Back to Book Overview

Chapter Reader

Nervous Conditions (Nervous Conditions Series)

By Tsitsi Dangarembga

11 chapters
Ready

no chapter name

Chapter 511,388 wordsCompleted

After Nhamo’s death Tambu is taken to Uncle Babamukuru’s white‑painted house. The contrast with her village home is striking; she is greeted by Anna, the house‑girl who kneels and calls her “Sisi Tambu.” Nyasha, Babamukuru’s daughter, initially appears detached but soon laughs, and the two engage in a long, awkward conversation mixing Shona and broken English, revealing past resentment (Nyasha felt ignored after the family’s return from England) and Tambu’s jealousy of Nyasha’s privileged upbringing. Their bond is described as a first‑love‑like affection.

Dinner is a formal affair with Maiguru serving unfamiliar Western food. Tambu struggles with knives, forks and a strange gravy‑covered side dish. Nyasha volunteers to make gravy and then quarrels with Babamukuru over her reading of D. H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover. Babamukuru condemns the book, Maiguru defends Nyasha, exposing the clash of colonial morality and youthful curiosity. Babamukuru then delivers a long speech to Tambu, stressing obedience, hard work, and the responsibility she now carries for her poorer relatives, presenting his “blessing” as a family‑wide opportunity.

Domestic small‑scale power plays follow: Tambu is chastised for not knowing the light‑switch, for using the panelled toilet incorrectly, and for mishandling a spoon. Anna delivers brief messages (e.g., to show Tambudzai the bathroom). Tambu feels both superior (sitting near the uncle) and inferior (constant corrections), creating an inner conflict between her peasant self‑image and her new mission identity.

The next day Tambu begins at the mission school. She notes the blue gym‑slips, the siren that signals class changes, the strict prefects, and the rhythm of Sunday School. She quickly becomes class monitor, excels academically, and is praised for diligence. Nyasha is portrayed as highly intelligent, reading from Enid Blyton to the Brontës, and absorbing political histories (South Africa, Nazis, colonial geopolitics), debating these topics with Maiguru and the headmaster.

Gender expectations surface when Tambu experiences her first menstrual period. Embarrassed, she receives tampons and instructions from Nyasha, who teases her about virginity and the “tampon versus man” comparison. Later Maiguru reveals she holds a Master’s degree, a fact Tambu learns only after questioning her aunt. Maiguru’s bitterness about sacrificing her own ambitions for domestic duties underscores limited avenues for educated women.

Nyasha’s rebellious side intensifies: she smokes a cigarette, refuses to finish her food, argues with her parents, and threatens to lose car rides and school privileges if she does not behave. Babamukuru repeatedly warns her, showing his authoritarian parenting style.

Throughout the chapter Tambu oscillates between wanting to be accepted as part of the educated household and feeling exposed as a “peasant” in an unfamiliar setting. She momentarily glorifies herself, comparing her future to Babamukuru’s steadfastness, but everyday humiliations (using a fork, not knowing the light‑switch) bring her back to self‑doubt. The chapter ends with Tambu lying in bed, wrestling with the light switch, feeling both superior and inferior, and resolving to use the opportunity Babamukuru has provided to the fullest.

Key themes reinforced are colonial contradictions, gender inequality, class mobility versus identity, and intricate family power dynamics.

Running Summary
Cumulative summary through the selected chapter (not the full-book final summary).
Through chapter 5

The narrator was thirteen when her brother Nhamo died in November 1968. Nhamo attended the mission school run by their uncle Babamukuru, visiting home only once a year and often refusing chores. The village transformed with a bus terminus (magrosa), District Council Houses, tuck‑shops, a gramophone and a beer‑hall, making the walk to the terminus a social hub. On the afternoon Nhamo was expected home, the narrator helped her sisters Netsai and Rambanai, prepared dinner, and reflected on the family’s poverty, Nhamo’s demanding personality and her own growing resentment toward him and the whole family. Nhamo entered school at seven; Babamukuru left for England, taking his children Chido and Nyasha with him, sparking family tension over the children’s care. The narrator’s schooling stopped for lack of fees, while her mother sold boiled eggs and garden vegetables at the bus terminus to keep Nhamo in school. Determined to fund her own education, the narrator cultivated a small maize plot, worked with her grandmother, and endured theft of her crop. A violent altercation with Nhamo at Sunday school leads teacher Mr Matimba to escort her to Umtali, where she sells the maize to a white woman, Doris, who gives her ten pounds for school fees. The headmaster holds the money on her behalf, provoking a dispute with her father. She returns to school, repeats Sub A, then excels in Sub B. Babamukuru returns from England, and her father and Nhamo begin planning a complicated trip to the airport, contending with unreliable bus schedules and provisioning challenges. Babamukuru returns in a motor‑cavalcade and is celebrated with a chaotic welcome, his speech mandates that each branch of the family send at least one child to complete Form Four, leading to plans for Nhamo to attend the mission school; Nhamo later falls ill, is taken to the clinic and then the hospital where he dies, prompting intense family grief; the family then debates sending the younger cousin Tambudzai to school but the mother resists. The narrator travels to Uncle Babamukuru’s house, confronts the stark contrast between her peasant life and the uncle’s affluent, white‑painted mansion, meets Anna (the housegirl) and her cousin Nyasha, is shown the kitchen, dining and living rooms, given a bedroom, new clothes and personal items, and experiences both awe and anxiety about her new environment and the expectations placed on her at the mission. Tambu arrives at Babamukuru’s mansion after Nhamo’s funeral, meets the aloof but soon amused Nyasha, endures a formal dinner that reveals family tensions over books, gender roles and the new domestic expectations, receives Babamukuru’s stern speech about duty, begins school at the mission, becomes class monitor, experiences her first menstruation with Nyasha’s help, learns of Maiguru’s Master’s degree, and witnesses Nyasha’s rebellious acts (smoking, defying parents) that underscore the clash between colonial education and traditional expectations.

Chapter Intelligence
Characters and settings known up to the selected chapter.

Present in chapter

0

No characters are marked as present in this chapter.

Known

13