-Term Project-
*A comparative study on the book Nervous Conditions and the film Chocolat.*

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-Role of Food-
          The novel Nervous Conditions takes place in Africa, a country where most Africans are poor and the value of food is known and realized.  In this book the author displays the various roles and uses of food with several characters.  The character Nyasha uses the refusal of food as a weapon of control and power against her father, Babamukuru, and the colonized society that controls him.  For Nyasha, being able to say “I’m full,” to her father is a way for her to change the place of conflict from the dining table to her own body, which she is in control of. Through this continuous refusal of food she develops the eating disorders anorexia nervosa and bulimia. 
          Another demonstration of how food is utilized as a tool to gain power is shown to the reader through Nhamo, Tambu’s brother.  Nhamo is able to gain power over Tambu’s efforts of trying to obtain funds for education through the growing of maize crops by stealing ripening cobs from Tambu’s field and ultimately destroying her chances at paying for her own education (Hill 3).
          Tambu is constantly concerned throughout the first few chapters of the story with the processes that surround the production of food, such as, the planting, gathering, and preparation of it.  This all changes when she goes to live with her uncle, Babamukuru, because at his family’s house there is an abundance of food, which is associated with his acquired success, wealth, and power.  In this type of environment Tambu for the first time sees that people are able to plant things, such as, flowers—just for the mere enjoyment of them, not for the pure reason of, "having to keep breath in the body" (Dangarembga 64).
        The role of food also plays an important part in the movie Chocolat because key moments are centered on characters’ shared interactions with food.  The first encounter with food that the audience experiences is in the scene out in the middle of the wilderness, where Protee prepares a snack of live black ants on bread and butter for the young girl France.  This scene displays France’s shared identity of French colonial and African influences.  To add to their interactions as friends later in the film at the dining table France feeds Protee soup, but he disgusts her by eating an insect at the table.   France responds as a colonial would by calling him a "disgusting native", since he disrupts what she has been taught as proper behavior at the dinner table. 
          France’s mother Aimee further represents the differing colonial influences that are present in Africa when she argues with the African cook about creating more meals that consist of French food instead of his usual English recipes.  In a later scene, though, when Aimee has an English guest arrive she is back trying to renegotiate with the cook to get him to create his typical meals, so that they can cater to the English man’s taste in food (Sandars 3).

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Role of Food | Hybrid Identities | Idea of Space | Damage of Colonialism

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