Rethinking Missionary Colonization in Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions

Rethinking Missionary Colonization in Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions Chinelo Ezenwa The history of British colonialism in Zimbabwe dates back to 1890 with the colonizers’ intrusion upon the Shona and Ndebele peoples. This was led by British businessman Cecil John Rhodes, who officially occupied the area in 1889. In his book on Zimbabwe’s colonial history, Chengetai Zvobgo describes Rhodes as “an imperialist par excellence” whose major interest in the area was the existence of large deposits of gold in the territory (History of Zimbabwe 12). Having obtained political and mining rights from the British South Africa Company, Rhodes and his company set out to “administrate” the area then called South Rhodesia by appropriating land, labour, and material resources from indigenous peoples. This marked the onset of colonialism in Zimbabwe, which continued 1980. Like those of other colonizers, Rhodes’s notion of administration was to use indigenous labour to support colonial businesses and lifestyles. Obtaining the so-called imperial charter to govern the land meant that Rhodes and his company of white “settlers” could requisition any land they desired. With the tactical support of the missionaries, they acquired 3,000 acres of land and fifteen gold claims (Zvobgo, History of Zimbabwe 15). However, this history of systematic land theft is often ignored by European scholars. Such is the case, for instance, with German academic historian L.H. Gann, who was notable for his research in Africa. He refers to the obtainment of African land by Europeans as “grants of land” (32; emphasis mine), but what he does not make clear is the terms under which these lands were granted. He also does not explain whether the European “settlers” had the rights to grant land in that area, but he unapologetically declares that owning land in that area would “assure the Colony’s future” (Gann 32). Sabelo Ndlovu-Gatsheni discusses the colonial requisition of land in Zimbabwe in his article “Re-thinking the Colonial Encounter in Zimbabwe,” in which he argues that appropriating indigenous land and labour enabled the white “settlers” [End Page 170] to enjoy colonial privileges at the expense of local people. As for the African women, Ndoluvu-Gatsheni writes that they were doubly yoked under laws that subjugated them to traditional and colonial patriarchies (179). Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions is a fictional renarration of this history to show the lasting negative effects of colonization and missionization on indigenous peoples in Zimbabwe. While the collusion between colonizers and missionaries has been addressed by historians like Zvobgo (see Kapenzi), Dangarembga re-presents it ironically through Tambu’s and her grandmother’s unofficial “histories” of Zimbabwe (Nervous Conditions 17). Early in the novel, Grandmother Mbuya tells the story of the “Holy and White Wizards,” white colonizers and white missionaries, who form an unholy alliance in the pacification and domination of Zimbabweans. By portraying the missionization of the indigenous peoples as an indoctrination of the mind, which left the “natives” as token representatives of the “holy” beings, Dangarembga shows that the missionaries lulled the Africans into a false sense of belonging, making them ripe for European domination. Through critical evaluation, Tambu goes on to show the longterm adverse effects of missionization on “natives.” Based on a close reading of Grandmother’s and Tambu’s tales, this article argues that the Holy Wizards/missionaries actively participated in colonizing the “native” in Zimbabwe. Indeed, Dangarembga’s metaphorical use of white and holy wizardry arouses a feeling of incredulity at the way in which those colonizers jointly inveigled authority over Zimbabweans as though by magic. By “rearticulating” her story and the stories of others in her community, Tambu readdresses, criticizes, and subverts the effects of missionary colonization in Zimbabwe. About Nervous Conditions: Autobiogr aphy, Magical Realism, and Decolonial Storytelling Nervous Conditions is Tambu’s autobiographical narrative of her struggle to acquire missionary (western) education in order to escape oppression and impoverishment. To a young Tambu, the income disparity between her nuclear family and her uncle’s family means that missionary education is a path to economic and social progress. But having left her rural Homestead and gained access to the Mission where her uncle Babamukuru resides, Tambu...

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