Nervous Conditions

by

Tsitsi Dangarembga

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Maiguru Character Analysis

Maiguru is Tambu's aunt and Babamukuru's wife. She studied with Babamukuru in South Africa in the 1950s and accompanied him to England in 1960. Tambu thinks of Maiguru as being caring and concerned for everyone, as well as deserving of the utmost respect. She believes Maiguru's life cannot possibly have any downsides, given that she's married to the wonderful Babamukuru. This illusion begins to break down when Tambu begins attending the mission school and observes Maiguru at close quarters. Nyasha insists that Maiguru doesn't want respect, and that she likes to complain, which baffles Tambu. Tambu learns after a few months that Maiguru went to England to study for a master's in philosophy, not just to care for Babamukuru. Maiguru also doesn't have control over her paycheck. Though Tambu finds this sad, she again cannot truly appreciate Maiguru's missed opportunities and oppression given that Maiguru is married to Babamukuru and therefore, cannot have a bad life. As the senior wife, Maiguru is expected to cook for the entire extended family during family gatherings, though she's excluded from patriarchal meetings. The other lesser women of the family, like Mainini and Patience, believe that Maiguru thinks she's better than them because of her education and her wealth. Maiguru finally takes a stand against Babamukuru after the wedding. She insists that she's tired of having to care for Babamukuru's family and of being told what to do, so she leaves for five days. Upon her forced return, Maiguru is happier and more vocal about her beliefs. She advocates for Babamukuru to allow Tambu to attend Sacred Heart and insists that going to the school won't turn Tambu into a "loose" woman, as she recognizes that "loose" is merely a slur designed to punish women for being anything more than wives and mothers.

Maiguru Quotes in Nervous Conditions

The Nervous Conditions quotes below are all either spoken by Maiguru or refer to Maiguru. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
The Limits of Education Theme Icon
).
Chapter Four Quotes

This lack of brilliance was due, I discovered years later when television came to the mission, to the use of scouring powders which, though they sterilized 99 percent of a household, were harsh and scratched fine surfaces. When I found this out, I realized that Maiguru […] must have known about the dulling effects of these scourers […] By that time I knew something about budgets as well, notably their inelasticity. It dawned on me then that Maiguru's dull sink was not a consequence of slovenliness, as the advertisers would have had us believe, but a necessity.

Related Characters: Tambu (speaker), Babamukuru, Maiguru
Page Number: 68
Explanation and Analysis:

[…] the real situation was this: Babamukuru was God, therefore I had arrived in Heaven. I was in danger of becoming an angel […] and forgetting how ordinary humans existed—from minute to minute and from hand to mouth. The absence of dirt was proof of the other-worldly nature of my new home.

Related Characters: Tambu (speaker), Babamukuru, Maiguru
Page Number: 70
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Five Quotes

"Maybe that would have been best. For them at least, because now they're stuck with hybrids for children. And they don't like it. They don't like it at all. It offends them. They think we do it on purpose, so it offends them."

Related Characters: Nyasha (speaker), Tambu, Babamukuru, Maiguru, Chido
Related Symbols: England
Page Number: 79
Explanation and Analysis:

"I thought you went to look after Babamukuru," I said. "That's all people ever say."

Maiguru snorted. "And what do you expect? Why should a woman go all that way and put up with all those problems if not to look after her husband?"

Related Characters: Nyasha (speaker), Maiguru (speaker), Babamukuru
Related Symbols: England
Page Number: 102
Explanation and Analysis:

I felt sorry for Maiguru because she could not use the money she earned for her own purposes and had been prevented by marriage from doing the things she wanted to do. But it was not so simple, because she had been married by my Babamukuru, which defined her situation as good.

Related Characters: Nyasha (speaker), Babamukuru, Maiguru
Page Number: 103-104
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Seven Quotes

But the women had been taught to recognize these reflections as self and it was frightening now to even begin to think that, the very facts which set them apart as a group, as women, as a certain kind of person, were only myths; frightening to acknowledge that generations of threat and assault and neglect had battered these myths into the extreme, dividing reality they faced, of the Maigurus or the Lucias.

Related Characters: Tambu (speaker), Mainini, Maiguru, Lucia, Patience
Page Number: 140
Explanation and Analysis:

"Because she's rich and comes here and flashes her money around, so you listen to her as though you want to eat the words that come out of her mouth […] I am poor and ignorant, that's me, but I have a mouth and it will keep on talking, it won't keep quiet."

Related Characters: Mainini (speaker), Tambu, Maiguru, Lucia, Patience
Page Number: 140
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Nine Quotes

"I don't know what people mean by a loose woman—sometimes she is someone who walks the streets, sometimes she is an educated woman, sometimes she is a successful man's daughter or she is simply beautiful. Loose or decent, I don't know."

Related Characters: Maiguru (speaker), Tambu, Babamukuru
Page Number: 184
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Ten Quotes

"Look what they've done to us," she said softly. "I'm not one of them but I'm not one of you."

Related Characters: Nyasha (speaker), Tambu, Babamukuru, Maiguru
Page Number: 205
Explanation and Analysis:
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Maiguru Quotes in Nervous Conditions

The Nervous Conditions quotes below are all either spoken by Maiguru or refer to Maiguru. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
The Limits of Education Theme Icon
).
Chapter Four Quotes

This lack of brilliance was due, I discovered years later when television came to the mission, to the use of scouring powders which, though they sterilized 99 percent of a household, were harsh and scratched fine surfaces. When I found this out, I realized that Maiguru […] must have known about the dulling effects of these scourers […] By that time I knew something about budgets as well, notably their inelasticity. It dawned on me then that Maiguru's dull sink was not a consequence of slovenliness, as the advertisers would have had us believe, but a necessity.

Related Characters: Tambu (speaker), Babamukuru, Maiguru
Page Number: 68
Explanation and Analysis:

[…] the real situation was this: Babamukuru was God, therefore I had arrived in Heaven. I was in danger of becoming an angel […] and forgetting how ordinary humans existed—from minute to minute and from hand to mouth. The absence of dirt was proof of the other-worldly nature of my new home.

Related Characters: Tambu (speaker), Babamukuru, Maiguru
Page Number: 70
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Five Quotes

"Maybe that would have been best. For them at least, because now they're stuck with hybrids for children. And they don't like it. They don't like it at all. It offends them. They think we do it on purpose, so it offends them."

Related Characters: Nyasha (speaker), Tambu, Babamukuru, Maiguru, Chido
Related Symbols: England
Page Number: 79
Explanation and Analysis:

"I thought you went to look after Babamukuru," I said. "That's all people ever say."

Maiguru snorted. "And what do you expect? Why should a woman go all that way and put up with all those problems if not to look after her husband?"

Related Characters: Nyasha (speaker), Maiguru (speaker), Babamukuru
Related Symbols: England
Page Number: 102
Explanation and Analysis:

I felt sorry for Maiguru because she could not use the money she earned for her own purposes and had been prevented by marriage from doing the things she wanted to do. But it was not so simple, because she had been married by my Babamukuru, which defined her situation as good.

Related Characters: Nyasha (speaker), Babamukuru, Maiguru
Page Number: 103-104
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Seven Quotes

But the women had been taught to recognize these reflections as self and it was frightening now to even begin to think that, the very facts which set them apart as a group, as women, as a certain kind of person, were only myths; frightening to acknowledge that generations of threat and assault and neglect had battered these myths into the extreme, dividing reality they faced, of the Maigurus or the Lucias.

Related Characters: Tambu (speaker), Mainini, Maiguru, Lucia, Patience
Page Number: 140
Explanation and Analysis:

"Because she's rich and comes here and flashes her money around, so you listen to her as though you want to eat the words that come out of her mouth […] I am poor and ignorant, that's me, but I have a mouth and it will keep on talking, it won't keep quiet."

Related Characters: Mainini (speaker), Tambu, Maiguru, Lucia, Patience
Page Number: 140
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Nine Quotes

"I don't know what people mean by a loose woman—sometimes she is someone who walks the streets, sometimes she is an educated woman, sometimes she is a successful man's daughter or she is simply beautiful. Loose or decent, I don't know."

Related Characters: Maiguru (speaker), Tambu, Babamukuru
Page Number: 184
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Ten Quotes

"Look what they've done to us," she said softly. "I'm not one of them but I'm not one of you."

Related Characters: Nyasha (speaker), Tambu, Babamukuru, Maiguru
Page Number: 205
Explanation and Analysis: