Tsitsi Dangarembga

Award winning author, Tsitsi Dangarembga was born in 1959 in Bulawayo, Rhodesia. Her early childhood was spent in England but later returned home and began to study in missionary schools. Returning to England, she studied medicine at Cambridge University, just to go back home and begin her psychology degree at the University of Zimbabwe. Today she writes as a scriptwriter, consultant and film director. Tsitsi Dangarembga’s work focuses on the unfortunate oppression of women in African societies,

Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga “Quietly, unobtrusively and extremely fitfully, something in my mind began to assert itself, to question things, and to refuse to be brainwashed…” The main character, Tambudzai, in the novel Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga, is determined to get a white education without losing her native tongue and ways. However this proves to be more difficult that she would expect and seeds that are planted in her mind by the whites begin to take shape, and

During the 1960’s disproportionate gender roles characterized post-colonial Rhodesia. The African patriarchy described in Tsitsi Dangarembga’s acclaimed novel, Nervous Conditions, promotes feminist theory through the portrayal of marginalized women in Zimbabwe. Regardless of class or social prowess, women were not permitted the same liberties and regarded with the same respect as their male counterparts. Women found themselves relegated to the positions of household servants, and excluded from the

colonized African country. Narrated through the eyes of young Tambu, the story is told with child-like simplicity about her and her family fighting to survive in a complex world of Imperialism, racism, and class and gender inequality. In hindsight, Dangarembga allows the protagonist's narrative to slowly unravel the meaning of her and her family's struggle with their assimilation into the strange and powerful culture of their rulers. The wealth of her uncle Babamukuru coupled with the

associated with modernity while tradition concerned itself with African cultures and/or histories, the latter often given less value, while Western knowledge was seen as the obvious path to success and advancement in life. In Nervous Conditions, Tsitsi Dangarembga presents this dichotomic association and exposes its toxicity through her main female characters’ journeys. In the book, Tambu is plucked from her family with the opportunity of a colonial education and she is aware from the start that these

Nervous Conditions written by Zimbabwean author Tsitsi Dangarembga is a rather complex novel that communicates a plethora of implicit and explicit messages about complexities surrounding sex, class and gender. It is a story told from the perspective of Tambudzai(Tambu), an impoverished teen whom, as a result of the passing of her brother Nhamo, gets the opportunity to receive an education under the roof of her Uncle Babamukuru. While living with her uncle Babamukuri, the headmaster of the mission

2017 Hegemonic Masculinity, Gender, and Post-Colonialism in Nervous Conditions In Tsitsi Dangarembga’s novel, Nervous Conditions, she tells the story of the relationships of the Shona people in Africa with each other as well as the colonists who have imposed British way of life. The female characters throughout the novel struggle to find identity because of the hegemonic masculinity that oppresses them. However, some of the female characters like Tambu, the narrator are able to break out

In the novel Nervous Conditions, Tsitsi Dangarembga explores the concepts of power and oppression. Speaking up about oppression can liberate a person, so the people in charge do not want the oppressed to speak up. In Nervous Conditions, males have much more dominance in life than females. Maiguru, Nyasha, and Lucia all attempt to stand up for themselves against oppression, with little success. Dangarembga develops the characters Maiguru, Nyasha, and Lucia in order to convey how speaking out against

The ways that the colonized and the colonizers view each other in Nervous Conditions are very different. The novel by Tsitsi Dangarembga states the realities of living in colonial Africa, focusing on Rhodesia, during the 1960’s. The white minority is educated into thinking that their purpose of coming to Africa was to help the native people. They are taught to think that they are better than the blacks, and that they must educate these natives to be more like them. The way the two groups view each

ENG2603 Assignment 01 Unique number: 723061 UNISA student number: 57342709 2 Context Cover page: page 1 Context page: page 2 Question Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga: page 3 to page 6 Bibliography: page 7 Plagiarism report: page 8 3 Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga I will be discussing African traditional and westernized lifestyles in relation to the book Nervous Conditions. I will be concentrating on the female characters and their encounters