Tsitsi Dangarembga

Née en 1959 au Zimbabwé, Tsitsi s’est d’abord faite un nom comme dramaturge, metteure en scène de théâtre et novelliste. Son roman Nervous Conditions (1989) a été consacré comme faisant partie des Douze Meilleurs livres africains du 20ème Siècle. Elle termine ses études à la German Film and Television Academy (DFFB) en 1996 et elle est repartie dans son Zimbabwe natal pour aider à construire une industrie du cinéma. En Allemagne, elle a travaillé sur des documentaires et reportages pour la « Deutsche Welle », « ORB » et « Arte ».
Au Zimbabwe, elle écrivit l’histoire du film qui a fait le plus de succès au niveau national, Neria et a réalisé le film Everyone’s child ainsi que plusieurs courts et longs métrages. Elle a réalisé la trilogie KARE KARE ZVAKO qui est un ensemble de fictions avec une production de haut niveau se composant de 3 courts métrages musicaux basés sur le folklore local zimbabwéen.
Tsitsi est la Fondatrice et Directrice du Festival International de Cinéma Images de Women, Hararé. Elle a commencé des études doctorales au Département d’Etudes Africaines à l’Université d’Humboldt, Berlin, avec une thèse intitulée « The exotic has always already been known: changing the content of the « black signifier as a means of improving reception of African films », de 1999 à nos jours.

Born in 1959 in Zimbabwe, Tsitsi first made her name as a theatre writer/director and a novelist. She’s an Award-winning novelist and filmmaker, her novel NERVOUS CONDITIONS (1989) was named one of the Best Twelve African Books of the 20th Century. She studied in 1989-1996 at the Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin, DFFB (German Film and Television Academy Berlin), completed with distinction. Tsitsi has since returned to her native Zimbabwe to help setting up a film industry there. In Germany, she worked on documentaries and reportages for « Deutsche Welle », « ORB » and « Arte ».
In Zimbabwe she wrote the story for the most successfull local movie Neria and directed the movie Everyone’s child as well as several several short- and long film productions with numerous festival appearances. She directed The KARE KARE ZVAKO trilogy, a high production value feature film package of 3 musical short films based on local Zimbabwean folklore.
Tsitsi is the Founder and director of International Images Filmfestival for Women, Harare. She starts Doctoral studies in Department of African Studies Humboldt University, Berlin, with thesis entitled « The exotic has always already been known: changing the content of the « black signifier as a means of improving reception of African films », 1999 to current.


For further reading: Talking with African Writers, ed. Jane Wilkinson (1990); Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions by Sally McWilliams (World Literature Today, 31.1.1991); An Interview with Tsitsi Dangarembga (in Novel, 26.3. 1993); Postcolonial African Writers, ed. Pushpa Naidu Parekh and Siga Fatima Jagne (1998); Emerging Perspectives on Tstsi Dangarembga: Negotiating the Postcolonial by Ann Elizabeth Willey and Jeanette Treiber (2001); Tracing Personal Expansion: Reading Selected Novels as Modern African Bildungsroman by Walter P. Collins (2006)

Selected works:
*’The Letter’, 1985 (short story, in Whispering Land: An Anthology of Stories by African Women)
* She No Longer Weeps, 1987 (play)
* Nervous conditions, 1988 (novel)
* – Tambu (suom. Leila Ponkala, 1989)
* Neria, 1992 (film; 103 min, based on a story by Dangarembga, screenplay by Louise Riber, dir. Godwin Mawaru, starring Jesese Mungoshi, Dominic J. Kanaventi and Oliver Mtukudzi)
* Everyone’s Child, 1966 (film; 90 minutes, prod. by Media for Development Trust Zimbabwe, story by Shimmer Chinodya, screenplay Tsitsi Dangarembga, John Riber, Andrew Whaley, dir. Tsitsi Dangarembga, starring Nomasa Mlambo, Thulani Sandhla)
* The Puppeter, 1996 (film)
* The Elephant People, 2000 (film)
* On the Border, 2000 (film)
* High Hopes, 2004 (film)
* Kare Kare Zvako: Mother’s Day, 2005 (short film, dir., sc., starring Belinda Mapfute, Nicolas Mazenda and Simbarashe Mombemushora)
* Pamvura (At the Water), 2005 (short film, dir., sc., starring Kudzai Chimbaira and Daniel Maphosa)
* Peretera Maneta (Spell My Name), 2006 (short film, prod., dir. by Tawanda Gunda Mupengo)
* The Book of Not: A Sequel to Nervous Conditions, 2006 (novel)
* Nyaminyami amaji abulozi (Nyami Nyami and the Evil Eggs), 2011 (short film, dir. sc., prod. Olaf Koschke)

Source (in part):
www.kirjasto.sci.fi/tsitsi.htm