52 pages • 1 hour read
Tsitsi DangarembgaNervous Conditions
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1988A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 6-7 Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 6 Summary
Many white individuals—both missionaries and expatriates—live at the mission, and some of their children attend the mission school with the African children, including Nyasha’s friend Nyaradzo. Nyaradzo’s brothers, Andy and Brian, attend a multiracial school where few African students are enrolled due to the high tuition. While Nyasha feels that attending an interracial school would have unintended consequences, Tambu would like to go to one. Chido, who is in secondary school, is enrolled in a multiracial school, although Babamukuru originally wanted him to remain at the mission to “counteract the unAfrican exposure” he has experienced (108). Nyasha must take exams that will determine whether she can continue her schooling, and she studies so intensely that Maiguru is concerned and asks Tambu to talk to her. Nyasha passes her exams, though she must wait until after Christmas to get the results.
Tambu, Nyasha, and Chido attend a Christmas party. Babamukuru criticizes Nyasha’s dress, but Maiguru diffuses the situation by saying she bought the dress as a gift for Nyasha sitting her exams. At first, Tambu is uncomfortable at the dance, but after meeting up with a couple of her friends, she relaxes, dances, and has a good time. At 10 o’clock, she, Chido, Nyasha, and Andy, who is escorting Nyasha, walk home. Nyasha, unwilling to end the night, stays outside and talks and dances with Andy, while Chido and Tambu go to the house but do not enter as Babamukuru is still awake and Nyasha is not with them. Babamukuru sees them and orders them to come inside, and he asks where Nyasha is. Chido says she is at the end of the driveway, and Babamukuru is upset that Chido left his sister alone with a boy.
Nyasha returns home and goes to her bedroom, where Tambu is already in bed. Babamukuru confronts her, sending Tambu out of the room, and Tambu gets Maiguru. Babamukuru yells at Nyasha, calling her indecent, but Nyasha does not back down. Chido defends Nyasha, saying she and Andy had only been talking, but Babamukuru orders him to be silent and accuses him of letting Nyasha “behave like a whore” (116). Nyasha argues she doesn’t need to care what other people think of her since Babamukuru already has such a low opinion, and Babamukuru hits her twice across the face. She asks him not to hit her, which Maiguru seconds, but he hits her a third time, so Nyasha punches him in the eye. They fight, and Babamukuru threatens to kill Nyasha then to die by suicide. Nyasha goes outside to smoke a cigarette, and Tambu goes with her, reflecting on the victimization of women: “But what I didn’t like was the way all conflicts came back to this question of femaleness. Femaleness as opposed and inferior to maleness” (118). Tambu suppresses these thoughts, feeling they are wrong. Nyasha understands that she is expected to conform to the culture, but she feels she needs to hold onto her convictions. She goes back to the house, ignoring Maiguru’s happiness, and goes to bed. Both Nyasha and Babamukuru shut down and sulk. Maiguru talks to Tambu and explains that Babamukuru had been waiting up to let the dogs out the night of the party, and she admits her fear over the tumultuous relationship between Babamukuru and Nyasha. Tambu tells Nyasha, and Nyasha says she understands but that Babamukuru does not have the right to control her life. She sobs, then Tambu climbs into bed to comfort her. In the morning, Nyasha thanks Tambu for saving her. Later, she jokes that she should have slept with Andy and that Babamukuru will only let her marry if she promises not to enjoy sleeping with her husband.
Chapter 7 Summary
Tambu, Nyasha, Babamukuru, Maiguru, and Anna visit the homestead for Christmas. Babamukuru brings supplies, including half of an ox, which Maiguru says is too much meat to bring. She argues that bringing more food will result in more work for herself: “[W]hat I object to is the way everybody expects me to spend all my time cooking for them” (124). They arrive on the homestead, where Tambu experiences another culture shock. Conditions on the homestead have deteriorated—the buildings are in disrepair and the latrine is unsanitary. A few days later, Tambu confronts her mother, who suggests Tambu clean it herself, which she does with the help of Nyasha. Only Netsai and Rambanai greet them. Ma’Shingayi is confined by her difficult pregnancy and her depressed emotional state, and her sister, Lucia, has come to help. Lucia comes outside and says Jeremiah and Takesure, a relative sent to help on the homestead to pay for his two wives, are drinking in town. Babamukuru is angry because Takesure, who impregnated Lucia, was supposed to take Lucia and return home. Jeremiah wants to take Lucia as a second wife, but Babamukuru has forbidden it. They carry in the food and then go to Ma’Shingayi, who is offended that Tambu has taken so long to come into her room. Ma’Shingayi teases Nyasha by pinching her breast and asking when she will bring home a man, to which Babamukuru answers that she probably won’t. Lucia begins the formal greeting process, and when Nyasha performs well, Babamukuru briefly smiles, and Ma’Shingayi asserts that Nyasha will find a good husband.
Jeremiah and Babamukuru’s siblings, Thomas and Gladys, unexpectedly arrive with their families, disrupting the sleeping arrangements and forcing the unmarried women to sleep on the floor of the smoky kitchen. For the two weeks of the holiday, Tambu, Maiguru, Nyasha, and three assistants must complete all the housework for 24 family members. They must carry the washing dish for all the adults, prepare breakfast, and feed the children before they can eat breakfast in the morning. Then they clean, fetch water, and wash laundry, sometimes missing lunch. Maiguru is careful with the supplies, and she puts as much of the ox as possible into the small refrigerator they brought, but the meat that was left out spoils. She cooks separate dishes—one of fresh meat for the patriarch and his family, and one of rotten meat for the rest.
Babamukuru calls a meeting with his siblings and Takesure to discuss Takesure and Lucia. Takesure argues that he tried to leave but Lucia refused. Meanwhile, the women are in the kitchen discussing the meeting. Ma’Shingayi and Lucia are enraged, and Lucia tries to include Maiguru, but Maiguru declares the meeting is none of her business because she is not part of that side of the family. Ma’Shingayi’s anger intensifies, and she accuses Maiguru of killing Nhamo. When Lucia tries to calm her, she snaps at Lucia for sleeping with Jeremiah then continues berating Maiguru, calling her a witch. She argues that the other women won’t listen to her because she is uneducated, and she yells at Tambu for assimilating to affluence and for forgetting and judging her. She tells Tambu, “Go to your Maiguru and eat sausage” (143). Ma’Shingayi and Lucia decide to listen to the meeting.
Takesure tells Babamukuru that he is scared that Lucia is a witch, which is why he did not take her and leave. Lucia interrupts, drags Takesure up by his ears, and, addressing Babamukuru, declares that Takesure is not a man. She says she will leave but that she is taking Ma’Shingayi, and she says the only reason she has not left is because she could not leave Ma’Shingayi alone with Jeremiah. She storms out, assuring Tambu that the disagreement will pass. Babamukuru then turns the blame to Jeremiah. Jeremiah argues there are problems throughout the family and suggests witchdoctors and alcohol could fix them. Babamukuru angrily disagrees and says that Jeremiah and Ma’Shingayi are living in sin, so he will organize a church wedding for them. The next day, Tambu shares the details of the meeting with Nyasha, who supports Lucia’s actions. While Tambu respects Babamukuru’s Christian solution, Nyasha argues that Christian ways are not necessarily progressive. Maiguru and Tete Gladys laugh about the men’s reactions to Lucia.
Chapters 6-7 Analysis
Nyasha’s plotline climaxes in the fight between her and Babamukuru. Babamukuru’s authoritarian parenting style is oppressive. Rather than submitting to his will, as her culture dictates, Nyasha is inspired to seek the freedom she experienced and learned about while in England. Her desire to do well in her exams and stay in school demonstrates that she believes she can find autonomy through education. Nyasha is similarly sexually repressed by Babamukuru. In a brief interview included at the end of the text, the author states that she included sexuality as a theme to address the shift in the perception of sexuality post-colonization. She explains, “A lot of this has to do with the morals imposed on African people by Christian standards” (210). Nyasha has the common coming-of-age experiences of expressing her sexuality through her clothing and in flirting and dancing. Babamukuru, who holds strong Christian values, interprets Nyasha’s behavior as sinful, and he believes it is his responsibility to suppress his daughter’s sexual behavior. His sense of responsibility and his Christian beliefs combine with his authoritarian parenting style, leading him to physically and emotionally abuse Nyasha. Nyasha reacts first defiantly by attacking Babamukuru, but her subsequent behavior is more submissive. Readers are led to question Nyasha’s mental and emotional state through the conversation between Nyasha and Tambu. Nyasha thanks Tambu for saving her, which suggests she is having thoughts of self-harm.
The subplots detailing Ma’Shingayi’s and Lucia’s character arcs also climax in this section. When Babamukuru gathers the meeting to discuss Lucia and Takesure, the women in the kitchen find sisterhood by discussing their similar burdens. While Maiguru resists being drawn into the moment, the other women experience a brief moment of connection and rebelliousness, although they ultimately recede from one another. Their culture has conditioned them to view themselves as inferior to men, and they are uncomfortable with the realization that this concept has no foundation in reality—it is something that men have taken by force. Ma’Shingayi’s climax occurs in her verbal outburst against Lucia, Maiguru, and Tambu. She argues that she is not taken seriously by the others because she is poor and uneducated. Her arguments are proven accurate primarily through Tambu, who seeks education, affluence, and assimilation so that she will not end up like her mother, who is in a loveless marriage and who lives in extreme poverty. Symbols including the homestead’s dilapidated latrine and the rotten meat served to the less affluent family members further highlight the contrast in the women’s circumstances and the life Tambu hopes to escape. Ma’Shingayi’s circumstances lead to Tambu’s outright dislike of her mother, and Ma’Shingayi is not ignorant of that fact. Lucia’s climax follows Ma’Shingayi’s as she confronts Babamukuru. She, like Nyasha, has a strong sense of autonomy. She does not have the reverence for Babamukuru that the others do, as she is not related to him. She demonstrates a strong sense of sisterhood by asserting she has stayed to take care of Ma’Shingayi and will take Ma’Shingayi when she leaves.
Tambu has multiple shifts in perspective driven by her own experiences and by witnessing the experiences of the other characters, further developing Coming of Age During Cultural Transition. Her opinions regarding white people have changed; she admits that she found white individuals unattractive and, thus, disliked them. However, the young white individuals at the mission change her perspective: “I used to feel guilty and unnatural for not being able to love the Whites as I ought. So it was good to see the healthy young missionaries and discover that some Whites were as beautiful as we were” (106). Tambu’s opinions demonstrate the concept of otherness. She dislikes the white individuals she has seen before, such as Doris, who was an elderly woman. Doris’s appearance is drastically different from Tambu’s, as Tambu is young and robust. The missionaries, however, more closely resemble Tambu because, like her, they are youthful. Their shared traits help Tambu bridge the emotional gap she had held between herself and white people. Tambu also has more positive experiences with white individuals on the mission, such as befriending Nyaradzo and her brothers. The positive experiences help Tambu to understand that not all white individuals are rude or oppressive. She develops a more progressive mindset of forming opinions based on individuals rather than on relying on stereotypes. This impacts her emerging skepticism and critical thinking skills, although she is unready to fully accept her changing views. She narrates, “I was beginning to expect that I was not the person I was expected to be, and took it as evidence that somewhere I had taken a wrong turning” (118). She still disapproves of her controversial thoughts and tries to suppress them. The context for her approaching climax is developed through the introduction of the existence of multiracial schools, which she would like to attend, and through the proposed Christian wedding for her parents.
