Post-Colonialism in Nervous Conditions Anonymous 12th Grade

In nations around the world, colonialism instilled a racial hierarchy that made whiteness synonymous with prosperity. In places like 1950s Rhodesia, colonialism created a system of mass assimilation, where giving up a part of their culture was a native’s only path to success. In Nervous Conditions, Dangarembga uses the identity struggles of her characters to show how colonialism disenfranchises native cultures. Tambu and Nyasha’s assimilation into western culture diminishes their racial identity while strengthening the power of the white colonialists.

Within Rhodesian society, the white colonialists educate the Shona people to control them. When Tambu asks her grandmother about the history of her culture, her grandmother tells her about colonialists conquering their country, a “history that could not be found in the textbooks” (17). We can infer that Rhodesian textbooks do not include the tragedies of colonialism because the elite white class control education in Rhodesia. They censor the native’s education, brainwashing them with the belief that westernization should be strived for. In answer to Tambu’s inquiry, her grandmother describes the colonialists as “wizards well versed in treachery and black magic” (18). These ...