Chapter 2. Flashcards
When does Nhamo begin attending school and why?
The government decides, “African children [are] sufficiently developed cognitively” to understand numbers and letters, so Nhamo begins attending local school at age seven, while many other kids didn’t begin for another year or two.
What unfortunately lead to there being no money for school fees, and why could the family not ask Babamukuru?
Unfortunately, despite fair rains, the crop that year is poor, and there was no money for school fees. With Babamukuru in England, there’s no chance of asking him for money.
Why did Babamukuru leave?
Babamukuru went to England with his whole family after being offered a scholarship to study for a Master’s degree in education for 5 years.
Babamukuru purportedly didn’t want to leave the mission. Eventually, he did. Who did he leave with?
They even offered Maiguru a scholarship to study as well. Eventually, they decided to go and take Chido and Nyasha with them for five years.
What is the disadvantage of Babamukuru going to study abroad?
Jeremiah worried about having to provide for himself because Babamukuru makes all the family’s financial decisions, trades, and purchases and with Babamukuru being abroad he will also have less money to send home, which means less money for school fees.
At that time, Nhamo knew lots of things: he knew he was going to study like Babamukuru, and that it was his responsibility to educate or care for his sisters. When Jeremiah and Mainini told him there was no money for school fees, how did he react and what was Jeremiah and Mainini’s response to this?
Nhamo cried. Mainini began selling boiled eggs at bus stops and managed to keep Nhamo in school, which angered Tambu.
What did Jeremiah say as a response to Tambu’s anger for being pulled out of school?
Jeremiah told Tambu that she shouldn’t mind not being in school, since she’d never be able to feed her husband books.
When Tambu isn’t able to go to school because of a poor crop, what does this illustrate?
It illustrates the extent of her family’s poverty, as well as their dependence on traditional ways of making money, like farming.
How does Mainini respond to Tambu saying that Maiguru was a better wife because of her education?
Mainini calmly insisted that womanhood is a heavy burden. She explained that Tambu needed to learn to carry the burdens of blackness and womanhood with strength.
Tambu announced that she’d go to school but Jeremiah refused to work and earn the school fees himself. What was Tambu’s plan?
She decides to raise tuition fees on her own by growing maize on her own small lot and selling the cobs to tourists.
What was Jeremiah and Mainini’s reaction to Tambu’s plan to sell maize to raise money to pay school fees?
Jeremiah laughed, and Mainini suggested they allow Tambu to do this, as she’d just learn to fail.
Who taught Tambu to tend to crop?
Tambu spent the next few months tending her crop, just as her grandmother taught her when she was little.
What did Tambu’s grandmother teach her in addition to how to grow corn?
In addition to teaching Tambu how to grow corn, Tambu’s grandmother also taught family history (continuation in another deck).
Tambu tended her cornfields and completed all her other chores. What did Mainini and Nhamo say about this?
Mainini began to discourage Tambu to prepare her for failure, and Nhamo didn’t help either and told her she could not go to school because she was a girl.
What happened to Tambu’s crop that was strange?
Late in February, as Tambu’s crop ripened, the cobs began to disappear.
