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Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'oA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Waiyaki waits for the annual gathering of parents to commence. Respected as a teacher across the ridges, “impregnated with the magic of the white man” (75), Waiyaki also takes on responsibilities as a clerk of Kiama. While he prefers working directly in the classroom, his dedication to service keeps him engaged in political affairs. He also believes that working to unify the villages will aid his efforts to spread education. He hopes to mend the rift between Joshua’s group and the breakaway factions and plans to begin this work of reconciliation at the upcoming meeting. Waiyaki’s reputation has “spread like fire in a dry brush” (75). People from across the ridges come to the annual meeting to see him, “The Teacher,” at his Marioshoni school. The school is designed to include those children who were banned from Siriana due to their allegiance to traditional ways. Now such children are now able to read, write, and speak a foreign language. Everyone feels at ease with the personable Waiyaki, except Kabonyi, who is jealous of Waiyaki’s popularity. Kabonyi, Chege’s peer, cannot believe that someone so young has become a leader. As the only one other person who knows of the prophecy, Kabonyi worries that Waiyaki is fated to save the tribes.
After elders begin the meeting, children sing songs characterizing education as their only tool and defense now that they no longer have the land and animals. Hearing the song, fathers in the crowd plan to outlast colonial influences. After the song, Waiyaki discusses his plans for expanding education. Kabonyi, outraged at the crowd’s positive reception, decides to use proverbs to win back the elders. He talks about the severity of the drought and the new institutions that burden the people, such as taxes. He claims that education will not solve these issues and invokes the people’s “loyalty to the soil” (78). Kabonyi’s speech is well-received, but the young people still feel connected to Waiyaki’s vision for education. Waiyaki asserts that he is their young son and is here to listen to the elders. He declares that the ridges must seek out education to survive. His words are met with praise. An inter-ridge committee is formed to survey the resurrection of schools. Kabonyi is not invited to participate, which angers him. Months pass, and people’s allegiance to Waiyaki grows. His belief in education becomes something akin to a “demon,” making him disregard any other potential concern or danger. He compares education to life-giving water and wants everyone, including Joshua, to drink from its waters. However he has yet to preach reconciliation and focuses only on the path of education.
Joshua expresses his doubts about successfully converting the ridges to Christianity, especially with the rising threat of Waiyaki’s popularity. Joshua has built two feeder schools for Siriana in the hopes that more children will follow the Christian path rather than joining Waiyaki’s schools. Joshua calls a meeting in Kameno, the village that is predominantly loyal to traditional ways. His success in gaining a few converts is deemed a threat to tribal institutions. From his hut, Waiyaki watches the meeting. He has ambiguous feelings, for some Christian tenets resonate with his own appreciation for “love and sacrifice” (81). He tries to unpack what betrayal looks like in his complicated situation, and whether he is guilty of betrayal. He is unsure if betrayal is linked with Christianity or with his inability to inspire his people to reconcile. Within his doubts is the recurring belief that he is the chosen one to “lead the tribe to the light” (81). The success of education, his true passion, is reliant upon communal unity. He has stepped down from Kiama, recommending that Kamau take his place, and he now feels removed from both Kiama's and Joshua’s agendas.
His thoughts turn back to Joshua’s meeting, and he realizes that Nyambura may be present. He knows he loves her, but he is afraid to tell her so. This love is rare for him; usually he is only focused on the needs of the tribe. Walking toward Honia, he spots Nyambura, and the narrative shifts to her perspective. Nyambura has turned to the river to find relief from her feelings. She is increasingly discontented and longs for Waiyaki. She clings to the Christian god, but this love from God does not satiate her. She needs Waiyaki and believes that she can only be saved by Christ if she becomes closer to Waiyaki, who has become “her black Messiah” (82). She believes that must grow closer to him in order to reach Christ and womanhood. She does not see her feelings for Waiyaki as love because they do not resemble what she feels for her mother or Muthoni. Instead, he is something “big, firm and sure” (82).
Waiyaki sees Nyambura as an “apparition” by the river. The scene reminds him of the sacred grove where Chege told him of the prophecy; it is also near the spot where he was circumcised and bled “real blood.” They confide in one another, comparing their similar love for the land and confessing their loneliness. Nyambura reminds Waiyaki of her sister’s last words—that she had seen Jesus. Overlaid atop Nyambura, he sees Muthoni on the night before their circumcision. The vision dissipates, and he reaches out to Nyambura, declaring his love for her. But suddenly, Nyambura pulls away, knowing that marrying Waiyaki is an impossibility, for she is not rebellious of Joshua like her sister was. Nyambura and Waiyaki separate in agony. Secretly observing the scene, Kamau vows that Waiyaki is his “rival to death” (85). He is now full of hatred for Waiyaki, upset over past slights and angry that Waiyaki has shamed his father, Kabonyi. Kamau is also in love with Nyambura and wants her hand in marriage.
Education takes on god-like proportions for Waiyaki and guides him to seek more teachers for his schools. Most teachers come from Siriana, and Waiyaki tries to recruit them. Joshua’s group grows increasingly hostile, and as Kiama focuses on the “purity” of the tribe, more and more white people flood the area, seizing the land from the local people. Waiyaki believes that reconciliation among the groups is the only answer. One day, Kinuthia tells him of the rumors that Waiyaki is now a follower of Joshua; he was seen attending a church service. Kinuthia also asks Waiyaki if he plans to marry Nyambura. He tries to dissuade Waiyaki from marrying her, for Waiyaki is “the symbol of the tribe, born again with all its purity” (88). Marrying Nyambura, a Christian, would mean polluting the purity of the tribe, which could lead to violence and death. Waiyaki assures him that Nyambura will not marry him.
A few weeks later, he talks with an elder who lauds Waiyaki’s ancestors, stating that they would never betray the tribe. Waiyaki takes this as a warning not to marry Nyambura. The season of rituals and celebrations arrives. Consumed by matters of education, Waiyaki feels disconnected from the rituals of the tribe. Suddenly, a hut owned by a follower of Joshua’s is set on fire, alarming everyone. Waiyaki senses that it is the work of Kabonyi and the Kiama.
Nyambura struggles upon refusing Waiyaki’s proposal. She grows resentful of her father, for his presence always looms on the periphery, keeping her from realizing her desires. She oscillates between wanting to seek out Waiyaki and telling herself that she made the right choice to remain loyal to her father. Both her father and mother seem aware of Waiyaki’s interest in her, but only her mother mentions him by name, warning Nyambura that he will bring more trouble to their name. However, Miriamu likes Waiyaki personally because he was present during Muthoni’s illness and death. She prays that he will become a Christian.
Nyambura goes to Honia, hoping that Waiyaki will be there waiting for him. Growing angry when he is absent, she thinks of Waiyaki and her sister’s circumcision and realizes that “the river no longer soothe[s] her” (90). When she returns home, her father accuses her of being with Waiyaki, the “young devil.” Tearfully, Nyambura maintains that she was alone. She concludes that her obedience to her father has killed her chance for love and salvation, and she hopes that God will kill her.
Education takes on monolithic importance for Waiyaki in this section, rising almost to the level of a religion in his eyes, for instead of revering the river Honia, he deems education to be the tribe’s life-giving water. However, his perception of education has been gravely distorted, and thus, Ngugi likens Waiyaki’s new single-mindedness to Joshua’s own narrow obsession with Christian ideology. When the two men’s respective obsessions also become fueled by fear, they are devoid of a more expansive and understanding love. Unlike Joshua, however, Waiyaki remains receptive to other modes of being and finds himself drawn to different approaches to nurture the tribe and himself. However, his fixation on education still keeps him at a distance from the complex needs of the people, and he unknowingly begins to mirror his own father’s aloofness from the tribe.
Love as a Unifying Force is overwhelmingly present in the blossoming romance between Waiyaki and Nyambura, despite the social issues that complicate their connection. Significantly, this erotic love is part of a grander, universal love imbued with spirituality and the couple’s mutual desire for their love to lead to self-actualization in one form or another. Although Nyambura has been critical of Christianity’s tendency to usurp the role of tribal ways, she now begins to form her own understanding of the religion, creating a belief system that transcends her father’s limited view. Thus, she connects romantic love with the Christian love of Jesus, who loved his people greatly and was also deeply loved by Mary Magdalene. This kind of love is absent from her father’s own practice of Christianity, which is full of fear, malice, and control. Unintentionally, Nyambura finds her own understanding of the religion, which is based in love rather than fear and embraces both physical and spiritual elements, blending the personal with the universal.
Nyambura synthesizes womanhood, Christ, and romantic love, all channeled through the conduit of Waiyaki. She believes that by growing closer to Waiyaki, she will grow closer to the more distant, abstract Christ, even going as far as to declare that her salvation through Christ rests in her ability to touch and talk to Waiyaki. This dual mindset reflects her sister’s own attempts to blend traditionalism and Christianity. In a sense, Nyambura’s relationship with Waiyaki becomes her own form of circumcision, allowing for a bodily, somatic connection to a universal love. She therefore combines European customs with her own reality, making Waiyaki a “black Messiah” who puts her into right relationship with her Gikuyu heritage and her status as a woman even as he connects her with Christ and the light. In her mind, Waiyaki is her way to reach wholeness and unity, erasing any discrepancy between opposing cultures and beliefs. She uses the language and lens of Christianity—especially because her sister used this language—as an instrument to make sense of her own divisive internal feelings. Although her sister perished because of her choice, Nyambura does not see a direct cause and effect; Muthoni’s attempts at reconciliation become goal-worthy rather than something to be avoided.
For his part, Waiyaki links Nyambura with an “apparition” and associates her with the moment when his father shared the prophecy at the sacred grove. For Waiyaki, romantic love cohabitates with spirituality, as well as his connection to the fate of the land and the people. Waiyaki also remembers the “real blood” of his circumcision, and the evocation of this image renders eroticism itself a spiritual connection that is embodied and grounded in the earth. In this view, eroticism allows the land, the body, and the spirit to connect, eschewing rigid beliefs, shame, and compartmentalization. Thus, Ngugi presents the idea that freedom can be found within eroticism. This eroticism allows for moments of transcendence and unifies disparate parts, but it is also characterized by the lens of human experience. In Nyambura and Waiyaki’s case, their innate language has been intermingled with foreign influences and beliefs. This influence is seen in their efforts to make sense of adulthood and the concomitant feelings that come from its loneliness, loss, and budding sexuality. Ultimately, the nature of their relationship is profoundly influenced by a chaotic confluence of Christian beliefs, the Gikuyu prophecy, and the rift between the cultures.
In addition to emphasizing the spiritual connotations of erotic love, the narrative also suggests the importance of adopting a personal god to contextualize one’s life. While Waiyaki has spiritual leanings and believes in God, he also commandeers the concept of education and makes of it a god-like ideal, treating it as a large container to hold his inner conflicts and painful feelings. Ngugi therefore suggests that humans need to create god-like figures in order to navigate life’s contradictions and create a cohesive self-narrative from the chaos of existence. Both Waiyaki and Nyambura are pulled in multiple directions internally, wanting to obey their fathers even as they strive to satisfy their own inner needs.
By Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
African American Literature
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African Literature
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Colonialism & Postcolonialism
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Colonialism Unit
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Coming-of-Age Journeys
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Community
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Education
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Family
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Fathers
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Religion & Spirituality
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