BOOK REVIEW: Mau Mau history relived in ‘Weep Not, Child’

In the wake of four Kenyans taking the British government to court in England for alleged torture they suffered during the Mau Mau rebellion, it is time to reflect on Ngugi Wa Thiong’o’s masterpiece novel, Weep Not, Child. The horrific and brutal tales of rape, torture, maiming, forced displacement and humiliation suffered by the plaintiffs resonate with the story told in Weep Not, Child.

In their 70s and 80s, the three Kenyan men and one woman - Ndiku Mutua, Paulo Nzili, Wambugu Wa Nyingi and Jane Muthoni and representing the wider community of Kenyans abused during the rebellion claim they faced torture including castrations, sexual abuse and repeated beatings.

According to Mutua the castration he suffered left him unable to have children and continues to negatively affect his life. “Being a man without a family, without a wife, is so shameful and I live under shame even with my peers,” he told the Kenyan Daily Nation newspaper. The novel is a powerful, very moving story about the effects of the Mau Mau war on the lives of ordinary men and women. The Mau Mau was fighting for their land, freedom and lost heritage.

There were hard times during the emergency to put down the Mau Mau.
“...No one could not tell when he might be arrested for breaking the curfew... It was said that some Europeans soldiers were catching people at night, and having taken them to the forest would release them and ask them to find their way back home. But when their backs were turned they would be shot dead in cold blood. The next day this would be announced as a victory over Mau Mau. Some who broke the curfew or failed to pay tax were taken to detention camps, without trial,” Ngugi writes.The scene is set in Mahua village in Kikuyuland. When the Mau Mau rebellion broke out, the family of Ngotho had to decide as to where their loyalties lie.

Ngotho had his own travels and troubles in the First World War. As a boy he had been conscripted and made to carry things for the fighting white man. He also had to clear dark bush and make roads. Two of his sons were in Second World War. Only one had returned.

Njoroge, Ngotho’s son and main character loses faith in all the things he had earlier believed in, like wealth, power, education, religion and love. He attempts to commit suicide only for his mother, Nyokabi to appear just as he was about to hang himself. Worst of all, he watched as his family was disintegrating.

Boro, the other son and a Second World War veteran drank a lot and he was always sad and withdrawn. He never talked much about his war experiences except when he was drunk or when he was in a mood of resentment against the government and settlers.

Njoroge’s studies at Siriana Secondary School, run by missionaries are abruptly brought to an end following the Mau Mau uprising involving Boro. At a homeguard post popularly known as the House of Pain, he is interrogated as to whether he had taken the Mau Mau oath. Under severe torture he does not submit to having taken the oath or having knowledge of who murdered Chief Jacobo. Not even when the officers promise to set him free when he confesses. Njoroge’s undoing also arose from the fact that he had visited Jacobo’s home before the murder to see his childhood love, Mwihaki.

Even when Howlands, the colonial government representative held Njoroge’s private parts with a pair of pincers he did not give in. He is later set free together with his two mothers Nyokabi and Nyeri. Howlands had, like all government agents and white men in particular, taken the law into his own hands. He was determined to elicit all the information from the man. So he had Ngotho beaten from day to day.

This was overwhelming for the young Njoroge. His father and now his only brother were in trouble and he himself was not at school. His family was about to break and he was powerless to arrest the fall. He did not want to contemplate the fact that his father could have committed the murder.
When Jacobo was made a chief, he moved with one or two policemen always by his side, carrying guns to protect him against the Ihii cia Mutitu (Freedom Boys of the Forest). The chief went from one hut to the next checking and patrolling.

One day, he ordered Ngotho off his land. Howlands later discovered that Ngotho had taken the guilt of murdering Jacobo to save his son Boro. Howlands had found a notebook with Boro’s name written on behind the lavatory from where apparently Jacobo had been shot.

On the same night Ngotho died, Howlands was attacked in his farm house and killed by Boro. Boro is arrested by the police homeguards and convicted for murder. Kamau was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Weep Not, Child is part of Heinemann’s long established Series of African and Caribbean fiction. Heinemann has described this novel, Ngugi’s second novel, as one of best-known novels in Africa.