Keynote
A landmark collection of essays about writing, feminism, and colonialism by the author of This Mournable Body
Book Title
Black and Female
Subtitle
Essays
Cover Image
- “A compelling collection. . . . Black and Female . . . [yokes] the personal and political to demonstrate how the experience of race and gender depends not on overarching essentialism but on local histories that are written on the body.”—Ismail Muhammad, New York Times Book Review
Body
The first wound for all of us who are classified as “black” is empire.
In Black and Female, Tsitsi Dangarembga examines the legacy of imperialism on her own life and on every aspect of black embodied African life.
This paradigm-shifting essay collection weaves the personal and political in an illuminating exploration of race and gender. Dangarembga recounts a painful separation from her parents as a toddler, connecting this experience to the ruptures caused in Africa by human trafficking and enslavement. She argues that, after independence, the ruling party in Zimbabwe only performed inclusion for women while silencing the work of self-actualized feminists. She describes her struggles to realize her ambitions in theater, film, and literature, laying out the long path to the publication of her novels.
At once philosophical, intimate, and urgent, Black and Female is a powerful testimony of the pervasive and long-lasting effects of racism and patriarchy that provides an ultimately hopeful vision for change. Black feminists are “the status quo’s worst nightmare.” Dangarembga writes, “our conviction is deep, bolstered by a vivid imagination that reminds us that other realities are possible beyond the one that obtains.”
In Black and Female, Tsitsi Dangarembga examines the legacy of imperialism on her own life and on every aspect of black embodied African life.
This paradigm-shifting essay collection weaves the personal and political in an illuminating exploration of race and gender. Dangarembga recounts a painful separation from her parents as a toddler, connecting this experience to the ruptures caused in Africa by human trafficking and enslavement. She argues that, after independence, the ruling party in Zimbabwe only performed inclusion for women while silencing the work of self-actualized feminists. She describes her struggles to realize her ambitions in theater, film, and literature, laying out the long path to the publication of her novels.
At once philosophical, intimate, and urgent, Black and Female is a powerful testimony of the pervasive and long-lasting effects of racism and patriarchy that provides an ultimately hopeful vision for change. Black feminists are “the status quo’s worst nightmare.” Dangarembga writes, “our conviction is deep, bolstered by a vivid imagination that reminds us that other realities are possible beyond the one that obtains.”
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About the Author
Credit: Hannah Mentz
Praise
- “Dangarembga’s style is meticulous, an immersive realism full of a fluency of detail.”—Darryl Pinckney, The New York Review of Books
- “A groundbreaking essay collection on feminism in Black skin. . . . [Dangarembga urges] us to study the past if we intend to fix what ails us now—not just in her country but around the world.”—Wadzanai Mhute, Oprah Daily
- “Incisive, impassioned essays. . . . Dangarembga’s candid reflections and lyrical prose bring urgency to this thought-provoking argument for political and social equality. Readers won’t want to miss this.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review
- “A well-informed, biting analysis of the legacy of empire.”—Kirkus Reviews
