Use the concept of transculturation to explore 'Our Sister Killyjoy' and 'Nervous Conditions.'

Owing to transculturation is the conflict between western theories and practices in education and various African traditions and cultures. African women, including Tambu, learn to believe that education helps them challenge patriarchy, improves their status, releases them from certain traditional restrictions yet they must overcome the autocratic authority exercised by the males and the racism and patriarchy of the colonial culture. In addition, African families promote education for males and discourage equivalent educational opportunities for females. This inequity in education is as her father tells her, ‘the same everywhere’ though the reader is aware that it is not like that in Europe. Tambu believes that before his death her brother had become a stranger to her as he was assimilated into the western culture of the mission school: forgetting his language, rejecting his family and rural roots and cultivating western ways. At this point Tambu recognises the negative effects of transculturation hence she sets her own ideal as one that will both emulate her Uncle and also one that will not allow her to be seduced by the distracting splendours of a richer, wider world. Yet this description later on in the novel suggests the extent to which she has internalized a Western ideal of success; ‘He didn't need to be bold because he had made himself plenty of power.  Plenty of power.  Plenty of money.  A lot of education.  Plenty of everything.’   

It is evident that during their time in London Nyasha and Chido are introduced to new ideas about how people should live. Nyasha is Anglicized after spending the early years of her education in England; she speaks British English, and has adopted English ways. Nyasha clashes with her father over the freedoms she has experienced while abroad and her struggle to convince her father of the right to her own choices eventually leads her to feeling trapped between European and African worldviews. Nyasha rebels against her father, her position and post colonialism, her rebellion and guilt eventually serve to make her ill. At times Tambu disapproves of her Anglicized cousin's rebellion; ‘Everything about her spoke of alternatives and possibilities that if considered too deeply would wreak havoc with the neat plan I had laid out for my life.’ In order to survive at her uncle's school Tambu suppresses her political consciousness as she submerges herself in her studies and becomes inadvertently drawn into all the culturally alienating habits she so disapproved of in her brother.

Nyasha falls victim to transculturation via her ill-fated rebellion; suffering from anorexia nervosa Nyasha is unable to benefit from her intelligence and insight. Dangarembga’s manipulation of food is shown through Nyasha’s development of a Western disease, because of her confused identity she refuses to eat as punishment to herself and her family. There is a binary opposition as she has access to an abundance of food whilst millions in Africa are affected by poverty and subsequent starvation. Nyasha cannot escape from those internalized values and pathological behaviour patterns which frequently shape Western women's consciousness, her exposure to a binary culture has harmed her and her clear understanding of what is happening to her makes merely serves to make her illness more poignant. Nyasha sees herself as "hybrid" because of her British education and her loss of her native language and culture; she envies her cousin her connection with her past. Lamenting her loss of Shona and her ignorance of the ‘old ways’ and rural African culture, Nyasha tells her cousin: ‘It's bad enough ... when a country gets colonised, but when the people do as well!  That's the end, really, that's the end!’ Nyasha knows very well the fate Tambu is destined for when she leaves for the European convent school. Yet despite all her consciousness Nyasha is unable to save herself as she slides into madness and breakdown at the novel's conclusion.

Towards the end of the novel upon Tambu’s arrival at her stifled room in the convent, a white nun tells Babamukuru ‘We had more Africans than usual this year and so we had to put them all in here.’ ‘Neither benefactive nor probative, this colonial administrative judgement and congestive spatial arrangement subtext powerfully the coloniser-colonised relationship, which, markedly favours the coloniser at the colonised’s expense.’ It is an anti-climax for Tambu who had long aspired to be there, to find that at it’s most basic level the world of the convent school is no different to the world she was in previously and strived so hard to leave behind. It also shows that transculturation, the merging of European and African cultures, hasn’t solved the problems.

In the conclusion of ‘Nervous Conditions’ Tambu asks the reader to believe that Africa’s absorption of ‘Englishness’ has caused all of the intricate problems in the story. This disclosure is an example of ‘Englishness’ as both a tool of revelation and a tool of oppression. Without their ‘English’ education, neither Nyasha nor Tambu would have had the insight to recognize their predicament. Yet ultimately Tambu takes what she requires from Western culture and brings it to bear on her traditional way of life.

‘Our Sister Killjoy’ was written in 1977 by Ghanaian writer Ama Ata Aidoo, it deals with the issues of colonialism, race nationality and self-discovery. It is frequently described as a ‘prose-poem’ as the format jumps between both prose and poetry; unbiased narration to the jumbled up thoughts in the protagonist’s head. The prose is very controlled and yet the experimental style of the poetry comes across like a real thought process, frequently confused. Sissie, the central character, is certainly a ‘killjoy’ looking at the world with a ‘black-eyed squint.’

At the beginning of the novel Sissie feels very privileged to be going to Germany, yet she is unsure as to why she has been chosen; she feels tokenistic. She is aware of her difference from the very start of her travels and ‘once on board, she is politely shown to the back of the plane, in order not to upset the racist sensibilities of the White South African passengers.’ This is followed by her arrival at the station where she very quickly realises ‘that someone somewhere would always see in any kind of difference, an excuse to be mean.’ In Sissie’s case she is the foreign element that is to induce change in order for transculturation to occur. The consequences of colonisation that are pervasive throughout the whole book begin right here and continue throughout. Later on Sissie speaks of the high ministers in Europe who have power over African resources, ‘Champagne sipping

                                                   Ministers and commissioners

                                                   Sign away

                                                   Mineral and Timber

                                                   Concessions, in exchange for

                                                   Yellow wheat which

                                                   The people can’t eat.’

yet there is still famine and an obvious colonial draining of resources.

The first part of the novel revolves around Sissie's encounter with a young German woman, Marija, who eventually tries to seduce her. ‘Her relationship with Marija crosses the line from the fantasy of puppy love to the reality of lesbianism.’ Not only are they breaking stereotypes regarding heterosexual relationships but Eurocentric ideas also become present, the idea of a German woman needing an African girl shows a reversal of desire. Yet Sissie is the passive one and Maria the aggressive which is a microcosm of colonialism. Marija’s actions alert Sissie to the fact that economic, cultural and other forms of exploitation are all connected. Maria’s exploitation of Sissie propels her into thinking about why she is in Germany in the first place; ‘What strings, pulled by whom, drew her into those pinelands where not so long ago human beings stoked their own funeral pyres with other human beings.’ This reference to the holocaust forces Sissie to ask herself what it is that she and so many others are looking up to. Though love and loneliness are universal themes, not explicit to colonialism, Marija's plight brings home to Sissie the fundamental loneliness of Western people

Aidoo certainly recognizes the oppression of the European lower classes, for instance Marija’s strong nationalist sentiments appear to prevent her from identifying the similarity between their experiences and those of immigrants. In fact, Sissie explicitly rejects the idea that Africans and European share certain common bonds of oppression when for instance she meets someone from Scotland who points to their common struggles against colonialism and she rejects this basis for an alliance because members of the Scottish elite were part of the colonial project in Ghana.

The character Kunle greatly disturbs Sissie, he has been in London for seven years and is no longer concerned by the civil war in his homeland. He is concerned merely with South Africans, like the heart surgeon making progress in predominantly western fields, such as medicine, in his eyes this ‘type of development can solve the question of apartheid.’ The letters Kunle receives from his mother act as reminders of the drastic material conditions that exist in Ghana and the responsibility of those abroad to help alleviate the difficulties of those they have left behind.

                                                                          ‘Kunle

                                                                           I am not begging

                                                                           you for

                                                                           money.’

                                                                           ‘But my son,

                                                                            there is

                                                                            nothing here at all.’

Those at home remind those abroad of their privileged status and what is perceived as their duty towards the people of their society.

The 'been-to' is a phrase used to describe people like Sissie, a person of many conflicts, caught in a sense between his or her African origins and Western education and attempting to negotiate these various influences on his or her identity. Thus, 'been-to' is often portrayed in African literature as one who is alienated from both worlds, often rejecting Western culture and yet removed from his or her culture of origins because of Western education. Towards the close of the book it is evident that Sissie is aware of the difficulties of her position, she says ‘First of all, there is this language. This language.’ Language is the key to communication and without it Sissy knows she is lost and unable to express herself adequately enough.

 ‘Transculturation describes the process by which a conquered people choose and select what aspects of the dominant culture they will assume.’ Unlike acculturation, transculturation recognises the power of the subordinate culture to create its own version of the dominant culture. There are plentiful examples of this throughout ‘Nervous Conditions’ as Babamukuru and Tambu in particular strive towards Western ideals, especially regarding education. There is also the example of Nyasha internalising Western values to the detriment of her health and her potential. ‘Our Sister Killjoy’ provides very different examples of transculturation because Sissie is experiencing a different continent and culture. Both novels also demonstrate that transculturation is propelled by powerful forces at the macrosocial level, yet ultimately resolved at an interpersonal level. Both novels aid the understanding of transculturation as a movement towards a national culture and national literary identity, which also serves as a means of resisting colonial acculturation.

---