Photo from Rhodes University Facebook page

Acclaimed Zimbabwean novelist, filmmaker, and cultural activist Tsitsi Dangarembga has received an honorary Doctorate of Letters from Rhodes University!

This prestigious recognition celebrates Dangarembga’s many contributions to African literature, cinema, and advocacy for social justice, gender equality, and freedom of expression. As a fearless storyteller and an advocate for African narratives, her influence extends across literary, cinematic, and academic spheres.

Born in Mutoko, Zimbabwe, Dangarembga pursued her early education in Zimbabwe before beginning pre-clinical medical studies at Cambridge University. She ultimately earned a degree in Psychology from the University of Zimbabwe and later studied directing at the German Film and Television Academy Berlin, where she refined her skills in filmmaking. A leader in creative industries, Dangarembga has held numerous academic and leadership positions, including fellowships at Harvard University’s Radcliffe Institute, the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study, and the Rockefeller Bellagio Centre. She was also the International Chair in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia (2021-22). Tsitsi Dangarembga’s literary journey began with her groundbreaking debut novel, Nervous Conditions (1988), the first novel in English published by a Black Zimbabwean woman. The book won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize (Africa Region, 1989) and was followed by The Book of Not (2006) and This Mournable Body (2018), which was shortlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize. Her contributions have earned her numerous accolades, including the Alice and Clifford Spendlove Prize in Social Justice, Diplomacy, and Tolerance (2024), The Pen Catalan Free Voice Award (2023) and The German Peace Prize (2021).

Beyond literature and film, Dangarembga has been a fierce advocate for social justice, gender equality, and artistic freedom. In 2009, she founded the Institute of Creative Arts for Progress in Africa (ICAPA) Trust, an NGO dedicated to empowering African creatives through training, funding, and showcasing women’s stories. She has also actively engaged in freedom of expression movements, facing legal challenges for her activism in Zimbabwe.

In her speech accepting the honorary doctorate from Rhodes University, Dangarembga reflected on the challenges she faced and reflected on the way forwards in a world increasingly threatened once again by forces of fascism. Here are some quotes from her inspiring speech:

Patriarchy stood against my narrative making.

Capital stood against my work also. What was I to do? I could not stop.

I also come from a background where I could see how girls are socialized into not having expectations of themselves to be something in society. And so, I thought that I could contribute by telling stories to show young girls that, in fact, they had the right to become full citizens, to self-actualize, and to be members of the community,

Not stopping is a fundamental part of my story today. I dream about where we might go and what we might achieve. Even as forces of greed and fascism and racism form, if those who have the good progress of all humankind and all creation in mind, together with unity of purpose, we can decide, no, we are not stopping.

Congratulations to Tsitsi Dangarembga on this long deserved honor.