Confusing Questions

The fight between Tambu and her older brother was so unexpected, not only to Tambu, who described a sort of out-of-body experience where all of a sudden she was fighting him, but also to me as a reader. It was a little confusing, and I had to go back and reread a bit to figure out why she was so angry with him, and why she fought him. Once I figured out that it was because her brother was stealing from her garden, I began to ponder on a new subject - the age difference between Tambu and Nhamo. I know that the book refers to their age difference in terms of their grade levels at some point, I didn't find a point where their ages were clear. Obviously they can't be too far apart in age for Tambu to put up a decent fight against Nhamo, but he acts as though he is much older. That may simply be Nhamo's character, however, as he is portrayed to be arrogant.

Another equally confusing part of the plot was when Tambu went into the city with the man from school to sell her goods. The whole exchange was rapid and unclear, and all I managed to glean from it is that the city folk thought that the man was keeping Tambu away from school and forcing her into child labor. It seemed like a really disheartening trip, but somehow they walked away with enough money for her school fees? I'll have to go back and reread that, but I wondered why he wouldn't just immediately explain why they were there, rather than gathering a crowd and having so many white people think he was forcing her into child labor.