Nervous Conditions: A Novel

by Tsitsi Dangarembga

Paperback, 1989

Status

Checked out

Series

Nervous Conditions (1)

Genres

General Fiction

All Topics

Fiction

Publication

Seal Press (1989), Edition: 1st, Paperback, 209 pages

Description

"Nervous Conditions brings to the politics of decolonization theory the energy of women's rights. By now a classic in African literature and Black women's literature internationally, Nervous Conditions is a must for anyone wanting to understand voice, memory, and coming of age for young Black women in Africa."--Page 4 of cover.

User reviews

LibraryThing member souloftherose

This is the first novel written by Tsitsi Dangarembga and it won The Commonwealth Writers' Prize. According to wikipedia it was the first novel written in English by a black Zimbabwean woman.

The novel is partly auto-biographical in nature. The story is set in Zimbabwe and told from the perspective

of a young Shona girl, Tambudzai (Tambu). Tambu lives with her parents on their small homestead but when her only brother dies she is sent to live with her wealthy uncle to become educated so that she can support her family.

Throughout the book, Tambu longs to be educated like her uncle Babamukuru. Babamukuru is the hero of the family, providing the goat and other food for them to eat at Christmas, providing school fees for her brother and taking responsibility for any family decisions which have to be made. However, when Tambu goes to live with her uncle we start to see his flaws, how he struggles to control his own daughter, Nyasha, who grow up in England and is struggling to adjust to the different culture of Zimbabwe, how he works too hard and is often very stressed and how is wife, who is viewed with envy by the other women of the family is actually quite unhappy and frustrated.

Tambu’s father is a lazy man who will say the right thing in front of her uncle but do nothing about it when her uncle is absent. Her mother has become ground down with weariness following the death of her brother and all the work she does on the farm. Tambu’s father appears to do nothing.

Nyasha, Tambu’s cousin, struggles to adapt to Zimbabwean Shona culture. She has seen a different way of living in England and doesn’t see why she should revert back to the traditional Shona ways of (to her) mindless obedience to her father.

Maiguru, Tambu’s aunt, studied for a higher degree in England. But now she is back in Zimbabwe, she is expected to take care of all the cooking and cleaning at family gatherings.

And Tambu copes by outwardly being diligent and respectful to her uncle, the perfect young lady.

In many ways, this book was an uncomfortable read because I felt very strongly the unfairness of the situations the women in the novel found themselves in. It also felt like the book ends very suddenly. There is a sequel which I really want to read to find out what happens.

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LibraryThing member tututhefirst

From the beginning this story grabbed me. Young Tambu opens by telling us she is not sad when her brother dies. Whoa!!! Who would not mourn the loss of a sibling? She gives us a picture of her life as one of poverty, lack of education (or opportunities for anything other than the very basics), and

utter hopelessness that things might improve. Until her brother dies.....There are no other sons, so suddenly, she is next in line to be educated, to have a chance to improve not only her life but that of other women of her village. Until then, her life is encapsulated in this quote:

My father thought I should not mind (Not going to school) Is that anything to worry about? Ha-a-a, it's nothing, he reassured me....'Can you cook books and feed them to your husband? Stay at home with your mother. Learn to cook and clean. Grow vegetables. pg. 15

In "Nervous Conditions" Dangarembga gives us a portrait of two cousins in Rhodesia during the late 1960's and early 1970's. Tambu, the main protagonist, is constantly compared and compares herself to her cousin Nyasha, who was raised in England where her parents were studying, until her early teens. After her brother's death, Tambu goes to live at the mission complex when her Uncle (Nyasha's father) is made headmaster of the school. Nyasha is uncomfortable living in Africa, having never been given the chance to experience the language or mores of village life. Tambu, on the other hand, is fascinated with Nyasha's Englishness on the one hand, but repelled by the fact that the English influence is gradually destroying her family and its traditions.

There are other women's stories woven into this one: Tambu's mother, who is unable to see herself as other than the possession of her husband. Tambu's aunt (Nyasha's mother) struggles to reconcile her African identity with the life she lived in England, and the creature comforts she enjoys by virtue of her husband's position and their relative wealth. Lucia, a woman who lives in the village and who has a child by father unknown, wants to better herself, get an education, and doesn't care a fig about social status, or cultural taboos.

Watching all these women react to the men in their lives could paint a picture of bleak despair, but Dangarembga manages to give us hope, offers us a picture of women overcoming the ravages of colonialism, educating themselves and their families to recognize the dignity of human beings, taking control of their own lives, salvaging the traditions of their culture and molding it into a life to be valued and celebrated. Through Tambu's eyes we experience the open-eyed wonder of a young girl who suddenly has clean clothes, a real bed, modern bathing and toileting facilities, not to mention a more varied diet than she'd been used to and her ambivalence about these "privileges" when she returns on school holidays to the family's hut.

Her uncle is viewed as almost omnipotent by both the men and women of the village, the family and the school, and she struggles to come to terms with the power he can exert, his seeming generous support of her family, and the often confusing contradictions of his actions and his English education.

It's a fascinating book, beautifully written, and full of puzzling juxtapositions, examples of cruelty and of kindness. The picture it paints of the life of women in Rhodesia during that time period does not give us as many answers as it provokes questions. I certainly hope the author will write a follow-on book about young Tambu. It would be intriguing to see how she turns out as an adult.

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LibraryThing member japaul22

This was a wonderful find. [[Dangarembga]] is an author on the current Booker longlist and her book, [The Mournable Body] caught my eye. On further research I found it's the third in a series of novels focusing on a 13 year old girl, Tambu, growing up in 1960s Rhodesia (present-day Zimbabwe). So I

started at the beginning with [Nervous Conditions].

Tambu is growing up in poverty, but in an obviously beautiful setting, loving the river by her homestead. Her father can't afford to send her to the local school (her brother gets to go instead), and she begins to realize before she's even a teenager that her life as a girl will be different than a boy's. Tambu decides to earn her own money to pay her way at school. Then her brother dies while he's away at school at a nearby mission. Tambu's educated and relatively wealthy Uncle, who is headmaster at a mission school, takes Tambu in and she gets the opportunity to go to school.

There are many themes explored in this book, but I'd say the focus is Tambu's path as a woman and her relationships with other women - her mother who is living a traditional and stifling role as an African mother, her aunt who has a Masters from her time in England but in Africa is no more than her husband's wife and caregiver, and her cousin Nyasha who was raised in England and is now deeply confused about who she is. Through these relationships we see different but similar challenges that women face in Africa, but also see that many are similar to sexism in other cultures as well.

Dangarembga's writing is excellent. The novel has an autobiographical feel and tons of detail about life in Rhodesia. There are local foods, customs, naming systems, and descriptions of the land that are not described for American readers, but you can figure out from context or a quick google search. I liked that it wasn't dumbed down or written specifically for non-African readers. It was different to reading someone like, say, [[Adichie]] (though I love her writing as well!). I saw in a bio of Dangarembga that she was the first Black woman in Zimbabwe to publish a novel in English.

I highly recommend this book. I've already bought the second book, [The Book of Not], and will read [This Mournable Body] as well.

Original publication date: 1989
Author’s nationality: Zimbabwean
Original language: English
Length: 224 pages
Rating: 4.5 stars
Format/where I acquired the book: purchased kindle edition
Why I read this: from the booker list, 1001 books

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LibraryThing member SqueakyChu

In the 1960's, when present-day Zimbabwe was under British control and known as Rhodesia, Tambudzai, the daughter of a traditional Shona couple living in a rural village, learns that her brother died. Tambudzai is then selected by the head of her family, her uncle Babamukuru, to move to his house

and attend the mission school over which he is headmaster. Patriarchal rule and English influence make Tambudzai’s adjustment to her new environment challenging. She learns how to adjust by quietly observing the ways of her free-thinking and rebellious cousin Nyasha.

This is a stirring novel of an extended Shona family and how they live within the constraints of their own culture, but feel how English influence is changing the lives they know. A rich, layered novel of social issues and family disagreements, this story leads to a better understanding of how one culture can subtly try to swallow another. This book is an excellent read for anyone who'd like to know more about an African culture under colonial rule. The writing captures the colorful details of everyday life, the nuances of family relationships, and the feelings of one young girl as she learns about and adjusts to the world which surrounds her.

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LibraryThing member DeltaQueen50

Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga is considered fictional but in fact is based on the author’s own life growing up in the then-called Rhodesia, Originally published in 1988, the book concentrates on the challenges faced by women in a country where they are far from equal to their male

counterparts. The main character, Tambu, is an intelligent young girl growing up on a rural homestead but is only given an opportunity for higher education after the death of her older brother.

The first third of the book shows how her brother, as the only male child in her immediate family, received the most attention and privileges. As he is sent to missionary school, he learns to embrace western culture and shuns their own ways. When Tambu is given the same opportunity, her mother fears that she will lose her daughter in the same manner and indeed, Tambu does grow and change as she is educated and experiences the wider world. Tambu’s life is guided and controlled by the head of her extended family, her uncle, Babamukuru. As she goes to live with him and his family, she learns to see through the front that he projects to the actual man he is, flaws and all.

During Tambu’s growing years, her country’s change is on the horizon and although not much is mentioned in the book about political and social upheavals, we are given a front seat to observe how African women were slowly absorbing the transformations that were occurring. Nervous Conditions was an absorbing and interesting book showing from a woman’s perspective, Rhodesia under Colonial rule and how education could lift one from a primitive lifestyle of poverty and give them a greater understanding of their place in society.

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LibraryThing member icolford

The tensions arising between traditional ways of life and opportunities that European interventions offer to native Africans willing to accept them reside at the heart of Tsitsi Dangarembga’s incisive and poignant novel, Nervous Conditions. In 1960s Rhodesia (soon to become independent Zimbabwe),

Tambudzai (Tambu) Sigauke lives with her parents and siblings on the family homestead, in a rural village 20 miles from the town of Umtali. The homestead is squalid and life is hard, facts she can accept because it is all she knows. But Tambu is smart. Limited time at the local school has demonstrated that she possesses a quick and searching intelligence. She yearns to expand her horizons. What’s holding her back (other than her family’s poverty) is her gender. As a girl, her route through life is set in stone: inevitably she’ll become someone’s wife and have children. But opportunity for a different kind of life does exist: her brother Nhamo is attending the residential mission school in Umtali, where his fees are being covered by their well-off British-educated uncle Babamukuru. The family expects that once Nhamo’s education is complete, he will find gainful employment and provide them with economic security. Back on the homestead Tambu is consumed with envy. Taken out of school to help on the farm because of Nhamo’s absence, she has no choice but to accept her fate. But when Nhamo dies suddenly, the tragedy forces a decision on the grieving Sigauke family, and despite her mother’s objections Tambu takes her brother’s place at the mission school. Tambu, who cannot afford to be sentimental, can hardly believe her luck. Over the next two years, in an atmosphere where the pursuit of excellence is encouraged, she rises to the top of her class, exceeding her own and her uncle’s expectations. But Tambu discovers that success in the English-speaking white man’s world does not come without a cost. As her academic triumphs push her further and further from her family, her language, and the world she came from, she’s left feeling that she’s betrayed everyone and wondering what she’s gotten herself into. Dangarembga’s semi-autobiographical fiction, first published in 1988, has been followed by two sequels, The Book of Not (2006), and This Mournable Body (shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2020) which bring Tambu’s story into the present day. Tambu Sigauke, an exceptionally self-aware protagonist, knows her own mind and is unapologetic when it comes to pursuing her hopes and dreams. But by the novel’s end she is deeply conflicted, immersed in a goal-oriented European lifestyle, culturally unmoored, ashamed of her humble origins and suffering guilt because of this shame. Despite her successes she is blindsided when the realization hits her that, as a black African living in the white man’s world, she has no idea where she belongs. Written with candour and wrenching honesty, Nervous Conditions provides a powerful commentary on colonialism’s painful legacy from an insider’s perspective and leaves an indelible impression on the reader.

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LibraryThing member hemlokgang

This book offers up one of the best coming of age stories I have read in a long time. Set in Rhodesia in the 1960s, a young woman from poverty finds opportunity due to her intellect, but also has to deal with the social ambiguities of being a British colony, as well as the oppressive expectations

for women in her culture. No small feat to navigate through this maze of development. The story is poignant, disturbing, and thought-provoking. An excellent read!

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LibraryThing member cestovatela

I made it about halfway through before giving up. The story of a determined, resourceful girl from a disadvantaged family continuing her education could have been a poignant one, but the writing style did it in. The narrator describes every one of her thoughts and feelings in exacting detail, so

the story plods along at a snail's pace. A couple of the peripheral characters interested me, but we learn about them through exposition and description rather than dynamic scenes that demonstrate their personalities. It's rare for me to give up on a book, but I just couldn't get into this one.

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LibraryThing member elogas

A touching story of a young girl who uses her strength and ambition to pull herself out of a perpetual circle of poverty and despair surrounding her people, Nervous Conditions held my unwavering attention until the last page. Dangarembga forces the reader to struggle along with her characters as

they try to find a balance between traditional cultures and values and those being pushed on them by western colonists, with out allowing it to destroy who they are.

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LibraryThing member Paula_Smith

Woman - women
Culture
Difference
mission - missionary - missionaries
tradition
escape
freedom
assimilation
struggle

These seven words jumped into my thoughts when I sat down at my kitchen table to attempt my first review of Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga. The time is set in Rhodeshia - Africa in

the 1960's. The author captures a young woman's desire to be "free." She relied on her uncle, Babamukuru,to help her gain her freedom by getting an education at his missionary school. This book is telling of the struggles of freedom, struggle, assimilation and strength woman of color face.
The order of the aforementioned words are not an accurate representation of the how the events occurred in the novel. However, I felt, first, strongly about the struggle of becoming a woman. For example, Babamukuru told Nayasha (his daughter), "you must learn to be obedient." This phrase caught my attention in how men of power and authority grapple with woman striving to be more for themselves and community. Although, Sisi does not get to until the end of the novel. It is presents day-by-day, little-by-little, woman gain strength in struggle.

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LibraryThing member whitewavedarling

Dangarembga's prose is smooth, and her characters are incredibly engaging. The further I got into this book, the more I was entralled with both the narrative and her style, and the book as a whole was so visual that even the most unfamiliar settings and situations were easy to visualize and

understand. As a coming-of-age story, and as a look into the torn consciousness of a young girl, this book really is something of a simple masterpiece. Absolutely recommended.

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LibraryThing member Dreesie

This is a heartbreaking novel about colonialization and the mission system. Those who play the game of the missionaries and are held up as examples carry a heavy weight--they must continue to please the missionaries (to keep their jobs), and they must serve their families as the head of the family.

A man like Babamukuru, as eldest son, had the responsibility as head of the extended family. As a graduate of mission schools and English universities, he can do that. But he has also lost the respect of his children, and of his extended family who seen him as their own personal bank.

I actually wish this novel were longer. I would love to know more about Tambudzai's mother, and how she came to be with her father. I would love to know if Jeremiah had always been so unreliable, or if he chose to coast on his brother's success. I would love to know more about Maiguru's education and job, and more about Nyasha's experiences in England. And I would like to know much of this is autobiographical? I want to know more, and to have the different experiences fleshed out more.

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LibraryThing member janeajones

The author was born in 1959, educated in Zimbabwe and England, and returned to Zimbabwe in 1980 with black majority rule. She studied medicine and psychology before turning to writing and filmmaking. The Book of Not: A Sequel to Nervous Conditions was published in 2006. The book's title comes from

an introduction to Fritz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth: "The condition of native is a nervous condition."

I remember the struggle for Zimbabwean independence from the apartheid rule of Ian Smith in the 1970s, and in the late 70s, the woman who cared for my baby while I was going to graduate school and teaching was the wife of a Zimbabwean graduate student at Columbia U. The characters in the novel are an extended family of the Shona tribe and speak Shona and English.

The major themes of the book are the displacement of identity under colonialism and the struggle for female autonomy in a patriarchal society. I found it quite an engrossing read and read it in two sittings. This is a moving rites of passage story about two teenage girls living in a time of cataclysmic change.

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LibraryThing member CarolynSchroeder

I chose to read this for a topic-based book club I run (1001 Books You Should Read Before You Die). I'm glad I did. It was a rare glimpse at a life few of us in the United States see or read about. The story, at its core, is one of Tambu, a young girl who scores one spot in a missionary school with

her Uncle (a missionary headmaster) and his family, after her brother dies. By Tambu's family's standards (they are quite poor), her Uncle's family is very wealthy and she quickly befriends her cousin Nyasha, recently returned from England, where she lived for 5 years. Tambu is a bright but very realistic young woman and we learn about both the joys and sorrows and limits of her culture, especially for women. Her sheer tenacity and intelligence get her out of poverty, but there is a cost. Her story is juxtaposed with Nyasha's life, which is "caught between two worlds", i.e., too African for the English and too English for the Africans. It is a sad, but sometimes hopeful story of two cultures clashing in 1960s Rhodesia, where race relations were strained at best (and remain so today per the Interview at the end of the novel). I enjoyed this book mostly for how much I learned about the people and Zimbabwe during that time. However, there is no discernable plot and the novel wanders all over the place. Some characters who are interesting come and go in a few pages. So I think it could have been developed more. But overall, Tambu is a great, strong woman and I liked reading her story even if it was rather disjointed.

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LibraryThing member roulette.russe

This is a coming of age book that features two great themes: being black in a segregated society (1960's Zimbabwe), and being a woman.
It is the story of young Tambu, who works on her parents' farm and dreams about going to school, like her older brother who lives with his 'anglicized' uncle at the

mission. She gets a chance at it when this brother dies and that her uncle decides that the second child of the family, although 'just a girl', could help lift her family from poverty if only she had the chance to go to school for a few years before getting married.

I found the book interesting at times and frustrating at others: the main character is very passive and uncritical of what happens around her, but the author describes every situation in great details. Sometimes I just couldn't help thinking the author was jumping to third person narration, and then realize that no, Tambu was still in the room and she was the describing what she was seeing.

This said, the 4 main female characters of this book are all very different and interesting, and in the author's own words, they represent different 'models' of African women and their attitude towards men, education, colonization, traditions, etc.

The book becomes metaphorical at times, like the final segment about the cousin becoming anorexic as a performance of 'rejecting' the colonial situation.

Overall, I found the book interesting but somehow a heavy read, in the sense that the author's style can at times become very dense, even if the book is not very long (200 pages). Worth the read but not a novel you pick up for entertainment, in my opinion.

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LibraryThing member akeela

A wonderful novel set in former Rhodesia during the ‘60s told from the perspective of the aspirant young Tambudzai, who gets the rare opportunity to acquire an education when her only brother dies. As the telling unfolds, we gain insight into a patriarchal system and the rigorous demands placed

on women, particularly Tambu, her mother, her uncle’s educated wife (she has a Master’s Degree obtained in England) and her cousin, Nyasha, who has a difficult time adapting to life in Rhodesia after being exposed, for a few years, to a totally different mindset in London. A worthwhile read.

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LibraryThing member clstaff

An excellent novel that explores issues of colonialism and feminism. Beautifully written and an interesting way to explore the early history of Zimbabwe.

LibraryThing member Michael_Godfrey

In a delightful. engrossing work exploring the complexities of a growing post-colonial self-consciousness from a mildly feminist perspective, Dangarembga creates characters that represent different facets of, different responses to the struggle to become a people and a person amidst the crumbling

of Imperialism. Perhaps not all the characters are as fully-fleshed as this reader would like, but in Nyasha, Babamukuru and above all Tambudzai there are satisfying, enriching portraits of some of the possible responses to a world emerging from Imperialism. To gain a 5 I would have like a little more "enfleshment:" of the lesser characters, but this was a magnificent and satisfying read.

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LibraryThing member Waianuhea

Beautiful writing. I became very attached to the main character/narrator. Also very angry at the stupid system the young girls had to go through. I learned a lot from this book.

A useful book for Americans to read, as it sheds light on a piece of the struggles young African women have to endure.

Educational in a way history books can't be because you experience events with the characters.

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LibraryThing member labfs39

I was not sorry when my brother died. Nor am I apologising for my callousness, as you may define it, my lack of feeling.

Thus begins this coming of age novel of Tambu, a young Zimbabwean girl straddling the divides between men and women, white and black, uneducated and educated, rural and urban,

European and African. From the first sentences, Tambu is presented as a strong person relating her story to an other that may not understand her. She makes no excuses and, although she is sharing her experiences, she does not feel a need to justify herself or her decisions. Her voice is quite unique.

Even as children, Tambu's older brother had assumed the role of a traditional, conservative male, feeling an innate superiority to his female siblings. This arrogance was reinforced when their Western-educated uncle chooses him to be educated at the missionary school where he is the headmaster. Tambu chafes at her brother's good fortune, for she is equally intelligent and ambitious. It is only after her brother dies, that her uncle takes her in to be educated.

Life in her uncle's house is revelatory. Indoor plumbing, kitchen appliances, and other accoutrements of a wealthy, Western-influenced home impress Tambu. She doesn't at first understand that her well-educated aunt is as entrapped by her womanhood as her poverty-stricken mother, or the reasons for her cousin Nyasha's rebellion. Slowly Tambu must grapple with the grey choices of escape from poverty by assimilating or remaining true to her village roots at the cost of her ambitions.

[Nervous Conditions] is the first in a trilogy of novels about Tambu. Although this first novel deals with issues of feminism and colonialism, it comes to no conclusions. In fact, that is part of what Tambu learns in this book: that the world is not clear-cut and that ambiguity clouds our choices. Although not as strongly written as [A Girl is a Body of Water] or [Woman at Point Zero], I enjoyed being immersed in Tambu's world and will look for the next book in the trilogy.

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LibraryThing member kaitanya64

The story of an African girl growing up in Zimbabwe. A great coming of age novel which deals with problems of gender and race in Africa as well.

LibraryThing member bookwormelf

The ending was too abrupt and I would have liked more detailed descriptions of school life. Overall the book was interesting and I don't regret reading it. Would I re-read it? Not really.

LibraryThing member Kristelh

This is part autobiographical novel of Tsitsi Dangarembga, who wrote this novel in her mid twenties. She is Shona and lives in Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) and tells of her efforts to obtain education and escape poverty. The epilogue states; "The condition of native is a nervous condition." taken

from an introduction to Fanon's The Wretched of the Eath. Its a great work of fiction with well developed characters. Ms Dangarembga does not use the book to speak about racisim or social commentary but shows it to us through the characters. Whites appear very little in this book. This is a book about male/female relationships in a patriarchal tribal family. Tambu's mother tells her "what will help you,my child, is to learn to carry your burdens with strength." The novel looks at what foreign influence and sexism has on this one tribal family. Their success is in how they learn to battle the burdens and disadvantages with strength.

I enjoyed the writing. This year has been my year for African women writings. I've read Half a Yellow Sun by Adichie, 5 stars and We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo (4 stars). I can recommend any of these as good reads.

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LibraryThing member RidgewayGirl

Back in the 1960s, when Zimbabwe was still called Rhodesia, a girl dreamed of a better life than ceaseless manual labor she sees her mother doing. She gets a few years in school, thanks to her uncle, a man with a degree who studied in the UK and who now supports an extended family. Her older

brother is the one who gets to continue with school, until a tragedy gives her an opportunity she is determined to make work for her.

This is the first book in a trilogy by Zimbabwean author Tsitsi Dangarembga and I'll certainly be continuing my journey with Tambu as she fights for the opportunities an education might bring her. This was a well-crafted book that did not feel like a debut. Dangarembga plays off of the difference between Tambu and her cousin, a girl her age who went with her family to England and grew up there, only to be brought back as a teenager and expected to fit back into a deeply patriarchal and hierarchical society, which she finds impossible to do. The novel gives a glimpse of what life was like then for an ordinary Rhodesian, the enormous gap between the Black population and the colonists, and the enormous resiliency and tenacity of one girl.

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LibraryThing member mermind

I read this book avidly. Dangaremba writing is precise and engaging. The plot is compelling. Her characters are so vivid and individual. It is one of the best novels I've read in a long time. Somehow she seamlessly sews together a coming of age story in all its universality with a story that also

elaborates on the condition of indigenous people's living under colonialism. Right now, when these issues of justice and oppression are rising again to public attention, it felt particularly enlightening.

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