Loyal Traitors - Nervous Conditions - If You Could Name the Novel Another Name What Would It Be.

In Nervous Conditions, a novel written by Tsitsi Dangarembga, who was the first black Zimbabwean women to publish a novel in English, focuses on a range of real life issues of the 1960s and 1970s such as inequality, sexism, difference between colonisation and modernisation and finding a person's true identity. With such a vast amount of important factors mentioned in one novel, how is it possible to explain all of that in one title? Nervous Conditions is the perfect title for the novel. However if another title could be chosen it would be "Loyal Traitors" because the amount of deceitfulness and betrayal amongst each other and amongst countries during this time period was significant yet there was loyalty between some and in Nervous Conditions, there is both.

"Loyal Traitors" would be a good title as it is appealing and it draws the reader in, a title plays an important role in acquiring a person's attention. If the title is not different and captivating then a person is put off the book even if the book is excellent since the title does not appeal to them. There a significant amount of issues and situations which are displayed through the novel. The reason this title suits the book is because it brings in two of the most important aspects of the novel into one title – the betrayal of society, the betrayal of Tambu rebelling against her expected role in society of being a traditional wife and mother, the betrayal of the countries and the betrayal amongst an African family. Then the title also focuses on loyalty – loyalty of friendship such as Tambu and Nyasha's friendship, loyalty to yourself and the loyalty of being honest to not only yourself but others (Eslamieh, p. 1-3.).

The novel highlights the struggle most individuals are faced with and that is identifying their true selves in a hybrid society. Westernisation and modernisation was taking over the traditions of Zimbabwe and some of Tambu's family had difficulty accepting that. Tambu's mother felt that "the Englishness [would] kill them" (Dangarembga, p. 207.). The reason "traitor" is a good part of the title is because even though it was not always intentional, a lot of Tambu's family were traitors in some form. Tambu herself was a traitor for going against tradition and her mother's wishes to "escape" (Dangarembga, p. 1.) in order to receive an education to become an individual, she also betrayed her family by "not [being] sorry when [her] brother died" (Dangarembga, p. 1.). There was also the deceitfulness of Zimbabwe, a patriarchal society which brought upon inequality, sexism and deracination (Gorle, p. 180). The betrayal of inequality and sexism which stopped women from receiving proper education and made women meaningless and a man's slave, the men have all the control of the women. The social and linguistic deracination focuses on the diversity amongst