2022 academic year. She has recently been named one of the Financial Times 25 most influential women of 2022 for her recent book Black and Female (2022). Given Tsitsi Dangarembga’s artistic and intellectual contribution to the African and feminist narrative, this chapter curates her life and work within African feminist decolonial politics. The chapter explores her intellectual trajectory as a way of addressing debates around her creative oeuvre as well as place her within the larger historical context of her feminist, creative, political and regional affiliations.