Women in Africa must not only liberate themselves from the influences of colonial rule-they are also fighting

the effects of patriarchal traditions in the history of their culture. Tsitsi Dangarembga's portrayal of five women in her novel Nervous Conditions is a striking reminder that African women are under a yoke when it comes to making their voices heard, especially under male domination. All of the women in this book developed psychological colonization based on the social constructs of men, who were in power over the women. Psychological colonization is when the people who are oppressed accept and mimic the values, beliefs, and social constructs set by their oppressors. Women have bought into the idea that their purpose in life is to please the men. This essay will explore the truth in the statement: In Nervous Conditions the men are generally seen as oppressors while the women are seen as hapless victims. Tambu's mother is one of the entrapped females. She is bound both by the laws of her culture and the social stratification of colonialism. Because of her gender she will never be seen as more than a possession of the men in her family even though it is through the fruits of her labour that her son is able to go to school and food it put on the table. Because of her poverty, she will never reach an equal status with whites or the educated Africans. In addition, she is consumed with the fear of the fatal attraction of Englishness which, in her eyes, is devouring her family one by one. Tambudzais mother, is psychologically colonized, expresses to Lucia that she has accepted she has no choices about her own life but to live for her husband. It is obvious that Tambus mother acknowledges that she is doomed for oppression. She lives her life according to what is expected of her as a woman. Maiguru, although educated, is as entrapped as Tambu's mother. Her education only serves to make her more resentful of her entrapment. Maiguru is still subjected to the demands of her husband and the men of her community. She knows and understands the "European way" but years of ingrained culture and patriarchy force her to keep silent and obedient. Her husband, Babamukuru, as well as her culture holds her back from reaching her full potential. Maiguru's education is viewed as an oddity. In their culture, the wife is supposed to tend to the land and house. It is unheard off for a wife to work and be more educated then her husband. This prevents her from becoming a strong, independent woman that she is more then capable of becoming. The people of her village assume she was simply taking care of her husband and her family while they lived in England. Nyasha is the rebellious female. She has had the benefit of a British education and knows first hand what kind of lives women in Europe lead. She is ever aware of the differences in the way Shona women are treated compared with the treatment of British women. Unlike her mother, Nyasha has no memories of traditions and customs

to silence her voice. Instead she finds herself caught between two worlds. Her schoolmates shun her for her white mannerisms and she has no Shona mannerisms to fall back on. Nyasha is truly a woman without a home, and as she struggles to make a place for herself in society, she finds that the effort just may kill her. Lucia can be seen as either escaped or entrapped. She is escaped because she doesn't care what people think. She is set on gaining an education and bettering herself and will use any means available to achieve those goals. She is entrapped, however, because she still relies on the men in the family, primarily Babamukuru, to fund her education. Tambu is the promise of the escaped female. She views the cultural differences in social status and gender equality from a vantage point. She has experienced second hand through her female relatives the effects of patriarchal rule on women's selfworth and the effects of cultural conflict when Africans allow colonial ideals to displace their African roots. Tambu comes close to forgetting her culture, because she is so adamant on educating herself, she is a hardworking girl who is eager to please and eager to advance herself with this determination one tends to forget who they are and their culture, but her mother's caution always returns to remind her and ground her in the reality of her ethnic heritage. Her self-portrayal in the book, with its unflattering as well as praiseworthy elements, represents the adult Tambus effort to convey the challenges faced by impoverished yet talented women in central Africa in the 1970s. Babamukuru is obsessed with control in general, control over women in particular, and control over his daughter becoming woman , how much she eats, how she dresses and speaks to the elders in the family, how often and how much she talks with boys, and what she reads, all measures designed to fashion her into a "decent" woman. Perhaps it might be more accurate to add that he is "pathetically" obsessed. Nyasha's body and her mind, then, are pressed into Babamukuru's strangely distorted project of asserting his control and preserving his status in society lest it be challenged. His obsession with control does not only apply to his daughter but his wife al well. Even though she is educated, she is not seen as his equal mainly because of their traditional beliefs, where the women must not only obey their husbands but also they cannot let their voices be heard in serious situations. Babamukuru is being oppressed by his family, mainly Jeremiah. Due to Jeremiahs unemployment and laziness, Babamukuru, as the more educated brother in the family, has to provide for not only his own wife and children but also for this brothers family. This hinders him from giving his wife and children the attention they deserve. He is forced to work harder then required due to this situation. Therefore, we can easily say that Babamukuru is being oppressed by his family.

Jeremiah, Tambus father and Babamukurus brother, is nave, ignorant, and superstitious. He seems barely concerned with the future and success of his children and grows increasingly detached from his family. In Babamukurus presence he is servile and fawning, lauding his siblings accomplishments. With his immediate family, however, he is disdainful of education and does little to encourage his childrens ambitions. He does not help the women with their daily chores but instead he uses the money that Babamukuru intend to be school fees for the children to by alcohol. He strongly believes in the culture, again pertaining to the male domination. He makes it clearly to Tambu, who has asked her father for money to enable her to receive an education, that going to school will not help her cook, clean or serve her husband. Tsitsi Dangarembga chooses to portray these five women in this way because she is one of them. She is an African woman trying to find her voice in a male dominated world.