African Literature Book Club: Review of Weep Not, Child by Ngugi wa Thiong’O
For July the Catch A Vibe Book club reviewed Weep not Child by Ngugi wa Thiong’o. A seminal text in African Literature Thiong’o’s novel deals with Kenya’s liberation movement through the eyes of the character Njoroge as he tries to gain his education in the 1950’s with the threat of the Mau Mau war looming over his village and his family.
The problem with Njoroge, the protagonist
Overall the book club reaction to the novel was consistent in the strengths and weaknesses of Thiong’o’s first novel. We could all agree that there were many weaknesses in the novel among them being the stilted language and distance of the protagonist Njoroge from the main action of the novel…
Alice: It’s strange to choose such a passive character to be the main character. I wonder why Thiong’o made that choice.
Sharon: We saw everything through [Njoroge’s] perspective and he didn’t always understand things so we didn’t either. One minute his brother has come back from the war and then the next minute he’s in the Mau Mau. I want to know how that happened.
Elizabeth: There was a lot missing in Njoroge’s development. As a character when the story begins he is supposed to be entering primary school but he talks like an adult all the way through the novel, and there is a distance of about a decade in this novel, it just doesn’t fit.
Minna: It feels as though the general focus is on how hard it can be to get an education in a conflict driven country, and because of that the focus is on Njoroge’s education, but building a story around it doesn’t necessarily fit.
Weak characterisation: Mr Howlands, the evil white owner
There are also problems with the characterisations in the novel. The main one being Njoroge but we also discussed Mr Howlands, the white landowner who lives on the land that Njoroge father tends. Mr Howlands refuses to go back to England but does not want to get involved in Kenyan politics either. His character progression presented us with a problem….
Sharon: I just felt that Howlands became a caricature of the evil white man. In the beginning he seems human but by the end he wasn’t. I think it was because he didn’t really show any fear. With all that stuff going on in Kenya you should feel frightened. Howlands is not scared; it just doesn’t seem realistic.
Elizabeth: His transformation just seemed just too predictable.
Ami: But then nothing was worse for him than going back to England.
Minna: It was weird – he had no white allies. It was like he was the only white man in the village. Which was strange and unrealistic.
The ending: where is the hope?
But the main point of contention for us in this novel was the ending. Obviously we want our CAV readers to check out the book so I won’t give the ending away …but we weren’t happy.
Ami: I didn’t really like the end, it was too sad - there’s no hope. Is this what we should be thinking about Africa? That there is no hope!?
Alice: I think the end was quite unconventional because in African novels you don’t really read about such things.
Sharon: For me the ending just did not fit. It just came out of the blue it didn’t seem like it followed the story. I just couldn’t believe it and what little energy I had for the book just went it just didn’t seem real. I wonder if he just put that in there for effect
Elizabeth: I did not see where Njoroge’s desperation comes from. Ok the country is a mess but there is still hope. He has his education, he has the girl…he lost hope at the time when things are most possible…
Weep Not Child, a case for the first novel
Despite all this Weep not Child is also a novel with many strengths, among them beautiful descriptions which, even in a story with so many plot holes, still managed to move us and wonder what could have been if Thiong’o had written this at a later point in his career. The autobiographical context surrounding the novel was not lost on us and we noted that Thiong’o was studying in Leeds whilst writing this novel and that members of his family had fallen victim to the Mau Mau. Like his protagonist Njoroge, Thiong’o was strong on education, and Christianity. But three years later Thiong’o begins to move away from Christianity and write in his native Gikuyu.
Weep Not Child is Thiong’o first novel written in English (his second language,) written in his early 20’s at a time when African stories were beginning to be told to the West in the 1960’s. We couldn’t help but admire the scope of his ambition and burgeoning talent even if it left us with a lot of questions
Minna: I think it has to do with it being published at written around 1964 when many African countries are just beginning to gain independence. These topics were much newer than they are to us now. But the general story of the hope of education this still feels like something that could still happen today, I think this is what makes it so timeless today.
Alice: Maybe Thiong’o was too ambitious with this novel. He could have focused the plot on Njoroge’s family instead of trying to tell the story of Kenya. I absolutely love the first paragraph though, where Thiong’o introduces the characters in the village. It’s beautifully written.
Sharon: I think Thiong’o must have been dealing with a lot [when he wrote this novel] because there is so much going on in here.
Ami: But then the end makes even less sense….
Alice: Maybe it comes from a sense of guilt, Thiong’o being an academic, witnessing the troubles in Kenya from afar and being passive.
Elizabeth: I think there’s that lost in translation thing again, writing in a second language the words may not come out as easily. But writing in your native language and then carefully translating may come out with vastly different results. So Thiong’o’s other books could be really different from this one. He had a lovely beginning here it’s just the rest failed to live up to that promise.
Alice: Maybe he should revisit it- do a sequel Smile My Child (laughs)
So: did we like Weep Not, Child or Not?
Sharon: I didn’t love it …but I liked it.
Alice: Same for me I wouldn’t say that I love it. There are some chapters and paragraphs that I thought were amazing and well written. It makes me want to read more of Thiong’o’s work but as for this book as a whole…I’m still unsure.
Ami: I liked it – apart from the end.
Elizabeth: I definitely want to read more of his work. I’m going to find Petals of Blood now.
Minna: I cried in the end, which shocked me since I didn’t love it either but then I realised it had affected me much more than I thought.
The next African Book Club meeting will be on 23 August. We will be discussing: Neighbours – The Story of a Murder by Lian Momple
Info about the African Literature Book Club
I disliked the book. It made me cry at the end!
I agree with all your comments with regards to the characters and how they just did not totally “fit” from one scenario to the next. Even Njorge’s re-telling of the story was wildly staccato in many areas leaving me wondering what I had missed!.
I would like to read more of his work though to see how he has developed other character in other works. But most definately something more recent.
Thanks for this…I’ve read ‘Weep not…’ but I struggle to remember it in detail which is unusual compared to for instance the first time I read ‘Things Fall Apart’. I can’t even recall exactly when I read it. The ending escapes me although I know it was sad as is the general tone of the book.
I can relate to the ‘not loving it’ verdict even though I know I did enjoy the book a good deal and it was well written. I can’t relate to all the book club’s criticism of ‘Weep not…’ although the sense of detachment from the narrator rings a bell; feeling irritated by his helplessness and/or passivity.
I need to read it again. It says a lot that I’ve forgotten so much of the novel and not necessarily about my memory.
Shalom x