Chapter/Plot Review of Nervous Conditions
By Ger’Shun Avilez (for an independent study with Carol West)
Chapter 1:
The narrator (Tambudzai) begins with a matter-of-fact assertion that she “was not
sorry” when her brother died, and she is not apologetic about this fact. Her brother
Nhamo was being educated at the mission that he their uncle (Babamukuru) ran.
Tambudzai (Tambu) describes Nhamo as actively seeking to distance himself from his
family and culture. Having experienced a life of prestige and advantage at the mission
school, Nhamo is no longer content with life on his “squalid” homestead. For example,
he insists that he be driven home from school in his uncle’s private car to avoid riding on
the public bus. He also takes every opportunity that he can to remind Tambu that he is a
male and, being so, deserves respect and power. He also reminds her that he is not
required to take part in “domestic” activities (“minding children is not part of a man’s
duty).
Here, Tambu’s father is introduced. He seems obsessed with prestige—although he
himself is not willing to work for it. His dialogue throughout the work seems to be one
long lamentation for the prestige that he does not have. In this first chapter Tambu
expresses the injustice that women face; it is evident that she will come to dislike the
members of her family (male and female) because they reinforce and perpetuate this
inequity.
Chapter 2:
Tambu’s uncle Babamukuru is described in more detail. Babamukuru is the patriarch
of Tambu’s family; he uses his success to support his entire family. He was sent to
England by the mission to be educated, and he and his family spent five years there. At
this point in the novel Tambu’s immediate family/household is running low on money.
Tambu’s parents reckon that they will not be able to afford to keep both Nhamo and
Tambu in school. Their mother sells vegetables in order to keep Nhamo in school
(because he is a male and the oldest.) Both his male and female elders place emphasis is
placed on his education. No one attempts to help Tambu. It is also interesting to note
that Tambu’s father Jeremiah does nothing to help either of his children in their
educational process.
This situation greatly frustrates Tambu, who begins to consider how she might end up
if she is not properly educated. She compares her mother, an uneducated woman, to her
aunt Maiguru (Babamukuru’s wife), an educated woman; Tambu decides that she would
rather be like her aunt than her mother. She devises a plan to raise money to pay her
school fees, but this plan is thwarted by Nhamo’s cruelty and his desire to prevent his
sister from being educated. It is only through Mr. Matimba’s (an African School teacher)
assistance that Tambu is able to get the necessary money to continue her education. This
chapter ends with Babamukuru’s exultant return from England. His presence allows
Tambu to further explore her father’s character: Jeremiah seems to prefer begging to
working, and he embodies a patriarchal and sexist force in Tambu’s life.
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Chapter 3:
Tambu comments on her relationship to her cousin Nyasha (Babmukuru’s daughter),
who has been strongly influenced by Western culture. Tambu recognizes that a change
has occurred in Nyasha, and she says that she misses the “bold, ebullient” comrade that
Nyasha used to be. Babamukuru also announces that Nhamo is to come back with him to
attend the mission school. Tambu finds Nhamo seems to have trouble speaking Shona
when he returns home from the mission. This inability to speak frustrates Tambu’s
mother greatly. She blames the mission for this transformation in her son, and she began
to worry about his well-being there. Her fears seemed to have been substantiated in
Nhamo’s mysterious death. Babamukuru decides that Tambu will take Nhamo’s place as
the member of her family to be educated. She feels completely “vindicated.”
Chapter 4:
Tambu arrives at her uncle’s home, and she finds that she cannot help but compare it
to her own home. Over and over again she describes her uncle’s home as very clean.
She seems enamored by the apparent cleanliness of the home. This obsession is
embodied in her own constant desire to take baths. Tambu gladly welcomes many of the
European aspects of life (like underwear and dresses), but her cousin Nyasha does not
seem as excited about life at the mission home. Nyasha is very rebellious and
independent. She often talks back to her parents and reads book that they find
“unacceptable.” Tambu finds that Nyasha is very unhappy at her home, but she (Tambu)
cannot understand why she (Nyasha) is so.
Chapter 5:
Tambu and Nyasha get to know each other better as they spend more time together; in
fact, they become very close. Tambu says that her relationship with Nyasha is her “first
love affair” because she has grown fond of her although she doesn’t completely approve
of her and her actions. However, Tambu finds that very few students at the school like
Nyasha; they think that she acts “white” (interestingly enough everyone likes Tambu).
She also begins to notice that Nyasha is obsessed with her image and her weight. Tambu
also becomes officially accepted into the family through a ceremony that emphasizes
etiquette and custom. Tambu’s great admiration for Maiguru is also expressed, but
Tambu begins to recognize that she (Maiguru) has had to make sacrifices in her life that
have greatly affected her.
Chapter 6:
Tambu’s education at her new school is beginning to have an affect upon her: she
thinks that the white students are more beautiful than African students (the light and dark
imagery and the diction of the passage greatly support this idea). Babamukuru and
Nyasha get into a physical fight. He believes that she behaved inappropriately by talking
to a boy alone in the dark outside. He condemns her to whoredom (making her a victim
of her gender), and beats her. She refuses to accept the beating and punches him. Tambu
watches all of this and makes an important realization: the victimization of women is
universal; it is not simply an aspect of the life that she left behind in her homestead. She
also must reconfigure the image that she had of her uncle, a man whom she greatly
admired. Tambu later muses over Nyasha’s life because she has been exposed to all
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aspects of it: her mother, her father, and her school experience. This consideration of
Nyasha causes Tambu to realize the difficulties that Nyasha must deal with in her life,
and she decides to try and help her cope with these problems.
Chapter 7:
Tambu goes home to visit her family after having spent time at Babmukuru’s home.
Maiguru did not want to return home to the family’s homestead because there she must
fully acknowledge that although she has been more successful than most other
Zimbabwean women, she is treated no differently than any other woman. She and the
children must do most of all of the work (particularly cooking) for the entire family. By
this point one also sees that Tambu demonstrates particular preferences to the mission life
vis-à-vis the life of the homestead (preferring eggs and bacon to bread and margarine).
Tambu’s mother resents Maiguru because she associates her son’s death with this
woman. She also blames Maiguru for the “loss” of her daughter Tambu. She refers to
her as a witch.
Tambu’s aunt Lucia (her mother’s sister) also plays a strong role on this return home.
Lucia is considered a “wild woman” because she refuses to be controlled by any man and
she is defiant and strong-willed even in her interactions with men. She finds that she has
become pregnant by a young man named Takesure, whose presence on the homestead
seems to have been caused by his desire to hide from his other two wives. Lucia
recognizes this weakness in Takesure and accredits her child to Jeremiah (Tambu’s
father)—Jeremiah had slept with Lucia, but apparently not until after she was pregnant.
Upon returning home, Babamukuru see the homestead in much disarray. He attributes all
of the problems that are occurring to the fact that Jeremiah and his wife never having had
a “church wedding,” and he decides that they are to have one.
Chapter 8:
Tambu feels terribly conflicted about her parents wedding. It seems wrong and
unnecessary to her, but she feels as if she must obey the proclamation of Babamukuru (as
they all must). She wants to spend more time with Nyasha because she (Tambu) feels
that she (Nyasha) can understand such anguish. Although she does not agree with it,
Tambu’s mother simply accepts the reality of her impending wedding. She believes that
all women must suffer, and she has suffered for all of her married life; this wedding is
simply a small aspect of her continual struggle in a man’s world. She tells her sister
Lucia that what women want never has and never will matter.
Babamukuru gets Lucia a job working at a hostel. Although Lucia had been
characterized as being wild and independent, she becomes dependent upon Babamukuru,
which is symbolically rendered through her obeisance. In fact, all the women kneel to
him and speak his praise, except Nyasha and Tambu. Tambu attempts to join in the
praise, but she is quickly halted by Nyasha, who sought to prevent unnecessary hero
worship of her father. After beginning her job, Lucia also begins school. Tambu finds
that she is unable to attend the wedding, and she runs away after school instead of going
to the wedding (defying her uncle). Maiguru finds the confidence to express her
unhappiness to her husband and leaves him to go live with her brother. Nyasha finds that
she misses her mother, but she also wants her to stay away from their home for her
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(Maiguru’s) own happiness. Babamukuru, however, collects his wife from her brother’s
home, and they return together.
Chapter 9:
Tambu becomes obsessed with her education and “loses track” of Nyasha as it were.
Leaving Nyasha behind, Tambu goes to a new school (Sacred Heart) at a convent.
Tambu’s mother is against this new school; she believes that her daughter will be
negatively affected by the insidious “white ways” of the convent. Tambu is warned by
many not to forget anyone; however, she cannot understand how she could ever forget
her family or friends. Nyasha’s earlier obsession with her image has transformed into an
eating disorder: bulimia. She seems very sad about Tambu’s leaving because in many
ways Tambu was the only emotional outlet that she had.
Chapter 10:
Two years have passed since Tambu left for the convent, and she describes her
experiences at the convent. She often feels segregated by the racism of the
administration. Very little has changed at Babmukuru’s home: he is still in complete
control and Nyasha has no one to whom she can relate. Nyasha often stays up very late
at night studying, and she does not appear healthy. She has been taken to a psychiatrist,
but he claims that Africans were unable to be ill in that way that Nyasha is ill. This
worries Tambu very much. She cannot help but wonder how she will be able to make it
in the world when Nyasha “who had everything” is unable to survive. She says that
something began to “grow” inside her that made her begin to question the world around
her (and its assumptions) and herself. She says that it was a painful process, but in telling
her story she has been able to make realizations about herself and the world. Tambu says
that her story has not only been about her, but rather about herself and four women that
she loved very much: Nyasha, Maiguru, Lucia and her mother (Ma’Shingayi).