Reviews for Nervous Conditions

The average rating for Nervous Conditions based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-01-19 00:00:00 Kevin Smith Last year I discovered the writing of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Writing contemporary accounts of Nigerians in both Africa and in the United States and England, Adichie has becoming a leading African feminist voice. Before Adichie, thirty years ago Tsitsi Dangarembga attempted to assert rights for African women in both her writing and film making. Needing an African classic for my classics bingo this year, I decided upon Dangarembga's debut autobiographical novel, Nervous Conditions, which is influential enough to be included in the book 500 Great Books by Women by Erica Baumeister. Reading through the books in this anthology is a personal ongoing challenge of mine, so I was happy to immerse myself in Dangarembga's work. From Zimbabwe and educated in Germany, Dangarembga wanted to expose her children to Africa and returned as an adult. She bases the story in this novel on her own upbringing and it is evident from the opening pages. Readers meet Tambudzai, a precocious rural African girl who has no future other than living on a Rhodesian homestead with her family until she marries. Her uncle Babamukara decided his future at age nine when he started school and reached the top of class. Later on a scholarship, he attended secondary school and university in South Africa and later England. His wife Maiguru has been equally educated, and through their education, the couple become the headmaster and head mistress at a prestigious missionary school in central Rhodesia. It is through this education that Babamukara attempts to uplift his entire family so that they are viewed as the most prestigious members or Rhodesian society. It is in this regard that he sponsors the education of Tambudzai's brother Nhambo. As the eldest sibling and only boy, the future hinges on Nhambo to use education to uplift his family away from their primitive conditions. Like Babamukara's children Nyasha and Chido who have been educated in England and at the missionary school for their entire lives, Nhambo develops a sense of arrogance towards his family, especially toward his younger sisters reminding them that they are girls and that the homestead is their future. Then, through Tambudzai's narration, Dambarembga writes of the opportunity that Tambudzai gains. At age fourteen, tragedy strikes: at the mission, Nhambo develops the mumps and dies in mere days. The mother is beside herself even though is less developed societies the death of one's children is commonplace. Babamukara decides to sponsor Tambudzai's education because he feels that the family still needs someone to lift it out of poverty. As a result, Tambu moves into her uncle and aunt's care, away from the homestead and poverty, and into a luxurious life. As in many coming of age books, Nervous Conditions is not without conflict. Tambudzai is taken under Nyasha's wing and views firsthand how life in England has made her arrogant and vows not to repeat this behavior. Babamukara praises Tambudzai as a model child and wishes that his own daughter would follow in suit. Nyasha, unfortunately, by the time she reaches puberty is more English than African and some of her disdain for primitive Africa has rubbed off on Tambudzai. While Tambudzai still loves her family and wishes her sisters the best, she finds it harder and harder to return to the homestead with each passing vacation. There is no electricity or plumbing or books and life on the Rhodesian plane has become tougher to face. Tambudzai finds faults in both of her parents and wish that they would adhere to her uncle's example of using education as a means of bettering oneself in society. Yet, her father is the laziest member in his family, and her mother having had no education and married since age fifteen have no future ahead of them. Tambudzai does not forget the upbringing that she came from, but on her later visits home she vows to achieve as much education as possible for a female from her era in order to lift her family out of its primitive conditions once and for all. In the past few years I have not enjoyed coming of age books. I find as the protagonists are the age of my children that I suffer from a generation gap in my reading. During the last few months, I have read quality coming of age fiction, offering me hope for the genre moving forward. Tsitsi Dangarembga is an example of how education has lifted her out of poverty. Primitive lifestyles and few rights for women are still issues facing Africans today, so when Nervous Conditions was first published in 1988, the work was considered groundbreaking. Dangarembga has paved the way so that authors like Adichie have a platform today, and for that I feel privileged to have had read her work. In recent years, she has written two follow up novels so readers see where education has taken Tambudzai, and I look forward to following her on her journey through life. 4.5 stars

Review # 2 was written on 2016-04-01 00:00:00 Donald Capparella Identity is a powerful concept. But how does one establish such a thing? Conventionally it develops from childhood due to an association with home and place. But what happens if your home is changing? What happen if you're taken away from that home? Indeed, if you are forced to accept another culture's ways and customs, who is the "you" that is left? What nationality do you become? These are the question Tambu has to ask herself. She's a young black girl living in a small, rural, improvised village in postcolonial Rhodesia. She initially believes that her ticket to self-improvement is through education. However, the only education available is the white man's education. She learns to speak English, and eventually she looks back on her origins with an air of indifference and woe. Not as much as her brother did, but to a degree that considers them underdeveloped and primitive. Again, this is the white man's education coming through. She has opportunities afforded to few, but is this a good thing if she comes to scorn her origins? "It's bad enough . . . when a country gets colonized, but when the people do as well! That's the end, really, that's the end." She, like her cousin Nyasha, becomes a creature of flux, a hybrid, a person that walks between worlds and cultures without a true home. She can no longer fit in with her kin at the village; her intellect has gone beyond that. But, she cannot fit into the white man's world because she is black. She is too white to be black, and to black to be white. Franz Fanon's (Black Skins, White Masks) arguments become thematic here; he argued that to accept the white man's culture is to allow the African heritage to be destroyed. It, in essence, leaves the black man wearing a white mask. As well as being a black person, Tambu is also a woman in an incredibly misogynistic society. She has to deal with the dominating nature of the patriarchal culture, and the oppression associated with it. So, life for Tambu is rather shit because everyone treats her like shit. Here's some terrible advice she receives when she is young: "Can you cook books and feed them to your husband? Stay at home with your mother. Learn to cook and clean. Grow vegetables." This is such a strong story with such a strong message. In essence it's a response to Achebe's Things Fall Apart which is a response to Conrad's Heart of Darkness. So, that's lots of responses! What the author is trying to portray, in a persuasive and compelling manner, is the voice of the colonised female, the voice of her ancestors and the effects on the everyday life of one living in postcolonial Africa. Achebe's protagonist was incredibly misogynistic; he beats women down. In this, Tambu has a chance to prove her worth in such a male dominated society. Her awakening does come very late in the novel; it takes her a long time to realise the absurdity of her situation/condition and it does eventually completely change her. The novel is narrated retrospectively, so we do know it's coming, but it's still great to see her find her voice and become an empowered women. By the end she develops the will to speak out and stand up for what she believes in. Tambu comes to hate the men of her family; she comes to hate every aspect of her situation: she becomes hardened and convinced not to conform to the white man's way. She's still got a lot of prejudice to wade through before the world accepts her, but I feel like she will get there. "You can't go on all the time being whatever's necessary. You've got to have some conviction, and I'm convinced I don't want to be anyone's underdog." This is a great coming of age story.