Celebrations lined up as Ngugi’s 'Weep Not, Child' marks 50 years

It is not every time that a President acknowledges a work of art as having made an impact on his life, but not so for Ghanaian President Mahama.

“It was through reading that book, Weep Not, Child, that I was introduced to Ngugi (wa Thiong’o) and I took him as a mentor,” says Ghanaian President John Mahama.

It is not every time that a President acknowledges a work of art as having made an impact on his life. But President Mahama does not shy away from further declaring that it was Weep Not, Child that made him understand the importance of education.

“People like Ngugi challenged us to look within ourselves and also to look beyond our perceived personal and societal limitations and to see the larger context of our lives,” declares the eloquent President.

Powerful words, indeed, from the land of powerful personalities such as the Pan Africanist Kwame Nkrumah, the creative writer Ama Ata Aidoo and the peacemaker, Kofi Annan. The occasion was the conferment of the 2013 UCI Medal to Ngugi by the University of California, Irvine, the highest honour one can get from the university.

President Mahama’s assertion underscores the influence that this writer has had in Africa and the world at large; an influence that was, shall I say, kick-started by the publication of his seminal novel, Weep Not, Child, way back in 1964. It is important to mention that although strictly speaking, Ngugi first wrote The River Between (originally titled: The Black Messiah), as fate would have it, it was published after his second novel, Weep Not, Child. Hence, technically, his first novel is Weep Not, Child.

And with it, Ngugi’s literary journey began, 50 years ago, a journey that has seen him traverse the whole spectrum of literary genres. He is best known as a novelist, with some of his highly acclaimed works being Weep Not, Child; The River Between; A Grain of Wheat and Wizard of the Crow.

But Ngugi is also a playwright, a short story writer, an author of children’s readers, an essayist and, quite recently, a poet.

Among his plays, perhaps the most powerful are The Trial of Dedan Kimathi and I Will Marry When I Want (first written in Gikuyu as: Ngaahika Ndeenda).

Although Ngugi did not quite grow in the short story genre, his short story anthology, Secret Lives contains some gems that have been anthologised in many collections all over the world, with the most acclaimed being “A Mercedes Funeral”.

Then there are the children’s story books he published after being commissioned by his long time publisher, Henry Chakava of East African Educational Publishers. Loosely called in the market as the Njamba Nene Series, the readers were first written in Gikuyu, then translated into English and other languages, and they have invited varying interpretations from literary critics.

In the arena of essays, the best known is Decolonising the Mind, perhaps owing to its pregnant title, but he has also produced a number of others, with the recent one being In the Name of the Mother, published in 2013.

But Ngugi’s poetry is least known, most probably because apart from being published in the journal, Mutiiri, he has not published a full length anthology of the poetry.

Many will agree that very few creative writers are endowed with that kind of versatility that allows one to traverse all these different genres, and that puts Ngugi in a class of his own.

Weep Not, Child is read as a school set book in many countries of Africa and has also received consistent scholarly attention in colleges and universities all over the world.

DECEPTIVELY SIMPLE

The novel is deceptively simple, a tale of Njoroge, a young boy who seeks an education during the Emergency in colonial Kenya, but one that also includes several sub-plots, well inter-woven to produce a work that captures the themes of colonialism and corruption, among others.

Njoroge’s determination to get an education through which he could emancipate his family and community from the throes of poverty; regain the grabbed ancestral lands; and generally as a “fulfillment of a wider and more significant vision”, resonates well with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

It is a determination whose promising future is threatened by civil unrest that brings divisions within Njoroge’s own community and family.

As we journey through Njoroge’s vicissitudes, we encounter his father, Ngotho, who works for Mr Howlands, a white landowner (read grabber) and who struggles against the loss of his family land.

Then there is Mwihaki, a wealthy village girl who explores a romance with Njoroge.

In the end, Weep Not, Child presents a complex view of the birth of modern Kenya.

It is with this in mind that East African Educational Publishers (EAEP), the publishers of Ngugi’s works, has organised an elaborate celebration of the novel, Weep Not, Child. The author will be in the country later in the year to participate in a variety of literary activities.

It is a celebration that will see literary enthusiasts explore the various thematic concerns in Weep Not, Child, and juxtapose the same against our present-day Kenya. It is a celebration that will go beyond Weep Not, Child, and seek to celebrate other gems that have streamed from the author’s pen over the last 50 years.

EAEP has planned to make this an open platform on which students, teachers, literary critics, journalists, and the general public will have the opportunity to have a piece of Ngugi, so to speak.

Thus, we shall have young and old discussing Ngugi’s stream of consciousness; teachers and lecturers wrestling with Ngugi’s thematic concerns; literary critics dissecting Ngugi’s stylistic devices; and language enthusiasts discussing Ngugi’s rationale in writing in Gikuyu.

There will be debates and discussions in selected schools and colleges; public lectures; media interviews.