On the one hand, I am happy that the book did not have the fairytale ending. On the other, I am disappointed that it did not demonstrate some success for Tambu. It just ends with her running away from life. Dangarembga ends the book to show that no matter how much you work, things don't always go our way. It may just be in the past two novels that its just not Tambu's time to succeed. There is a time and place for everything and Tsiti Dangarembga illustrates that. When Nhamo dies, Babamukuru felt it was time for her to be the sacrificial family member and go to school. It had come a time when she got the scholarship to go to Sacred Heart. The book is not all bad where nothing good ever happens, it just shows that life throws punches our way and the ending demonstrates this.
Tambu and Mai do not have a good relationship because of her mother's ignorance. Tambu has outgrown her mother. It's hard to better yourself if you have haters, and your mother should be your number one fan. Mai just looks for ways to discourage her and insists on calling her child because her ignorance does not allow her to see her maturity. Then we have Dick who is seemingly befriending Tambu but is taking credit for her work. That is a slap in the face to Tambu,like slapping her back to her common school days when Tracey received the trophy for O-Levels. Both of these relationships, just show how she is cowered to accept whatever treatment. In my opinion for her mother,she doesn't have to be a Nyasha and be bold, but she should respectfully see that her mother is only doing what she knows. For Dick, she should have stood up and not take someone stealing your work. The relationships demonstrate her flight response and she ran from both. The new Zimbabwean world does not show Tambu very much love, but in the real world you have wins and losses. Tambu is probably thinking of how she can find a way to "adjust the Tambu way".
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
The ending was a rather disappointing ending, in that the action wasn't satisfying. But it was predictable. I mean Tambu worked hard and whats the next step in the western model? Get a job in society.
ReplyDeleteI would say that its a paradigmatic difference from her mother, not so much Mai's ignorance. Mai is expecting her daughter to return back to the homestead.