Lessons from a young fighter
This month I decided to review a novel that, I believe, best deals with the issues young women who dream of making a name for themselves face.
Nervous Conditions
By Tsitsi Dangarembga
This month I decided to review a novel that, I believe, best deals with the issues young women who dream of making a name for themselves face. That is, the limitations placed by patriarchal structures in society. Although published in 1989, this story and the messages it brings forward still rings true for most African young women.
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It has been said that the opening line of a book is often that which best encapsulates the mood of the story. It provides the reader with that first glimpse at what they are to expect in the preceding pages. Dangarembga opens Nervous Conditions with the line: “I was not sorry when my brother died”. A line which jolts the reader into an exploration of what family means and the antagonistic nature that sexism within the family unit can create.
Nervous Conditions tell the story of Tambudzai, a bright young Zimbabwean girl who is denied the opportunity to go to school due to the limitations placed on her by the patriarchal nature of the society she is living in. It is only with the death of her brother that she is finally able to begin to realise her dreams. What this means for her however, is being catapulted into an environment so foreign from that of home that one wonders how she copes. It is only because of her fighting spirit and gently defiant nature that she is able to survive and thrive in her new environment.
The beauty of Dangarembga’s work is that she is able to perfectly weave in discussions of gender, the dangers of westernisation and the impact that that has had on the already strained African family unit. She challenges the reader to explore their own concepts of identity and how that shapes their daily interactions with others. She brazenly attacks the patriarchal structures present in Zimbabwean (and African) communities. Most importantly, what the reader takes away from the novel is a renewed sense of responsibility to ensure that they find the core of who they are. Once that core is found, one then has the added responsibility to remain true to that.
Dangarembga follows this amazing debut novel with another, The Book of Not (which was published in 2006). Be sure to read that one as well.
