Sweet Medicine

by Panashe Chigumadzi

Overview

Sweet Medicine takes place in Harare at the height of Zimbabwe’s economic woes in 2008. Tsitsi, a young woman, raised by her strict, devout Catholic mother, believes that hard work, prayer, and an education will ensure a prosperous and happy future. She does well at her mission boarding school and goes on to obtain a scholarship to attend university, but the change in the economic situation in Zimbabwe destroys the old system where hard work and a degree guaranteed a good life.

Out of university, Tsitsi finds herself in a position much lower than she had set her sights on, working as a clerk in the office of the local politician, Zvobgo. With a salary that barely provides her a means to survive, she finds herself increasingly compromising her Christian values to negotiate ways to get ahead.

Sweet Medicine is a thorough and evocative attempt at grappling with a variety of important issues in the postcolonial context: tradition and modernity; feminism and patriarchy; spiritual and political freedoms and responsibilities; poverty and desperation; and wealth and abundance.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781990253263
Publisher:	Rising Action Publishing Co.
Publication date:	03/15/2022
Pages:	226
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.52(d)

About the Author

Panashe Chigumadzi is a young and upcoming media executive passionate about creating new narratives that work to redefine and reaffirm African identity. She is the founder and editor of Vanguard magazine, a platform which aims to speak to the life of young Black women coming of age in post-apartheid South Africa. She has previously worked as a TV journalist for CNBC Africa, a columnist for Forbes Woman Africa, and a contributor to Forbes Africa. She has been invited to speak at a number of local and international events.