Colonization in Nervous Conditions

671 Words3 Pages
Thesis: Tambu saw the ill effects of colonization when those near her began to change their ways from what they were brought up with, to the new ways taught to them by the whites. In Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions, we are introduced to a character, Tambudzai (Tambu), who wants to attain an education from the foreigners, the white’s, without having to lose her own culture; including her native tongue. She thinks this can be done but as she sees later on, it is near impossible as two of her family members have been affected by the education system led by the whites. It was a norm that the oldest child in the family be given the opportunity to attain an education first and since her brother Nhamo was the oldest in the family, this privilege was given to him. Nhamo went to the missionary school and Tambu saw Tambu saw the way her brother Nhamo was brainwashed by attaining a white education and she decided she didn’t want that. She first noticed the change in him when he came home from school on vacation. Tambu noticed that Nhamo turned his back on family life, as he was taught that their (African) standard of living did not live up to the living standards of the whites, hence it must be bad. Furthermore, each time Nhamo returned home, he seemed to be forgetting Shona, their native language. Already, she was seeing her brother being affected by colonization. Another person in her family that she saw affected by the white education was her uncle. Babamukhuru. As a part of their lifestyle, the Africans believed in sex before marriage and this was solely to see if the women they were marrying were fertile so she could bear them children. But as Babamukhuru learned, this was not the right way, according to the whites. He came to Tambu’s parents and told them that they must get married and that they were living in sin. He further said that because of this
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