SFAL: Why “Nervous Conditions” still shakes conscience

During her in-conversation session, titled “Nervous Conditions”, Dangarembga on Thursday said she has been left “utterly surprised and grateful that the coming-of-age story of a rural Zimbabwean girl is “still being talked about”. As pointed out by session moderator Toyin Akanni, the book was first published decades ago, in the United Kingdom in 1988.

Nervous Conditions went on to spawn the Tambudzai Trilogy comprising Nervous Conditions, The Book of Not (2006) and This Mournable Body (2018). The last one in the trilogy was shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2020. The series takes on from Nervous Conditions, in which Tambudzai, the main character, grapples with questions of race and gender during the colonial period of Rhodesia, which became independent Zimbabwe.

Her debut novel won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize in 1989 and was described by the BBC in 2018 as one of the world’s most influential books. Dangarembga, who received SFAL’s Sharjah Lifetime Achievement in Literature Award at SFAL 2026, said she had realised during her 20s that there were no stories deeply relatable to young women and girls in her country at the time. “So I started writing and, ultimately, here we are today,” she added.

Gender parity in focus, drawing inspiration for cultural change 

Nervous Conditions explores themes of adolescence, family, gender, cultural expectations, and female empowerment. When asked what she has found “true and consistent” since the days of the groundbreaking book, Dangarembga replied: “The one thing that I have found to be true and consistent in the different spaces that I have worked in, is the struggle that women still have to face to be regarded as citizens of this world on an equal footing with other citizens.”

The novelist, who in 2021 won both the International Pen’s Award for Freedom of Expression and English Pen’s Pen Pinter Prize, said these issues still make Nervous Conditions relatable today and continue to shape her work.

“Such dynamics have influenced everything I do, because I saw very early on that being someone who was from a background that did not wield any institutional power… the world was not going to pay any notice to me. I realised I had to set myself up to speak to the world.”

During the session, Dangarembga also revealed that she is “working on something that has a bigger scope and waiting for that voice to come back”, without elaborating.

Organised by Sharjah Book Authority under the theme “The African Way”, SFAL 2026 is being held from January 14 to 18 at University City Hall Square, Sharjah. Featuring thought-provoking discussions, immersive workshops, colourful folk performances and cuisines from various regions of Africa, the festival is strengthening cultural exchange between Africa and the Arab World.