51ºÚÁÏ

Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions (1986) is an African female novel classic in the sense that it pioneered Zimbabwean female writings, and importantly because of the text’s attention to postcolonial challenges to not only Zimbabwean women represented in the story, but also African women in former colonies. In this work, I provide an introduction to reading and understanding the novel, which can also inform how we attend to the sequels: The Book of Not (2006) and This Mournable Body (2018). In all these novels, Tambudzai (Tambu) is the anti-hero (protagonst) who is double colonised by oppressive patriachy (culture) and colonialism and its legacies. I pay attention to formal aspect of the novel, and how peculiar narratological choices used by Dangarembga enable her to address the most pressing concerns of women in colonial Rhodesia, which remain relevant in contemporary times.