Minh Nguyen

“The writer is the conscience of his or her people.”

For this fictional semi-biography, 'Nervous Conditions', it is true that the writer, Tsitsi
Dangarembga, is the conscience of her people. She tries to describe the experience of living
under a patriarchal society and breaking away from it through the life of the characters.
Moreover, as an African, she also shows the effects of colonialism on her country, Rhodesia
and the fight against colonialism.

The burdens of the women in a patriarchal society are revealed through their
relationships with the men. For example, Babamukuru, who is well-educated and powerful, is
the leader of the whole family. Even though that he has been to England and lived there, his
perspectives towards the women in Africa do not change much. He is still considered to be a
patriarchal leader. He believed that the women should be educated but the power of decision-
making still belong to him: ”I will not discuss it. But I have one thing I want to tell you... I
wanted you to know that these are the things that I have been thinking about, but we will
discuss the details some other time since now it is very late”. His wife, Maiguru, is a good
example of a highly educated woman but still lives under the powers of the men. She tried to
escape from the society once, when she was trying to leave the homestead for five days and
refused to be in the position of a woman in such society but in the end, she returned and
realised that she cannot escape from the society. His daughter, Nyasha, who is also highly
educated, cannot escape from her father's control. This is shown by the part where
Babamukuru punished her for hanging out with the boys from her school at the evening: “How
can you go about disgracing me? Me! Like that! No, you cannot do it. I am respected at this
mission. I cannot have a daughter who behaves like a whore.”

The old African society does not allow the women to have the freedom and it purges all
attempts of fixing the inequality. The people are educated in such a way when they were
young and it simply takes away the thoughts of revolution in their minds. Even Babamukuru,
he has seen and experienced a different world but he still keeps the old traditions, perhaps
because he was also educated in such way when he was young. In fact, he seems to be
more or less the same type of person as a leader of the traditional patriarchal society but
more educated and wants women to have education. Moreover, when he was thinking about
a 'solution' to the problem between Ma'Shingayi and Jeremiah, he said that: “...they are a
result of an evil spirit that someone sent among us...”. This is a very traditional thought of the
traditional society, which indicates that he is not fully Westernised and he still has many
thoughts that belong to the traditional African society.

In the black society, Babamukuru seems to be the most powerful man because of his
status and power. However, compared to the white people, he is just a black person who is
under the burdens of colonialism. The black people, including Babamukuru, are considered
as inferior to the white people and so he is not treated like the black people treat him.

For the black women, they even have to suffer more because of the effects of both of the
patriarchal society and colonialism. They are under two layers of hierarchy, the black men and
the white people. This makes it even more difficult for them to escape and achieve
emancipation. Furthermore, finding self-confidence is also a problem. Some people, for
Minh Nguyen

instance, Tambudzai and Maiguru, are educated and have seen the more advanced society.
They realises that their lifestyle is considered as 'backward' compared to the Western society
and this leads to a lack of self-confidence to advance because it is very difficult to improve if
there is a big gap between the two lifestyles. As a result, they are discouraged and do not
want to move on.

The story is summed up under the life of Tambu. At first, she lives in the homestead under
the rules of her father which she cannot resist to. Then she has a chance to live with
Babamukuru and go to school like the white children. However, she is, again, still under the
burdens as a woman under the patriarchal society. Towards the end of the story, she is given
a chance to stay and study at the Sacred Heart school, which is a school usually for white
children. But then her fate remains the same as she realises that the school itself also treats
her like a normal black woman, no better, no worse. In the end, she realises that her burdens
as a black woman will stay with her forever and they cannot be removed.

To conclude, Tsitsi Dangarembga's novel 'Nervous Conditions' reveal that under the
patriarchal society, it is impossible for a black woman to free herself because of her inferiority.
She also shows that the black men have burdens as well, under the white society. The novel
itself speaks to demand a change in Africa. The story in the book is just a detailed example of
the African society when it was under colonialism.