so, there you have tambu, your main character...t's actually a trilogy of books which you've written over 30 years, this is the third one. and she fights prejudice in all sorts of ways — against race, you know, gender discrimination, all the rest of it. but in this book, you've brought tambu's story up to zimbabwe in the 1990s, when robert mugabe, of course, was in power. how do you see that period in zimbabwean history? that period in zimbabwe's history, when robert mugabe was in power, was a history of increasing disillusionment, increasing lack and loss of hope, increasing distress. we began very well, we thought, in 1980, and for the first decade or so up until 1990 — but then, things began to disintegrate. up until now, when we have a situation where daily life is almost impossible for most of the citizens in the country. just getting enough food to eat, being able to afford to buy food, having power in your home, clean water — all of these things are not anything that we can take for granted anymore. so, it's really been a gre

your latest book, this mournable body, centres on a female character, tambu.s it a personal story, or is it a history of modern zimbabwe? zeinab, i find that my work generally intersects between the personal and the national and the historical, because the national and the historical have a lot to do in determining what the person can do, what a character can do — whether this is in real life or in a novel. i do want my work to be realistic — or at least, i have done up until now — because i have wanted people in zimbabwe and on the continent to engage from a perspective of recognition, to be able to say, "yes, this is us". and i also wanted to present characters like the people i meet in everyday life to the rest of the world. so, there you have tambu, your main character — it's actually a trilogy of books which you've written over 30 years, this is the third one, and she fights prejudice in all sorts of ways — against race, you know, gender discrimination, all the rest of it. but in this book, you've brought tambu's story up to zimbabwe in the 1990s, when ro