Focusing on Babamukuru, discuss the writer's portrayal of the educated Africans in colonial Africa.

At the beginning of Nervous Conditions, Tambu sees education as a pathway to financial success, based on the example set by Babamukuru. She describes her uncle's offer to pay for Nhamo's education as "oceanic," since it would "lift our branch of the family out of the squalor in which we were living." Babamukuru believes that education is the route to alleviate dependency. Meanwhile, his own wife, Maiguru, has a masters' degree that she has never used. Tambu is desperate to be educated, as it will be her ticket out of poverty. When she arrives at the convent school, though, it becomes clear that her colonial education will continue to subjugate her because she is an African. To the white children, education is a right, and the Africans are taught to see it as a privilege. Looking back, Tambu recognizes that this system enforces a colonial power structure but at the time, it seemed a great opportunity and certainly does allow her to build a life outside of her family's poverty.