Body v Mind: Rhodesian 1st Circuit Court 1977

In various passages throughout the novel we have examined the disconnect between body and mind, and particularly Tambu’s inability to control her body with her mind. There are a few aspects of this conflict which I find interesting. Primarily, the issues with her body and her inability to control her body tend to deal with cleanliness. There is of course the obvious scenes of bodily function turned to humiliation in the presence of fear, but the wording in these passages strikes me. In the segregated bathroom scene we are given polished depictions of the ablution block. Ablution itself is term used most congruently with religious cleansing or purging. The “Ablution blocks were like that in those days; sanctified places”. They are immaculately clean, and despite her familiarity with the modern flushing commode she still is struck by the aesthetic sterility of the environment, as if she is something unclean, a “black spot against a sea of white”. This issue of cleanliness is consistently brought up. If the issue is bodily control I find it interesting and poignant that contamination and besmirchment are the underlying cause of this neurosis. It isn’t as if the lack of bodily control is manifested in delirium tremors or perhaps unintelligible stuttering, its cleanliness. Even in the initial scene where she inadvertently comes into contact with Sister Catherine it’s the soiling of her matron that she obsesses with (for good cause considering the reaction given by Sister Catherine).
Colonization: does this create a disconnect between body and mind. Is the body to be shunned, spoken of only secretly and softly until reprimanded for its inability to comply? Is the mind all that matters? Will the mind set her free only if she can control her body to point of which it will not hold her back? It is her mind that is to be colonized at Sacred Heart, not her body. The colonization of her country has already been completed, is the insurrection mounting in the hillsides analogous to the insurrection in her bowels? I don’t know, just a thought.