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African Journal of History and Culture Vol. 4(3), pp. 27-36, April 2012Available online at http://www.academicjournals.org/AJHC
DOI: 10.5897/AJHC12.001
ISSN 2141-6672 ©2012 Academic Journals
Review
The formation of a hybrid identity in Tsitsi
Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions
Peiman Amanolahi Baharvand1* and Bahman Zarrinjooee2
1
Islamic Azad University, Boroujerd Branch, Iran.
2
Department of English Language and Literature, Islamic Azad University, Boroujerd Branch, Iran.
Accepted 30 January, 2012
Colonization was one of the bitterest phenomena during the nineteenth and the first half of the
twentieth century. Imperial powers colonized some particular territories and plundered their capital.
Beside economic damages, the colonizers obliterated local cultures of their colonies and imposed new
ideologies on native people. Western cultural hegemony resulted in the formation of a new hybrid
identity in the colonized natives. This article investigates Tsitsi Dangarembga's Nervous Conditions
(1988) through a postcolonial approach. Nervous Conditions relate the double suffering of females in
Southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, a former colony of Britain. Rhodesia was a settler colony where the
whites’ minority deposed local rulers late in the nineteenth century and began to administer the
territory. The main discussion of this paper consists of two sections. The first part analyses gender
discrimination as a great obstacle for women in the colonized Rhodesia, and the second part deals with
racial discrimination practiced by colonizers, as well as the identity crisis experienced by the natives.
Since colonization is one of the consequences of imperialism and postcolonial literature examines its
consequences, this article begins with a brief introduction regarding postcolonial literature and British
imperialism followed by a short background of Rhodesia.
Key words: Nervous Conditions, postcolonial literature, imperialism, racial and gender discrimination, identity
crisis.
INTRODUCTION
Postcolonial literature is one of the most controversial 2. The journey of the European outsiders through an
branches in the realm of literature. In general, unfamiliar wilderness with a native guide,
postcolonial literature refers to the works concentrating 3. Othering (the colonizers treatment of members of the
on the impacts of colonization in the former colonies indigenous culture as less fully human) and colonial
following their independence. However, majority of critics oppression in all its forms,
develop this simple definition to be more comprehensive, 4. Mimicry (the attempt of the colonized to be accepted
because a noticeable body of postcolonial literature by imitating the dress, behavior, speech, and the lifestyle
encompasses the period preceding the independence of of the colonizers),
the colonized countries. Therefore, we should seek out 5. Exile (the experience of being an ''outsider'' in one's
more details about the areas of interest regarding this own land or a foreign wanderer in Britain),
subject. Lois Tyson clarifies the ''overlapping topics'' of 6. Post-independence exuberance followed by
postcolonial literature as follows: disillusionment,
7. The struggle for individual and collective cultural
1. The native people's initial encounter with the colonizers identity and the related themes of alienation,
and the disruption of indigenous culture, unhomeliness (feeling that one has no cultural ''home'', or
sense of cultural belonging), double consciousness
(feeling torn between the social and psychological
demands of two antagonistic cultures ), and hybridity
*Corresponding author. E-mail: amanolahi1984@yahoo.com. (experiencing one's cultural identity as a hybrid of two or
Tel: 09163616396, 06614201547. Fax: 06616200133. more cultures),
, 28 Afr. J. Hist. Cult.
8. The need for continuity with a pre-colonial past and to help them put away the world of barbarity. This is why
self-definition of the political future (Tyson, 2006). some characters in Nervous Conditions are so interested
in colonizers and try to imitate them. Nevertheless, the
Since no postcolonial literary work can include such a degree of vulnerability of characters in the face of
vast variety of topics, every writer usually tries to limit Western hegemony is not the same.
his/her work to one or two of the subjects mentioned By representing the disruptive influence of colonization
above. Tsitsi Dangarembga's Nervous Conditions, in over the local Rhodesians, Tsitsi Dangarembga unravels
which the author clearly shows the destructive impacts of females’ status in a colonized society. She chooses a
colonization on the indigenous people in Southern female as the protagonist of her novel in order to show
Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, focuses mainly on the that women are doubly colonized in the colonized African
oppression of females as well as the formation of the society. Actually, they are marginalized both by
hybrid identity in this territory. As depicted in this novel, patriarchal ‘norms’ and racism. Dangarembga shows the
the British Empire imposes its cultural practices on the suffering of women in Rhodesia through the depiction of
natives to the extent that they willingly and unwillingly Tambudzai’s, the protagonist, ordeal in rising to the
forget Shona, their native language, and endeavor to status of an educated woman. Tambudzai gets it in two
speak English in order to indicate their social prestige. ways. On the one hand, she suffers the horrible influence
The hegemony of the British Empire ruins the cultural of colonization and its resultant racial inequalities; on the
identity of the colonized people, and motivates them to other hand, she is subjugated by the patriarchy which is a
adopt a new identity. According to Edward Said, a serious obstacle for a female in African society. She is
leading postcolonial critic, the colonizers consider the not granted any chance to receive an education as long
colonized natives as barbarous and uncivilized whose as Nhamo, her elder brother, is alive. When Tambudzai
identity should be reshaped based on European norms. insists on enrolling at school, her father disillusions her
This is a strategy taken by the colonizers to justify their and says:
presence in the colonized countries. Likewise, the
indigenous people in Rhodesia are supposed to learn Can you cook books and feed them to your husband?
how to write and speak in English rather than Shona. Stay at home with your mother. Learn to cook and clean.
Accordingly, they begin to adopt Englishness in all its Grow vegetables (Dangarembga, 1988).
aspects from education to clothes and behavior. They
find themselves in an ambivalent ‘nervous condition’ after Since the incidents of Nervous Conditions take place in
the departure of colonizers. That is to say, they have a Rhodesia, and Rhodesia used to be a British colony, this
hybrid identity which is neither native Shona nor British. paper begins with a short history of the British Empire,
Edward Said’s arguments are the main source of especially concerning the colonization of Rhodesia, as
reference for revealing the true nature of imperialism and well as a brief background of Rhodesia. Following this
colonization. He is well known for his iconoclastic short description regarding the British Empire and the
ideologies regarding the reality of imperialism and the process which led to the independence of Southern
misleading depiction of the East in the Western texts. In Rhodesia under the name of Zimbabwe, this study
his Orientalism (1979) Edward Said says that Western investigates the detrimental impact of colonization on the
authors knowingly and unknowingly work as the agents of indigenous people in Rhodesia, especially on women.
the West to justify the presence of Europeans in the East.
They divide the world into two areas: the West and the
East, the former as the symbol of civilization and the DISCUSSION
latter that of barbarity. He argues in this way:
The emergence of Britain as an empire
Orientalism is a style of thought based upon ontological
and epistemological distinction made between the Orient The Act of Union between England and Scotland formed
and (most of the time) the Occident. Thus, a very large Great Britain in 1707. England had incorporated Wales to
mass of writers, among whom are poets, novelists, its territory through the Act of Union with Wales during
philosophers, political theorist, economists, and imperial the reign of Henry VIII. The next step was the subjugation
administrators have accepted the basic distinction of Ireland; therefore, England invaded Ireland in
between East and West as the starting point for numerous occasions at the turn of the seventeenth
elaborating the theories, epics novels, social descriptions, century under Elizabeth I, and occupied some Irish
and political accounts concerning the orient, its people, regions. According to John Mcleod, the gradual
customs, mind, destiny, and so on (Said, 1979). domination of England over Ireland began in 1601 as a
consequence of ‘defeat of Gaelic forces at the Battle of
Since the hegemony of West has a great domination over Kingsale’ (Mcleod, 2007) and was fully accomplished in
the mind of the colonized natives, most of them are 1801.
deceived into thinking that colonizers trouble themselves The industrial revolution contributed to the formation of
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