The River Between is the first novel, though the second published work, by author Ngugi wa Thiong’o. The book represents a foray into the complex exploration of intracultural Gikuyu struggle expressed in the language of the English colonialist power that brought about these conflicts. Written while Ngugi wrote under the name James Ngugi and was studying for what would become his aborted pursuit of a master’s degree in Caribbean literature at Leeds, England, The River Between continued the development of Ngugi’s reputation as the original and most significant voice of East African literature published in English, begun with his first published novel, Weep Not, Child.

In The River Between, two deeply conflicted Gikuyu villages separated by a spiritually significant river have embraced opposite ways of initiating their youth into the newly defined adulthood of colonized Kenya. On one side of the river, traditional practices and values hold sway. On the other side, missionary Reverend Livingstone, whose name incorporates the British Isle’s two most celebrated explorers of the East African interior (the team of journalist Sir Henry Morton Stanley and Scottish missionary Dr. David Livingstone), has established Christianity as a hostile alternative to tribal traditions.

Reverend Livingstone’s most zealous Gikuyu convert, Joshua, has two daughters. Though both daughters have embraced Christianity, one of them nevertheless wishes to undergo the traditional Gikuyu initiation rites now politically elevated to the status of a patriotic rite of passage, including female genital cutting. This daughter, Muthoni, runs away from her father to stay in her aunt’s compound, thus assuring herself of freedom of choice as the time of initiation approaches. Here, Ngugi’s narrative candidly reflects the historical dichotomy that, as colonizing European forces attempted to abolish female circumcision—among other traditional practices—particularly in Kenya, it was the supposedly rescued girls and women themselves who fought colonialism by arranging to undergo the rites, or who, when this failed, mutilated themselves as a declaration of tribal and national allegiance.

Meanwhile, school headmaster Chege has raised his son Waiyaki to believe that he will be the savior of his colonized and exploited Gikuyu people. Waiyaki sees no irony in his belief that his English education will be the very vehicle by which he manages his people’s freedom from English subjugation. When Waiyaki meets Muthoni, he wishes to impress her and decides to participate in the Gikuyu initiation rites, including the circumcision of young men, to accomplish this end.

But the ritual female genital cutting Muthoni undergoes becomes infected. She does not recover with the other initiates. As she suffers, Kabonyi and Kamau, a father-and-son team of agitators, attempt to bring the conflict between English imperialism (symbolized by the importation of Christianity) and Kenyan independence (symbolized by outlawed tribal practices) to a head. Muthoni’s eventual death and elevation to the status of martyr provide an opportunity to escalate the intratribal conflicts and misunderstandings to the point of crisis. Eventually Waiyaki finds himself implicated in the incredibly complex political embroilment that ensues, destroying his new romantic liaison with Muthoni’s bereaved sister, Nyambura.

Perhaps what has become one of the most extraordinary achievements of Ngugi’s second published novel is its exclusive focus on the affairs and interactions of the colonized Gikuyu, while implicating the omnipresent, disinterested, yet oppressive force of English domination. English control and distortion of Gikuyu values and traditions is ever present, though Englishmen themselves are notably absent from the novel. In this way Ngugi uses the language of the colonizing country against its own interests, speaking for it in its absence as it neglects to follow up on the increasingly chaotic and destructive day-to-day effects of its impact on its subjects.

Ngugi wrote his first two novels during his studies at Leeds. Perhaps it is his deeply felt absence from his beleaguered people that raises the questions about idealism, loyalty, patriotism, and unwitting betrayal that fuel Weep Not, Child and The River Between and the expected third novel of this trilogy, A Grain of Wheat, in Ngugi’s increasingly focused effort to decolonize the mind.

Analysis of Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s Novels

Analysis of Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s A Grain of Wheat

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Jussawalla, Feroza, and Reed Way Dasenbrock, eds. Interviews with Writers of the Post-Colonial World. Jackson and London: University of Mississippi Press, 1992.
Makoni, Sinfree. Black Linguistics: Language, Society and Politics in Africa and the Americas. London and New York: Routledge, 2003.
Ngugi wa Thiong. Matigari. Translated by Waugui wa Goro. Oxford: Heinemann, 1989.
———. Moving the Centre: The Struggle for Cultural Freedom. London: J. Currey, 1993.
———. Writers in Politics: A Re-engagement with the Issues of Literature and Society. Oxford: Heinemann, 1997.
Sander, Reinhard, and Bernth Lindfors. Ngugi wa Thiong Speaks: Interviews with the Kenyan Writer. Trenton, N.J.: Africa World Press, 2006.

Categories: Literature, Novel Analysis

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