Essay_on_Nervous_Conditions

The Worst Hardship Out of the many parts of westernization and colonization, one group of people were the worst off. That group of people is those that used the westernization to try to help their families to come out of their dire straits and more into the world of westernization. In Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions Babamakuru has the worst predicament of those that have been affected by westernization and colonization. He has to deal with his westernized wife and daughter, and then has to, in turn, westernize another family’s son or daughter without too much support from that family. One of the curses of westernization and colonization is the spouse and children. In this case, for Babamakuru, it is Maiguru and Nyasha. They both give Babamakuru grief over things that would not be normally disputed in traditional culture. Maiguru, his wife, becomes more independent after her college level education alongside Babamakuru in England. She starts to challenge him a little more than what would be normally accepted. At first it is more like feelings until she finally divulges her perspective on the situation to Tambudzai about all her suffering. Maiguru herself steps out of the normal woman’s role when she goes to college, and Babamukuru’s family tells their children that she went along with Babamakuru to support him, and that is one thing that Tambidzai learns when she talks with Maiguru. Maiguru says: “I still studied for that degree and got it in spite of all of them – your uncle, your grandparents and the rest of your family. Can you tell me now that they aren’t pleased that I did, even if they don’t admit it' No! Your uncle wouldn’t be able to do half the things he does if I didn’t work as well!” (101) This shows her contempt towards Babamakuru and whether he knows about this contempt or not it is hurting him and his relationship with his wife. Maiguru even goes so far as to actually have a fight with him and then leave when Babamakuru tells her to go where she will be happy since she is not happy here. This fight shows the culmination of all that Maiguru could take and she throws it all in Babamakuru’s face and then leaves, and he finally knows what his wife is really thinking. Now he knows that his wife dislikes him for retaining some of his original culture and trying to keep her in the back seat. Babamakuru is trying to keep as much of his original culture as he can while still keeping those westernized views that help his family out of the gutter. His position, that westernization and colonization started, have left him in the middle and disliked quite obviously. The other part of Babamakuru’s family that westernization and colonization affects and turns against him is his daughter. She is affected by her four-year visit to Great Britain to an extent which her friend and family member, Tambudzai, notices a great difference in her and her actions when she gets back, this in turn affects Babamakuru in a bad way that puts much stress on him and he lets loose his temper because of her quite often because of his daughter’s apparent acceptance and use of the western ways and culture. Nyasha, Babamukuru’s daughter, first comes back from England totally changed and Tambudzai notices this from the moment she steps out of the car with her very western dress and then her lack of traditional language with the replacement of English. Things like the replacement of Babamukuru’s original language with another, supposedly superior, language is another thing that gives him more hardships. Later, when Tambudzai had been accepted into Babamukuru’s home for her education, she notices the many ways that Nyasha causes grief to her father, and causes many fights. The biggest of these fights is concerning when she stayed out longer than expected, and with a boy. The climax of this fight happens after some yelling and Babamkuru accusing his daughter of behaving like whore and that her actions reflect on him. Babamakuru said: “You must learn to be obedient,” Babamukuru told Nyasha and struck her again. “I told you not to hit me,” said Nyasha, punching him in the eye. Babamukuru bellowed and snorted that if Nyasha was going to behave like a man, then by his mother who was at rest in her grave he would fight her like one. Then they went down on the floor, Babamukuru alternately punching Nyasha’s head and banging it against the floor. (115) He proceeds to say that he disowns his daughter in a moment of supreme rage at what is making him the way he is, westernization, and the cause of that, colonization; he tries to banish that westernization, so that he can get rid of it and finally be free of it. This fight between Babamukuru and Nyasha is the culmination between the two of them, Babamukuru and his westernization that now has backfired on him, now to help everyone else in his family, he has to survive the chaos in his own family. After the fight, Babamukuru leaves and only presumably comes back during the night and leaves before light. He has given himself time to think over his predicament, and to let everyone know that he disapproves of his daughter. His daughter has given him much grief and anguish over the simple act of trying to help everyone in his family by westernizing them to an extent that does not include the way that Nyasha has been affected by it. Then there is the question of Babamukuru’s role of westernizing a son or daughter of another branch of his family. This branch of the family is not with full support of the family’s wife who voices very expressed dislike of the idea. The first child in the family that is sent is Tambudzai’s brother, Nhamo. He goes through about a year of schooling before he dies and his mother accuses Maiguru of killing him. Then Tambudzai is sent away and Ma’Shingayi, the wife, becomes ill with worry of her daughter: My mother’s anxiety was real. In the week before I left she hardly ate anything, not for lack of trying, and when she was able to swallow something it lay heavy in her stomach. By the time I left she was so haggard and gaunt she could hardly walk to the fields, let alone work in them. (56-57) Babamukuru could not have been unaffected by this blatant show of Ma’Shingayi’s distrust in him, his ways, and what he is going to do with Tambudzai. So without the full support of the family, he whisks Tambudzai away in his car only to be seen every so often, and talking a language that has driven Ma’Shingayi and her son apart. For Babamukuru to get Tambudzai to the point where she could become an asset and become what he is, one who supports the family, he puts her through a school that is run by white missionaries. She finally stands up to him, and she feels that she can not do what she is told to do and she does instead what she wants to do. She starts by saying: “I’m sorry, Babamukuru,” I said, “but I do not want to go to the wedding.” Of course, that was entirely the wrong thing to do, calculated, it seemed, to trigger my uncle’s volcanic temper. I tried to explain but it was useless. “You have been having too much of the good life,” my uncle raged, his voice rising on each syllable and breaking on the top note. “I do everything I can for you, but you disobey me. You are not a good girl. You must be up and dressed, ready in half an hour.” (167) Babamukuru is yet again stood up to by someone that in his traditional culture would not have dared to, and he again threatens to disown someone that resembles the westernization that he was taught, and which was burned into Tambudzai through her education, and then thrust back to him to keep reminding him of this giant thing of westernization no matter what he does. The people he tries to help backfire on him and cause him more grief, the westernization and colonization occur in yet another person in his life. Babamukuru has, by far, the worst position in his family having his wife and daughter rebelling against him and using the westernization that is supposed to help his family, but it creates great problems for him. He is caught in the middle between his traditional culture and the culture of those that colonized his country long ago. Even those that he is trying to help rebel against him and do not like what he does. Westernization and colonization ruins Babamukuru’s life through those he loves the most and those he tries to help.