Novel
The River Between
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o · 1965
Synopsis
Two ridges face each other, Kameno, faithful to the religion of the ancestors, and Makuyu, converted to Christianity, separated by the valley through which the river Honia flows. Chege, a seer of Kameno, sends his son Waiyaki to the mission school so that he may learn its wisdom without adopting its vices, convinced that he is the saviour foretold by a prophecy. The boy excels there, but the planned circumcision of Muthoni, daughter of the pastor Joshua, fuels the quarrel between the two villages, and Waiyaki, expelled from the school, sets about opening one for the excluded children.
Context
The first novel the author wrote, it appeared only second, in 1965, in Heinemann's African Writers series, while Ngũgĩ was continuing his studies at Leeds; his manuscript had been shown to Chinua Achebe in 1962. It sets African religion against the Christianity of the missions around the question of excision. Julie Senghor translated it into French for Présence africaine in 1988. The site The Modern Novel judges it a little simple, but sees in it a good way into the work.
Who it is for
For readers who want to understand, through two rival villages, how the Christian mission divided a Kikuyu community.
Prizes and reception
For a long time it was included in the national secondary school curriculum in Kenya.