Basic Information:
Author: Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
Edition: ePub on Libby from the Los Angeles Public Library
Publisher: Heinemann
ISBN: 9780435905484 (ISBN10: 0435905481)
Start Date: April 6, 2023
Read Date: May 5, 2023
152 pages
Genre: Fiction, Africa, Book Group
Language Warning: Low
Rated Overall: 3 ½ out of 5
Religion: Christianity, African Tradition
Religious Quality: 3 out of 5
Christianity-Teaching Quality: 2 out of 5
Fiction-Tells a good story: 3 out of 5
Fiction-Character development: 4 out of 5
Synopsis (Caution: Spoiler Alert-Jump to Thoughts):
Set in early 1900’s in mountains of Kenaya, this is a story of conflict and acceptance. Europeans have come to Kenaya and is making their way into the backcountry. First through religion and the embassaries of Christ, followed by the government.
At first the Gikuyu tribe was not bothered as they thought they were safe. But as more people turned to Christianity, the tribe was losing its old ways. This sets up the conflict between those who want to follow the tribal ways-circumcision, both male and female, and those who see it as the mark of Satan.
There are three leaders: Joshua who is powerful Christian preacher, Waiyaki, a young man who has the pedigree of the tribe and an elder Kabonyi who wants the power of leadership. The story talks about the development of Waiyaki and the torment of not knowing the right way. The culmination is when Waiyaki takes a wife of Joshua’s daughter. Joshua sees that his daughter is rejecting Christianity and Kabonyi sees it that Waiyaki is rejecting the old ways. That is the end of the story.
Cast of Characters:
- Waiyaki-protagonist
- Chege-Waiyaki’s father and prophet. Lives on the Kameno ridge
- Reverend Livingstone-white missionary, never appears in story, except as reference, still a character who looms over the story line
- Kamau-friend and school mate of Waiyak. Son of Kabonyi
- Kinuthia-friend and school mate of Waiyak. Fatherless.
- Joshua=Gikuyu Christian, powerful preacher. Middle aged.
- Nyambura-eldest daughter of Joshua
- Muthoni-youngest daughter of Joshua. Get circumcised and dies
- Miriamu-Joshua’s wife, and Muthoni and Nyambura’s mother
- Kabonyi-former convert to Christianity. Antagonist to Waiyaki. Kamau’s father
- Muga was Kibirio-an ancient prophet in which Chege is a descendent of
Thoughts:
- Gikuyu- a Bantu ethnic group native to Central Kenya. At a population of 8,148,668 as of 2019, they account for 17.13% of the total population of Kenya, making them Kenya's largest ethnic group. From Wikipedia
- Makuyu-village of the Gikuyu, converted to Christianity
- Kameno-rival village of the Gikuyu, remained with the tribal ways
- Kiami-formed council to protect the tribe from European influence
- Honia-creek/river. Name meant cure, or bring-back-to-life.
- Siriana Missionary Center-Where the white school was as well as where the missionaries came out of.
- Marioshoni-Waiyaki’s school
The introduction talks about that this is a story which shows the struggles between the African traditional values against the values which the European invasion brings. As I think about what Ngugi says, I think the introduction is right. But there is also a bigger picture which the introduction is too myopic about. Isn’t this the same struggle which happens anytime there is an invasion of thought? Such as when new management comes into a department and upends how things were run? Or when scientific thought supplants rational thought which supplanted religious thought?
Soon after reading this story, there were news reports coming out of Kenaya of a cult where the pastor said that starving yourself will bring you to heaven. Besides not being a Christian doctrine, it did remind me of the authoritarian way which Joshua had with his family and people-not that Joshua ever preached that.
Message from Chinua Achebe
We read one of Achebe’s book, Things Fall Apart, back in 2013. It is a story which has stayed with me.
Achebes’s concern is that stories about Africa are too simple, usually linear. He says Africa is a complex continent, similar to generalizing about Europe would not give a good impression of Europeans.
The last five hundred years of European contact with Africa produced a body of literature that presented Africa in a very bad light, and now the time has come for Africans to tell their own stories
Introduction
Written by Uzodinma Iweala-a Nigerian-American author and medical doctor.
The introduction talks about freeing the mind of preconceptions and how most people in The Matrix where oblivious to the controlling aspects of the Matrix. Ngugi’s body of work, from his 1965 novel “The River Between” to his 2012 memoir “In the House of the Interpreter”, is the red pill, delivering readers from a simplistic understanding of the forces of colonialism in Africa to a complicated imagining of Africa before, during, and after colonialism.
Ngugi describes African existence as a struggle between two competing forces, an imperialist tradition and a resistance tradition…
Ngugi’s imperialism is not a time-bound event. The commentator expands about how Ngugi is writing about the struggle between a mindset, which just because the colonists have left, there is still a mindset of oppression.
The commentator has set how Ngugi is thinking. I suspect looking more at the end result of Ngugi’s work and looking back into The River Between which was one of Ngugi’s two earliest works. He talks about how Ngugi appreciated and loved the English literature and the Christian traditions. But then there was the dichotomy of this richness of thought and culture with the experience Ngugi had in person. Where the British, who were responsible for his education and for introducing him to the Christian church, imprisoned his brother and tortured his mother during a state of emergency. Waiyaki reflects the tension Ngugi feels. The admiration of what has been created with reality. He also shows that it is not that everything will be returned to peace once the Europeans are driven out, but there is conflict among the tribe.
And then there are the ridges-the sleeping lions in Ngugi’s metaphor.
Prophecy of Chege: The Europeans will come as butterflies. A savour will deal with them.
Waiyaki hears the prophecy. The only other person besides Chege who knows it is Kabonyi. This sets up the conflict between the two. Hidden here in this moment is the fatal flaw passed from father to son, the belief that the upheaval created by the white man can be stilled by incorporating into daily life the white man’s philosophy and using it against him. … More than anything else, it is the white man’s religion, Christianity, that exacerbates existing tensions within the community.
Joshua plays the part of Christianity badly affecting Africans. His own family yearns for African ways, leading to both daughters disassociating themselves from their father.
While not set at a particular time, The River Between maps loosely to the turmoil resulting from a 1929 decree by the Church of Scotland Mission prohibiting circumcised individuals from attending mission schools. Circumcision was more than just a ceremony but a marking of passage, an acceptance into the tribal ways, a means of transferring wealth from one generation to another. The Church of Scotland Mission’s prohibition of circumcision amounted to a prohibition of tribal life and of the future itself.
Moderns look at female circumcision as female genital mutilation. I wonder about this. Would Ngugi today look at this ceremony the same way? The commentator says that Ngugi’s view is not for outsiders to govern the practice, but for the tribe to determine if change is needed.
Muthoni offers her body as a locus of compromise for two competing worldviews, attempting to reconcile them, and to bring about a utopia. She dies and the grand vision of unification of the two ways dies as well. This is a lesson Waiyaki does not learn. That even education is not sufficient enough to marry the two. Will education give us back our land? Let him answer that. Can there be any reconciliation?
Seems like the arguments I have heard in the 21st century is that it is a painful and medically unneeded operation. So it should be stopped. But I think that Ngugi makes a case that it is a tribal initiation and are the westerners giving another ritual win its place? Sort of like what Jesus said that if you cast out a demon, unless the house is filled up again, something worse will come.
Chapter One
There is a lot of symbolism to start this story. You have the two ridges, Kameno and Makuyu, separated by the Honia (creek/river), which meant cure, or bring-back-to-life. The valley between the two ridges was the valley of life. Kameno was the traditional Gikuyu village while Makuyu had embraced European Christianity of a more fundamental style. Consequently, the two sides became antagonists instead of partners.
Each ridge had its own tradition of superiority. It was from Kameno that Muga had spoken a prophecy: There shall come a people with clothes like butterflies.” These were the white men.
Chapter Two
Two boys are fighting-Kamau and Kinuthia. Sounded more like “boy fighting”, One from each ridge. Waiyaki breaks up the fight by appealing to the fact that both are from the hills and have that as commonality. There is a phrase here which shows the tenor of the book. Kamau does obey Waiyaki’s injunction to stop fighting. But there is a feeling of humiliation and self-hate.
Talked about Chege and how he was the most knowledgeable of all of the hill country. Chege himself claimed nothing. Ever since he had warned the people against Siriana Missionary Center and they had refused to hear his voice, he had talked little. He had prophesied that the butterflies had arrived and that the people should be prepared. But the people said the white man knows not the ways of the land.” But the white man had come to Siriana, and Joshua and Kabonyi had been converted. The ways of the ridges had been abandoned.
But there was a secret which Chege knew. He would only reveal this secret to the right one.
Waiyaki was afraid of his father. Consequently he tried to impress him with his knowledge. But Chege was afraid for him. He reminded Waiyaki that tomorrow is the day of your second birth
What is this second birth?
Chapter Three
Demi na Mathathi-I did not really see a good explanation for these figures of ancient history. But from the Gugi description, they are close to Adam and Eve of the Gikuyu. Waiyaki was a descendant of them. But it sounded like most of the villagers in the area.
This born again is the culmination of becoming an adult, in Waiyaki’s case, becoming a man and being accepted as having that status. Purification was the first step. But apparently Waiyaki saw a minor vision during this which frightened everyone.
The end of it is to be circumcised after going through the rituals.
Chapter Four
Chege takes Waiyaki to the sacred grove. Chege would then pour a shower of saliva on to his breast in the Gikuyu way of blessing. As they progress, Chege tells the secrets of each plant they meet. This brough Waiyaki close to his father. He felt he was being taken into the calabash of trust and responsibility.
Explanation of why men owned everything-women were weak and nothing feared them.
They climbed high enough that all the ridges appeared flat. Even the Kameno and Makuyu ridges came together and lost their antagonism. Makuyu, Kameno and the other ridges lay in peace and there was no sign of life, as one stood on the hill of God. It is true. When I am in my fire lookout, I see that the land appears flatter. You can trace ridges so they merge together. I had not thought of ridges this way-we all come together at some point, we just do not recognize it, nor do we travel back far enough.
Chapter Five
Father and son are in unison in a trance like state at the holy site. They see Kerinyaga-an area, and I think a mountain in Kenya. But there does not seem to be a direct reference to it.
Chege calls this a blessed, sacred place. Yet, they do not go often here. Is it that to remain sacred a place has to be reserved for specialness? What does it say about how we treat special places?
There is a revelation that Muga’s blood flows through Chege and Waiyaki’s veins. This knowledge and place is a fearful thing. Chege tells him do not fear, fight fear. He also tells the prophecy: Salvation comes from the hills. From the blood that flows in me, I say, from the same tree a son shall rise. And his duty shall be to lead and save the people.
On Chebe and maybe Kabonyi, the traitor, knows the prophecy. And now Waiyabi.
Chebe’s instruction: Heed the prophecy. Go to the Mission place. Learn all the wisdom and all the secrets of the white man. But do not follow his vices. Be true to your people and the ancient rites.” Waiyabi fears that since they rejected Muga, will they reject Waiyabi? Chebe says A time will come—I can see it coming—when they shall cry for a savior. . . .”
Waiyabi went in secret to Siriana to learn the white man's ways. Later Kamau and Kinuthia joined him.
Chapter Six
Now Ngugi talks about Joshua’s daughters. It is against the Christian principles for the people to be circumcised in the tribal ways. It seems to go against how the missionary Christians think about tribal spiritualism. But Joshua’s youngest daughter wants to meld the tribal and Christian ways and wants to be circumcised.
Nyambura and Muthoni have a discussion about it. Nyambrua knows that their mother and father will disown Muthoni if she does. But Muthoni says that white man’s God does not quite satisfy me. In the tribal ways to be a woman says you must be circumcised. She wants to feel like a woman. But is that what makes a woman? Are there certain American features which make a male or female a man or a woman which do not correspond to reality?
Chapter Seven
The missionary work was being done in Siriana with occasional trips into the hills. Joshua was the main person spreading Christianity in the hills.
Talked about Joshua and his conversion. How Jesus came to save. People who heard Joshua, came to be saved. But there were those who went back to the tribal ways. Joshua himself was strict and observed the word to the letter. To him, a good Christian home was the finest example of how Christianity worked.
Joshua felt it was his place to punish sin and did not mind as long as he was executing God’s justice. The tribal initiations continued on.
The white man were planning on building a government outpost. People felt Joshua was responsible for this invasion.
Chapter Eight
Muthoni was gone. It was not until evening that Mthoni was missed by Miriamu. Joshua wants to know where she has gone. While Nyambura has not been told, she is certain she has gone to her aunts. Joshua is furious. She is no longer his daughter-he knows if she has gone to her aunt then she has gone to get circumcised. Joshua will disown her if she has. She will be.
Ngugi notes that Miriamu had accepted the Christian way, mostly because of obedience to Joshua. However, one could still tell by her eyes that this was a religion learned and accepted; inside the true Gikuyu woman was sleeping
Chapter Nine
Talks about how Chege and Joshua were friends. But Joshua turning to Christianity broke the relationship. This left Chege with the warning that the white man was coming .
Waiyaki felt that Christians were breaking all which held the tribe together, particularly circumcision. Waiyaki would never betray the tribe.
While Chege felt this was true, he was apprehensive that Waiyaki would fulfill the prophecy. Waiyaki would not be turned from the ways of the tribe-being schooled at Siriana insured him of this. Chege lived in his son.
This is the keystone of the book: Waiyaki considered Livingstone, for all his learning and holiness, a little dense in attacking a custom whose real significance in the tribe he did not understand and probably never would understand.
Waiyaki and Muthoni were being initiated at the same ceremony, away from each other. Seems like Ngugi is saying these two are trying to merge traditions. But the arc of the story is that they will fail.
The ceremony is chaos created by locked emotions let loose. Muthoni seemed to find a natural rhythm in the chaos. But Waiyaki was more reserved, but then it caught him as well. You just gave yourself to the dream in the rhythm.
Muthoni explains she is not running away from being a Christian, but also running towards the tribe. I want to be a woman made beautiful in the tribe. After talking with Muthoni, Waiyaki has a feeling that he lacked something, that he yearned for something beyond him, came in low waves of sadness that would not let him sleep.
Chapter Ten
Waiyaki’s circumcision has happened He has felt and endured the pain. He was of the tribe. He had to endure its ways and be inside the secrets of the hills. Others were in pain as well. But then it subsided.
But Muthoni is the only woman who has not healed. Waiyaki comes to see her, out of admiration. She worsens. He and friends take her to the hospital in Siriana.
Chapter Eleven
Muthoni’s last words to her sister were I see Jesus. And I am a woman beautiful in the tribe.
The question which was on everybody’s lips and mind was “Why did she do it?”
Chebe feared for the tribe-he felt the Christian village brought corruption; his village was all which was beautiful with the tribe. Chege did not like how Waiyaki became involved with the whole Muthoni affair. He did not understand.
Livingstone is getting older and realizing he is not making much progress to convert the area. And yet, Livingstone brought along the knowledge that previous missionaries had tried to change the customs of tribes only to promote fighting. He was determined not to do this. And yet Muthoni’s death made him realize he needed to confront this evil.
Chapter Twelve
Describes the growing battle. Kabyoni breaks from Joshua and now is his enemy. Siriana now pronounced that those who had been circumcised would no longer be welcome, unless they renounced their circumcision-meaning their tribe.
Chege died.
Chapter Thirteen
Waiyaki has set up a school with Kamau and Kinuthia as teachers.The break with Siriana made this both possible and imperative. But it was widening the gulf between Joshua’s Christians and the tribal ways which were foremost in Waiyaki’s mind. There was a kindred spirit between Kinuthia and Waiyaki, but distrust with Kamau. A young man who rises to leadership is always a target of jealousy for his equals, for those older than himself and for those who think they could have been better leaders.
An argument between Kamau and Kinuthia is the crux of the book. The missionaries came in peace, but what followed was other Europeans who came to conquer. What allegiance does a person have to the conquerors? Waiyaki thought that Perhaps life was a contradiction.
The Kiama was being formed to resist the Europeans. Waiyaki feared that he would be sucked in and he would no longer be able to work with his calling of education.The earth was important to the tribe. That was why Kinuthia and others like him feared the encroachment of the white man.
Chapter Fourteen
Chege’s death left Waiyaki desponded. It was while he was in this mood that the idea of schools had come to him. … His time to work and serve the people had come. Native schools were sprouting all over Kenya. there they stood, symbols of people’s thirst for the white man’s secret magic and power. Few wanted to live the white man’s way, but all wanted this thing, this magic.
Here Ngugi says why circumcision was important: it kept people together, it bound the tribe to each other. It was the glue which kept the social structure. There was meaning. Jesus told us that when you expel a demon, unless there was something else to take its place, something seven times worse would come in. What tangible thing were the Christians proposing? The cry was up. Gikuyu Karinga. Keep the tribe pure. Tutikwenda Irigu. It was a soul’s cry, a soul’s wish.
The people saw that education would get their children ahead. Waiyaki wanted to do a lot for all, and serve faithfully. Yet the power of hate and the ever-widening rift, generated, as it were, by Muthoni’s death, was enough to worry anyone.
Chapter Fifteen
For all of his talents, he did not have anybody whom he could talk deeply with. His youngest sister whom he could talk with was dead and death was the end of everything, on this earth.
Talks about how Waiyaki was struggling if education was a corrupting agent.
Muthoni had died on the high altar of this disruption. She had died with courage, probably still trying to resolve the conflict within herself in an attempt to reach the light. This led to Waiyaki questioning himself: was he bringing order and light to darkness? I suspect every conscious leader will ask these questions. Am I right for this task? Am I being presumptuous? Am I leading people whom I care about in the right direction?
Waiyaki wanted to feel at one with the whole creation,
In his wandering and thinking, he meets Nyambura. They have a short talk and Waiyaki invites her to see the school
Chapter Sixteen
Nyambura did not show up.
Described life on the ridges. How did Waiyaki earn his keep? He was paid a little bit by the elders. He did not need much.
The soil no longer answered the call and prayers of the people. Perhaps it had to do with the white men and the blaspheming men of Makuyu. Earlier it said that Waiyaki was superstitious. Is this one of the places where Waiyaki is superstitious?
Waiyaki was puzzled by the prophecy. Waiyaki wished he had understood better. Waiyaki was a man of dreams who worked on making them come true. He wanted a college like Livingstones.
Kabonyi was finding ways to oppose Waiyaki.
After all, was he himself free from fear? This was in relation to Nyambura standing him up. Maybe she was being watched by Joshua.
Chapter Seventeen
What one admired in Joshua was his fidelity. This is what drove him to disown his own daughter. He was the spiritual head of the hills. Also the chief morality enforcer without compromise. If he did not spare his own child, who was he going to spare?
Waiyaki went to observe. His thought was This man knows the Bible. He always mixes his own words with quotations from this Book of God. This led him to wonder, is there a halfway between the two ridges? Can there be compromise? He came away disturbed. As the hymn reached his ears, he again felt that insatiable longing for something beyond him, something that would contain the whole of himself.
He has a vision of education uniting the people. Then he is interrupted by Kamau and the vision is gone. An exchange about Nyambura leads to Waiyaki being jealous. Waiyaki meets with Nyambura and they have a conversion.
Chapter Eighteen
Waiyaki was more interested in teaching than being a leader. He was popularly known as The Teacher. But he also had a strong impression he wanted unity between the ridges. During a meeting of parents for all the schools, he felt a need to expand on this. But This was not a plan but a conviction.
Kabonyi felt resentment because of Waiyaki’s popularity. But the parent meeting was strengthening Waiyaki’s role as leader of the people. Kabonyi spoke against Waiyaki’s plans. But Waiyaki had a favorable impression on the crowd, so Kabonyi did not make much headway. But Waiyaki did not get to talk about the need for unity.
Because of his want for unity, he did not see pitfalls in things like the Kiami wanting an oath of Purity and Togetherness.
Chapter Nineteen
Joshua felt that he was working well, even though more of the tribe was returning from his church to tribal ways. He was bothered by the rise of Waiyaki. He pictured Waiyaki as a force of Satan.
On the other hand, the Christian teachings resonated with Waiyaki. But he felt the need to be true to the tribe.
Waiyaki resigned from the Kiama.
Waiyaki was realizing that he thought about Nyambura more and more. The more he thought of her the more he knew that he loved her. In trying to get away from the Christian meeting being held on his ridge, Waiyaki ran into Nyambura. She knew, however, that she had to have a God who would give her a fullness of life, a God who would still her restless soul.
It seems like once the sisters had Christianity, they did not want to leave it. Christ was very much central to them. But there was something else which said that there was more than that. She felt that Christ alone could not save her. She wanted Waiyaki. So Nyambura lived with her doubts.
Waiyaki asked her to marry him. But she said no. She loves him, but cannot marry him.
Kamau came out of his hiding place. He had feelings for Nyambura and hated Waiyaki even more.
Chapter Twenty
Waiyaki was now faced with a shortage of teachers. So he went to Siriana to secure them.
The conflict between ridges intensified and enveloped the whole tribe. The Teacher was now placed with the tribal side of the conflict, much to his reluctance as he wanted unification, not conflict. But rumors were swirling how he was moving closer to the Christian side, being a traitor to the tribe.
Chapter Twenty-One
Nyambura was chafing under her father’s rule. It was difficult for her to rebel against her father. Joshua threatens her that if she meets with Waiyaki again, he will disown her. He looks at punitive measures instead of understanding.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Waiyaki was at the height of his popularity. Kinuthia greatly admired him, but also wanted action. But the Great Teacher’s vision of a highly learned people carried him along. But he wondered if Waiyaki knew that people wanted action now, that the new enthusiasm and awareness embraced more than the mere desire for learning. Was Waiyaki’s vision blending him to the desires of the people? Kinuthia, however, did not know the extent of Waiyaki’s dreams and vision. How could he know unless he entered those regions of the heart where doubts and fears struggled in the darkness, where you suddenly lost sight of your hopes and success, shaken to the roots as you woke up at night, or even as you walked along the paths in the country.
Movement away from missionary schools towards native ones.
As Waiyaki thought about the underlying strife, he started to wonder, unite for what? Why was he uniting them?
In a vision, he say that Nyambura was being pulled every which way. That the only way out was death. Death was the end of everything. This seems to be a refrain of Ngugi. He used it before when he was talking about Waiyaki’s sister who died.
Question, which force would force the other to do their will.
Kiama is summoning Waiyaki.
Waiyaki the white man’s education was an instrument of enlightenment and advance if only it could be used well
Chapter Twenty-Three
There was no warmth in the gathering of the Kiama. Waiyaki was being accused of tribal impurity. He tried to save Muthani, his trips to Siriana, going to Joshua’s church once and then his relationship with Kyambura were signs that he was not to be trusted. What Waiyaki sees is that he wants the tribe united, not full of strife and weakened.
Kabonyi hated Waiyaki. Ngugi noted that the lanterns of Kabonyi eyes were dimming.
The question before the Kiama was what to do with Waiyaki? There was a move to say he was a traitor and could not be trusted. The Kiama was leading towards circumcising all of the Christians by force. But not all were in agreement as this would bring retribution from the land.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Kinuthia says that Waiyaki is no longer a teacher according to the Kiama. Waiyaki senses that Kinuthia is like Judas, and has turned against him. Kinuthia says that there is a plan to burn Joshua’s place. Waiyaki will warn Joshua. He says that Kinuthia is the only one whom he can trust now-how does that square with what was being said just a page or two before?
Joshua rejects his warning and blames him for Muthoni’s circumcision and death. He was seen coming out of the church by Kamau.
The thoughts now change to Nyambura who was there at the warning. She had loved them, but felt both her parents and her religion stood between him and her. A religion of love and forgiveness stood between them. But she felt that it was not a religion of love how Joshua taught it. If the faith of Joshua and Livingstone came to separate, why, it was not good. She struggled with the parts of religion which separated with the parts which taught how God’s loves all and was going to bring all together. The call of the inner voice that urged her on, the call of the land beyond Joshua’s confining hand, was too strong.
The voices outside were crying traitor. Waiyaki realized this was the rejection which the other prophets felt.
Nyambura makes her choice to go with Waiyaki. But Waiyaki realizes his choice is to face death while trying to save the tribe. She goes with him. Waiyaki announces to Kinuthia that he will return to the sacred grove and explains the revelation to him. It was as if Waiyaki was a revelation, a thing not of this earth. He announces he will hold a meeting. Waiyaki realizes that Education for an oppressed people is not all.
Kinuthia vows that he will be with Waiyaki through it all.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Waiyaki at the sacred grove. Seems ordinary, but something mystical. I think that in our real lives, God is in the ordinary more than the special.
And now he was wondering what had he done? Why did he awaken the hills? What did he expect from being at the grove? What had brought all this trouble? Waiyaki blamed himself. He was concentrating on the past and the “what ifs”.
Ngugi says that the eternal faith needs to be reconciled with the ways of the people. But how? And what about when the ways of the people are corrupt? When I was wondering about this, one clue came from my quiet time reading. It was in Romans 14:4. Paul says that we are not to reprimand another's servants. We are all servants of the Most High and that He will take care of when transgression happens. I think our place is to live the life God leads us to live, with the recognition that we will need to change.
But the religion, the faith, needed washing, cleaning away all the dirt, leaving only the eternal. I think what Ngugi is saying with this statement is that the faith has been intertwined with the human elements, presenting a corrupted version of Christianity. But we are humans, corrupt humans all. The problem is we do not see that we are corrupt and assume our rightness.
Ngugi’s comment on Joshua is that He had clothed himself with a religion decorated and smeared with everything white. He renounced his past and cut himself away from those life-giving traditions of the tribe. And because he had nothing to rest upon, something rich and firm on which to stand and grow, he had to cling with his hands to whatever the missionaries taught him promised future.
Waiyaki thought about the reconciliation Muthoni had attempted for herself. She was seeking, like Chege sought through Waiyaki the same thing. He saw that the value of circumcision was not in the physical act, but the union with the people. If the white man’s religion made you abandon a custom and then did not give you something else of equal value, you became lost.
Waiyaki left the grove without answers, more wonderings.
Muranga, Kiambu and Nyeri-different tribes within Kenya.
A revelation about what was needed: Education, Unity, and Political Freedom. The white man must Go. The Kiama was right about the need for action. He also realized that he needed Kyambura to be with him to accomplish this.
Kyambura was kidnapped by Kabonyi.
There was fear that Waiyaki would not show up. He does, looking strong and determined.
Chapter Twenty-Six
The hour of need was upon the tribe. He spoke of the need to be united. Kaonyi spoke how Waiyaki was a menace to the tribe, a traitor and was bringing the white man in. In response, Waiyaki spoke of their history and how when they were divided, the white man came in. A house divided will fall. When the people rose to kill Kabonyi, Waiyaki said not to. So they did not. They too were part of the house.
Kabonyi brought Nyambura to the crowd as proof. He wanted Waiyaki to refuse or acknowledge the connection. But he took her in his arms. The people thought he had gone back on his oath. The people left it to the Kiama to judge them.
And that is how the book ends. Also see below the last sentence as I think Ngugi is trying to tell us something there.
Evaluation:
On first read, it is a good story, one to both enjoy and travel the paths with the characters. But it is when you read it again that you start asking yourself, questions like what does the author mean by the river of life? Or why didn’t the white man’s God satisfy certain characters? What made the preacher act how he did? Do you really understand the story has depth to what Ngugi wants us to explore.
While Ngugi wrote this story to show the conflict there was between the new Christian ways and the older tribal ones, the book also raised questions about how wide cultural gaps can be bridged? Or can they? Ngugi leaves the gap unabridged. The main character wants to bring unity to the tribe and is stymied by both sides. If this sounds familiar to modern America, it is because we face similarities in our divide. So far we do not have answers, like Ngugi’s main character did not.
I do not know if it is because this is an African way of telling a story or if the author did not have a good conclusion, but to me the ending was unsatisfying. The story is left unfinished, with not even the hero going off into the sunset with his woman. It just ends.
One place which the story does grate on the modern ear is where the tribal way is to have all circumcised as an entrance into the tribe. With the stand being made by modern movements against female circumcision, i.e., female genital mutilation, there are questions which this book asks. The most important one is if you take out the ritual of initiation into the tribe, how can you keep the tribe together? I think since we do not have this kind of attachment to belonging nor ritual we do not understand how important that is.
Still the story does offer that ultimate reconciliation can be made when a woman on her deathbed says I see Jesus. And I am a woman beautiful in the tribe. Let both happen in our world, sans death.
Notes from my book group:
What words did you have trouble understanding?
Who is Ngugi writing for? Kenayians? Europeans? …
Name one thing which struck you about this book.
Achebe says that The last five hundred years of European contact with Africa produced a body of literature that presented Africa in a very bad light, and now the time has come for Africans to tell their own stories. Is this a good telling of a story? Does it fill Achebe’s definition of a story?
In the Introduction by Uzodinma Iweala says that The River Between delivers readers from a simplistic understanding of the forces of colonialism in Africa to a complicated imagining of Africa before, during, and after colonialism. Do you think this is what Ngugi is doing? Give examples? Do you think he was effective or that Ngugi had a different goal?
Why the title of The River Between?
Ngugi starts the book with the sleeping lions of the ridges. What is he talking about? What makes the ridge lions? Do they ever wake up in the book?
Every story has a world view. Were you able to identify this story’s world view? What was it? How did it affect the story?
What conflicts does Ngugi address in his story? How does he resolve them-or why does he leave them open?
Ngugi constantly talks about the light in a person’s eyes. This was true of Waiyaki and of Muthoni. What is Ngugi showing us by talking about the eyes being lit?
Also whenever Waiyaki has a vision, something interrupts him and the vision is gone. WHat do you think Ngugi is conveying to us?
Ngugi describes Waiyaki as being superstitious. How does Ngugi use that word? In what ways does he describe Waiyaki as being superstitious?
Nagugi talks about a second birth. What is it?
Talk about the imagery which the phrase calabash of trust and responsibility brings to your mind.
Why does Chege feel that Christianity is a threat to the tribe?
Muthoni says that the white man’s God does not quite satisfy me. WHy didn’t Christianity satisfy her? What made Christianity unsatisfying for her? How does the version of Christianity which you live seem unsatisfying to others? To yourself?
Do you think it was possible for Muthoni to be a Christian and a woman made beautiful in the tribe? Also her last words were I see Jesus. And I am a woman beautiful in the tribe. If so, how? If not, why not? Is it possible to be a Christian and fully take in your own culture? How does Ngugi reconcile the two?
When Muthoni died, why did Chege fear that this would split the tribe into warring factions? What does he fear for his son?
Chege told Waiyaki when he went to Sirana not to be corrupted by the white man, but to learn his ways. Is education a corrupting agent? In what ways? How? How can you not be educated without being contaminated?
Waiyaki considered Livingstone, for all his learning and holiness, a little dense in attacking a custom whose real significance in the tribe he did not understand and probably never would understand. What difference would it have made if Livingstone had understood the ways of the tribe?
Livingstone attacked the tribal customs. Why? What did he see which was evil in these tribal customs? What was bad about it? Why was it hard for the tribe to break from these customs? Was it a difference in culture? If missionaries came to America from Africa, what customs would they encounter which they would feel is counter to Christianity? How hard would it be for us to break these customs?
An argument between Kamau and Kinuthia is the crux of the book. The missionaries came in peace, but what followed was other Europeans who came to conquer. How can Christians be the funnel to bring the Christian message as well as a Christian caring and love without bringing their culture as well?
Nyambura and Waiyaki love each other. What is stopping them from being married? Is this/these a valid reason?
Joshua rules his family and his flock with authority. How does this work out for him? Why is he this way? Is there Christian teaching which supports him? If he was more understanding, what do you think would have happened?
How does Ngugi portray Christianity? Do you think Ngugi knows the heart of Christianity? Why or why not?
Ngugi uses the phrase Death was the end of everything. Why does he use this phrase? What does this indicate? Is this true?
In the 1920’s Christian missionaries seeing women coming in on stretchers banned female circumcision because of the way it was done and it not improving the person. There is a similar movement in 21st century against Female Genital Mutilation. What have you learned from this book which can be added to this discussion.
Waiyaki works off the theory that education will bring the tribe up to level with the Europeans. On what basis does Waiyaki make this assumption? Do you think he is being realistic? What else was needed?
Why does Ngugi end the story the way he does? Did the ending seem fitting? Satisfying? Predictable?
How do you want your life to change because you read this book?
Many of these questions are either from or adapted from LitLovers.
Why the title of The River Between?
Does this story work as a novel?
Did the ending seem fitting? Satisfying? Predictable?
Which character was the most convincing? Least?
Which character did you identify with?
Which one did you dislike?
Every story has a world view. Were you able to identify this story’s world view? What was it? How did it affect the story?
In what context was religion talked about in this book?
Was there anybody you would consider religious?
How did they show it?
Was the book overtly religious?
How did it affect the book's story?
Why do you think the author wrote this book?
What would you ask the author if you had a chance?
What “takeaways” did you have from this book?
What central ideas does the author present?
Are they personal, sociological, global, political, economic, spiritual, medical, or scientific
What evidence does the author use to support the book's ideas?
Is the evidence convincing...definitive or...speculative?
Does the author depend on personal opinion, observation, and assessment? Or is the evidence factual—based on science, statistics, historical documents, or quotations from (credible) experts?
What implications for you, our nation or the world do these ideas have?
Are these idea’s controversial?
To whom and why?
Are there solutions which the author presents?
Do they seem workable? Practicable?
How would you implement them?
Describe the culture talked about in the book.
How is the culture described in this book different than where we live?
What economic or political situations are described?
Does the author examine economics and politics, family traditions, the arts, religious beliefs, language or food?
How did this book affect your view of the world?
Of how God is viewed?
What questions did you ask yourself after reading this book?
Talk about specific passages that struck you as significant—or interesting, profound, amusing, illuminating, disturbing, sad...?
What was memorable?
Reading Groups General Fiction Guide
New Words:
- oeuvre-the works of a painter, composer, or author regarded collectively
- bildungsroman-a novel dealing with one person's formative years or spiritual education
- podo-table-???
- shambas- a cultivated plot of ground; a farm or plantation.
- puritanism-Puritanism refers to a Calvinist movement that emphasized a personal experience of salvation by Christ; strict moral discipline and purity as the correct form of Christian life; a convenant of obedience to God, who was viewed as absolute sovereign over all; and societal reform, to convert the world to the way of Christ
- Facing Mount Kenya by Jomo Kenyatta
- Petals of Blood by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
- Wizard of the Crow by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
Good Quotes:
- First Line: Two ridges lay side by side.
- Last Line: And Honia river went on flowing between them, down through the valley of life, its beat rising above the dark stillness, reaching into the heart of the people of Makuyu and Kameno.
- A young man who rises to leadership is always a target of jealousy for his equals, for those older than himself and for those who think they could have been better leaders. Chapter 13
- Education for an oppressed people is not all. Chp 24
- If the white man’s religion made you abandon a custom and then did not give you something else of equal value, you became lost. Chp 25
- Message from Chinua Achebe
- Introduction
- Notes
- Chapter One
- Chapter Two
- Chapter Three
- Chapter Four
- Chapter Five
- Chapter Six
- Chapter Seven
- Chapter Eight
- Chapter Nine
- Chapter Ten
- Chapter Eleven
- Chapter Twelve
- Chapter Thirteen
- Chapter Fourteen
- Chapter Fifteen
- Chapter Sixteen
- Chapter Seventeen
- Chapter Eighteen
- Chapter Nineteen
- Chapter Twenty
- Chapter Twenty-One
- Chapter Twenty-Two
- Chapter Twenty-Three
- Chapter Twenty-Four
- Chapter Twenty-Five
- Chapter Twenty-Six
References:
- Publisher's Web Site for Book
- Wikipedia-Book
- Wikipedia-Author
- Amazon-Book
- Amazon-Author
- GoodReads-Book
- GoodReads-Author
- Asian Social Science article
- Lit Charts-good reference
- Encyclopedia Britannica
- YouTube
- YouTube-English Language and Literature
- YouTube-English Language and Literature
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