Women and Oppressive Social Conditions in Tsitsi Ndangarembga’s First Trilogy

The study examines the transitions of the social conditions that oppress women using Tsitsi Dangarembga’s first trilogy. There are emerging social conditions that oppress women which needs to be given attention and unless this oppression of women is studied in its trend, pertinent issues of concern may be left out. This would mean that women will continue to suffer under their oppressors if they aren’t given a voice to speak with. The aim of this study was to give a trail of the oppressive social conditions faced by women using Tsitsi Dangarembga’s first trilogy; Nervous Conditions (1988), The Book of Not (2006) and This Mournable Body (2018). The study analyses the traditional oppressive social conditions that marginalise women in the selected texts, provides an examination of the impact of emerging oppressive social conditions on women in the selected texts and interrogates how the authorial ideology shapes the choice of the feminist literary strategy in the selected texts. The study employs Postcolonial Feminist Theory on double colonization and the subaltern and New Historicism. The study adopts a qualitative research design. The three texts were purposively sampled as they are a trilogy hence better placed to show the trail in the marginalisation of women especially having the same protagonist. A textual exegesis was conducted from close reading and content analysis as the method of data collection and analysis. Primary texts were subjected to close reading to provide data for analysis. The researcher also referred to secondary sources to collect data that was used to support the arguments. The literary scholars may use this knowledge in working towards developing appropriate feminist theories, approaches and models in analysis of such works. This study finds that the oppressive social conditions faced by women keep on changing with time and the lives of the women in different communities are impacted highly by those conditions. The study found out that women still face traditional oppressive social conditions that include; oppressive cultural practices, colonialism, neo-colonialism and patriarchy. The study also found out that into the 21^st century, other oppressive social conditions such as racism, neo-colonialism and hegemonic culture have impacted women in a way that they are faced with segregation or discrimination, commodification of the female body and trauma, stigma, loss and alienation in their everyday lives. The study also established that the author was influenced by several ideologies in her choice of the feminist aesthetic strategy used in the trilogy that included political, feminist, socialist feminist and hegemonic ideologies. This study may be appropriated for comparative literary studies that will enable the development of the appropriate approaches and theories to women emancipation and creation of an all-inclusive gender system.