PLOT OF THE NOVEL

 Weep Not, Child is Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o's first novel, published in 1964. It was the first English novel
to be published by an East African. Thiong'o's works deal with the relationship between Africans
and the British colonists in Africa and are heavily critical of British colonial rule. Specifically, Weep
Not, Child deals with the Mau Mau Uprising, and the bewildering dispossession of an entire people
from their ancestral land.

 Ngũgĩ wrote the novel while he was a student at Makerere University. The novel is divided into
two parts and eighteen chapters. Part one deals mostly with the education of Njoroge, while part
two deals with the rising revolutionary, anti-colonist turmoil in Kenya.

 In both parts the action is set in Kenya, which is also the home country of Ngugi. The author did
not use a complicated language, which made the book easy to read. Furthermore, he utilizes
dialogues throughout the whole book. The main themes of the book are the importance of
education and the rising revolutionary ideas in countries, which are dominated by colonialists.

PLOT OF THE NOVEL

 Weep Not Child explores the betrayed community from the point of view of the victimized family
of Ngotho. The near destruction of his family results from inaction, lack of leadership and colonial
exploitation.

 This novel combines a political didacticism of a “living past” with the need to promote a
revolutionary resistance for the future. The obstacles to a betrayed Kenya are not permanent and
can be overcome by cultural and political renewal initiated by the community itself.

 Weep Not, Child accurately portrays the history of the Kikuyu people in era of Kenyan
independence. It addresses the history of one of the largest countries in East Africa, which
contains close similarities to nations across Africa during this period of decolonization. Stark
inequalities in land ownership and ethnically divided voting in Kenya’s recent election show that
the history and legacy of colonization continue to plague Kenya today

PLOT OF THE NOVEL

 Dominating this novel's landscape is the division of land between the settler class, personified by
Howlands and the collaborating indigenous or national bourgeoisie, represented by Jacobo.

 A major image is that of "the road" divided the people into economic zones. The African peasants
were forced to live in the least productive areas. The "road" introduces the conflict between
Howlands and the peasant, Ngotho in a generalized way through historical record. The road and
its construction acts record of colonial exploitation.

 Their children from black women were abused and underfed in Kipanga. The road symbolizes the
divisiveness of colonialism that segregate Kenyans into classes and races. The division of land was
a perpetual source of conflict between the white settler class and the Gikuyu peasant.
  Through the incredible story of Njoroge, Weep Not, Child not only presents an important history
that has lasting importance in the world today, but it breaks the borders separating the different
experiences of kids across the world.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TITLE

 In Ngugi's Weep Not Child the images of "darkness" no longer protect the land. A full-scale colonial
penetration has reduced the Gikuyu of the ridges to squatters on their own land and has brought
about the destruction of the traditional family unit.

 Ngugi's opening quotation from Walt Whitman bears repeating:

“Weep, not child

Weep not, my darling

With these kisses let me remove your tears,

The ravening clouds shall not be long victorious,

They shall not long possess the sky ....” (Whitman, “On the

Beach at Night”:1885, P-381)

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TITLE

 Ngugi’s choice of titles for his novels is suggestive of the theme of discord. The epigraph of Ngugi’s
novel, Weep Not, Child, is from Walt Whitman’s poem, “On the Beach at Night”. The weeping
child is at the centre of the novel as he fears being exploited at the hands of the settlers.

 The images of "ravening clouds" reflect the darkness of colonialism, whose controlling forces are
limited like weather. Despite this optimistic introduction, the land of ridges is to be dominated by
a white colonial bourgeoisie and a black collaborating home guard. Ngugi's sub-sections in the
novel, "Waning light" and "darkness falls" chronicle the destructiveness of colonial penetration in
the Central Highlands.

 While Weep Not Child does not present the dominant ridges of Kameno, Makuyu, or the Honia
river Ngugi acknowledges the ridges both as a former home and as a source for Kipanga in Weep
Not Child.

 This novel tells a story that can be understood everywhere. The universality of Njoroge’s quest
for knowledge and the hardships within his family show how we as people have many more
similarities than differences.

LANGUAGE OF THE NOVEL

 African literary and cultural past cannot be reconstituted but only reclaimed and that the
linguistic, thematic, and aesthetic hybridity this presupposes must be embraced to give African
literature the freedom it needs to contribute its full quota to the universality of literature.
 Ngugi profusely uses language, verbal and non-verbal, symbolic and silent to effectively portray
discord at the individual and the situational levels. He introduces the theme of discord in the
opening chapters of his novels, a technique unique.

 His varied characters representing different strata of society, offer scope for the usage of
powerful and rich language. His vivid description of the landscape in his novels is symbolic of the
dispute experienced by the Africans. The Mau Mau Rebellion and the Uhuru celebrations are
symbolic of discord.

 In Weep Not, Child, Njoroge gains insight that he is chosen as their saviour. “The land needed
him, and God had given him an opening so that he might come back and save his family and the
whole country”.

LANGUAGE OF THE NOVEL

 Ngugi’s usage of images and motifs to highlight the language of discord is remarkable. He
introduces his readers to the ‘lyrical presence’ (the collective consciousness) of the novel.

 This stylistic convention is identified using the Second Person Pronoun “you” injecting the reader
into the heart of the story. An effective technique, the Second Person is the communal element
entering into the situation, the unseen witness who understands and records everything

 In Weep Not, Child, the lyrical presence introduces the motif of land - “You could tell the land of
Black People because it was red, rough and sickly, while the land of the white settlers was green
and was not lacerated into small strips… Some people said that the black people should stick
together and take trade only to their black brethren.”

 The communal element is also present in the recurrent motif of the black solidarity, reflected
frequently in the African child’s inability to understand the other ethnic groups. “You did not know
what to call an Indian. Was he also a white man? Did he too come from England?”

LANGUAGE OF THE NOVEL

 The most noticeable aspect in the methods of characterization of Ngugi is the use of
impressionism, the internal reading of his characters’ emotional reactions to the external world,
leading to a more introspective approach to character, and for this, he generally uses the third
person narrator for his tales.

 The opening pages of Weep Not, Child are typical of Ngugi’s use of the third person to depict
Njoroge’s feelings, “Ó mother, I’ll never bring shame to you. Just let me get there, just let me… It
was just there, for himself; a bright future … Aloud he said, “I like school”.

 Ngugi’s use of the second person merges with Njoroge’s thoughts, “You did not know what to call
an Indian, and was he also a white man? Did he too come from England?” These are the thoughts
of the reader, the communal centre (the second person), and those of the young boy – a merging
of three points of view into one.

LANGUAGE OF THE NOVEL

 As the story progresses, the alteration in character is witnessed and experienced by the reader –
the African child’s growth into adulthood, presented impressionistically from his own ever-
changing point of view. Thus, Ngugi’s usage of the second person “you” is an extremely effective
device for drawing the reader into his narrative.

 Ngugi’s characters are truly complex personalities, often presented psychologically where the
inter-involvement of the characters leads to the downfall of the protagonists. There is
considerable authorial commentary in the depiction of the character Njoroge in Weep Not, Child.

 Being an extremely sensitive child, with a fancy to daydream, school becomes a means of escape
for Njoroge, and this is revealed in the three statements which occur on the same page of the
text, “He clung to books and whatever the school had to offer… Education for him, as for many
boys of his generation held the key to the future… The Bible was his favourite book.”

LANGUAGE OF THE NOVEL

 Ngugi’s sensitive approach and use of language in the portrayal of the colonialists are remarkable.
He clearly reveals their ambitions, arrogance, fear of failures, etc.

 In Weep Not, Child, Ngugi provides a clear picture of the white man’s impression and treatment
of the African. ‘With noble aspirations’ the well-meaning task of the colonialists was to tame
“humans possessed of animal souls” who were like “donkeys or horses”.

 Mr. Howland’s recruitment as an officer to combat the Mau Mau provides him with an
opportunity to vent his fury on these “subhumans” and he is determined to “wring from every
single man the last drop …till he had won victory for his God”

 The Africans were taken as a ‘symbol of evil’, a ‘native often rendered as ‘secondary, abject, weak,
feminine and other to Europe”. When he encounters rejection and hostility, he wants to
“exterminate the brutes’ and ‘eliminate the vermin’ and when thwarted, he reaches the ‘edge of
madness’.