In Panashe Chigumadzi’s debut novel, Sweet Medicine (2015. Johannesburg: BlackBird Books), the young black protagonist overcomes the drawbacks associated with her ‘Strong Rural Background’ by acquiring a mission-school education and a degree in Economics, leading to a job in Harare, Zimbabwe. However, as the country is in the throes of its 2008 economic crisis, Tsitsi’s education and employment fail to provide for her economic needs. This failure prompts her to compromise her Catholic values by using her charms to seduce an older, married man. When she fears his attention has strayed elsewhere, she turns to a traditional healer for charms to overcome her rival and ensure the devotion of her ‘blesser’ by means of pregnancy. Sweet Medicine dramatizes issues including opportunities offered in an urban context, conflicts between traditional and modern modes of behaviour, and somatic and emotional options open to women in a patriarchal, corrupt social system. This article first contextualizes the setting of the novel and provides a literary critical background. It then proceeds to analyse the text in terms of five characteristic features of Zimbabwean literature: representations of the city, social criticism, doubles, potent spiritual mediumship and creative spaces for women authors. I draw upon theories of postcolonial feminism, including Chikwenye Ogunyemi’s analysis of the power of black women as authors and characters in Juju Fission (2007. New York: Peter Lang). I explore possible readings of the novel as cautionary tale, an exercise in cynicism, or a call for equality and social justice, concluding that the most apposite interpretation of the text pays attention to the effects of the limitation of choice when suffering from poverty, particularly for women in urban settings.

中文翻译：

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魅力、祝福和妥协：Panashe Chigumadzi 的甜药中的黑人女性身体和非殖民化

在 Panashe Chigumadzi 的处女作《甜药》（2015 年。约翰内斯堡：黑鸟图书）中，这位年轻的黑人主人公通过获得教会学校教育和经济学学位克服了与她“深厚的农村背景”相关的缺点，并获得了一份工作津巴布韦哈拉雷。然而，由于该国正处于 2008 年经济危机的阵痛之中，Tsitsi 的教育和就业无法满足她的经济需求。这次失败促使她利用自己的魅力诱惑年长的已婚男人，从而损害了她的天主教价值观。当她担心他的注意力分散到别处时，她求助于传统的治疗师以获取魅力以克服她的对手并通过怀孕来确保她的“祝福者”的忠诚。Sweet Medicine 将问题戏剧化，包括在城市环境中提供的机会，传统和现代行为模式之间的冲突，以及在父权制、腐败的社会制度中向妇女开放的身体和情感选择。本文首先对小说的背景进行了语境化，并提供了文学批评背景。然后，它根据津巴布韦文学的五个特征来分析文本：城市表征、社会批评、双打、强大的精神媒介和女性作家的创作空间。我借鉴了后殖民女权主义的理论，包括 Chikwenye Ogunyemi 在 Juju Fission (2007. New York: Peter Lang) 中对黑人女性作为作者和人物的力量的分析。我探索可能的小说阅读方式，作为警示故事，玩世不恭的练习，或呼吁平等和社会正义，