Various forms of sexism are treated in African women's literature, as understood and experienced by African women. Central to African women's literature are the motifs of resistance, positivity, triumph, striving for a better life, and liberation from sexism, racism and poverty. Zimbabwean writer Tsitsi Dangarembga's Nervous Conditions (1988) is a novel that shares many of the concerns of African women's autobiographical writing, and is spoken throughout by a single narrator who acts as "a narrative voice" or "speaker" of the text can be defined. , one that provides the "I said" tags and descriptions.
However, universal gender discrimination still persists; there are many obstacles that still stand in the way of women's absolute liberation from gender oppression. Many South African women are trapped in traditional roles because men do not accept equal responsibility for family care and will not do what they see as women's work. While women can often exert influence publicly through the men of their household, women's secondary status in the family often prevents them from participating directly in the outside world.
Lack of income on the part of women or lower income, reduces women's decision-making power in the household. To conclude: Partnership in household responsibilities will result in women's increasing involvement in society and greater decision-making power in the home.
CHAPTER TWO
THE AUTHOR’S BIOGRAPHY
Her real success and popularity came at the age of 25 with the publication of this book. Nervous Conditions was the first novel published in England by a black Zimbabwean woman. Dangarembga had some difficulty getting Nervous States published until she took it to Women's Publishers.
Explaining how Dangarembga's text was rejected, Doris Lessing said, "it was criticized by male critics as 'negative' and presenting an unfair picture of black women's lives" (Wilkinson 1992:03). After "Nervous Conditions" was released in Denmark, she traveled there in 1991 to be part of the Images of Africa Festival. The Nervous Condition takes its title from Jean-Paul Sartre's famous foreword in Frantz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth (1961), which states that "The colonial condition is a nervous condition."
The characters of Dangarembga (Nyasha, Maiguru, MaShingayi and Tambu) experience nervous conditions caused by gender discrimination, social class and the cultural norms, which relegate these women to inferior positions. Nyasha's identity crisis in the novel parallels Dangarembga's assertion that 'I have no fund of our cultural traditions or oral history to draw on' (Wilkinson 1992: 02).
CHAPTER THREE
THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN AFRICAN CULTURE
Women are interpreted as perfect family managers who pass on social values to their children. This is indicative of the oppressive nature of cultural norms, which perpetuate the relegation of women to inferior positions. On this sage role of 'wife', Boyce-Davies, in a discussion of the Nigerian situation, argues that 'the woman as daughter or sister has greater status and more rights in her lineage.
When Ngugi wa Thiongo was interviewed in 1982 about his novels The Devil on the Cross and Detained, he described women as the most exploited and oppressed part of the entire working class: Exploited as workers; at home; and also of the backward elements of the culture (Boyce-Davies et al 1986: 11). In nervous states, Lucia displays the characteristics of a female aggressor when she 'manhandles' Takesure in the presence of the clan elders. On the death of her husband, a woman is inherited by one of the husband's brothers.
The clan's and thus society's production depends on the productive and reproductive potential of the individual household. Ultimately, the reproduction of society like the family and the clan rests on the work and reproductive power of women.
FEMINIST THEORIES
- RADICAL FEMINIST THEORY
- SOCIALIST FEMINIST THEORY
- POSTSTRUCTURALIST FEMINIST THEORY
This finds its clearest expression in the genetic use of the terms 'man' and 'he' to include all of humanity (1987: 02). Much of the literature has rendered black women's lives and the specifics of their experiences invisible. The organization of the domestic household is considered to be closely related to the nature of paid work that women perform in the labor market.
However, it is important to recognize that women's experience of the gendered division of labor is mediated by their class position. For the purpose of the study, I used the idea that black women experience multiple oppressions, ie. For many women, this is the meaning of the consciousness-raising practice developed by the Women's Liberation Movement (Weedon 1987).
It is also about Lucia, who had the audacity to gate-crash into the meeting of the patriarchs. In telling her story, Tambu places herself in the triple jeopardy of the black female writer. The narrator's opening remarks in the novel are the capture of MaShingayi (Tambu's mother) and Maiguru (Tambu's aunt).
This was consistent with the patriarchal beliefs of empowering male members of the family for perpetual dominance. The relationship between Tambu and Nhamo has been reduced to that of the privileged and the non-privileged. Maiguru's husband, Babamukuru, was head of the clan by birth and economic power.
However, Babamukuru is very much a victim of the colonial system like his poor brother on the farm. She had several pregnancies with only four children surviving at the end of the novel. Colonization affected not only the politics and land of the colonized, but also the mentality.
It could be said that Nyasha lacked being a complete person in the eyes of the Shona clan. It could be said that Nyasha was lacking in 'becoming a complete person' in the eyes of MaShingayi and other members. Sacroscancy of the dare (the meeting with the clan elders) was shattered by Lucia's audacity.
In nervous disorders, a striking escape from male supremacy is the formation of 'daring'.
