Panashe Chigumadzi

Panashe Chigumadzi is a Zimbabwean journalist, essayist and novelist.

Panashe Chigumadzi
Panashe Chigumadzi - TEDxSoweto 2014
Born
Zimbabwe
EducationHarvard University - doctoral student
Alma materUniversity of the Witwatersand
Notable work
These Bones Will Rise Again
Websitewww.panashechigumadzi.com

Career

Chigumadzi has published her writing in a variety of media. She is a columnist for The Guardian,[1] Die Zeit, The Washington Post, New York Review of Books[2][3] and Chimurenga.[4] She was a founder of VANGUARD, a magazine designed to give space to young, black South African women interested in how queer identities, pan-Africanism and Black Consciousness intersect.[5] At the start of her career, Chigumadzi worked as a reporter for CNBC Africa.[6]

Chigumadzi draws on the history of Zimbabwe in her work, by exploring national and personal histories and identities. Her 2017 narrative essay These Bones Will Rise Again drew on Shona perspectives to explore the concept of the 'Mothers of the Nation' and interrogating perceptions of Nehanda Charwe Nyakasikana in Zimbabwe.[7]

While studying and writing the legacies of Zimbabwe's struggle for independence, Chigumadzi also writes about modern identities for southern Africans. She has written on the complexities of identity dismantling the notion of a colourblind, post-Apartheid South Africa, through a reclamation of the term "coconut".[8] She is outspoken about the need for decolonisation at national and at personal levels.[9] Her 2019 essay "Why I'm No Longer Talking to Nigerians About Race" discussed her experience at the Aké Arts and Book Festival on a panel discussing whether Black Lives Matter has relevance in Africa. Chigumadzi argued that, yes, in a continent with such different experiences of racialisation under colonialism, it did.[10]

In 2015, Chigumadzi was Programme Curator of the first Abantu Book Festival.[11] In addition to her writing on literature and literary criticism, she regularly appears on BBC World Service.[12] She is also a contributor to the 2019 anthology New Daughters of Africa, edited by Margaret Busby.[13]

Books
  • These Bones Will Rise Again (Indigo Books, 2017) – a mixture of memoir and historical essay exploring nation-building in Zimbabwe.[14]
  • Sweet Medicine (Blackbird Books, 2015) – a novel exploring the 2008 economic crisis in Zimbabwe.[15]
  • Beautiful Hair for Landless People (forthcoming)[16]

Awards

Reception

Chigumadzi's work has been studied widely, particularly within post-colonial studies. Her writing on the use of charms in Sweet Medicine led to further studies on healthcare and traditional practices in Zimbabwe.[19] Her focus on strong female characters living in economic precarity has been explored in terms of their religious beliefs and the reflection they may give to contemporary life.[20]

Education

Chigumadzi was born in Zimbabwe and grew up in South Africa. She studied at University of the Witwatersrand; while there she was part of the "Transform Wits Movement", which called for significant changes to southern Africa's universities.[21] As part of her doctoral study at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University,[22] she has written about the Rhodes Must Fall protests she witnessed at University of the Witwatersrand.[23]

References
  1. Chigumadzi, Panashe (2018-07-29). "Panashe Chigumadzi picks the best books about Zimbabwe". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2019-12-02.
  2. Chigumadzi, Panashe (2017-11-09). "Soap and South Africa's 'Fatal Intimacy'". The New York Review of Books. Retrieved 2019-12-03.
  3. "Panashe Chigumadzi". The New York Review of Books. Retrieved 2020-04-01.
  4. "Panashe Chigumadzi". @GI_weltweit. Retrieved 2019-12-02.
  5. "VANGUARD". Archived from the original on 31 May 2014. Retrieved 1 April 2020.
  6. A new self-identity for Africans | Panashe Chigumadzi | TEDxJohannesburg, retrieved 2019-12-02
  7. "Novuyo Rosa Tshuma and Panashe Chigumadzi in conversation—Meditations on the traumas and triumphs of Zimbabwe's histories". The Johannesburg Review of Books. 2018-08-06. Retrieved 2019-12-02.
  8. Chigumadzi, Panashe (2015-08-24). "Why I call myself a 'coconut' to claim my place in post-apartheid South Africa". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2019-12-02.
  9. "'Unholy Trinity' and 'Transformation' in Post-1994 South Africa: Refocusing 'Transformation' in Higher Education for Social and Economic Empowerment : Centre for African Studies (LUCAS)". lucas.leeds.ac.uk. Retrieved 2019-12-02.
  10. "Why I'm no longer talking to Nigerians about race". africasacountry.com. Retrieved 2019-12-03.
  11. "Everything you need to know about the Abantu Book Festival". Sunday Times Books LIVE @ Sunday Times Books LIVE. Retrieved 2019-12-02.
  12. "BBC World Service - The Cultural Frontline, African writers now: Panashe Chigumadzi and Chigozie Obioma". BBC. Retrieved 2019-12-03.
  13. Magwood, Michele (2019-07-05), "'New Daughters of Africa' Is a Powerful Collection of Writing by Women from the Continent", Wanted.
  14. "These Bones Will Rise Again". The Indigo Press. Retrieved 2019-12-02.
  15. "AfriPop! - What's New and Whats Next in Global African Culture". AfriPop! - What's New and Whats Next in Global African Culture. 2015-10-19. Retrieved 2019-12-02.
  16. "CHIGUMADZI, Panashe | The International Writing Program". iwp.uiowa.edu. Retrieved 2019-12-02.
  17. "Remembering K Sello Duiker, Great Writer of South Africa's Post-Apartheid Generation, Who Would Have Been 45 This Month". Brittle Paper. 2019-04-19. Retrieved 2019-11-30.
  18. Dzonzi, Thembisile (2015-08-14). "A racy topic for Ruth First". Wits Vuvuzela. Retrieved 2019-12-02.
  19. Stobie, Cheryl (2018-07-03). "Charms, Blessings and Compromises: Black Women's Bodies and Decolonization in Panashe Chigumadzi's Sweet Medicine". English Academy Review. 35 (2): 37–53. doi:10.1080/10131752.2018.1523983. ISSN 1013-1752.
  20. Ndlovu, Isaac (2016-07-02). "Politically induced economic precarity, syncretism and female representations in Chigumadzi's Sweet Medicine". Agenda. 30 (3): 96–103. doi:10.1080/10130950.2016.1251227. ISSN 1013-0950.
  21. Pilane, Pontsho (2015-04-13). "Transform Wits: lower tuition fees, change of curriculum and better treatment of workers". The Daily Vox. Retrieved 2019-12-02.
  22. "Symposium: Writing Beyond "Mugabe's Zimbabwe"". africa.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2019-12-03.
  23. Panashe Chigumadzi (2016). "Small Deaths". Transition (121): 148–163. doi:10.2979/transition.121.1.26. JSTOR 10.2979/transition.121.1.26.
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