Colonialism and its impact on women in Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions and The Book of Not

Abstract

The colonial predicament enslaves many Africans who struggle against the confines imposed on them by Western colonialists. They become alienated from what had formerly demarcated their role in society and are even made to perceive themselves as outsiders on their very own land. The effect of colonialism on African women is even worse as their position is further aggravated by patriarchy. Thus, this paper reflects on how the patriarchal situation together with living under the jackboot of colonialism put the African women in a rather precarious state. It also examines Frantz Fanon’s ideas about the inherent connection between colonialism and violence, while tracing the harrowing reality of African women’s lives in the different fictitious characters portrayed by the contemporary African female writer Tsitsi Dangarembga (1959 -) in her novels Nervous Conditions and The Book of Not. This paper explores how this female author depicts the socio-political and economic effects on fictionalized women and how they challenge colonial authority in their moments of agency. In so doing, Dangarembga deals with the perils of colonialism for the individual while apprehending the potential of the literary narrative to function as a means of challenging pervasive female representations.