Nyasha: Hybrid Woman

The next morning she was calm, but she assured me it was an illusion, the eye of the storm. "There's a whole lot more,' she said. "I've tried to keep it in but it's powerful. It ought to be. There's nearly a century of it," she added, with a shadow of her wry grin. "But I'm afraid," she told me apologetically. "It upsets people. So I need to go somewhere where it's safe. You know what I mean? Somewhere where people won't mind."

This is truly a disturbing scene that didn't come as a surprise to me. Rather, the way that Nyasha articulated her thoughts were that of what made her condition extreme. She recognizes that this condition has been an ongoing battle for many women, but I would certainly think this alludes from the exposure of such experiences from time spent in England rather than Africa. The mores of African cultures, suggested by Babamukuru, says that to have a eating disorder (or to not eat all of what is on one's plate) is an system derogatory to women and disrespectful to their culture.

When Nyasha remarks to her mother, "I am not one of them but I'm not one of you," that very comment suggests that Nyasha represents those who are unable to identify themselves neither as Shona nor English, neither This or That. Rejected by both extremes, Nyasha cannot and will not assimilate. She mentions that assimilation causes one to "forget who [they] were, what [they] were, and why [they] were that." Seeking affirmation in her studies and her figure, the only things she feels and knows she has complete control over, it only becomes apparent why Nyasha seems like a perfect candidate to have this eating disorder. We become more (or maybe just myself) sympathetic to her character because this condition finally allows her to relinquish control by suggesting that it is, indeed, a European philosophy. This sense of self-induced wasting away symbolizes the struggles, issues, and burdens that eat away at all the women in the novel, as well as the men in some instances.

It's devastating that Nyasha's family members failed to see her as a hybrid woman influenced by a hybrid culture (Shona and English). Nyasha, however, articulates the most realistic portrayal of social and political circumstances that vocalizes this illness as a colonial condition. If this certain illness is, in fact, a colonial condition, it almost seems as if Dangarembga suggests that the only way colonialism can be cured is if Rhodesia wins its independence. With this triumph, it is then where Nyasha may heal completely. I question my own terming of what healing completely means. It is possible that I feel that Nyasha can finally possess something greater than just a control over her dietary circumstances, or could just mean that she finally feels like she's not an "in-between," and can either relate to Shona or English culture.

By being with these women and witnessing the losses and injustices from which they suffer, Tambu acknowledges the realities in her world but it takes more than acknowledgment to make way for what's beyond it.