the letter (1985) • the play She No Longer Weeps (1987) • Nervous Conditions (1988) • The Book of Not (2006) • This Mournable Body (2018) • the short story collection An Untimely Love (2003) • narini and her donkey (2021) • and the nonfiction work Black and Female (2022) •
Tsitsi Dangarembga, born in 1959 in Mutoko, Zimbabwe, is an acclaimed novelist, playwright, and filmmaker whose work has become a cornerstone of African literature. She began her studies in medicine at Cambridge University before returning to Zimbabwe to complete a degree in psychology. While at the University of Zimbabwe, she became involved in theatre and began writing plays, later turning to fiction. Her debut novel, Nervous Conditions (1988), was the first English-language novel published by a Black Zimbabwean woman and won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize (Africa Region). Widely celebrated for its sharp exploration of gender, colonialism, and identity, the novel was followed by The Book of Not (2006) and This Mournable Body (2018), the latter shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2020.
Alongside her literary career, Dangarembga is a trailblazer in Zimbabwean cinema. She studied film directing at the German Film and Television Academy in Berlin and later founded Nyerai Films in Harare. Her feature film Everyone’s Child (1996) was the first directed by a Black Zimbabwean woman and gained international recognition. She also established the International Images Film Festival for Women and has mentored emerging African filmmakers through her cultural initiatives.
Dangarembga handed her manuscript Narini and Her Donkey to the Future Library, work which was preceded by An Untimely Love in 2003 and followed by Black and Female in 2022.