German book trade
Author Dangarembga receives peace prize
Author Tsitsi Dangarembga from Zimbabwe receives the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade in the Paulskirche in Frankfurt. Photo: Thomas Lohnes / epd-Pool / dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
In her trilogy, Dangarembga describes the struggle for the right to a decent life as a woman in Zimbabwe. Now the award winner has been honored as “a widely audible voice of Africa”.
Tsitsi Dangarembga, author and filmmaker from Zimbabwe, has received the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade.
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 shortcomings,” said the head of the German Book Trade Association , Karin Schmidt-Friderichs. Dangarembga is “a widely audible voice from Africa in contemporary literature.”
The Kenyan Germanist and sociologist Auma Obama gave the laudatory speech in the Paulskirche. “You are not ordinary, an ordinary life was not an option for you,” she said of her friend. And: “You are one of the most successful and important voices on the African continent and hopefully soon with the award worldwide.”
Dangarembga published her acclaimed debut novel “Nervous Conditions” in 1988 as the first part of an autobiographical trilogy. Using the example of an adolescent woman, the three books describe the struggle for the right to a decent life and female self-determination in Zimbabwe.
From 1989 to 1996 Dangarembga studied film directing in Berlin and later returned to Zimbabwe with her German husband. In her films she addresses problems that arise from the clash of tradition and modernity. The peace prize is endowed with 25,000 euros.