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Tashi is a girl in the Olinka tribe who is a similar age as Olivia, and the two become increasingly close friends during Nettie and her family’s mission. As the girls grow closer, Tashi begins to take on some of Olivia, Corinne, and Nettie’s feminist principles. In the Olinka tribe, women’s lives are very restricted, and their value in society is entirely predicated on their relationships with their husbands and sons, as well as their ability to produce children. Women are seen as the secondary sex, and they are not educated to the same extent as the men to ensure they do not develop ambitions beyond motherhood. Tashi’s friendship with the American missionaries exposes her to a new world, a world in which girls are educated and liberated to choose their paths outside of marriage and children.
Tashi is an empathetic, curious, and intelligent child who cries when she learns about slavery and how Africans were sold to America. This reaction sets her apart from many of the adult Olinka, who are apathetic about native Africans’ role in abetting chattel slavery. Tashi’s empathetic reaction shows that she is a person who is open to new perspectives, showing that she, unlike many of the other Olinka, can adapt to contemporary changes in society. However, Tashi’s father discourages her education, as he complies with the tribe’s traditional and misogynistic beliefs. For some time, Tashi is disallowed from attending school with Olivia and the tribal boys. But when Tashi’s father dies, her mother pushes Nettie to take Tashi back in as a student. The death of Tashi’s father and the increasing support of tribal women in allowing girls to go to school symbolizes how traditional beliefs are dying out and being replaced with more progressive ones, a change that is largely due to Western influence.
As Tashi grows older and becomes romantically linked with Adam, it becomes clear that she is experiencing the pain and confusion of being pulled between two very different cultures. While she is excited and fulfilled by the educational opportunities the American missionaries bring, she’s also saddened and angered by her tribe being pushed out of their land and lifestyles by encroaching colonizers and modern societies. To show that she is loyal to her roots and cannot be controlled by Western ideals, she undergoes genital mutilation and facial scarring. Tashi’s predicament is a difficult one. While Western culture has a more feminist approach to women’s liberation and education, it also insists on the supremacy of white Western people and demands the destruction or assimilation of African people and culture. While Tashi ultimately decides to marry Adam and immigrate to the United States, where she will find greater opportunities, she will always be caught between two juxtaposing ways of life.
