Powerful Quotes From African Books (Part 3)

African writers have written in diverse forms, styles and in many languages. They have been able to creatively put words about their lives, experiences, culture, history and myth together in books published widely on the African continent and beyond.

Many of these books consists sentences that impart divine influence on the mind and soul. eelive.ng is only glad to explore them with you.

This week’s quote examines  the work of one of Kenya’s finest writers, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o. The quote which talks about hatred and prejudice being more inherent than unnatural is from his first book, ‘Weep not, Child’. 

It says:

“It’s strange. It’s strange how you do fear something because your heart is already prepared to fear because maybe you were brought up to fear that something, or simply because you found others fearing…”

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o /Weep not, Child

Most times, lack of interaction is due to shyness, preconceived hatred, fear and not animosity. Here, the writer ponders through one of the characters the way that fears and prejudices spread within a community. He suggests that few people intend to become prejudiced; most are conditioned to be that way by their family and their society.

There is an air of tragedy in his assessment, however, since it assumes that an individual cannot counter the attitudes he is taught, but rather becomes victim to them. This tragic assessment is in many ways an echo of what Ngugi suggests throughout the novel – hatred and prejudice seem more inherent than unnatural.

Weep Not, Child is Kenyan author Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s first novel. It was published in 1964 under the name James Ngugi. It was the first English novel to be published by an East African. Thiong’o’s works deal with the relationship between Africans and the British colonists in Africa, and are heavily critical of British colonial rule. Specifically, Weep Not, Child deals with the Mau Mau Uprising, and “the bewildering dispossession of an entire people from their ancestral land. Ngũgĩ wrote the novel while he was a student at Makerere University.

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o originally James Thiong’o Ngugi, born 5 January 1938 is an award-winning, world-renowned Kenyan writer and academic who writes primarily in Gikuyu. His work includes novels, plays, short stories, and essays, ranging from literary and social criticism to children’s literature. He is the founder and editor of the Gikuyu-language journal Mũtĩiri.

By Samiah Olabimpe