Award-winning Zimbabwean novelist and filmmaker Tsitsi Dangarembga will next Thursday (August 29) launch her translated books — Hakuna Zvakadaro and Kusagadzikana — at the French cultural centre, Alliance Francaise, in Harare.
The books — Nervous Conditions (Hakuna Zvakadaro) and Book of Not (Kusagadzikana) — were translated from English to Shona by academic Ignatius Mabasa and Tanaka Chidora respectively.
The translated books are her second and third of five. The other three are She No Longer Weeps (a play, 1987), This Mournable Body (2018) and Black and Female (essays, 2022).
She couldn’t hide her delight: “I am delighted to have two of my books translated into ChiShona. It means that more of the primary audience for whom the book was intended will be able to read and enjoy it.
“It has always been my wish to have more people in Zimbabwe access my books. Many years ago, Ignatius Mabasa came to me to say he was passionate about translating Nervous Conditions. He even began without payment.
“There was no money for this project until recently when Dimitrije Unkovski, who is the CEO at House of Books, indicated he was interested in the project. Dimitrije then proposed translating the two books.”
She said she would love to also have the other books translated resources permitting.
“Fundraising is so difficult as to be impossible. I am not in a position to take on another task that requires fundraising and a huge time investment (at the moment).”
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Nervous Conditions, was published in the UK, and was the first book published by a black woman from Zimbabwe in English. It was one of the BBC’s top 100 books that changed the world in 2018. It won the Commonwealth Writers Prize in 1989.
In 2006, she published A Book of Not, which is a sequel to Nervous Conditions.
Her third novel, This Mournable, made the 2022 Booker Prize shortlist.
The Booker Prize is the United Kingdom’s most prestigious literary award and is open to any novel in English by an author of any nationality.
Nervous Conditions and This Mournable Body made it to bestsellers list in Germany.
The books were translated into German and published in 2019. Nervous Conditions was translated to Ausbrechen and This Mournable Body to Ueberleben.
Her two other books, The Book of Not and Black and Female, were also translated into German.
She also became the first black woman to be awarded the prestigious Peace Prize of the German Book Trade.
She has won numerous awards, including the PEN Award for Freedom of Expression in 2021.
In 2022, she was named among the 25 Most Influential Women of 2022 by Financial Times — a leading British newspaper on current business and economic affairs.
In 2020, she was arrested by police for participating in peaceful protests against corrupt governance.
Her arrest was met with widespread criticism on the government.
She also founded the production house, Nyerai Films, and IIFF, as well as the Institute of Creative Arts for Progress in Africa where she works as director. — Staff Writer.
