The Glass Half Empty?

To me, the New Zimbabwe seems to reflect the old with native students, like Tambu, as the ultimate victims. Despite all the hours studying and obsession over her O levels, Tambu still has to deal with old racial struggles. Yet, her transformation into a more Western figure seems to keep her from fighting, unlike her sister Netsai. Dangarembga takes away all the idealism from “Nervous Conditions” and towards the end of the sequel, Tambu realizes that “I had not considered unhu at all, only my calamities, since the contested days at the convent. So this evening I walked emptily to the room I would soon vacate, wondering what future there was for me, a new Zimbabwean” (246). The unhu that was meant to shape a nation is replaced by calamities with all the new Zimbabweans, like Tambu, trying to search for a new identity.

Dick is a dick. He takes advantage of Tambu’s passive aggressiveness and plagiarizes her work. Despite this, I feel more hostility towards Tambu for giving up on herself and rewiring her bitterness to those she sees as less successful, like her mother, the secretary, etc. So consumed by her bitterness it is hard to see Tambu enjoying anything other than wallowing in her sullenness. Even with the new Zimbabwe, she might have a more difficult time than most pulling herself out of her clinical depression and renew her interests in all her forgotten promises made to herself (246). At the end of the novel, Tambu is just unreliable; so it is hard as a reader to trust that there will be any significant change. However, I can’t stand not finishing a series so I’m looking forward to the end of the trilogy to just bring an end to the story of Tambu, whether it is uplifting or discouraging.

Why Dangarembga ends with a dejected Tambu is difficult to see. Maybe Tambu is going to go on a soul-search now that she quit her job and her mother isn’t coming to visit. In fact, not even she knows where she may be headed, which is similar to the situation of the new Zimbabwe.