Annika Van Eeden Essay Nervous Conditions

Annika van Eeden

18195717

Nervous Conditions essay

An excellent alternative title for Nervous Conditions would be Inequality, an infectious disease because in the novel Nervous Conditions there is a very strong theme of the pervasiveness of gender inequality.

In the beginning of the novel the reader reads that there were enough money raised for Nhamo, Tambu’s brother , to go to school and receive an education. There were never an option for Tambu to have gone because she is female and that meant that the male would get the option of education first, thus she decided to grow and sell vegetables to raise money so she can pay school fees herself.

Nhamo is mean and keeps taunting Tambu about the fact that he gets to go to school and receive and education and she does not. Tambu is very understanding towards her Shona tradition but also wishes to break free from the harsh limitations of being a woman.

After Nhamo died, only then did Tambu receive the opportunity to replace Nhamo to go to the mission school.

Another instance in the novel where inequality is seen against females are where Babamukuru’s wife, Maiguru, is expected to cook and clean during the entire time when the extended family visits during the school vacation. There is absolutely no reason why the wife has to clean up after everyone since everyone in the family is capable of helping and cleaning after themselves. Maiguru also an highly educated person as her husband, Babamukuru, who earns her own living as an educator, is soon to be seen as a traditional domestic lady as soon as they return to the homestead for the holiday.

Babamukuru, the man who is in charge most of the times during the novel also insists on having Tambu go to her parents’ wedding but when she refuses he punishes her by giving her a hiding and forcing her to do the maid’s duties for two weeks.

Babamukuru is an authoritarian figure, but uses his power to improve his family’s lives but not because of love, because he feels it is his duty as the leader of the family.

In chapter 2 of the novel Ma’Shingayi, Tambu’s mother says ‘ And these days it is worse, with poverty of blackness on one side and the weight of womanhood on the other. Aiwa! What will help you, my child, is to learn to carry your burdens with strength.’