Tsitsi Dangarembga Reminiscences Joining Opposition MDC

Award-winning Zimbabwean novelist and filmmaker, Tsitsi Dangarembga has spoken about her stint with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party then led by Morgan Tsvangirai.

Speaking to The Guardian, Dangarembga said she felt stifled by organisational protocol. She said:

I was shocked at the rigidity of hierarchical structures, and that made any thinking outside the box extremely difficult. It seemed very difficult to bring ideas to bear and I just felt more able to engage with ideas if one is not boxed in a political formation. That was my experience of it.

I felt I would probably be more able to contribute if I was not in an organisation where I had to toe a discursive line.

She says her activism has led to prosecution as she faces the full force of vicious social media trolling. She added:

On social media there is solidarity but there are also attacks, often orchestrated. The president of the country encouraged supporters to get on social media and (muvarakashe) ‘push back’, which is a mild interpretation of the word he used, against people who do not follow the state narrative.

But, she said, her past experience – including isolation and racism while at Cambridge University – has been a preparation of sorts.

She believes Zimbabweans are the way they are mainly because of their colonial experience.

Pindula News