Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga is a book that is deceptively simple in its narration, but which is complex and sophisticated in its message. Set in Rhodesia before it became Zimbabwe, the tale is told from the point-of-view of a bright young Shona girl, Tambudzai, who is taken to live with her more affluent uncle, a headmaster in a missionary school. From the narrative and the detailed descriptions, one gets a witty and ironic look at the difference in the lifestyles on the homestead and in the mission. Dangarembga’s narration is sophisticated and embedded, we are made aware from the first that the tale is being told from an undetermined point in the future of our protagonist’s life. And so we get to see the events unfold though both the innocent eyes of a village girl and the more sophisticated views of a woman, influenced by European education.

This isn’t a book that sets out to answer all the questions raised by the influence of colonization in a simplistic dialectic; it does highlight the struggle on many levels, in competing values, and lifestyles, particularly what it means to be hybrid. The much-talked about disorder which is at the heart of the book is really a symptom for other things. I found the reading particularly significant because food is a part of so many communities, is tied in so significantly to what we attribute as culture and comfort. In this manner, food can become a weapon when forced upon a person or when withheld.

One of the most striking parts of the book for me was when Nyasha was at first turned down for psychiatric help because, of course “Africans do not suffer” such things as psychiatric problems. Which to me just brought home the fundamental misunderstanding that persists thanks to texts such as Hegel’s with regards to Africa. For such a slim book, the novel deals a hefty message; I appreciated the understated way in which events unfolded and yet with an uncompromising feeling of foreboding that paid off well with the plot’s resolution. A book that I will definitely read again so I can pick through the layers. And I can’t pay it a stronger compliment than that, really.

Note: Reviewed as part of the Africa Reading Challenge. My list of books to be read for this challenge is here.