"I was not sorry when my brother died." Says Tambu at the beginning of this first person narrative. Without her brother Nhamo's death, Tambu would have been unable to gain the education she longed for. Yet education for a girl was something her father frowned upon. "Can you cook books and feed them to your husband?" he asks.
Tambu lives in a patriarchal society where "womanhood is a heavy burden."
This remark becomes evident in the lives and experiences of Tambu's mother Mainini, cousin Nyasha, her Mother Maiguru and Lucia, Mainini's sister. Set in the 60s, village life and class is deftly portrayed. Although there are women who pursue education, such as Maiguru, with a master's degree, their first duty is to their husband and family.
The story becomes intriguing when Tambu's cousin Nyasha returns to Zimbabwe with her parents. Whereas Tambu speaks Shona and respects her elders, Nyasha does not. She will not conform to her father's dress code, she reads literature her mother disapproves of and is at odds with her new life. Significantly, Nyasha can no longer communicate in Shona. As Mainini says later on: "Tt's the Englishness".
The transition that Nyasha undergoes when Tambu's father sponsors her education is humorous and poignant as she struggles with English and new conventions. Tambu develops insecurities of her own due to self expectation and the challenges awaiting her.
Food is symbolic. This is seen when Nyasha develops an eating disorder. As Nyasha loses weight, she gradually loses sense of who she is and where she belongs. "I'm not one of them but I'm not one of you." Eventually, she is hospitalised.
Although change is inevitable for Tambu, she still retains a sense and love of tradition even though there is much to question and reject. Nyasha, by contrast, becomes a symbol of what can happen when trying to reconcile two different cultures at a difficult age. Tambu is philosophical about her circumstances saying: "I told myself that I was a much more sensible person than Nyasha, because I knew what could or couldn't be done." Mainini's greatest fear is that she will be unable to communicate with her daughter one day.
Dangarembga raises issues about culture conflict, displacement, family relationships, consciousness and emancipation in a postcolonial society. On another level, it illustrates what children raised between two cultures may have to contend with.
Nervous Conditions will find an audience with young people and those in the health, teaching and social work professions.
Yinka Sunmonu is author of Cherish and editor of www.ebonyreads.com which focuses on blank and Asian literature.
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