Nervous 1

    The world has always been unfair to women, this is true in all cultures. The sad part of the fact is that no matter where you are you will never escape it. This is one of the main ideas that stick out to me in the novel Nervous Conditions. The main character in the story is a young girl who is growing up in a struggling African family. Like most families, this family is struggling with money. The sad fact is that injustice comes to the main character, because she is a girl her family was going to choose to take her out of school in hopes that they could then support her brother in his education. Due to this, the little girl grows her own produce so that what she sells she can use to send herself to school. Sadly, her brother takes much of the crop and gives it away.
   I relate to this story because of my mother, she was a young woman when she had her children, she had to raise and feed her two young boys on the waitress' salary. This was especially difficult because she was only nineteen at the time, and where was the father? Gone, he was abusive so she left him. I must state then that I do believe that women do have harder times in society, in the sense that if people become truly desperate and have to pick and choose who to send to school or whatever it will likely be the boy.
   The story of my mom helps me to identify with the universal fact that many women have been put in situations that are unfair. Many women have to struggle to survive, support their families, or make a living. Simply, even with all the advancements of women in America women can still struggle like the women from Nervous conditions. The women in Nervous Conditions are tough, this seems to be the same with the women around the world like my mother. The women have had to learn to work hard, to work harder than anyone else just to feed the family, or pay for her education like Tambu from the story. Plainly, the story of my mom helps me to identify with the struggle that Tambu and the women in her life had to face.
Andrew Asimus

Decolonization of the Mind

   In the article Decolonization of the Mind the writer speaks of the injustice that is not only colonization of Africa, but also the natives own minds. The people of Africa are facing injustice, they are being forced to learn European languages, and having to learn how to express themselves in this foreign language. The idea of African people speaking in a foreign lanugauge can be expressed as betraying the "mother tongue" as the writer says.
   I find it to be a sad fact of life that the African people have to learn the languages of Europe and have to adopt their own language such as African English. Sadly, this is what has happened, and this will continue to happen throughout the world. Nations of greater influence force others to adapt to their desires. I am being wishful in thinking when I say that maybe the African people will not lose parts of their history during this, but most likely they will to a certain degree just as the American Indian population have lost some of their rich history.
   To an extent this bares a resemblance to the the American people of the times of great migrations. During these times the people would worry about being over run by immigrants and the language they spoke. The people of Africa appear to think in a similar manner that the outsiders will overrun them, and mask their heritage. Obviously, there is solid grounds for the people to worry, but how are the people who are immigrating to Africa actually acting towards the African natives? Are all of the immigrants disrespectful, or are some of them more respectful then the ones who are giving the other immigrants a bad reputation? Lastly, what can we really even do to help the African people?

Good Climate

        In the story written by Nadine Gordimer "Good Climate, Friendly Inhabitants" she exposes the idea that even the whites of Africa may have their minds being held captive by racism. The character/narrator is a woman who is a sense is a good, loving, gentle woman who cares about others, but is a racist and sees the other races as monkeys. The idea given by Gordimer is very true because I come from a family with a history of racism, and even though the individuals may have good hearts they are blinded by their prejudice. In another sense they are being held captive by racism. The shame is that the people who are racist, or are the victims of these prejudices are trapped; many may never find their way out. To truly confirm what I am trying to express I will say that all people whether white, black, or anything in between must be careful that their own minds are not held captive to ideas that may not be our own.
Andrew Asimus