Tsitsi Dangarembga is a Zimbabwean novelist, filmmaker, and feminist. Some of her major accomplishments include: publishing her first novel Nervous Conditions in 1988 to critical acclaim; co-writing the script for and co-directing her first feature film Everyone's Child in 1995; founding the International Images Film Festival for Women and directing it until 2011; and establishing the Institute of Creative Arts for Progress in Africa Trust in 2009 to develop artists and promote African stories. She has received numerous awards that recognize her contributions to literature, film, and the arts in Zimbabwe and beyond.

1. Tsitsi
Dangarembga
Milestones

1983 - First drama
THE LOST OF THE SOIL
performed at University of
Zimbabwe

1984 - 2nd drama,
SHE NO LONGER WEEPS
performed at University of
Zimbabwe

1985 - wins third place in a
Swedish International
Development Agency short
story competition
Southern Africa with her
short story THE LETTER

2.  1987 - SHE NO LONGER
WEEPS published by the
College Press in Harare;
it subsequently becomes a set
book for Zimbabwean
secondary school students until
today
 1988 - NERVOUS
CONDITIONS published to
critical acclaim; the novel goes
on to become a set book in
schools and universities world
wide
 1988 - writes story for NERIA,
one of Zimbabwe’s highest
grossing films of all time

3.  1989 - joins Capricorn
Video Unit as resource
person, researcher and
production assistant
 1989 - one of 21
candidates out of a pool
of 1200 to gain entry to
German Film and
Television Academy
Berlin DFFB
 1989 - co-writes script for
FLAME, feature film on
Zimbabwe liberation
struggle

4.  1989 - wins Commonwealth
Writers’ Prize Africa region
with NERVOUS
CONDITIONS
 1992 - founds Nyerai Films
with the aim of adapting
works of African fiction to
film
 1993 - 2000 several
documentaries made for
German television channels
Nyerai Films Weblink

5.  1995 - co-writes & co-directs EVERYONE’S CHILD,
her first full length feature
 1996 - graduates from DFFB with distinction

6.  1997 - teaches seminar “An
Introduction to African Film” at
Humboldt University, Berlin
 1998 - joins Women
Filmmakers of Zimbabwe, an
organisation formed to
produce African women’s films
 1998 - Grand jury member,
Southern African Film Festival,
Harare
Women Filmmakers of Zimbabwe Weblink

7.  1999 -Guest Lecturer,
Distinguished African Women
Series Rutgers University, New
Jersey
 2001 - Martin Luther King Fellow
lecturing in African film at
Massachusetts Institute of
Technology in the Department of
Modern Languages and
Literatures
 2002 - founds International
Images Film Festival for Women,
then the only women’s film
festival in sub-Saharan Africa, a
festival screening films with
women in lead roles and
exhibiting women's cultural
production, and directs it until
2011

8. 2004 - releases the ground-breaking
short film KARE KARE ZVAKO-
MOTHER'S DAY to festival success,
including Sundance, prizes at the
Zimbabwe International Film Festival
and winning The Golden Dhow at the
Zanzibar International Film Festival
2005 - produces PERETERA MANETA -
SPELL MY NAME short film, which went
on to win several prizes on the continent
PERETERA MANETA
Trailer
PERETERA MANETA
Trailer
KARE KARE ZVAKO-MOTHER’S DAY Trailer

9.  2006 - publishes
THE BOOK OF NOT,
her second novel
 2006 – Gender Equality in the
Media Award Southern Africa,
for documentary
GROWING STRONGER
 2007-
Arts Personality of the Year,
National Arts Merit Awards
 2007 - Jury member, Fadj
International Film Festival, Iran

10.  2007 - Flaherty Film
Seminar Fellow,
Poughkeepsie, USA
 2007 - Time of the
Writer Festival
Participant, Durban,
South Africa
 2008 - Zimbabwe
Institute of
Management Award -
National Contribution
Category
 2008 -
National Arts Merits
Award for Service to
the Arts

11.  2009 - founds the Institute of Creative Arts for Progress
in Africa (ICAPA) Trust
 2009 - Appointed mentor, Maisha Film Laboratory,
Nairobi
 2009 - full-length feature I WANT A WEDDING
DRESS, one of a handful of African films selected for
the Intern. Public Television Conference (INPUT),
Warsaw
I WANT A WEDDING DRESS Trailer

12.  2010- Master of Arts, Honorary Degree, Women's University
in Africa
 2010-2012 Board member, National Arts Council of
Zimbabwe
 2011- Guest Lecturer, Du Bois Institute, Harvard University
 2011- Steering Committee member, National Film Forum of
Zimbabwe

13.  2012- Grand jury member
Durban Int. Film Festival
 2012- Winner
Spar Mother of the Year,
Arts and Culture Division
 2013- Main Jury member
Luxor African Film Festival
 2013- Writer in Residence,
School of Writing Arts,
Northwestern University,
Chicago

14.  2014 - Launches
ICAPA Publishing
with short story collection
A FAMILY PORTRAIT
from the “Breaking the
Silence” project of
ICAPA Trust
 2015 - Grand jury
member, FESPACO
Burkina Faso
BREAKING THE SILENCE Weblink