Tsitsi Dangarembga

In this event, Maneo Mohale speaks to literary icon, Tsitsi Dangarembga, about bearing witness to complex states of Black girlhood in her powerful world-bending Tambudzai and Nyasha trilogy (Nervous Conditions, The Book of Not, This [...]

A dive into the groundbreaking «Lighting for Diverse Skin Tones» film seminar led by celebrated director Tsitsi Dangarembga and cinematographer Diara Sow. Discover how filmmakers are rethinking the role of lighting in capturing the richness of diverse skin tones, and the historical barriers they’re working to overcome. Hear from experts in conversation with Tina Tishev on how technology, art, and representation intersect in creating more inclusive films. Read more about the seminar here Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

«Every time we say it can’t get any worse it does,» writer Tsitsi Dangarembga has said about the situation in her home country Zimbabwe. The UNs special envoy has reacted to the arbitrary arrests of activists and politicians from the opposition. Last year, Dangarembga was herself convicted after partaking in a peaceful protest with one other activist in 2020. While large parts of the middle class and cultural elite has left Zimbabwe, Dangarembga has staid put and fought for change. Now she debates moving countries. Across the world, it is becoming increasingly difficult to protest governments and large corporations. Environmental activists are especially vulnerable: According to the human rights organization Global Witness, 200 environmental activists were murdered across the world in 2021 alone. In 2016, South African activist Nonhle Mbuthuma lost a close friend and colleague. Ever since, she has lived with constant death threats in her work to protect the nature and community where she lives, on the east coast of South Africa. Mbuthuma and Dangarembga will join for a conversation about the conditions for human rights and civil society in Zimbabwe and South Africa. How do you keep fighting for grass roots engagement and change under such perilous conditions? Moderating the conversation is Bergdís Jóelsdóttir . She has worked with civil society and human rights initiatives in Southern Africa for a number of years, and is currently the policy director for Amnesty International Norway. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“We want better. Reform our institutions.” Those were the words on Tsitsi Dangarembga’s placard when she was arrested in July 2020 for a peaceful protest against Zimbabwe’s government. Recently she was convicted on a charge of inciting public violence for that act. And yet, the award-winning novelist, playwright, poet and filmmaker— named one of the Top 25 Most Influential Women of 2022 by the Financial Times — hesitates to label herself as an activist. “I do not call myself an activist, but I call myself somebody who believes in citizen engagement as a responsible citizen of the country,” she tells New Lines magazine’s Kwangu Liwewe. “I think that is an idea that they simply do not want to prevail in Zimbabwe. They cannot afford to have increasing numbers of Zimbabweans thinking of themselves as responsible citizens who need to be engaged.” Dangarembga is referring to what she calls Zimbabwe’s current military dictatorship, which came to power after November 2017, when Robert Mugabe was removed and replaced by Emmerson Mnangagwa as president and party leader of ZANU-PF. While Dangarembga is resolute in her view of those events, she recognizes that not all Zimbabweans share her interpretation. To her, this signals the skill with which the military manipulated the narrative, getting people out into the streets to celebrate the coup. “Zimbabweans will debate anything from here to heaven,” she contends. “They were able to pretend it was not a coup. But what happened was a coup.” While she recognizes that the economic situation in Zimbabwe is dire—and much worse now than during Mugabe’s time—she argues that this is not due to mismanagement, as some might suggest. Rather, it is a deliberate attempt to force Zimbabweans to rely on the ZANU-PF for basic survival resources. So why haven’t the Zimbabweans revolted? It has nothing to do with weakness, says Dangaremba. “Zimbabweans are afraid that if they go against the government, the military will retaliate. I think that Zimbabweans have been so oppressed that they are no longer able to access the necessary agency. Yet they are the ultimate power.” Produced by Joshua Martin and Christin El-Kholy

Two masters of the form, George Saunders and Tsisti Dangarembga, share lessons from their extensive writing careers.

SAfm — Tsepiso Makwetla speaks to one of Africa's renowned Authors, Writer, filmmaker, teacher and cultural activist, Tsitsi Dangarembga