Nervous Conditions

Multiple schools appear or are discussed in Nervous Conditions. Tambu attends three different schools; she begins her education in a small local school, then moves to the mission school before she is given a scholarship to attend the Young Ladies College of the Sacred Heart, which is a convent school. Other schools that are referenced include government schools and multiracial schools, such as those attended by Chido, Andy, and Brian.

Schools are motifs of both education and assimilation. Education is beneficial to Tambu and the others, as it provides them with the potential means of escaping poverty. However, both the education process and the means of escaping poverty rely on the assimilation of African culture to Western culture and ideals. The schools teach Christian principles to encourage African students to conform to Western values, and they teach subjects and topics of importance in Western culture. Education has both positive and negative impacts for Tambu, Nhamo, and Nyasha; while they receive the benefit of an education, they experience unintended side effects, such as Nhamo’s arrogance causing strife between him and Tambu and Nyasha experiencing mental crises from the conflict between education and assimilation.