The Picture of African Women in Nervous Condition Novel

The Picture of African Women in Nervous Condition Novel Nervous Condition is a novel written by Tsitsi Dangarembga. It told a story about Tambu and Nyasha life in a family which is seeing the western culture as something that is really important in their life. This a story of Tambu Struggle against the patriarchal tradition in their family. The story starts with the picture of Tambu who is unmoved by his brother death. During her moment of solitude she starts to recall the events that leading up to his brother’s death. Because of sudden deaths of his brother she was chosen then to become the next person in the family to have an education. At first she is so happy because finally she can taste education. But after a lot of events that happens in the family and leading up to the bad condition that happen to Nyasha and the rest of the family. The novel is actually pictured the feminist tradition that has been happening in Africa for a long period of time. The author does not merely describe women 's experiences and leave them there; neither does she simply describe the socialization of women into their roles. Rather she depicts some women who try to protest against their usual socially accepted roles while others engage in a debate on how they are being used or misused by the men-folk. The two woman that is best to picture the feminist condition and situation in Africa is Tambu’s mother and Tambu itself. Both of them are representing two different mindset with their own positive and negative side. Actually the novel Nervous Condition is a novel that tells the story of the African women that are pictured by those two women characters. One of them is representing the idea of preserving the old African culture without any means of changing it, and one of them is picturing the idea of accepting western culture in order to keep up with the development of the world while trying to preserve the old African culture and cutting any unnecessary tradition that is proofed

References: Dangarembga Tsitsi. Nervous Condition. Ayebia Clarke Publishing, Oxfordshire. 1988 Gayle Greene and Coppelia Kahn. 'Feminist scholarship and the social construction of woman ', in Gayle Greene and Coppelia Kahn (eds.), Making a Difference: Feminist Literary Criticism. London and New York. Methuen. 1985 Stone, E. Kim. “In the Bedroom: The Formation of Single Women 's Performative Space in Tsitsi Dangarembga 's Nervous Conditions.” The Journal of Commonwealth Literature 41.111 (2006). 23 Oct. 2008