An internationally-celebrated filmmaker, writer and activist whose work tells the experiences of African women was granted the prestigious Alice and Clifford Spendlove Prize in Social Justice, Diplomacy and Tolerance during a Wednesday ceremony.
Tsitsi Dangarembga, who is from Zimbabwe, is best known for her hit 1988 debut novel, “Nervous Condition,” according to a university news release.
She is also known as a prominent activist who at times has been arrested and faced persecution for calling out injustices in Zimbabwe.
As the 16th winner of the Spendlove Prize, Dangarembga now joins a group of honorees that includes former President Jimmy Carter, legendary attorney Charles Ogletree Jr., Pulitzer Prize winning poet Peter Balakian and Justice Cruz Reynoso, among others.
Around 150 people attended the award ceremony at the university’s Dr. Vikram and Priya Lakireddy Grand Ballroom.
Her book “Nervous Condition” is also known because it won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and is celebrated for its incisive portrayal of colonialism, gender and identity in postcolonial Africa, the release said.
Dangarembga said Wednesday she works to bring about “a world of increased social justice and tolerance, which extends not only to ourselves as human beings, but also to our environment and all creation.”
In her additional work as an artist and activist, she founded the International Images Film Festival for Women in Zimbabwe, along with the Institute of Creative Arts for Progress in Africa (ICAPA), which aims to develop filmmakers who can boost Africa’s presence in the global film economy.
Dangarembga also was active during the crisis in her native Zimbabwe in 2008, when the nation’s then-President President Robert Mugabe and his supporters were violently attacking political opponents, and anyone perceived as such.
Through ICAPA, Dangarembga created “Winning the Peace,” a project that called for people to share their exposure to violence.
“We received over 100 stories written in various of Zimbabwe’s official languages, most of them written by women,” she said. The stories were transformed into plays performed across the nation, the release said.
Dangarembga said ICAPA training programs led, starting in 2019, to 13 short documentaries on the lives of Zimbabwean women, each filmed by all-women crews. The initiative, called “Picture My Life,” was inspired by the #MeToo movement, Dangarembga said.
In 2020, Dangarembga was arrested and convicted on charges of inciting violence after she marched peacefully in Zimbabwe’s capital of Harare while holding a placard that called for political reforms. Her six-month suspended sentence was overturned by Harare’s high court in 2023.
“The Spendlove awardees serve as powerful role models, inspiring our students, staff and faculty, as well as the citizens of the Central Valley,” said Leo Arriola, UC Merced’s dean of the School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts.