Condiciones nerviosas: Herencia de la opresión: la ficción racista de Gobineau y la historia de Tsitsi Dangarembga

Abstract

The text examines Nervous Conditions (1988) by Tsitsi Dangarembga in critical dialogue with the racist ideology articulated by Joseph Arthur de Gobineau, identified as an origin of so-called “scientific racism.” It argues that such theories lack biological validity and functioned historically to legitimize colonial hierarchies and domination. Through the story of Tambudzai, an African girl growing up in 1960s colonial Rhodesia, the novel reveals how colonial racism and patriarchy operate together to restrict the opportunities of poor Black women. Education is presented as an ambivalent instrument: it enables resistance and critical awareness, yet simultaneously reproduces social structures that attribute women’s achievements to male authority. Beyond denouncing racial segregation, the narrative demonstrates that female subordination predates colonial rule and persists after Zimbabwean independence, fostering in the protagonist a critical consciousness regarding identity, gender, and social inequality