Tsitsi Dangarembga
Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga is a coming of age story of Tambudzai, a young girl from a rural village in Zimbabwe. The narrative unfolds in her voice as she witnesses social injustices and the conflicts of living in a postcolonial environment.
Tambudzai (Tambu) is a precocious young girl who wants more from life than the one circumscribed for the women in her culture. She resents her brother’s entitlement to an education while hers is initially denied because she is female. With her brother’s unexpected death, the educational opportunities for Tambu are flung wide open. She attends school, succeeding beyond expectation. The novel ends with her obtaining a scholarship to a prestigious Catholic high school. Tambu’s awakening to the injustices perpetrated on women is gradual. It comes about as a result of observing the lives of four women—her mother, her uncle’s wife, her aunt, and her young cousin.
Tambu’s mother has internalized her oppression and tries to transmit it to her daughter. She is adamantly opposed to Tambu pursuing her education. Tambu resents the opposition and is initially convinced her mother only wants her to conform to restrictive societal expectations. She later recognizes her mother may have been trying to protect her from disappointment. She acknowledges the wisdom in her mother’s words—a western education will alienate a person from family and culture.
Maiguru is married to Tambu’s uncle, Babamukuru, the patriarch of the family. Maiguru is an educated woman with a Master’s degree, an accomplishment so ignored by her community that Tambu does not learn of it until late in the novel. Maiguru has no opportunity to use her education and is denied a voice. She flutters and fusses over her husband, catering to his every need, soothing his temper to maintain peace in the family, and obeying his every whim while tolerating his family’s snide remarks aimed at putting her down. When her frustration reaches its limit, she temporarily walks out on her husband.
Lucia, Tambu’s aunt, is an unmarried woman who has had multiple sex partners. Because she is single, she is viewed with suspicion by women in the community. But unlike her married counterparts whose role is to be subservient to their husbands, the unattached Lucia has the freedom to behave as she pleases. Her voice is loud and unabashed. She is intelligent and is skilled at manipulating men, including Babamukuru, to get what she wants.
Nyasha, Tambu’s cousin and the daughter of Maiguru and Babamukuru, experiences an identity crisis. Having lived for a while in England with her parents, she has adopted western ways and attitudes. She rebels against the gender stratification and gender oppression she encounters within her family circle. Her frustration with the cultural restrictions place on women eventually leads to her eating disorder and nervous breakdown.
Dangarembga skillfully portrays the nervous conditions of each of these women to illustrate how the interlocking circles of oppression of race, gender, and class are manifested and internalized in their lives. On the one hand, obtaining a western education opens possibilities otherwise denied; on the other hand, a western education leads to alienation from one’s own culture. Factor in systemic racism and gender discrimination and the situation becomes more complex.
Dangarembga doesn’t provide any answers or easy solutions. Her novel illustrates the complexity of the problems through the voice of a sensitive, intelligent, and impressionable young girl who struggles with systemic racism, gender stratification, exploitation, and oppression. Although Tambu may be unaware of it, her struggle is universal in nature.
Highly recommended.