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An
interview with Tsitsi Dangarembga
Robtel Neajai Pailey
October 05, 2006
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/issue/current/
Eating disorders seem to be a rarity
in the issues raised by contemporary African writers. That’s most
likely why Tsitsi Dangarembga’s 1988 classic "Nervous Conditions"
became an immediate modern African classic. It was a semi-autobiographical
coming-of-age story about the affects of patriarchy and colonialism
on a female protagonist, Tambudzai. Nyasha, Tambudzai’s cousin,
suffers from an acute case of bulimia. In many respects, she attempts
to regurgitate centuries of societal repression of African women’s
bodies, livelihoods, and intellectual capacities.
Like Nyasha, Dangarembga has been regurgitating
historical tyranny with creative genius. She is a Zimbabwean playwright,
novelist, and filmmaker who tackles head-on the oppression wrought
by patriarchy and colonialism on African women. Her most recent
novel, "The Book of Not," is a sequel to "Nervous
Conditions."
Dangarembga could be called a feminist,
but she shies away from the loaded term, opting for something more
holistic, humanist. The Informer interviewed Dangarembga recently
about writing, African women’s empowerment, and continental development.
Robtel Neajai Pailey (RP):
Your large body of work shows that in the grand scheme of things,
gender matters to you. How did you become so interested in the convergence
of gender, oppression, and Africa?
Tsitsi Dangarembga (TD):
Gender matters to me because I am a woman and experience firsthand
the oppressive consequences of gender discrimination. I spend a
lot of my considerable energy fighting that, and I think, why do
I have to waste so much on this fight? I am sure most women all
over the world ask themselves that question daily. Think how much
energy is dissipated in this useless manner. It is energy that could
be harnessed for the good of all people in a world free of gender
oppression. I experience similar oppression as an African person.
Naturally, I see similarities, but then again, also differences
in these two systems of oppression. I spend a lot more time and
energy trying to tease out which oppression fits so I can combat
it appropriately, win and move on. I think that kind of intellectual
work can be a legacy for others, hopefully shortening and easing
their struggles.
RP: "The condition
of the native is a nervous condition" seems to be the hallmark
of your 1988 novel, "Nervous Conditions." Was this one
line in "Nervous Conditions" some type of tribute to Frantz
Fanon and his book "Wretched of the Earth?"
TD: It was not a tribute
in the sense that I wanted to draw attention to the greatness of
"Wretched of the Earth." It is, however, a tribute in
the sense that that quotation affirms the truth that Fanon wrote,
whose essence was captured so aptly and so succinctly by [Jean-Paul]
Sartre in his introduction to Fanon’s work.*
RP: How are African
women and girls today still victims of White supremacy and patriarchy?
TD: My new novel "The
Book of Not" deals with this theme. The relationships are too
complex to reduce to a few sentences, I think. When we do that,
we miss essentials that need to be looked at. So I have taken many
years to work this out to my satisfaction and also depict it to
my satisfaction in "The Book of Not." Personally, I feel
both systems still work to victimize me. I think it is not an accident
at all that most strong African women find they can only move forward
in the company of other strong African women. Thank goodness for
the sisterhood! Having said that, of course I do not want to portray
the rest of the world as a homogenous monstrous lot! Neither could
I as an African woman manage without the support from allies who
have institutional access to institutionalized power and resources.
Such people have kept me and my work—both my personal work and the
work that I do as part of the African women’s movement—alive.
RP: I understand that
you studied medicine and psychology at Cambridge University in England.
Can you describe the psychological manifestations of patriarchy
and neo-colonialism on African women and girls (besides eating disorders)?
TD: Low self-esteem;
under performance; anti-social behavior; role modeling on anti-social
hitherto traditionally masculine behaviors; negative energy; learned
helplessness; rage; addiction; alienation; psychological disturbances
from neuroses to psychoses; lethargy; dysfunctional attitudes; suicide;
self immolation…to name a few.
RP: You’ve become increasingly
aware of the difficult conditions and oppressive attitudes endured
by Black women in Zimbabwe. I dare say you’ve been increasingly
aware of the difficulty endured by African women all over the continent.
What are some of the contemporary challenges African women face?
What do you believe are some solutions to these challenges?
TD: Economic conditions
in our global capitalist world are the main challenge. This translates
practically into challenges of food security, health, shelter, education…again,
the list goes on. There is also the challenge of how to make sure
your voice is heard to voice these issues, both by those who want
to hear you and by those who do not. This also at the end of the
day translates into a challenge of financial resources. Few African
women have the financial security to write the novels they want
to write, make the films they want to in order to be heard, make
the radio programs they see as crucial to their development and
well being. We do not have the resources to ensure that these programs
are aired even if we are able to make them. We often do not have
the time to write the newspaper article we want to because they
often will not be published in our newspapers and so we will not
be paid, or if the articles are published often again a male chauvinist
spin is put on them. Nor do we have our own newspapers. Again, it
is not a monolithic African woman-hating world out there, but the
opportunities are too few to sustain us at the level we have reached,
let alone sustain our continued well-being and development in the
face of our challenges.
RP: Please comment on
how the tenuous political and economic conditions in Zimbabwe have
affected women in the country.
TD: The political situation
has affected most women badly in every sense. As in all crises situations
there are some who exploit the suffering of others to benefit from
it, and some of these exploiters who benefit are women. However,
on the whole, women have seen the gains they made since independence
in 1980 whittled away over the last few years. There is less food
security. Girl children are less likely to be educated. Shortages
of basic commodities make a mother’s life a nightmare. Biologically,
women are challenged again. How are women to afford to buy the sanitary
wear they need to soak up menstrual blood? As men are affected by
the difficult conditions, they take out their frustrations on the
often physically weaker sex. Sexual crimes and other violent crimes
against women and children are accelerating at an unspeakable rate.
The HIV pandemic multiplies the horrific implications of this situation
a million times. Because of international sanctions, amongst other
things, there are no medicines, little food, and what is there is
hardly healthy. Only vestigial sanitation in most areas, almost
no clean water in others. Even the cities go for days without water,
to say nothing of fuel. I do not understand the logic that believes
Zimbabweans will suffer these deprivations and become better, more
democratic peoples. In my reading of history, a democratic nation
has never been a hungry, suffering nation. Democracy seems to me
to have been positively correlated with comfort. I do not think
I am the only person who has read history, and so I wonder about
the diverse agendas that are destroying my country in the name of
democracy and human rights. There may as well be other factors at
play which are destroying Zimbabwe, such as avarice, corruption
and lack of accountability, but I do not think we must study all
the factors and their impacts if we truly desire a solution, and
not be selective about which truths we will face and which we will
not.
RP: Over 15 African
countries have ratified the Protocol on the Rights of the African
Woman, which stipulates a series of recommendations for women’s
rights on the continent to be adopted by the African Union. Are
you familiar with this Protocol? If not, what recommendations would
you include?
TD: Over the years there
have been so many protocols and statements on human rights and women’s
rights that I have lost track. I have not seen that these do a great
deal to benefit the lives of women and the people close to women
on the ground, beyond the NGOs and others involved in the drafting,
funding, and implementation. Again, that is not to say that these
actions have achieved zero impact, but I do not think that isolating
women’s rights without addressing the larger picture of Africa and
globalization will yield positive results. At the end of the day,
African women and men have to live together in peace and harmony.
This will not be achieved by looking only at the needs of one group.
RP: What would you say
are some of the major contributions women in the developing world
have contributed? What have African women contributed?
TD: I think African
women who have made their mark in the world have shown what degrees
of human strength are possible. They have shown us how to persevere,
never give up, and simply never ever take NO for an answer, if the
answer should be YES.
RP: Perhaps African
American women writers such as bell hooks, Angela Davis, Toni Morrison,
and Zora Neale Hurston are your counterparts in terms of writing
from a particular ethnic and gender lens. Have these women at all
influenced your work?
TD: Absolutely! All
of them have. I remember being so impressed by Angela Davis’ Afro
and the fact that she had been in jail! I thought, how can a woman
in America have to go to jail? Then I read and found out why. It
was good to realize that what I was beginning to notice going on
around me was not my own little secret shame because I was not good
enough at a personal level. I love bell hooks for writing about
the rage that makes you want to kill, but then having to not kill
and do something else instead that is life affirming, and, I imagine,
infinitely more rewarding even if it seems at first to be infinitely
more difficult than murder! Zora Neale Hurston simply stunned me
by saying out, just like that, what she had to say. As for Toni
Morrison, she is my ultimate literary role model. I remember telling
my publisher how at first I was perplexed that each of Morrison’s
novels were in a different voice. As a reader who had enjoyed one
of her works, I craved a continuation in the next one. But then
as I continued to read, I found that that was one of the marks of
genius.
RP: In tandem with African
women writers such as Buchi Emecheta, Ama Atta Aidoo, and Mariama
Ba, you’ve managed to reconstruct the experiences of African women
through the literary medium. What do you see as the role of African
women writers today?
TD: Well, I write to
tell a story. I think people like stories because they serve such
a variety of purposes ranging from entertainment to information,
to role modeling to catharsis.
RP: What is your latest
novel about? How has publishing abroad been a challenge and a boon
simultaneously?
TD: "The Book of
Not" continues the story of Tambudzai Siguake, the narrator
of "Nervous Conditions," and her quest towards becoming
herself. This journey almost comes to a premature end at the Catholic
Convent School she attends in Rhodesia [now Zimbabwe]. I like to
think, however, that she survives. Publishing abroad is useful because
you reach a wider audience. Books published first in Zimbabwe are
not automatically picked up by international publishers. I am still
looking for a Zimbabwean publisher, though. I love touching the
people around me, and stirring them to something.
RP: What would you say
are your greatest accomplishments?
TD: Staying alive, healthy
and happy. Loving my family and finding compassion.
*The title of "Nervous Conditions"
is borrowed from Jean-Paul Sartre’s introduction to Franz Fanon’s
"Wretched of the Earth." The ‘nervous condition’ of the
native is, according to Sartre, a function of mutually reinforcing
attitudes between colonizer and colonized that condemn the colonized
to what amounts to a psychological disorder.
*This article first appeared in The
Washington Informer http://www.washingtoninformer.com
and is reproduced here with permission. Robtel Neajai Pailey is
the Washington Informer Assistant Editor.
Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.
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