The Religious Tambu

In the novel, we have a short encounter of Tambu's religion on page 154. All through the novel, Tambu has been going through a lot as she claims. She speaks on Netsai's dismemberment of her leg, Babamukuru's beating, and her mother's bitterness. Tambu battles this along with her many panic attacks of being in school. She deals with Ntombi, who she constantly is going back and forth. Tambu has to deal with being the minority and keeps getting marks. She knows what it feels like to be ostracized from certain privileges, for example, the heaven like bathrooms. All the while as a reader, you wonder her religious beliefs. Many of us pray for guidance or strength to get through the day. I wondered about Tambu's religious faith. For I think, for all the stresses, she never relied on a higher power and if she did its not really told until page 154. We learned in the last novel of her families paganism and believing in 'gods' and we know Babamukuru is a christian. Through all of the darkness in Tambu's life, we see things turn around. She does not get anymore marks, higher grades,changes to the senior corridor, and we see things are looking better. "The next morning, up early, I fixed on a veil and padded down to St. Ignatius for the last time, even though I was Protestant, over the short distance to give my thanks in the chapel"(154). That line shows that she is thankful for the changes but it also iterates her westernization. It made me think of how she is separating from her family culturally but also religiously because of her education.