Zimbabwe's Wonderful Female Writers

Zimbabwe’s rich cultural heritage has been perfectly captured by the country’s literary scene. Through the dark days of colonization to the post-independence struggles with apartheid, war, poverty, AIDS and Dictatorship, a new generation of Zimbabwe’s Wonderful Female Writers has blossomed.

Zimbabwe’s Wonderful Female Writers

In 1983, while still a student, Tsitsi Dangarembga discovered Alice Walker’s novel The Color Purple. She had just completed a draft of the novel that would later become Nervous Conditions. It is a semi-autobiographical coming of age story about a young woman in modern Africa. The story takes place in Rhodesia in the late 1960s and early 1970s and centers around Tambu and Nyasha, female cousins who, until their early teens, lead very different lives.

However there was no path for her to publish it in Zimbabwe so she decided to mail her manuscript to the publisher of The Color Purple, a small London company called The Women’s Press.

Four years later while visiting London, Dangarembga went to the office of the The Women’s Press to find out what happened to her book. Finally she managed to finally arrange a deal to get Nervous Conditions published.

In 1989 it was released in the US with a foreword, fittingly, by Alice Walker. A new generation of Zimbabwean, African, and Black women grew up citing it as a formative influence.

From this, the next generation of female Zimbabwean authors blossomed and have continued confronting the legacy of postcolonialism through fiction – in a nation where speaking frankly puts you at risk of political persecution. However this hasn’t stopped a number of female authors producing incredible work.

Below we’ve select five of the Best Books from female Zimbabwean authors, but there are many more wonderful books to discover. Sue Nyathi’s The Polygamist, The Stone Virgins by Yvonne Vera, Nozipo J. Maraire’s Zenzele: A Letter for My Daughter and An Elegy for Easterly by Petina Gappah are also highly recommended.

5 Best Books by Female Zimbabwean Writers

We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo

NoViolet Bulawayo’s debut novel We Need New Names depicts social conflict, government abuse, linguistic imposition, displacement and migration through the sceptical voice of ten-year-old Darling, first in a Zimbabwean slum and then in the USA. Bulawayo’s keen powers of observation and social commentary, and her refreshing sense of humor , deal with themes of loss, identity, struggle, sacrifice, and violence.

We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo — Get a Copy

Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga

Nervous Conditions, written in 1989, is a semi-autobiographical coming of age story about a young woman in modern Africa. The story takes place in Rhodesia in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The story centers around Tambu and Nyasha, female cousins who, until their early teens, lead very different lives.

Tambu was raised on her family’s farm in Umtali where she was responsible for household chores, gardening, and caring for her younger siblings. Tambu’s dreams of getting an education are only fulfilled when her brother dies and she becomes next in line for school since she has no other brothers.

Nervous ConditionsTsitsi Dangarembga — Get a Copy

The Boy Next Door by Irene Sabatini

In Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, there is a tragedy in the house next door to Lindiwe Bishop — her neighbor has been burned alive. The victim’s stepson, Ian McKenzie, is the prime suspect but is soon released. Lindiwe can’t hide her fascination with this young, boisterous and mysterious white man, and they soon forge an unlikely closeness even as the country starts to deteriorate.

The Boy Next Door is a moving and powerful debut about two people finding themselves and each other in a time of national upheaval.

The Boy Next Door by Irene Sabatini — Get a Copy

House of Stone by Novuyo Rosa Tshuma

Amid the turmoil of modern Zimbabwe, Abednego and Agnes Mlambo’s teenage son has gone missing. Zamani, their enigmatic lodger, seems to be their only hope for finding him. As he weaves himself closer into the fabric of the grieving community, it’s almost like Zamani is part of the family.…

Written with dark humor, wit, and seduction, House of Stone is a sweeping epic that spans the fall of Rhodesia through Zimbabwe’s turbulent beginnings, exploring the persistence of the oppressed in a nation seeking an identity.

House of Stone by Novuyo Rosa Tshuma — Get a Copy

The Theory of Flight by Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu

As Imogen Zula Nyoni, aka Genie, lies in a coma at Mater Dei Hospital after having suffered through a long illness, her family and friends struggle to come to terms with her impending death.

With the lightest of touches, and with an overlay of magical-realist beauty, this novel sketches, through the lives of a few families and the fate of a single patch of ground, decades of national history (a country in Southern Africa that is never named) – from colonial occupation through the freedom struggle, to the devastation wrought by the sojas, the HIV virus, and The Man Himself. At turns mysterious and magical, but always honest, The Theory of Flight explores the many ways we lose those we love before they die.