Cultural Hybridity In Nyasha's Nervous Conditions

Post colonial novels demonstrate the process of colonial identity formation riven with cultural hybridity and ambiguity in a changing world. Like the other female characters in Nervous Conditions, she is complex and multifaceted, and her double nature reflects her status as the product of two worlds, Africa and England. On one hand she is emotional, passionate, and provocative, while on the other she is rational and profound in her thinking. Nyasha is admired by Tambu for her ability to see conflict and disagreement not as threats but as opportunities to increase her understanding of herself and the world. She uses the various experiences life presents her with as a chance to grow, learn, and improve. Initially, she thrives in her state of

Being the headmaster’s daughter she is unpopular. Her inner resources and resolve are highly developed, but they can sustain her only so far. Over the course of the novel, the elements that define her and the aspects of her personality she most cherishes become the source of her unrest and ultimate breakdown. Nyasha begins to resent her outspoken nature and the constant spirit of resistance she displays, particularly to her father. The transformation leads to self-hatred, a dangerously negative body image that resulted in an eating disorder, and mental illness. Nyasha becomes a symbolic victim of the pressures to embrace modernity, change, enlightenment, and self-improvement. When men are oppressed it’s a tragedy when women are oppressed its tradition. Women in the book were oppressed in some ways due to tradition. Nyasha was oppressed by her father because he wants to uphold the idea of traditional Shona women. When nyasha tries to express her oppression she is shut out by her family. Babamukuru asserts his authority over Nyasha by stating he is her father and demands respects even though Nyasha tries to explain her struggle. Nyasha has suffered allot of oppression which in turn made her very rebellious but as we continue we find out that far-minded and isolated daughter whose rebellion may not in the end have been successful.

She seems to have some respect for her father but doesn’t know how to act appropriately in front of him or to be herself. Someone always disapproves everything she does and she has no control over her behaviour, which is why Nyasha manifest her nervous condition through her eating disorder because she can control her body. Nyasha has spent her childhood in England along with her brother Chido; they have developed many western values. Nyasha 's family believes that her bulimia and subsequent mental breakdown are a result of her exposure to Western culture, or "Englishness". Nyasha and Chido cannot speak Shona. Nyahsa revealing clothes is not approved of. They are then able to recognize the way the colonial education system created a culture of subjugation - where Africans learned to believe that they were inferior, and then aspired to live by Christian values. We are able to see that there are so many things Nyashas family disapproves of because she is not a proper Shona woman who mostly only knows English and dressing and actions are that of western values. We see how contradicting her father is as