Conclusion: Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Muroyi

In the fourth and concluding chapter, I argue that in addition to decolonial psychoanalysis, one needs the book’s proposed theory from the introduction—“crossings” for a new theory of decolonizing the mind. Crossings is the simultaneous crossing of multiple boundaries in reading; the crossing of national and regional borders and the crossing of archives as well as disciplines. This proposed reading practice also blurs the definitions of legitimate archival evidence by analyzing empirical and fictional texts together to formulate the book’s main arguments—psychiatry is a colonizing force of Empire and literary madness can be the source of anti-colonial awakening in twentieth-century literature. Lastly, I read a character Lucia from Tstsi Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions who is derogatorily called a mad muroyi—witch/hyena-rider in the Shona language—and reimagines this as an African woman who rides and tames the many-headed beast of Empire.