Nervous Conditions

TSITSI DANGAREMBGA
1988

INTRODUCTION

Nervous Conditions, a novel by Zimbabwean author Tsitsi Dangarembga, was first published in 1988, and is currently available in a 2004 edition. Set over a period of about ten years, from the 1960s to the early 1970s, Nervous Conditions takes place in Zimbabwe before the country had attained official independence from Britain and while it was still known as Southern Rhodesia or simply Rhodesia. The novel is semiautobiographical; the author draws on her own experience of growing up in Rhodesia during that period. Nervous Conditions centers around the experience of several female characters as they either challenge, or come to terms with, the traditional patriarchal structure of their society. The young narrator, Tambu, must show great determination as she overcomes all the obstacles to her progress in life. She also has to learn how to understand, largely through the difficult experiences of her cousin Nyasha, the negative effects that British colonialism has had on her society.

One of the few novels written by a black Zimbabwean about this transitional time in Zimbabwe's history, Nervous Conditions gives valuable insight into the traditional life of the country's native Shona-speaking people. The novel is an important contribution to postcolonial literature, a term that refers to works by authors from countries formerly colonized by European governments.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Tsitsi Dangarembga was born in 1959 in Mukoto, in the African country then known as Southern Rhodesia, and now known as Zimbabwe. At the time, Rhodesia was a British colony. At the age of two, Dangarembga moved with her family to Britain, where she remained until she was six years old, after which she returned to Rhodesia and attended a missionary school in the city of Umtali, which is now called Mutare.

In the 1970s, Dangarembga returned to Britain, attending Cambridge University, where she studied medicine. However, Dangarembga became homesick in England and returned to her home country in 1980, the year in which Zimbabwe finally attained its independence from Britain. Dangarembga continued her education, studying psychology at the University of Zimbabwe and becoming active in the student drama club. She found she had a talent for writing plays, and a number of her plays were produced at the university. These included The Lost of the Soil (1983), which she also directed. Dangarembga then became involved in a theater group called Zambuko. In 1987, Dangarembga's play She No Longer Weeps was published in Harare.

Dangarembga had also developed an interest in writing prose fiction. In 1985, her short story "The Letter" was published in Whispering Land: An Anthology of Stories by African Women. Her major success followed three years later with the publication of her semi-autobiographical novel, Nervous Conditions, which was the first novel to be published in English by a black woman from Zimbabwe. It was published in England in 1988 and in the United States in 1989. In 1989, the novel won the African section of the Commonwealth Writers Prize.

Following this success, Dangarembga pursued an interest in film, studying film direction in Berlin at the Deutsche Film und Fernseh Akademie. Also during this period, Dangarembga made a documentary for German television. Then she made a film called Everyone's Child (1996), about the fate of four siblings after their parents die of AIDS. The film was another landmark in the cultural history of Zimbabwe, since it was the first feature film directed by a black woman in that country. Everyone's Child was shown at many film festivals around the world.

In 2006, Dangarembga published The Book of Not, a sequel to Nervous Conditions. As of 2008, Dangarembga lived in Harare, Zimbabwe.

PLOT SUMMARY

Chapter 1

Nervous Conditions is set in the African country then known as Rhodesia in the early 1960s. The narrator and protagonist is a young black woman named Tambu, who looks back on her experiences as a child and adolescent. She begins by mentioning that she was not sorry when her elder brother Nhamo died in 1968, when she was thirteen. Since 1965, he had been attending a Protestant Christian mission school some twenty miles from the family's village. His English-educated uncle, Babamukuru, is the headmaster of the school and wanted Nhamo to attend it so he could have a good education and then raise his family up from poverty. But after Nhamo began attending the mission school, he did not like coming home, and he was reluctant to take on chores such as helping in the fields or with the livestock or firewood. The only times he would willingly help were when his uncle came to visit.

Tambu relates how she did not get along with her brother, who used to try to get his sisters, including the younger one, Netsai, to do errands for him. He felt he had more power and authority than they did. Tambu preferred life when he was not around but she felt guilty about her dislike of him. What she really disliked was the fact that her brother's education had received priority over her own. This was the norm in her family; the concerns of the males were considered more important than those of the females.

Chapter 2

Tambu tells of how the family is so poor soon after she starts school at the age of seven that they cannot afford the school fees. Her mother manages to scrape some money together by selling eggs and vegetables, but this is only enough to continue Nhamo's schooling. Disappointed, Tambu had to remain at home. Her father told her she should not mind since, as a girl, all she needed to know was how to cook and clean. Tambu protests, and refuses to give up her goal of going to school. She grows her own maize, hoping to sell it to raise money for school fees, but when the crop is ripe, her brother steals it. Furious, Tambu fights Nhamo during the games that take place after Sunday School. They are separated by the teacher, Mr. Matimba, who rebukes them both but then listens patiently to Tambu's story and offers to help her. Two days later, Mr. Matimba drives her to the city of Umtali in the school truck, where he helps her to sell her maize cobs on the street. An old white lady named Doris gives her ten pounds toward her school fees. Mr. Matimba suggests that she give the money to the headmaster of the school for safekeeping. Tambu's father is annoyed by this and claims that the money is his, since Tambu is his daughter.

Tambu goes back to school the following year and for the next two years she comes top in her class. During her second year, the big event in the family is the return of Tambu's uncle, Babamukuru, from studying in England.

Chapter 3

The extended family celebrates the return of Babamukuru, his wife Maiguru, daughter Nyasha and son Chido. Babamukuru is treated like returning royalty, but Tambu is upset because she is not allowed to go to the airport to greet her uncle because she is a girl. There is a big family meal, which Tambu helps to prepare, followed by dancing and singing. Tambu is disturbed by the fact that her cousins speak English most of the time and seem to have forgotten their native Shona.

A family discussion led by Babamukuru results in a decision to transfer Nhamo to the mission school so he can have the best education possible and later be able to provide for the family. Nhamo is thrilled by the news and regards himself as very important. Tambu is jealous, and they quarrel. As a result, Tambu no longer speaks to her brother. Instead, she tries to befriend her cousin Nyasha, who has changed as a result of her stay in England. Nyasha, however, is rather uncommunicative.

In November 1968, Nhamo is due to return home for a visit. But instead, Babamukuru returns with the news that Nhamo was taken ill and died within a few days, possibly of mumps. Babamukuru decides that Tambu should be given an opportunity to attend the mission school in Nhamo's place.

Chapter 4

Tambu is excited as her uncle drives her to the mission school. She is expecting to be transformed into a new person and is looking forward to living in greater comfort, since she will be in her uncle's house. She is very impressed by the grandeur of the white house, especially the large, elegant living room. Everything is such a contrast to the modest home she grew up in. Tambu's aunt, Maiguru, is gracious to her, offering her anything she might want in the way of food or drink. Nyasha is excited to see her cousin, which surprises Tambu. But Tambu also thinks that Nyasha speaks disrespectfully to her mother, and disapproves of her for it. The English-educated Nyasha appears glamorous to Tambu in a way she finds disturbing.

Chapter 5

Tambu shares a room with Nyasha, and they become friends. Tambu becomes fond of Nyasha, even though she does have her disagreements with her cousin. The first night of Tambu's stay, the family has supper together. Nyasha shows that she is unwilling to act submissively toward her parents, and she is dismayed because they have confiscated a novel she was reading because they thought it was unsuitable. She abruptly leaves the dinner table and returns to her room. Tambu is shocked to discover that Nyasha also smokes cigarettes.

Later that evening, Babamukuru gives a fatherly talk to Tambu. He tells her she is fortunate to have this opportunity to continue her education, and that it is not only for herself but also for her family, who would in the future be able to depend on her.

The next day, Tambu attends the mission school for the first time. She is fourteen years old. She excels at the school. She reads widely and is very diligent. The teachers like her, as do the students, who elect her as class monitor at the beginning of the third term. She continues to get to know Nyasha, who fascinates her, Anna the housegirl, who bores her, and her aunt Maiguru. Tambu is surprised to find out that Maiguru has a master's degree, and is disturbed that her aunt has sacrificed an independent career in order to support and look after her husband and family.

Chapter 6

Tambu discovers that she likes the white missionaries at the school, especially the young ones. She makes friends with Nyaradzo, a white girl who is the daughter of a missionary. Meanwhile, Chido, her other cousin, wins a scholarship to a multiracial private school in Salisbury, the capital city, and Nyasha excels at her exams. On the last night of the semester before she returns with her family for the Christmas vacation, Tambu, Chido, and Nyasha attend a dance at the mission. Tambu normally prefers going to debates and films, but to her surprise she enjoys the boisterous atmosphere of the dance. When they return home, Babamukuru is angry with Nyasha who has stayed out later than the others and for a while was alone outside with a boy. The two of them engage in a bitter argument, and Babamukuru, after accusing Nyasha of behaving like a whore, hits her twice across the face, knocking her to the floor. He hits her again and she fights back. He spits at her and disowns her as his daughter for challenging his authority. Nyasha walks out of the room. Within the next few days, Babamukuru gives his daughter a formal punishment of fourteen lashes, while her mother looks on. Tambu is sympathetic to the conflict Nyasha is experiencing, while Nyasha insists that her father has no right to treat her the way he does. Tambu admires her resilience.

Chapter 7

Tambu, her uncle, aunt, and Nyasha return home for two weeks at Christmas 1969. Tambu is shocked at how run-down the home in which she grew up now seems, since she has gotten used to living at the mission. At home, she is surprised to find her Aunt Lucia (her mother's sister), who has a reputation for loose morals, and Uncle Takesure, a distant cousin of Babamukuru's who is the father of Lucia's as-yet-wife unborn child, even though he already has a wife. Babamukuru despises them both and has ordered them to leave, but they have not responded to his request. Another aunt and uncle, Gladys and Thomas, are also present at the family reunion. It is crowded, with twenty-four people in all. Eight people sleep in the kitchen; some of the boys sleep in the back of a truck. Tambu and Nyasha work hard at all the domestic chores that are necessary, as does Maiguru.

During the vacation, Babamukuru and the other male members of the family demand to know of Takesure why he has not gone back to his own home. Takesure says that he would have done, but Lucia refused to go. Not admitted to the conference, Lucia is angry, fearing that her reputation is being slandered and she is being blamed for the situation. Maiguru refuses to offer an opinion, saying it is none of her concern, since Takesure and Lucia are not her relatives. This response angers Tambu's mother, who insults Maiguru after she has left the room and also lambastes her sister Lucia, accusing her of sleeping with her husband.

Lucia then overhears Takesure defaming her at the family conference, saying that she is a witch who wants to get Jeremiah, Tambu's father, to marry her. Furious, Lucia enters the house, drags Takesure to his feet, and has her say. She says that Jeremiah tried to seduce her and that she is going to leave the house, but she will take her sister, Tambu's mother, with her. Then Lucia walks out. As the family conference continues, there is some discussion about the general …