Reading Time: 3 minutes
Cover of "The Book of Not" by Tsitsi Dangarembga, featuring a bold magenta background with fragmented shapes revealing a white church tower and blooming tree. A quote at the top reads “A great writer.” — Chinua Achebe.
Cover of Tsitsi Dangarembga’s powerful sequel, The Book of Not, a bold exploration of race, identity, and belonging in postcolonial Zimbabwe.


Published: 2006
Genre: Fiction, Coming of Age
Country: Zimbabwe
Buy the book here

Introduction

The Book of Not is the powerful sequel to Nervous Conditions. It follows Tambudzai’s (Tambu’s) story further as she grows from her Baba Mukuru’s home to moving on to high school. As Tambu moves from colonial Rhodesia through the liberation war (Chimurenga) and into independent Zimbabwe, her internal struggles take centre stage. Her attempts to rise, to fit in, to be seen, to be the best, all become a quiet but relentless internal war.

Book Summary

Tambu has been through the wringer. So much happens to her in this sequel. The book picks up right after Nervous Conditions, following her into high school at the elite Young Ladies’ College of the Sacred Heart. Hopes were extremely high for Tambu, and her future looked truly bright. But as her cousin Nyasha later proclaimed, “Life happened”. Tambu’s High school was a primarily white school, with a handful of African students carefully chosen as part of a government quota. Tambu was one of those “privileged” ones.

Meanwhile, Zimbabweans are fighting for liberation from colonialism. Tambu’s family is deeply affected. Her sister lost a limb, and her Baba Mukuru was also injured. Her mother becomes increasingly difficult to connect with.

At school, Tambu faces blatant racism. The colour of her skin marks her very existence. Even the act of touching a white person’s food is loaded with racial meaning. Despite this, she throws herself into her studies, desperate to excel, to be a “good” student, aiming for academic excellence.

Yet Tambu is torn. She mimics Baba Mukuru’s reverence for whiteness, lives in pursuit of approval and of proving just how good she is. But nothing is enough. In a system built on anti-Blackness, no amount of excellence earns true belonging. Despite her hard work, however, Tambu’s struggles to reach the greatness she envisions for herself, the same one her Baba Mukuru expects from her.

Tambu also struggles with her identity, with her sense of self. She searches for validation in her grades. She tries to practise Unhu (or Ubuntu – see Everyday Ubuntu: Living Better Together, the African Way by Nompumelelo Mungi Ngomane Book Review), but even that slips from her grasp. After Nervous Conditions, I hoped Nyasha’s politics would influence Tambu. But this novel shows otherwise. It was painful to read about Tambu’s internal struggles and what became of her in the end (luckily, there is a book three, This Mournable Body, and I hope things turn around for Tambu).

I was hoping to read more about Nyasha in this sequel; however, there wasn’t much written about her.

Final Thoughts

Through Tambu, Tsitsi Dangarembga exposes the emotional toll of racism and internalised oppression. The way it can change people and the things it does to identity, especially of the self. There was so much hope for Tambu at the end of Nervous Conditions, but The Book of Not left hopelessness in its wake. Hopefully, the final book restores hope.

Recommendation

If you’ve read Nervous Conditions, you must read The Book of Not.
If you haven’t, start there, and then dive into this powerful sequel.

About the Author

Tsitsi Dangarembga is a multi-talented Zimbabwean author, filmmaker, and activist. She made history with Nervous Conditions, the first novel in English by a Black Zimbabwean woman, followed by The Book of Not and This Mournable Body, which was shortlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize. Her work explores colonialism, race, gender, and trauma. In 2021, she was awarded the PEN Pinter Prize.

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