Ndima Ndima - by Tsitsi Mapepa (Paperback)

About the Book

Includes glossary of African words used in the text and questions for discussion.

Book Synopsis

From debut Zimbabwean writer Tsitsi Mapepa comes the saga of the four Taha sisters, and the indomitable matriarch who carried her daughters-and her community--through times of drought and violence in their Harare neighborhood.

From the red soil of her garden in Southgate 1, a crowded suburb of Harare, Nyeredzi watches the world. She knows not to venture beyond the grasses that fence them off from the bush, where the city's violent criminals and young lovers claim the night. But on this red soil, she is sovereign. It is here where she learns how to kill snakes, how to fight off a man, and how to take what she is due. It is here where Nyeredzi and her three older sisters are raised, and where they will each find a different destiny.

Decades prior, a young woman abandons a position of great power to seek justice in the second Chimurenga War, only to return to find her world in shambles. So Zuva Mutongi sets off to build a world of her own, raising four daughters--Nyeredzi, Hannah, Abigail, and Ruth--and defending them from the evils beyond their small Harare home. But when a letter from her long-estranged brother calls her back to a past life, Zuva must reconcile with her duty and heal the broken community she left behind.

Tsitsi Mapepa's vibrant debut is the history of a new Zimbabwe, with resilient women and men who raised a nation from its ashes. It is the chronicle of an L-shaped house, long awaited and much beloved, and the guests, welcome and unwelcome, who cross its threshold. It is the coming-of-age of four sisters, who will discover the secrets of womanhood on the volatile streets of Harare. But above all, it is a love song to one woman--a soldier, healer, chief, and mother--whose fierce devotion to her people is a testament to the bonds of blood that bind us all.

Review Quotes

"Creating a world that feels both incredibly real and legendary, Mapepa beautifully explores the formation of Zimbabwe as an independent state in a way reminiscent of Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi's Kintu. A truly insightful debut from an exciting new Zimbabwean author with a talent for writing the human experience." - Booklist

"In telling stories of the bonds between mothers and daughters, from the playful to the profound, Mapepa delivers a novel with profound emotional resonance." - Electric Literature, "The 15 Must-Read Small Press Books of Fall"

"Like her literary Zimbabwean compatriots NoViolet Bulawayo and Tsitsi Dangarembga, both authors of Booker Prize shortlisted titles, Mapepa gifts savvy international readers with illuminated windows into their mutual native country. Beyond the novel's culturally and historically specific details, Mapepa's characters inspire empathy as strong mothers, daughters, sisters, and women in a borderless, (still) male-dominated world." - Shelf Awareness, "The Best Books This Week, December 4, 2023"

"Mapepa's Ndima Ndima is a deeply-woven and emotional coming-of-age tale about owning your power and strength as a young woman, in the midst of utter surrounding chaos." - Books of Brilliance, "7 New Indie Titles to Read This Fall and Winter""With its push and pull between tradition and modernity, male and female, peace and unrest, this collection would be an excellent choice for book groups or a world literature class. [...] So many schools read the classic Things Fall Apart by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe; this novel with its focus on female protagonists could be an excellent pairing with that novel." - Youth Services Book Review, Starred Review

"In her striking debut, Tsitsi Mapepa presents suburban Harare, Zimbabwe, and its residents in fresh and radiant prose. [...] At once searing and elegant, Mapepa takes on violence and peace, strength and compassion, pain and beauty in one unforgettable book. " - Ms. Magazine

"[Mapepa] uses a writing style that is spare and to the point. [...] The stories, told chronologically, hang together well, with a novelistic arc characteristic of the best novels-in-stories. [...] It is a testament to Mapepa's writing that, as she intended, readers feel pulled into the women's woes, a constant reminder that, according to [main character] Zuva, 'We are all related through humanity.'" - Washington Independent Review of Books,

About the Author

Tsitsi Mapepa is a writer known for her poetry, short stories, and novels. She studied at Manukau Institute of Technology and earned a Master's in Creative Writing from the University of Auckland. Her debut novel is titled Ndima Ndima.