Postcolonial Literature & Tsitsi

Dangarembga

Nervous Conditions borrows its title from Jean-Paul Sartre’s introduction to Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth: “The

status of ‘native’ is a nervous condition introduced and maintained by the settler among colonized people with their

consent.”

Tsitsi Dangarembga● Born in 1959

● Educated in Great Britain, where her parents were students

● Returned to Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) when she was six years old.

● Studied medicine briefly at Cambridge University; returned to Rhodesia and studied psychology at the University of Harare (now University of Zimbabwe)

● Greatly involved in theatre -- in addition to her work as a novelist, she also writes screenplays, has directed films, and founded the International Images Film Festival in 2002.

Nervous Conditions● Published in 1988 and first in a proposed trilogy (Book of Not, the

sequel to Nervous Conditions, was published in 2006 -- the third has yet to be written / published)

● Semi-autobiographical: based in part on Dangarembga’s own experiences

● Considered a postcolonial novel / important contribution to African women’s literature & African feminism.

● Traces the development of a young girl (Tambu) in postcolonial Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe).

● Through Tambu, Nervous Conditions examines a girl’s emerging identity in a postcolonial climate, as well as the effects of different forms of oppression (from the perspectives of gender, class, nationality, and race) on her growth.

Rhodesia / ZimbabweTimeline

● 1889 - Rhodes' British South Africa Company (BSA) gains a British mandate to colonise what

becomes Southern Rhodesia

● 1890 - Pioneer column of white settlers arrives from south at site of future capital Harare.

● 1922 - BSA administration ends, the white minority opts for self-government.

● 1930 - Land Apportionment Act restricts black access to land, forcing many into wage labor.

● 1930-1960s - Black opposition to colonial rule grows. Emergence in the 1960s of nationalist

groups - the Zimbabwe African People's Union (Zapu) and the Zimbabwe African National

Union (Zanu).

● 1953 - Britain creates the Central African Federation, made up of Southern Rhodesia

(Zimbabwe), Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) and Nyasaland (Malawi).

● 1963 - Federation breaks up when Zambia and Malawi gain independence.

● 1964 - Ian Smith of the Rhodesian Front (RF) becomes prime minister, tries to persuade

Britain to grant independence.

Rhodesia / Zimbabwe cont...● 1965 - Smith unilaterally declares independence under white minority rule, sparking

international outrage and economic sanctions.

● 1972 - Guerrilla war against white rule intensifies, with rivals Zanu and Zapu operating out

of Zambia and Mozambique.

● 1978 - Smith yields to pressure for negotiated settlement. Elections for transitional

legislature boycotted by Patriotic Front made up of Zanu and Zapu. New government of

Zimbabwe Rhodesia, led by Bishop Abel Muzorewa, fails to gain international recognition.

Civil war continues.

● 1979 - British-brokered all-party talks at Lancaster House in London lead to a peace

agreement and new constitution, which guarantees minority rights.

● 1980 - Veteran pro-independence leader Robert Mugabe and his Zanu party win British-

supervised independence elections. Mugabe is named prime minister and includes Zapu

leader Joshua Nkomo in his cabinet. Independence on 18 April is internationally recognized.

Postcolonialism ● Colonialism: An extension of a nation’s rule over territory beyond its

borders; sovereignty over the colony is claimed by the colonizer ● Examples: America was a colony of England before it was a country of

its own. America has its own territories: Puerto Rico, for instance. ● Postcolonial refers to the period after colonial rule (obviously, as the

prefix “post” signifies)● Common perspectives on colonialism show it usually works through the

use of brutal force employed by one country to exploit another community and obtain economic wealth through abuse of native people.

● The postcolonial perspective emerged as a challenge to this tradition and legacy; it attempts to de-legitimize the idea of establishing power through conquest

Postcolonial study takes account of:

1. Political oppression (inability of colonized to shape / participate in political function of region)

2. Economic oppression (divide between rich / poor often aligned with colonizer / colonized)

3. Socio-cultural oppression (colonial traditions, artforms, social institutions and mores impressed upon colonized -- what is lost in the process)

4. Psychological oppression (internalizing colonial status)

Postcolonial Theory

● A theory of and lens for study on life after foreign rule

● A Couple of Important Concepts:

o Orientalism (Edward Said): explains how European / Western colonizers looked at upon

the “Orient” or the East (here meaning the Middle and Near East as well as Asia); West

presented the East as “the Other” (weaker, less civilized, cruel, immoral) or “exotic”;

allows the West to identify themselves as the opposite of these characteristics (moral,

civil, progressive, rational).

o Subaltern (Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak): refers to persons who are socially, politically,

and geographically outside the hegemonic power structure of the colony and colonial

homeland; in order to be heard, the subaltern must adopt Western thought, reasoning,

and language. Because of this, the subaltern can never express their own reasoning,

forms of knowledge or logic -- they must instead form their knowledge to Western ways

of knowing.

Franz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth

● Psychiatric and psychologic analysis of the dehumanising effects of colonization upon the individual man and woman as well as the nation, creating broader social, cultural, and political implications fundamental to establishing a social movement for the decolonization of a person and of a people.

● One point made by Fanon is that violence is a means of catharsis and liberation from being a colonial subject; Jean-Paul Sarte discusses this in his introduction to the book, the part of the text from which…

● Nervous Conditions gets its name.

Postcolonial Literature● Sometimes called “New English Literature(s),” is a body of literary

writings that reacts to the discourse of colonization. ● Often involves work that deals with the issue of de-colonization or the

political and cultural independence of people formerly subjugated to colonial rule.

● It is also a literary critique to texts that carry racist or colonial undertones. (e.g. Wide Sargasso Sea “rewrites” Jane Eyre from a postcolonial perspective)

Three General Subjects of Postcolonial Literature

1. Social and cultural change or erosion: after independence is achieved, one question arises: what is the new cultural identity?

2. Misuse of power and exploitation: even though the large power ceases to control them as colony, the settlers still seem to continue imposing power over the native: who really is the power here, why, and how does an independence day really mean independence?

3. Colonial abandonment and alienation: Subject raised to examine

individuals and not the ex-colony as a whole. The individuals tend to ask themselves: in this new country, where do I fit in? How do I make a living? Who am I?

Question to Consider: How is Nervous Conditions a postcolonial novel? What characters, issues, themes, or concerns make it “postcolonial”?

How do Tambu’s experiences, growth, ideas, and outlook reflect a host of “nervous conditions” created (wholly or in part) by colonization?

How is her experience / identity as a female caught in the intersections of class, race, nationality? How is she shaped as a female by colonial / postcolonial forces?