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ENG2603ASSIGNMENT 1
2023
Due date:12 May 2023
, QUESTION 1: NERVOUS CONDITIONS BY TSITSI DANGAREMBGA
Nyasha grew weaker by the day. She weaved when she walked and every night was the same.
Although we were on vacation she studied fourteen hours a day to make sure that she passed her “O”
levels. She worked late into the night to wake me up regularly and punctually at three o’clock with a
problem—a chemical equation to balance, the number of amperes in a circuit to be calculated or an
irregular Latin verb to be conjugated, although I was only in form One and could not often help her. “I
have to get it right,” she would whisper with an apologetic smile. It was truly alarming, but nobody
commented, nobody acted; we were all very frightened. One evening, at supper, she passed out into
her plate…” (pp. 200-201)
Using the above quotation as a point of departure, in two paragraphs, discuss how Nyasha’s
anorexic condition, resulting from the extremism of both her self-induced vomiting and
perfectionism, is symbolic of the various attempts by some women in Nervous Condition to fight off
patriarchal and colonial oppression.
In Nervous Conditions, it should be noted that most of the women attempted to fight off colonial and
patriarchal with varying degrees of success, but they were all aware that there was a battle to be
fought. In the provided excerpt, Nyasha was explained to have studied fourteen hours a day even while
on vacation, just to make sure that she passed her ‘O’ levels. In the following paragraphs on page 200, it
was also explained that she passed out during dinner, possibly due to the combination of her extreme
anorexia and studying for long hours with a weak body. This is symbolic of the attempt to fight off
patriarchal oppression, as Nyasha must have thought that if she is able to get the perfect grade for her
‘O’ levels, the males in her family specifically her father would be able to consider her worthy of
occupying some male positions or acting in the capacity of a male. Nyasha’s attempt at perfectionism is
symbolic of the other women’s attempts because instead of just voicing out their desires and opinions,
they also made physical attempts (not as dangerous as Nyasha’s methods) to make sure not to succumb
to patriarchal and colonial norms. For example, apart from Nyasha, Tambu is another female character
who attempted to fight off patriarchal oppression by making the decision to be educated even though
the money and opportunity was not provided to her. Her parents were focused on using their money to
send Nhamo, her brother, to school instead of her. So, she decided to grow and sell vegetables to raise
the money to sponsor herself to school. One would observe that this move and decision by Tambu was
against the norms of patriarchy where women were not allowed or encouraged to go to school.
Maiguru who was Nyasha’s mother was another female character who attempted to fight off both
patriarchal and colonial oppression. She had to fight patriarchy in a different way as she was already
educated with a master’s degree in philosophy. In attempting to fight off patriarchal oppression, she at
different times, stood up against her husband in situations that supported women empowerment. For
example, she stood up against her husband and supported Tambu when she got accepted into convent
school, she also stood up against her husband after a gettogether, where she argued against the lack of
respect against her just because she is a woman, and after this, she left her husband to go live with her
son. Tambu’s grandmother also fought off colonial oppression by teaching Tambu the history of
women’s oppression in Zimbabwe. According to Tambu, these “history lessons,” which provide the basis
for her identity, would never appear in a colonial textbook. As previously mentioned, these women
fought off patriarchal and colonial oppression, and some attempts were not successful, but it did not
stop them from recognising their parts in stopping these oppressions in their own little ways.
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