Birth of a Dream Weaver: a Writer's Awakening
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memoir/literature $25.95 u.s. PRAISE FOR BIRTH OF A DREAM WEAVER BIR “[The author] focuses on his four pivotal years as an undergraduate at TH “Ngũgĩ is one of Africa’s greatest writers, Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, where he wrote articles, and certainly the foremost voice composed plays, and discovered his voice as a novelist. Outside the A DRE OF BIRTH of a university’s confines was a continent in flux; Thiong’o entered Makerere of Kenyan literature.” in 1959 as a colonial subject, and left in 1964 as a citizen of independent —San Francisco Chronicle Kenya. He vividly describes how the colonial regime’s atrocities haunted DREAM him and shaped his sensibilities. Evocative, poignant, and thoughtful, Thiong’o’s courageous narrative will linger in readers’ minds.” A BIRTH OF A DREAM WEAVER ONE OF THE LEADING AFRICAN WRITERS AND SCHOLARS —Publishers Weekly (starred review) M WEAVER charts the very beginnings of a writer’s creative out- at work today, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o was born in WEA A Writers’ Awakening put. In this stirring memoir of awakening, Ngũgĩ wa Limuru, Kenya, in 1938. He is the author of A Grain PRAISE FOR DREAMS IN A TIME OF WAR Thiong’o recounts the four years he spent in Mak- of Wheat; Weep Not, Child; and Petals of Blood. He “Eye-opening. The work Ngũgĩ offers us here VER erere University in Kampala, Uganda: threshold is currently Distinguished Professor of English and is like nothing that’s gone before.” years where he found his voice as a journalist, short Comparative Literature at the University of Califor- —Marie Arana, The Washington Post story writer, playwright, and novelist, just as colonial nia, Irvine. The recipient of ten honorary doctorates, empires were crumbling and new nations were being he has earned numerous awards for his work, includ- “Startling, vivid. Inspiring. Whether recalling joyful or challenging born—under the shadow of the rivalries, intrigues, times, Ngũgĩ displays a plainspoken yet beautiful prose style.” ing the California Book Award gold medal for his and assassinations of the Cold War. —The Christian Science Monitor THIONG NGUGI WA novel Wizard of the Crow. He has been nominated Haunted by the memories of the carnage and mass for the Man Booker International Prize. ˜ ˜ incarceration carried out by the British colonial- PRAISE FOR WIZARD OF THE CROW settler state in his native Kenya but inspired by the “In his crowded and eventful life, Ngũgĩ has enacted, titanic struggle against it, Ngũgĩ, then known as for all to see, the paradigmatic trials and quandaries of a James Ngugi, begins to weave stories from the fibers contemporary African writer caught in sometimes implacable of memory, history, and a shockingly vibrant and tur- political, social, racial, and linguistic currents.” bulent present. —John Updike, The New Yorker What unfolds in this moving and thought- provoking memoir is both the birth of one of the ’O most important living writers—lauded for his “epic imagination” (Los Angeles Times)—and the death of THE NEW PRESS one of the most violent episodes in global history, as www.thenewpress.com well as the emergence of new histories and nations with uncertain futures. Jacket illustration by Emmanuel Polanco NGUGI˜ ˜ WA THIONG’O Author photograph by Daniel Anderson, University of California, Irvine, Communications Department THE NEW PRESS Birth of a Dream Weaver_jacket_rev.indd 1 07/20/2016 5:47 PM Birth of a Dream Weaver Also by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o Dreams in a Time of War: A Childhood Memoir In the House of the Interpreter: A Memoir Weep Not, Child The River Between A Grain of Wheat Petals of Blood Devil on the Cross Matigari Wizard of the Crow Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature Something Torn and New: An African Renaissance In the Name of the Mother Globalectics: Theory and the Politics of Knowing Secure the Base: Making Africa Visible in the Globe Birth of a Dream Weaver a writer’s awakening Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o THE NEW PRESS NEW YORK LONDON © 2016 by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, in any form, without written permission from the publisher. Requests for permission to reproduce selections from this book should be mailed to: Permissions Department, The New Press, 120 Wall Street, 31st floor, New York, NY 10005. Published in the United States by The New Press, New York, 2016 Distributed by Perseus Distribution ISBN 978-1-62097-240-3 (hc) ISBN 978-1-62097-267-0 (e-book) CIP data is available. The New Press publishes books that promote and enrich public discussion and understanding of the issues vital to our democracy and to a more equitable world. These books are made possible by the enthusiasm of our readers; the support of a committed group of donors, large and small; the collaboration of our many partners in the independent media and the not-for- profit sector; booksellers, who often hand- sell New Press books; librarians; and above all by our authors. www .thenewpress .com Book design and Composition by Bookbright Media This book was set in Minion Pro and Adobe Caslon Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 In memory of Minneh Nyambura, now reborn in her grandchildren of the same name: Nyambura wa Mũkoma, Nyambura Sade Sallinen, and Nyambura wa Ndũcũ. Her spirit also lives on in her other grandchildren: June Wanjikũ, Chris Ng’ang’a, and Ngũgĩ Biko Kimunga. Contents Note on Nomenclature . ix Prologue . xi 1. The Wound in the Heart . 1 2. A Wounded Land . 7 3. Reds and Blacks . 17 4. Benzes, Sneakers, Frisbees, and Flags . 53 5. Penpoints and Fig Trees . 75 6. Writing for the Money of It . 83 7. Black Dolls and Black Masks . 103 8. Transition and That Letter from Paris . 123 9. Boxers and Black Hermits . 141 10. Pages, Stages, Spaces . 163 11. Coal, Rubber, Silver, Gold, and New Flags . 179 12. Working for the Nation . 193 13. Notes and Notebooks . 213 14. A Hell of a Paradise . 221 Acknowledgments . 227 Notes . 229 Photograph Sources . 237 Note on Nomenclature In this memoir the armed resistance the British dubbed Mau Mau is called by its rightful name, Land and Freedom Army (LFA). Their fighters will be called soldiers. Prologue I entered Makerere University College in July 1959, subject of a British Crown Colony, and left in March 1964, citizen of an independent African state. Between subject and citizen, a writer was born. This is the story of how the herdsboy, child laborer, and high school dreamer in Dreams in a Time of War and In the House of the Interpreter became a weaver of dreams. Birth of a Dream Weaver Sir Bunsen with the Queen Mother at Makerere graduation, February 20, 1959 1 The Wound in the Heart “A British officer cannot do a thing like that. That’s why . “Why what?” “A British officer. That’s why. That’s all.” Queen’s Court, where I leaned against a pillar trying to make sense of the news, was named in honor of Queen Eliza- beth after she and the Duke of Edinburgh visited Uganda in April 1954. The court, a rectangle enclosed by buildings and fronted by Grecian pillars, was the center of the arts complex, which housed, among others, the English Department. My fel- low students Bahadur Tejani, Bethuel Kurutu, Selina Coelho, and Rhoda Kayanja passed me by, gesturing me to join them, but I ignored their overture. Would they feel my woes? Peter Nazareth might have understood. Though a year ahead of me in college, he was actually the younger by two years; he was born in Kampala, Uganda, in 1940 and I in Lim- uru, Kenya, in 1938. We had worked together for Penpoint, the literary magazine of the Department of English, but he had just graduated, having passed the editorship on to me. So I communed with myself, alone, trying to rally my nerves in a reality I felt helpless to alter. My one-act play, The Wound in the Heart, would not be allowed at the Kampala National Theater in the annual nationwide drama festival. 2 · Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o We lived in different halls of residence, a life fraught with friendly rivalries in arenas ranging from sports to drama, and every winning play in the interhall English competition on the Hill had always been re- presented at the only major theater in town. Having the drama appear on a national stage was the most coveted outcome of a win. It carried no material reward, a little reminiscent of the drama on the Greek acropo- lis of old,1 where the recognition of a fictive creation surpassed any material gain. The previous year, 1961, The Rebels, my first ever one-act play, another Northcote Hall entrant, had placed second to the winner, Nazareth’s Brave New Cosmos, a Mitchell Hall entrant that subsequently saw light on the Kampala stage. Nazareth, at the time of his Cosmos, had already blossomed into the All- Makerere personality, a presence in music, sports, theater, student politics, and writing.2 I had lost the final acco- lade to an icon on the Hill, but I had not given up. And this year, 1962, my play The Wound in the Heart had won. My story “The Village Priest” garnered the prize in the short- fiction category, and the two had helped Northcote Hall win the entire competition. Hugh Dinwiddy, the hall warden, hailed the overall outcome as exciting news, “because the quality of the work done in order to win it was very good”3 and also because “so many members of the hall had offered their ser- vices towards this end.” My stars were well aligned.