Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga | Plot Summary

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Course Hero Literature Instructor Russell Jaffe explains the plot summary of Tsitsi Dangarembga's novel Nervous Conditions.

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In Nervous Conditions, Tambu, an impoverished young native girl in 1960s Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), is given the opportunity to attend a Christian missionary school and pursue her education rather than live on the family homestead.

Her enthusiasm for the European ways of the school puts her at odds with her traditional family.

The conflict is particularly acute because she is female. In her culture at that time, women are expected to value family over other pursuits. However, Tambu persists and ultimately wins a scholarship to a private Catholic school.

She must reconcile this decision with her obligations to her family, which is still struggling with poverty and unhappiness back on the homestead.

Zimbabwean author Tsitsi Dangarembga's bildungsroman Nervous Conditions was first published in 1988. It is the first novel written in English by a black, female Zimbabwean author. She uses the classic Western tropes of the coming of age story to shed light on the unique problems of colonial Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe.

The novel Nervous Conditions contains many enduring themes, including the patriarchy, as male superiority creates rigid gender roles and expectations; and colonialism, as British rule in Rhodesia threatens to erase traditional culture. Duality is another theme, showing how African children who attend British school can struggle with identity.

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