Nervous Conditions Paper

"Pass the Brainwash Please, On Second ThoughtÐ'..."

"Quietly, unobtrusively and extremely fitfully, something in my mind began to assert itself, to question things, and to refuse to be brainwashedÐ'..." The main character, Tambudzai, in the novel Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga, is determined to get a white education without losing her native tongue and ways. However this proves to be more difficult that she would expect and seeds that are planted in her mind by the whites begin to take shape, and greatly affect her existence. I will begin by giving an overview of the story leading up to the point where Tambu heads off to begin her education at the missionary school. Next I show how Tambu has already been brainwashed into believing that the white's educational system is better than her own. Following I will discuss the influences that Tambu had to overcome in order to refuse to be brainwashed further. Finally I will give exam to the insight that Tambu's story offers on the situation of a person in her position.

Tambu, as we shall call her, wants very badly to attain an education. Since her brother is the oldest and male he is given the first opportunity to attain an education. Because Tambu is a female it is thought by her family that attaining an education would not benefit her family, but some other man outside of her family, because she will marry, therefore she is not given an opportunity to be educated. Tambu fights this oppression by cultivating mealies in her grandmother's old garden, and then taking them to the city to be sold. While there she is told by a white woman that she should be in school, and her teacher who was with her states that Tambu would very much like an education but can not afford it. The woman gives Tambu ten pounds which pays for her education at the local village school for a long time. Her brother then dies, creating a opening for a student from their family at the missionary school where her uncle Babamukuru is the headmaster. Since she has no more male siblings at the time it is okay for Tambu to be educated. Tambu's education is now of some value since her brother is gone, as it will help pull the family further out of poverty since a higher education will allow her to marry well. Tambu believes that her education will help her family, although she hopes it will be independent from marriage.

Because of her desire to help her family and to escape poverty Tambu does not stop to question in the beginning whether she has been brainwashed. It is not until later in the novel that Tambu realizes that she had been brainwashed to believe that the white educational system was better than her villages black education system, and that the white ways are better than her villages' ways. This is reflected in her uncle Babamukuru, who is looked upon as a being of higher status by those in African culture because he is educated, but his education taught him white ideas, therefore his transformation from African to white caused other blacks to view him as being higher up then they are. Tambu wants badly to help her family escape poverty, but does not realize that they only way to do that is to follow the white's ideas outlined for her throughout her education. She wants to be able to avoid conforming to the cultural ideas held by the whites, all the while using their education to get ahead. However the avoidance of brainwashing is not as simple as she thinks.

Tambu decided that she did not want to be brainwashed like her brother. Tambu first noticed the effect that brainwashing had on her brother Nhamo when he returned on school vacation to their homestead. She disapproved of her brother because he renounced the family life, as he had been brainwashed to believe that since there standard of living did not meet the expectations of a white standard of living then their standard of living must be bad. Nhamo shows increasing contempt for manual labor. He also shows a new inherent dislike towards and disrespect of the women in his family. Each time Nhamo came home he knew less Shona, their native tongue. Tambu was determined that when she went away to the missionary school she would not fall into the same trap as her brother. She refused to be brainwashed into believing that her families ways of life, and their language were wrong. Tambu was not going to allow all the riches that her uncle had to go to her head. "Some strategy had to be devised to prevent all this splendor from distracting me in the way what by brother had been distracted (69)."

Tambu does not realize that the education she would receive at the mission school would come with a non-monetary price. When Tambu is reflecting back on her time at the mission she realizes that she was already brainwashed into believing that white ideas and education were better even before she got there. She subconsciously wanted to attain this status of white education because she saw the way that her uncle was treated by those in her family. Her uncle Babakuru was treated as an individual of higher status due to his education. However it follows that his education taught him how to transcend being black, and that being white, and having white customs is better. All these idea are subconsciously seen by Tambu. Her uncle's education brings us to the missionaries who are viewed as mini-deities. At first she does not see the whites as trying to change her over to their ways but instead as nice people who are providing her with incredible opportunity. In the beginning Tambu views the missionaries as being "right" and craves the knowledge that they have to give her. She heads with big aspirations towards the missionary school thankful that they have provided her with the opportunity to learn right, which just happen to be white, ideas. What she does not see directly is the effect that a white, English education will have on her. She has been brainwashed because she believes that a white English education is better than the education she would received within her hometown culture.

Tambu