Zimbabwean writer and filmmaker Tsitsi Dangarembga received the prestigious German prize in honor of her work in Frankfurt last Sunday the 24th of October 2021.

Dangarembga is the first Black woman to win the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, which is endowed with 25,000 euros ($29,100) and has been awarded since 1950. In addition to the Peace Prize, Dangarembga has also been awarded the PEN Pinter Prize and the PEN International Award for Freedom of Expression this year.

Tsitsi Dangarembga is a Zimbabwean novelist, playwright, and filmmaker. Her debut novel, Nervous Conditions, which was the first to be published in English by a Black woman from Zimbabwe, was named by the BBC in 2018 as one of the top 100 books that have shaped the world.

“The 62-year-old managed to “bring a society so close to us that we cannot fully understand it, but we can relate it to ourselves, to ourselves and our own inadequacies,”

Karin Schmidt-Friderichs, the head of the German Book Trade Association Schmidt-Friderichs, in the Paulskirche in Frankfurt.

“Dangarembga brought a differentiated image of Africa into the world, said Obama. Her artistic drive is the desire to change things for the better.”

Auma Obama, half-sister of the former US President Barack Obama

Tsitsi Dangarembga has been fighting for peace, freedom, democracy and women’s rights in Zimbabwe for 30 years. 

“I wanted to emphasize that we are more than our mind and our feelings. We are also bodies, and I wanted to show that our experiences are manifested in our bodies. That is the case with Tambudzai. Trauma research, in many parts of the world , shows trauma can be genetically passed on to children. “

Tsitsi Dangarembga