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| Nervous Conditions Summary, Major Themes, Analysis, Literary Techniques |
Tsitsi Dangarembga's Nervous Conditions Summary, Major Themes, Analysis, Literary Techniques, Modal Answer
This Newsletter outlines the socio-economic and political aspects of Zimbabwe and provides an overview of the writer Tsitsi Dangarembga. The focus is on the theme of education, gender inequality and marginalization of women as represented in her debut novel Nervous Conditions (1988).
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The Newsletter also examines the psychological impact of colonialism – what Jean-Paul Sartre termed the "nervous condition" of the native – and how Dangarembga interweaves race, class and gender to present a complex critique of both colonial domination and patriarchal authority.
OVERVIEW OF ZIMBABWE
Zimbabwe was earlier called Rhodesia and it gained independence from the United Kingdom after 41 years in 1964 and became Zimbabwe under black majority rule. It first came into contact with Europeans at the end of the 15th century. In the 1830s, the Ndebele people migrated from South Africa. The indigenous Shona people were conquered by the Ndebele.
Later in the 19th century the missionaries started dominating the area. This encroachment by colonizers impacted the cultural traditions. The predominant language in Zimbabwe is Shona. Understanding this historical backdrop is essential for reading Nervous Conditions, which is set in pre-independence Southern Rhodesia during the 1960s and 1970s – a period of civil war and missionary influence.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR – TSITSI DANGAREMBGA
Early Life
Tsitsi Dangarembga is a Zimbabwean writer and filmmaker. She was born in Mutoko in colonial Rhodesia. As she spent her early childhood in England, she lost connection with her Shona language and English became her first language. In 1965 she returned to Rhodesia, where she entered a mission school in Mutare and learned Shona again. She went to Cambridge in 1977 to study medicine.
For a brief period she also worked in an advertising agency. She has been very active in the creative field and has published plays. She believes in Virginia Woolf's dictum "A woman needs a room of her own and five hundred pounds". After receiving the Commonwealth Writers' Award in August 1989, she went to Berlin to study filmmaking. She has made a film called Everyone's Child which focuses on the homeless children stricken by AIDS. In 2006, The Independent named Dangarembga one of the fifty greatest artists shaping the African continent. Her book Chronicle of an Indomitable Daughter was published in Zimbabwe in 2013.
Accolades Won
Nervous Conditions is Dangarembga's first novel published in the year 1988 in England. It was the first novel to be published in English by a black Zimbabwean woman and won the African Section of the Commonwealth Writers Prize in 1989. The sequel, The Book of Not, was published in 2006.
Issues in Black Women's Writings
Tinh T. Minh-ha in her book Women, Native, Other: Writing Postcoloniality and Feminism (1989), talks about the "triple jeopardy" of the black woman author:
"... that whenever a woman of color takes up the feminist fight, she immediately qualifies for three possible 'betrayals': she can be accused of betraying either man (the 'manhater') or her community ('people of color should stay together to fight racism') or woman herself ('you should fight on the woman's side.')"
Dangarembga has captured the structure of a patriarchal system and the manner in which it has led to oppression of women. Some important features in the modest literary endeavours of Zimbabwean women identified by Flora Veit-Wild are that their writings closely reflect reality; in a very immediate and direct way women react to the social situation around them. It shows a great awareness of the contradictions and problems the new Zimbabwe society has to face and solve.
In her essay "Debunking Patriarchy: The Liberational Quality of Voicing in Tsitsi Dangarembga's Nervous Conditions", Pauline Uwakweh opines that Dangarembga engages the problems facing her female characters. By mirroring their lives, she exposes the contradictions in their search for independence. Her primary agenda in Nervous Conditions is to expose the mechanism of male domination in Zimbabwean society.
She thus explores the patterns of female subordination arising from patriarchy and its inter-relationship with the experience of colonization. Dangarembga also questions the exploitative nature of imperialism, the value of Western education, and warns against the danger of cultural alienation that it poses to the African.
Mary Kolawole says "Dangarembga reveals a womanist consciousness in relating gender problems to the larger issues of gender and race. Literature to her, is as much a vehicle for collective cultural restoration as it is a channel for gender realization, and both are inseparable."
The novel which was initially rejected by many publishing houses for its feminist content later received appreciation and critical acclaim for its initiative to project a strong feminist voice.
OVERVIEW OF THE NOVEL
"The condition of native is a nervous condition."
Nervous Condition is a term which reflects the dismal plights of the colonized and this term was attributed to victims of colonization by Jean-Paul Sartre. The title Nervous Conditions is borrowed from Jean-Paul Sartre's introduction to Frantz Fanon's Wretched of the Earth and it draws our attention to the psychological impact of colonialism.
Sartre evokes the "disassociated self" created by colonialism: "Our enemy betrays his brothers and becomes our accomplice; his brothers do the same thing. The status of 'native' is a nervous condition introduced and maintained by the settler among colonized people with their consent." (The Wretched of the Earth, 17)
The novel has some autobiographical elements which elucidate the oppressive structure of society. Race, class and sex are interwoven with colonization to further the oppression faced by individuals. The cultural clash due to the civil war and influence of missionary schools is evident in large part of this novel. The main aim of colonialism is economic benefit of the oppressor and this is achieved by imposing ideas of inferiority among the natives. The natives are under the false impression that they will be civilized by the colonizers.
This novel set in Umtali in the former Southern Rhodesia offers a critique of colonialism and patriarchal ideology. Though the novel has some elements of Bildungsroman with Tambu as its narrative voice, it tells the stories of five women and their men. Pauline Uwakweh describes how Nervous Conditions emphasizes that "Racial and colonial problems are explored as parallel themes to patriarchal dominance because both are doubtless inter-related forms of dominance over a subordinate social group" (83).
Dangarembga has analyzed the problems plaguing the Shona communities and specifically, marginalization of women due to patriarchal hegemony and colonization. She has also challenged the aspect of coercing women to identify themselves as second class citizens. The trope of silencing women to establish patriarchal ideology has been refuted by Dangarembga.
PLOT SUMMARY
The novel is set in the pre-Zimbabwean independence period of the 1960s and 70s. The story opens with an arresting statement, "I was happy that my brother had died". It is a novel of development which takes us through the psyche of the character Tambudzai Sigauke who is called Tambu. However, the novel also represents the experiences of women facing oppression due to patriarchy and colonization.
As Tambu says "[M]y story is not after all about death, but about my escape and Lucia's; about my mother's and Maiguru's entrapment and about Nyasha's rebellion – Nyasha, far-minded and isolated, my uncle's daughter whose rebellion in the end have been successful".
Tambu is a victim of oppression in her family and then in the society by virtue of being a girl. Tambu's desire to get educated in a missionary school does not materialize due to poverty. Her brother's death brings a renewed hope in her life as she would now be able to receive education. The novel highlights contrasting characters and comments on the role of education in generating power.
Tambu's brother goes to a missionary school but Tambu is not allowed to study because it does not befit a female. Tambu grows maize to meet the requirements of education but her brother steals her produce. Her father also subjugates her and claims her money as he does not believe in women's education. However, Tambu realizes the importance of education at a very early age.
Tambu rejoices with the offer she gets from her uncle to get educated in a missionary school. After her brother's demise she goes to her uncle Babamukuru's house. Here, she experiences a new culture. She bonds with her cousin Nyasha but, unfortunately Nyasha has fallen prey to western culture and afflicted with an eating disorder.
Nyasha does not succumb to the patriarchal norms of her society. She offends her father by defying the gender norms prescribed for women. The novel is an indictment of the conflict between traditional and western culture, an analysis of power emitting through education and above all, poverty which leads to nervous conditions in the native. It is an excellent account of the impact of cultural change on individuals. It elucidates the effect of racism, sexism and poverty on a group of African community.
It is a powerful portrayal of resilience shown by Tambu to escape poverty and vouch for her right to education. The novel ends on this note: "the story I have told here, is my own story, the story of four women whom I loved, our men, this story is how it all began".
CHARACTER ANALYSIS
Tambudzai "Tambu" Sigauke
Tambu is the narrative voice of the novel. She comes from a rural Shona family where resources are scarce and male children are given priority. Her desire for education is thwarted by poverty and by the gender ideology that privileges her brother Nhamo. When Nhamo dies, Tambu sees an opportunity to take his place at the mission school. She moves into her uncle Babamukuru's household and experiences a new world of books, electricity and English conversation.
Throughout the novel, Tambu remains focused on her goal of acquiring education as a means of escape from poverty and patriarchy. Unlike her cousin Nyasha, Tambu spent enough time in Zimbabwe before encountering Western education, which gives her a more grounded sense of identity. Nevertheless, she too experiences moments of identity crisis, such as when her parents are forced to undergo a Christian wedding ceremony, which she feels makes a mockery of her people and casts doubt on her legitimate existence.
Nyasha
Nyasha is Babamukuru's daughter who returns from England with her family. She has lost fluency in Shona and speaks English that sounds "too authentic" to her peers at school. She struggles to fit in and feels alienated both at school and at home. Nyasha refuses to accept patriarchal authority. She speaks back to her father, stays out late, wears clothes he disapproves of and reads books he considers inappropriate.
Her rebellion takes a physical toll: she develops anorexia nervosa, an eating disorder that reflects her psychological distress. Her condition can be read as a symptom of colonial alienation – a "nervous condition" – and also as a weapon of defiance against male control. Nyasha is the most profoundly alienated character in the novel, caught in a double bind of language and gender.
Babamukuru
Babamukuru is Tambu's uncle, the headmaster of the mission school and the patriarch of the extended family. He studied in England and holds a degree, which gives him authority and status. However, his Western education has not liberated him from traditional patriarchal biases. He applies different standards to his daughter Nyasha than to his son Chido.
He forbids Nyasha from reading certain books but allows Chido to stay with a friend who has a sister. When Nyasha returns late from a dance, he tells her that no decent girl would stay out alone with a boy at that time of night. Babamukuru represents the contradictions of the colonized intellectual – educated in Western ways but unable to shed patriarchal thinking. Education for him becomes a source of conflict rather than emancipation.
Maiguru
Maiguru is Babamukuru's wife. She is herself educated, but her contributions to the family are often overlooked. At one point she feels devalued and decides to leave the house temporarily. Her departure is an act of resistance against the patriarchal assumption that her work and presence are not valued. Tambu observes Maiguru's marriage and concludes that marriage can stifle identity and encroach upon personal freedom.
Tambu's Mother
Tambu's mother represents the traditional woman who has internalized the burden of womanhood. She tells Tambu: "This business of womanhood is a heavy burden. How could it not be? Aren't we the ones who bear children? When it is like that you can't just decide today I want to do this, tomorrow I want to do that, the next day I want to be educated! When there are sacrifices to be made, you are the one who has to make them. … You have to start learning them early. The earlier the better so that it is easy later on." Her words capture the internalized oppression that keeps women accepting limited roles.
Nhamo
Nhamo is Tambu's brother. He internalizes his male privilege and bullies his sisters. He steals the maize Tambu grows to pay for her school fees and lectures her about her proper place. After attending the mission school, he becomes arrogant and loses connection with his rural roots. His death at the beginning of the novel opens the door for Tambu's education.
Lucia
Lucia is Tambu's aunt, a strong and independent woman who refuses to be silenced. She represents an alternative model of female resistance – more direct and confrontational than Tambu's quiet determination.
Chido
Chido is Babamukuru's son and Nyasha's brother. He benefits from the same patriarchal privileges as Nhamo. He is allowed freedoms that Nyasha is denied, such as staying with a friend who has a sister.
THEMES AND CONCERNS IN THE NOVEL
Education
Education is one of the important themes in the novel. It is a chief concern in the novel because it is acquired by people who are seemingly in power because of their gender. Tambu's announcement in the beginning of the novel "I was sorry when my brother died" reflects the deep-rooted gender ideology which puts men on the pedestal at the cost of women's aspiration. Tambu was deprived of getting proper education as her brother was considered supreme and bestowed with the blessing of being educated. Tambu's statement is pertinent and candid account of her desire to achieve excellence through education. Tambu's parents cannot afford to educate her due to poverty but they make all the ends meet to help their son Nhamo complete his education.
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