I was going through my bookshelf last week and the diversity of authors was disappointingly inadequate- most of my shelf is dominated by English, Indian and American authors. African writing wasn’t the first thing on my mind but since a friend suggested that I read Kenyan authors, I decided to pick up this book. This book was my second in African writing after reading Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie almost two years ago.
The book is a childhood memoir and captures the political, social and cultural vicissitudes of Kenya through the eyes of Ngugi wa Thiongo- a Kenyan writer and academician who grew up in Kenya in the backdrop of the Mau Mau rebellion against British invaders. (I just discovered that he abandoned English to write primarily in Gikuyu and Kiswahili, his native tongue, since his imprisonment in 1978. Mad respect for that one! )
The book touches on multifarious topics such as Catholicism, education, the importance of circumcision in Gikuyu culture and the contrast and conflation of reactions surrounding male and female circumcisions, colonialism and the Mau Mau rebellion, propaganda by the government and more. His tryst with learning begins after his half brother Kabae, an ex soldier returns home who was by far the best educated in the Thiongo family. (“This may have sparked my desire for learning which I kept to myself. Why should I voice desires impossible to fulfill?“, says Ngugi). His mother soon admits him to a local school and asks him to promise to her that he will never stop his education and that’s where his dreams even in a time of war start to take shape. She would often ask him “is that the best you can do? ” each time he would tell her about his academic achievements. He would find it strange that she was more interested in the process of getting there than the actual results.
The schools eventually were forced to follow a syllabus prescribed by the colonial government. Somewhere in the book, Ngugi is enthralled by the government newsletters and is horrified by the image of a few killings by the Mau Mau rebels. Ngandi tells him that it is all “propaganda”, a colonial viewpoint, and that the government presented Mau Mau actions as senseless and without reason.
I also remember one of his brothers being a Mau Mau rebel whereas the other one was a supporter of the colonial government and both of them come to wish him luck before his entrance test for high school. The book comes to an end, a new beginning rather for Ngugi with his admission into the best high school in the country and his mother asking him again if this is the best he could do, reminding him of the pact to have dreams even in the time of a war.
Concluding Thoughts
At times, I had to look up a lot of events and concepts such as a thingara, Jomo Kenyata, etc to fully understand the scattered events before me. I did not expect this book to be as good as it turned out to be but I got so choked up at the end and I just, loved it. There is too much in the book such as the history behind names, traditions, family, patriarchy, struggle for an education, a simple yearning for a mid-day meal or a train ride that I would not want to and I cannot confine to the finitudes of a review.
Literature, Poetry and Reading. 