Nervous Conditions, a construction novel by Tsitsi Dangarembga, focuses on the life and education of Tambu, a young girl living in Rhodesia. After the death of his brother, Tambu leaves his farm to go on a mission with his uncle and his wealthy and educated family. As colonialism spreads across Rhodesia, Tambu's gender roles constantly change. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay This article will use history, literary criticism, and textual evidence from Nervous Conditions to examine the early effects of colonialism on Tambu's gender roles and oppression. The historical account, titled “Patriarchy, Capitalism, and the Colonial State in Zimbabwe,” by Elizabeth Schmidt, published by the University of Chicago, discusses how colonialism and patriarchy were used to control women in Zimbabwe. The article focuses on women's views and how capitalism has helped shape gender roles. “A Dialectic of Autonomy and Community: The Nervous Conditions of Tistsi Dangarembga” by Lindsay Pentolfe Aegerter of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington is literary criticism explaining how nervous conditions provide the story of a group that was “silenced, evaded, and ignored in the colonial equation” (Pentolfe Aegerter 232). The article discusses Tambu's need for independence and what she learns while seeking it. By examining two specific experiences before Tambu began his life at the mission, we can see how colonialism and oppression permeate his life. While she lives on the farm, colonialism affects her education and independence. In one day of living with Babamukuru's family, colonialism has already changed Tambu's path to education. How does colonialism affect Tambu's gender roles and the oppression she experiences before being completely submerged in her new life? According to Schmidt's article, "the home, as well as the international economy, has been a fundamental site of gender stratification, and thus of the oppression of African women" (Schmidt 733-4). This is seen when Tambu's father comments on her love of reading: "Can you cook books and give them to your husband?" Stay home with your mother. Learn to cook and clean. Grow vegetables” (Dangarembga 15). Her father has a traditional view of women. Believing that women are best suited to work for the family, he rejects his daughter's desire to learn while his son is still alive. African women were “better” controlled when they were dependent on their husbands’ access to land and income (Schmidt 738). They were considered “good mothers” when they stayed at home with their children who were unable to earn money (Schmidt 739). This colonial vision resonates in the text: My mother said that being black was a burden because it made you poor, but Babamukuru was not poor. My mother said that being a woman was a burden because you had to have children and take care of them and your husband. But I didn't think it was true... I decided it was better to be like Maiguru, who wasn't poor and hadn't been crushed by the weight of womanhood. Dangarembga 16Tambu's ability to see the changes taking place within his family is evident. . She does not believe that she should stay at home to let herself be “crushed by the weight of femininity” (Dangarembga 16). Tambu's desire to learn leads her to distance herself from indigenous gender roles. She sees the example ofher uncle and aunt who are both rich, educated and black and realizes that she can also achieve what they have if she works alone, which gives her the idea of ​​growing corn. Tambu, in his quest for education. , asks her parents for seeds so she can “clear [her] own field and grow [her] own corn… just enough to pay [school] fees” (Dangarembga 17). Imitating what she learned from her grandmother, who was "an inexorable cultivator of the earth, sower of seeds and reaper of rich harvests...until the very last moment", Tambu worked in her grandmother's garden and took care of his corn (Dangarembga 17). In Rhodesia, “women's work generated food crops and guaranteed continued access to lineage lands” (Schmidt 735). While Tambu's grandmother and mother were busy cultivating crops for the family, Tambu found her own way to change the normal gender role and avoid oppression. She worked in her family's fields for their benefit. As she went to sell the corn, Tambu questions everything she doesn't understand and it "became clear to her that she had no choice but to sell her corn and move on." at school” (Dangarembga 27). Tambu worked for no one's benefit but his own; she worked around the fact that her family didn't have enough money for her education. Tambu was no longer “dependent” on her father’s “access to land and monetary income” (Schmidt 738). She separated to earn her own money to support herself and momentarily overcomes her father's patriarchal oppression. Pentolfe Aegerter discusses the change that occurs due to Tambu's choices: Although [Tambu] strives for the autonomy that his father's family denies him, an exclusive focus on his individuality negates the communal ethic of his family and his culture and risks adopting Western customs which favor the individual. on her community.Pentolfe Aegerter 235Tambu seeks to become more independent, but this changes her relationship with her family and community. She moves away from the traditional role of valuing the community over herself and works alone for individual gain instead of working for the benefit of her family. Whereas “control of women’s and children’s labor by older African men was central to the establishment and consolidation of the colonial system.” in Southern Rhodesia,” this was not the only way to subordinate women (Schmidt 734). By mixing indigenous and European structures of patriarchal control, new structures of domination were created (Schmidt 734). This “new structure of domination” is visible when Babamukuru speaks with Tambu the night of his arrival (Schmidt 734). After the death of Tambu's brother, she "becomes the equivalent of the firstborn male, [by] inheriting his privileges as a means of escaping sexism" and moves in with Babamukuru (Pentolfe Aegerter 235). Babamukuru calls Tambu to talk to her and she is sure not to sit “so disrespectfully near her uncle” (Dangarembga 87). She follows traditional rules regarding patriarchy so as not to disrespect her uncle. Babamukuru considers himself Tambu's "father" and "takes time away from [his] work to speak to [Tambu] as a father should speak to a child" (Dangarembga 88). Filled with gratitude, Tambu realizes "the magnitude of the sacrifice" that Babamukuru made to pick her up from the farm because "the work he had missed... was the work that paid for [his] school and bought the food that he she [she] was eating at his place” (Dangarembga 88). Babamukuru makes sure Tambu understands what he went through so she can benefit from it. Ina new form of oppression, Babamukuru makes Tambu feel like she owes him a debt. This forces Tambu to feel that she must do well in school and be a good person in order to reward Babamukuru for her generosity. Babamukuru explains to Tambu the many benefits of his munificence:...Babamukuru had summoned me to make sure I knew how lucky I was to have had this opportunity for mental emancipation and ultimately, through it, material. He emphasized that the blessing I had received was not an individual blessing but extended to all the less fortunate members of my family, who could rely on me in the future as they now depended on him… to the mission. Not only would I go to school, but I would learn methods and habits that would make my parents proud of me. I was an intelligent girl but I also had to become a good woman, he said... Dangarembga 89Babamukuru exercises his patriarchal control over Tambu through his discussions with his son. He tells Tambu that his actions will help him liberate himself through the knowledge and wealth that education will bring him thanks to his generosity. While Babamukuru says Tambu is a “smart girl,” her support will make her a “good woman” (Dangarembga 89). The traditional idea of ​​a “good woman” is changing; While women were once expected to stay at home to raise a family, Babamukuru's idea of ​​a "good woman" is influenced by colonialism. He helps make Tambu a “good woman” by providing her with a good education that will make her rich, allowing her to provide for the poorer members of her family. Before moving in with Babamukuru, “Tambu [is] determined to escape her family's sexism. father and the poverty that is the lingering legacy of colonization for rural Africans...", but while living with Babamukuru, she learns that "escaping her father's sexism...is no escape at all" ( Pentolfe Aegerter 234). Patriarchal power has transformed and is beginning to change Tambu. Forced to rely on Babamukuru for support, she feels obligated to succeed to show her gratitude for the help and in order to help her family in the future. She no longer seeks to learn for herself; she seeks knowledge to help and reward her family. Tambu's quest for independence and education changes the type of oppression she experiences and her gender roles. Tambu thinks that the self she “expected to find during the mission would take some time to appear,” but Tambu begins to change before she has spent a week living with her uncle (Dangarembga 86). Colonialism began to alter Tambu's gender roles when she grew and sold her own corn in order to pay for her education. While his father's patriarchal and monetary control was still intact, Tambu found a way to work for his individual benefit. Once she moved in with Babamukuru's family, Tambu became a victim of new patriarchal power and gender expectations. Expected to do well in school out of gratitude for her uncle's sacrifices, Tambu's education is necessary to help her family in the future. Colonialism forces Tambu's independent nature to change; her education is no longer just for her. Tambu is forced to mix new and old ideas about gender roles. She draws on ancient traditions, such as respecting one's male elders, and allows access to education from colonialism to make one's new gender role. She draws on a desire to work for the community and her family while seeking to pursue an education to help them in the future. Because “the autonomy of African women is based on and is inseparable from their place within.