Ngugi Wa Thiong’o leads us through the labyrinths, of the lives of the people of Kenya, during the colonial era.
We get to see the Mau Mau uprising. We learn of the famous Dedan Kimathi and we hear of the bravery of Jomo Kenyatta, who would in 1963 become the first Prime Minister of that young troubled nation, desperately in need of a leader.
It is not enough that their lands were forcefully taken away from them, the rights to grow certain plants as pyrethrum denied them, except for some favoured Blacks who had sold their conscience like Jacobo; they must also work for the settlers at ridiculously low wages, which would ensure they never break free from the shackles of slavery in their very own ancestral lands.
Ngotho’s household once peaceful, like most households before the coming of the Whiteman, would be so battered it would lose its very essence. Besieged by ills, the ties that bound his household would come crumbling.
First his son Mwangi is killed in the Second World War (the Whiteman’s war). Boro, another of Ngotho’s son, who had also been to the war and had most likely witnessed his brother’s death whom he so loved and some even more horrible things obtainable in the theatre of war; returns a strange man, lost to the horrors he had seen and the injustice that pervades.
Njoroge, Ngotho’s last son, in love with learning, propelled by an unquenchable fire of hope burning within him, is sure he could liberate his people with his education. He befriends Mwihaki, Jacobo’s daughter, a sworn enemy of his father’s. In the midst of all the chaos leading up to the failed strike, he would go on to Siriana to further his studies as the only Gikuyu person to have achieved that fit. He soon becomes the son of the people, not just Ngotho’s son. With the future of an entire nation resting on his young shoulders, with dreams weighing heavily on his heart, he is hopeful that the sun would rise tomorrow. But the chaos is far from been over. Jacobo the saboteur who had turned his back on his people, is killed by Boro who had since taken to the forest to war against the incursions in the land.
Ngotho, stung by bravery, cheered by parental instincts, tired of been cowardly; owns up to the murder of Jacobo to save his son Kamau. His entire family is arrested and put in torture facilities. Even Njoroge, as bright as ever, basking from the strength of hope, is arrested in school and tortured. With his dreams of getting an educational abruptly terminated. Ngotho dead. Kamau sent to a detention camp and Boro arrested and awaiting judgment after he killed Mr. Howland, the settler who had claimed their ancestral lands as his. Njoroge discovers that he is love with Mwihaki and it is this discovery that must save him from the impending doom. He is not alone in this, as Mwihaki professes her love for him. But she would not go to Uganda or anywhere else with him, to escape the harsh reality they face. They have a duty to family and country, and even more, the sun would rise again.
Ngugi Wa Thiong’o leads us by the hand like a father, as though to say; see what the Whiteman did to our lives, to Kenya, to Africa in the name of civilization. See the evil, the injustice painfully so. And one cannot help the rush of emotions that touches the very nerves in one’s heart, much as one tries to leave this story where it belongs; the past.
