Ma'Shingayi's and Nyasha's refusals to eat are similar in meaning, but I think the difference lies in the fact that Ma'Shingayi's statement is that there is nothing left for her or her family at this point, while Nyasha's statement is that she wants to break out of this cycle, but doesn't know the way. Ma'Shingayi understands little outside of the divide that English has drawn between her and her children, her life's blood. Her refusal is a sad, painful acknowledgement of the present. When Nyasha's eating disorder erupts into her "kamikaze behavior," she notably shreds her history books. At this point, I almost believe she wants to re-engage with her traditional past, not the past that she has been taught in school. She throws up her food, thereby rejecting the sacrifices her father has made for her and runs into the arms of her mother, an increasingly defiant matriarch figure.
Tambu's attitude towards the subject? I don't think she knows yet. I think she is certainly starting to see some of the negative aspects of colonial education, but I'm not convinced that her heart is solid on one side or the other. One of the questions I have yet to see her ask herself is - what are you going to do with this education? How will you feel when you get to the end of it and then have nowhere to go with it? Will she depend on Babamakuru to find her a job/find a place? I'm not even sure if she's independent yet...but we will see in the next book.
I really like the idea you've pointed out concerning Nyasha's extreme rejecting of what her father has provided for her, and turning instead to her mother for a form of support. Throughout the novel she clearly struggles with her father and all that he provides her with and expects from her. It would only make sense that she would attempt to find some means of escaping from or shedding certain aspects of her father's lifestyle, and through a means in which she could herself control without being faced with repercussions from Babamakuru.
ReplyDeleteAlso, it really is interesting how she retreats to her mother for help in the end. Prior to her major breakdown she did turn to Tambu for comfort. As one whom had always been there for Nyasha to provide some form of consolation, Nyasha asked her this once more, simply to see what her reply would be. In the end, however, she knew that she needed much more help than simply what Tambu could supply (which Tambu does aptly make clear after leaving for her new school), and turns instead to another which she had recently acquired a great amount of respect for and knew she could rely upon.