Weep Not Child in Around the World in 80 Books

Jan 28, 2013 Lindsey Z rated it really liked it

*spoiler alert!

Ngugi gives us an intimate account of how real people and families were effected by the Mau Mau Rebellion in Kenya in the 1950's and how the same interests of preserving land rights got cast as vastly different and racialized interests, resulting in the deaths of many. Following Njoroge through his coming of age,we see him first as a young boy who believes that through education and learning, he can save his country, then as a devout Christian who sees himself as God's chosen one *spoiler alert!

Ngugi gives us an intimate account of how real people and families were effected by the Mau Mau Rebellion in Kenya in the 1950's and how the same interests of preserving land rights got cast as vastly different and racialized interests, resulting in the deaths of many. Following Njoroge through his coming of age,we see him first as a young boy who believes that through education and learning, he can save his country, then as a devout Christian who sees himself as God's chosen one to deliver his people from the evils of the war, and finally as a disillusioned young man who can't even hold on to the woman he loves and attempts suicide on the last pages of the novel. Ngugi's ability to interweave the stories of Mr. Howlands, a white expatriate originally from Great Britain, but who claims Kenya as his home, Jacobo, a black land owner who "sells out" and supports the white cause in the conflict, and Ngotho, a traditional Gikuyu man who believes the prophecy of his people long ago that blacks will reclaim ownership of the land that was stripped from them when white European settlers arrived. Ngugi complicates the story by focusing on two generations involved in the battle over land rights. Njoroge's brazen brothers Kumau, Kori, and Boro, are hostile, reckless supporters of the Mau Mau, while younger and more innocent Njoroge remains steadfast in his ideas that education is the answer. While his brothers support strikes and Boro becomes a plotted murderer, Njoroge remains in school, excelling in his class. Mwihaki, the gentle daughter of Jacobo, becomes the unfailing companion of Njoroge from a young age, but because of the differences in their families' beliefs and the ultimate deaths of both of their fathers, they cannot be together in the end. Ngugi fills the rest of the novel with other archetypal revolutionary figures such as the barber and Teacher Isaka who both get assassinated because of their fundamental belief that the Gikuyu people should claim right to their land, as their ancestors did. At the same time; however, we get an intimate portrayal of Mr. Howlands and how he passionately sees Kenya as his home, the land rightfully his. Surely, he believes "the blacks" to be "savages" and intends to pit them against each other to better his cause, but he is human just like they are, desiring to hold his fragile family together as it fractures like Ngotho's family. The background of World Wars I and II in the novel help to establish the historical context of the Mau Mau Rebellion. There existed an entire generation of Kenyan veterans who were not given proper compensation for their role in helping the British fend off the Germans and other world powers, thus fueling their desire to take back their rights. The first half of this novel is less palatable to me than the second; perhaps because Ngugi is setting up the context and the players. The second half of the novel traces the mental and ideological downfall of his major players and is much more affecting to read. I did feel a hint of Achebe's Things Fall Apart at the end when Njoroge tries to commit suicide by hanging himself from a tree, but Ngugi's new contribution to this ending is that Njoroge was never of the generation who valued tradition and the ancestral spirits, pointing to the fact that colonialism inflicts potentially brutal consequences on younger generations as well. The fact that Njoroge does not go through with the act could either point to a hope that he will go on to serve as a savior to his people or a scathing critique that the newer generation is not as courageous and masculine as its father's. I was searching for more female voices in here, and though Ngugi gives Ngotho's wives Njeri and Nyokabi some space in which to speak about the tragedies of the war, and Mwahiki occupies a lot of lines in the novel, this is what is really lacking for me as a reader. Certainly there were female revolutionaries who supported the rebellion, but we don't see any of them here. ...more

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Jan 17, 2013 Ifeyinwa added it

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Jul 31, 2013 Janna marked it as to-read

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Sep 03, 2015 Vesra (When She Reads) marked it as to-read

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Mar 10, 2018 Deedee marked it as to-read · review of another edition

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