Book Review: Tsitsi Dangarembga's 'Nervous Conditions'
“I was not sorry when my brother died”. When a book starts like that, you can only wonder what’s going to happen next. Nervous Conditions is the story of Tambu, a young girl in colonial Rhodesia (present-day Zimbabwe), and her quest to educate herself. Throughout her childhood, Tambu longed to learn but was hampered by the men in her life - her father, Jeremiah, who felt education was wasted on women, as women couldn’t cook books, and her brother, Nhamo, who treated her badly and found it funny that she longed to go to school. She finally gets her chance, when her brother’s death leads her uncle Babamukuru, to sponsor her education in the missionary school where he is a headmaster. Here, Tambu is introduced to an affluent and more western lifestyle and finally gets the education she longs for. But her new life with Babamukuru is far from rosy and through her thoughts we get a glimpse into her education, her life and her view on gender and society.
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