ABSTRACT: The essay employs Simone de Beauvoir's theories on aging and ageism to explore Tsitsi Dangarembga's This Mournable Body , the final installation of a trilogy that begins with Nervous Conditions (1988), and continues with The Book of Not (2006). In this final leg of her long journey, Dangarembga's protagonist, Tambudzai Sigauke, fights fiercely for her basic rights in a postcolonial Zimbabwe that deems her "ancient" in her forties. This environment, which is also racist and sexist, triggers Tambu's internalization of ageism—a form of self-hatred. Thus, in making competitors of young, Black women, whom she both envies and loathes, Tambu comes close to self-destruction. What saves her is the persistence and grit of her elderly and vibrant mother, from whom she's otherwise estranged.
Gugu Hlongwane (2025) studied this question.