Progression

“I would have said it was impossible for people who had everything to suffer so extremely” (pg 207). This shows us the intellectual progression of Tambu and her ability to see the world in a different way from the way she viewed the world when she was living on the homestead. It was pointed out that in the beginning of the novel, Tambu was driven to do well and receive and education, and thereby receive the material gains that come with an education. Now she is seeing that having everything doesn’t mean that everything is “okay”. The more Tambu observes Maiguru and her own mother as well as the other women in her life, it becomes obvious to her that the material things won’t solve the problems that come with being a female in their society.
It’s also interesting to see how her respect for Nyasha changes throughout the course of the novel. In the beginning, she considers Nyasha an “outsider”. Then once Tambu is relocated to the mission, she can start to sympathize with Nyash because Tambu is able to see Nyasha operate in her day-to-day life as well as see how she thinks and reasons and, as was pointed out in class, confronts the difficult issues head-on. Instead of repressing the issues that are difficult, like Tambu does, Nyasha ponders and tries to understand, until it reaches a dangerously unhealthy level. Then to see Nyasha, who she considers a strong female, sends Tambu farther into confusions. But like every other deep, important issue that has come up, Tambu represses it. She goes on to say on page 208, “In this way, I banished the suspicion, buried it in the depths of my subconscious, and happily went back to Sacred Heart.” Right before that she had said, “I told myself I was a much more sensible person than Nyasha, because I knew what could or couldn’t be done.” What irony.