Nyasha is not built like Tambu

An eating disorder is an apt metaphor for the process of colonization, but understanding this metaphor means understanding the role that food plays in ‘Nervous Conditions’. Before Tambu embarks upon her new existence at the mission, her whole being is dedicated to her womanly chores, all of which concern food, whether that be the gathering, the preparing, the washing of the dishes, or worse of her, cleaning the place where all this food is eventually disposed of. Conversely, when she arrives at the mission she enters a world with an abundance of food, its as if some how, by the great privilege that comes with white education, comes also this magical freedom from being, at all times, concerned with how the next meal will be accomplished, and in this new world is also the miracle of modern plumbing. “At Babamukuru’s I would have the leisure, be encouraged to consider questions that had to do with the survival of the spirit, the creation of consciousness, rather than mere sustenance of the body.” (58).

Nyasha’s eating disorder, her purging and inability to metabolize her food, is representative of the process by which colonization creates a psychological crisis, a ‘Nervous Condition’ if you will, for colonized individuals who seek a true understanding of their situation and do not shy away from its complexities. Lets look it at like this; a white education and acceptance of the white religion is the means to a good health and a pleasant life, these are the new rules brought on by colonization. Nyasha doesn’t refuse these rules, just as she doesn’t refuse food, however she carefully prods through them, always critical, and for complex reasons that she herself can’t explain, she is unable to follow the rules or absorb their possible virtues. She can’t accept that she is not supposed to be as good as the boys at math, she is troubled by her fellow students blind acceptance of white history and religion, and she can’t put her finger on why. She even wishes that she could be a better daughter to her father, but she can’t be that way, she was not built that way. Tambu hints at seeing these same complexities, these same limitations placed on her by this colonized society, yet she able and willing to bury them in her subconscious. Nyasha can’t do this. She takes on all of her education skeptically, seeking something deeper intellectually then Tambu, who knocks of her goals like ducks in a row striving to do for her family what Babamukuru has done for his. Unlike Nyasha, Baba and Tambu have experienced life on the homestead as reality, and not as some temporary holiday vacation.