Double Colonization of Indigenous Women in Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions

Indigenous women were doubly colonized in settler colonies. They were exposed both to the racism practiced by colonizers and gender inequalities imposed on them by the male dominatedsocieties in the majority of the Third World countries. This article concentrates on the doublecolonization of indigenous women in Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions. On the one hand, native women have to cope with the detrimental consequences of colonialism, including racism,destitution and erasure of local culture; on the other hand, they are maltreated by the males in their families because of their gender. Tambudzai and Nyasha, the two main female characters in the novel, are discussed in details through their confrontation with colonial discourse and patriarchaloppression as the marginalizing factors that limit them in different ways. They have to resistagainst Babamukuru, as the leading male character in Nervous Conditions, in order to escape the entrapment that threats their freedom as educated girls

Keywords:

colonization , racism , culture , hegemony , oppression