Ngugi wa Thiong'o "Weep Not, Child"

 

Ngugi wa Thiong'o

‘My father's land was taken from him. He died lonely, waiting for the white man to go. But the white man stayed. My father died on the land, working for another man. Now I too work for a white man on the land that used to belong to us.’

‘...But one day the land will return to us. I work here, waiting for that day.’ This tragic story of Njoroge and his family is set in Kenya in the 1950s. At that time, Kenya was a British colony. The colonial settlers took away Kenyan people's land. They forced Africans to work on the stolen land. They made many laws that were against African people.

The K.A.U. - the Kenyan African Union - was formed by black Kenyan leaders in 1944. The K.A.U. wanted to change the colonial government and the laws by peaceful means. They wanted to have the colour bar removed so that the black people would have equal rights with the whites; they wanted the land returned to the black farmers and they wanted black people to govern their own country. Jomo Kenyatta became President of the K.A.U. in 1947. Kenyans believed he could save Kenya from the evils of colonialism. But the colonial government refused to listen to the K.A.U. The K.A.U. was banned and many of its members were imprisoned.

 

 

  

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