Summary
Chapter 21
Nyambura thinks about Waiyaki all the time and wishes she could be with him. She wonders why she said no to marrying him, but it is difficult to rebel against her father. She vacillates back and forth, but she fears her father knows something. Her mother likes Waiyaki because of Muthoni, and she prays for him to convert to Christianity.
Nyambura goes to their place by the river but it no longer soothes her; she also knows Waiyaki will not come.
When she goes home, Joshua sternly asks where she was and with whom. She says she was with no one, and he accuses her of lying. His voice is filled with malice, and he threatens that she must never be with Waiyaki. Nyambura’s mind cannot be quieted. She has lost her man and her salvation.
Chapter 22
The people sing Waiyaki’s praises on every hill. He procured teachers from Siriana and is a great man. Kinuthia practically worships him, but he fears for him because he can see things his friend cannot, such as Kabonyi’s hatred for him.
One day the friends are walking along the river and Waiyaki is talking about how he is getting more teachers. He muses that he will build more and more schools. Kinuthia wonders if he knows that people want action now—that the awareness and enthusiasm demand more than education now. He will tell him one day, but not today.
Two days later, Waiyaki is lying in bed; he feels exhausted in body and spirit. He has a feeling of foreboding but clings to his vision. The white man’s education is the instrument of enlightenment and advance but has to be used well. He worries if he is really the savior. Chege certainly placed a burden on his shoulders. He plans to tell the people next year about unity, but for now, he is dreaming the dream of education.
Suddenly in his vision of his plan for his people he sees Nyambura, and the people are tearing her apart. Then he sees it is actually Muthoni. She wanders away and then Nyambura is there. He tries to touch her but cannot.
His mind flashes to how she told him she would not marry him. He is plagued with guilt about her and the people; darkness threatens to overtake him. He then thinks about Christmas and the initiation day coming soon.
Waiyaki stands to leave the hut and his mother, now old and wizened, asks where he is going. She then, trembling, asks him if he will marry Nyambura. Waiyaki hates hearing of these rumors and decides he hates Nyambura for the path she chose. Then he realizes he hates himself. His mother tells him he must not marry her because of the Kiama—and he must fear the voice of the Kiama.
Suddenly, Kamau knocks on the door and says the elders and Kiama want to see him. Waiyaki looks at his mother, who appears scared and frail, but agrees.
Chapter 23
It is dark outside as Kamau and Waiyaki walk. Waiyaki feels a strange thrill move through him. At the hut, the elders do not greet him with the same warmth as they always do, and they do not call him Teacher.
Kabonyi begins speaking. He mentions the upcoming ceremonies, Muthoni’s death, and the fact that Joshua corrupts some people here. Kabonyi continues that it is bad when a leader is touched by the impurity of those teachings. As he talks, Waiyaki becomes annoyed, thinking of how he teaches their children.
Finally, Kabonyi looks straight at Waiyaki and says he touched Muthoni, a dying woman, and was not cleaned. That is the first thing he has done to the tribe, but he has also been in Joshua’s church numerous times and he went to Siriana to get teachers—is he selling the tribe to the white man? When he hears this, Waiyaki yells at him in anger but realizes he cannot speak like that to an elder. Another elder speaks up and says betrayal is a bad thing for a man of influence. He is being warned, and they must know if he is marrying Nyambura.
Waiyaki tries to remain calm. He explains that Muthoni was not considered unclean before the initiation, so he is not unclean; he could not have let her die, and after she died he did not touch her. At Siriana, he never entered into any negotiations with white men.
As he is speaking, he reminds himself to make his stand clear and not to come under the sway of Kabonyi. He continues to them that he is concerned with the purity of the tribe and desires unity. It is important to know what the white man knows.
Kabonyi gleefully butts in and says they need a political leader. He then brings up Nyambura again, and Waiyaki refuses to say anything about her. He says the oath does not preclude him from loving people. Kamau glares at him.
Waiyaki realizes that even Kamau hates him, but he is also annoyed at himself for not putting up a good fight. He leaves, the word “traitor” trailing after him.
Kabonyi triumphantly faces the elders and tells them that Waiyaki should not continue to be a teacher and they should not follow him. An elder sadly says Waiyaki has always been like that.
Chapter 24
A few days later, Kinuthia rushes up to Waiyaki and says the Kiama is saying that Waiyaki is no longer a teacher. Waiyaki sighs, and bitterness fills him. He replies that only the school committee can do that, but he tells Kinuthia what happened with the elders. Kinuthia says that it is all Kabonyi, and everyone thinks Nyambura corrupted him. They will not stop at this, and they say he has broken the oath. Kinuthia suggests that he flee, especially from Kabonyi.
Waiyaki thanks him sadly but says he will not leave. He will go to Makuyu to warn Joshua. Kinuthia groans, but Waiyaki cannot be stopped. He has both agitation and steely determination in his eyes.
Waiyaki walks over to the church, and when he enters, everyone looks at him. He politely apologizes for the interruption and tells them he thinks they are in danger. Joshua rages at him to get out, and Waiyaki is stung by rejection and humiliation. He sees Nyambura in the church.
Kamau and his four men, who were lurking and spying, see Waiyaki at the church and are stunned at how far his treason has gone. They must do something.
When Waiyaki enters, Nyambura’s heart skips a beat. She sees her man; she sees the Teacher. She’d been thinking of him and preparing for him for some time now. She knows she wants a religion that would give life, love, and peace to all, and no longer wants Joshua’s type. So, when Waiyaki is in the church, she stands up and calls him Teacher in front of everyone. She states that he is not lying; she tells everyone that Kamau wanted her to marry him and that when she refused he said he would do something bad.
Joshua fumes as he hears this, but Waiyaki is only sad. The people don’t want him, and maybe Kabonyi is actually the savior. Joshua orders him out of the church. Nyambura walks up to Waiyaki, takes his hand, and tells him he is brave and she loves him. Joshua is stunned at his daughter’s behavior and renounces her in thunderous tones.
Both Waiyaki and Nyambura leave. Nyambura shivers with the weight of her rebellion. Waiyaki tells her to go back, but she will not. Part of Waiyaki wants to flee with her, but he cannot help but remember his father’s words. Nyambura presses his hand and says she will go where he goes. The two come to their sacred area and sit together, feeling a throb spread through their bodies. Waiyaki feels his soul calmed by the girl, even though he knows he will soon have to choose between her and the tribe.
Back at his hut, Kinuthia is waiting. Waiyaki decides to go to the sacred grove tomorrow and says that he will speak to the people tomorrow after sunset at the Honia river. There he will fight in the open with Kabonyi because he cannot run away. Kinuthia promises he will never leave his friend.
Chapter 25
At the tree the next day, which still appears strong and firm, Waiyaki is weary. Its mystery envelops him and he struggles with strange forces. He is afraid, and he blames himself. Maybe he shouldn’t have resigned from the Kiama; maybe he betrayed the tribe he meant to unite. However, not everything of the white man’s was bad, and even his religion wasn’t inherently bad. The white men just didn’t understand they couldn’t get rid of people’s traditions overnight. Their religion has to take into account the people’s way of life; it has to be a living experience. Joshua simply smeared himself with everything white and renounced all the ways of the tribe. Muthoni tried to bring the two sides together; she had courage, but it did not work.
Waiyaki sits for a while in the sacred grove but does not feel comforted. He has a vision of the other ridges uniting together against the white man and suddenly is aware of what the people want. He feels their shame of the land being taken and the humiliation of paying taxes to the white man’s government. People want action now; they are awakened. But what action do they need? He decides it must be political action, education, and unity.
Before he leaves the grove, he worries if the elders will ask him to give up Nyambura; he cannot bear for this to happen.
Many people have gathered, bewildered by the call they received from Kinuthia and his messengers. Most still love their Teacher and cannot believe he would betray them. He awakened them and gave them a unity. He’d also taken the oath, so how could he go against that? They sit and wait, looking forward to his arrival and thinking about initiation day tomorrow.
Kabonyi and the elders wait, too. Kabonyi trembles with what he knows. He hates Waiyaki with his entire being and he identifies it with “the wrath of the tribe against impurity and betrayal” (144). He thinks he is the savior who will unite the ridges.
The sun is going down and people are becoming impatient. Some of Joshua’s followers, including Miriamu, watch on the hill. It seems like the sun is setting in a blaze of flames; Kinuthia sees a vision of Nyambura and Waiyaki within them.
Finally, Waiyaki strides in, looking strong and beautiful. The crowd quiets.
Chapter 26
The words of Chege’s prophecy come back to Waiyaki as he surveys his tribe. He knows they need him; he knows Nyambura needs him.
He begins to speak. He thanks the people, outlines their struggles, speaks of the waking of the sleeping lions, and says that, if some want to accuse them, then they ought to do it publicly.
Kabonyi stands. He speaks of Muthoni being unclean, and the tribe needing to take action against the menace of Waiyaki. Waiyaki is in league with the white man and his taxation. He speaks of Waiyaki’s journeys to Siriana. Waiyaki is confused as to why he says nothing of Joshua and Nyambura yet.
Waiyaki speaks next. He reminds the people in strong words that Kabonyi was one of the first to go to the white man. He then reminds them of their glorious past and the united hills that made the victories of old possible. He speaks of Mugo’s prophecy and says that they must not choose violence: they must unite or the white man will always be on their back. At this, the people cheer and seem very moved.
The people begin to move toward Kabonyi angrily, but Waiyaki calls out that they must not touch him. It is almost as if he realizes at that moment what Kabonyi and the Kiama mean for the tribe. Kinuthia watches, a sense of terror pervading him. Something is wrong.
Kabonyi speaks again. Everyone is listening to his broken, grief-stricken voice. He is reminding them of the oath Waiyaki took to never tell the tribe’s secrets. Waiyaki is getting nervous. Kabonyi blurts out that he can prove Waiyaki is in league with Joshua, and he brings forth Nyambura. Kabonyi tells Waiyaki to deny her.
The call for the denial bounces around the ridges but the river thrums on. The people shout “the oath! The oath!” Waiyaki looks at his love and knows he cannot deny her, nor can he go back on his love. Everyone is silent. He walks up to her and takes her in his arms. The oath does not preclude love, and he wants to say that. A woman yells out “the oath!” before he can, though, and a ripple of rage spreads through the people. How could their Teacher betray them?
No one will listen as Waiyaki tries to calm them. An elder stands and proclaims that Waiyaki and Nyambura will be put in the hands of the Kiama, which will judge them and decide what to do with them. It is the best thing. The crowd roars back agreement and they quickly move away into darkness.
The land is silent. The ridges lie side by side and the river flows between them through the valley of life.
Analysis
In this last block of chapters, Waiyaki seems as if he were on top of things, but there are indications that his fall is imminent. He stresses continuously over Nyambura refusing his offer of marriage but is also annoyed that others keep asking him about her. The pressures weigh on him and “he felt exhausted in body and spirit” (119). He stresses over Chege’s prophecy and wonders “Was he that savior? Was he the Promised One or had Chege’s mind been roving? How would he save them? Chege had placed a burden on his shoulders, a burden hard to carry” (119). Waiyaki is perspicacious to an extent, but he still firmly believes “the white man’s education was an instrument of enlightenment and advance if it only could be used well” (119). Pangs of guilt assault him because he didn’t talk about unity, but he still tells himself, “Another time. A next time…next time” (121).
Ngugi heavily foreshadows Waiyaki’s reckoning; it does not come as any surprise whatsoever. Even though Waiyaki is committed to education, others know it is not the end-all-be-all. Kinuthia privately wonders if his friend knows “that people wanted action now, that the new enthusiasm and awareness embraced more than the desire for learning. People wanted to move forward” (118). Education is all well and good, but their lands are being taken and they are being taxed. When the Kiama calls for Waiyaki, his fate is not yet sealed—but it certainly does not go well. Kabonyi accuses him of several things he cannot adequately explain away, and his yelling at an elder does not augur favorably. After he leaves them the elders begin discussing him in a rueful way, starting to shift the narrative about him.
Waiyaki’s time at the sacred grove provides illumination, but it will not prove to be enough. His fate is sealed when he will not renounce Nyambura when standing before the tribe. His breaking of the oath is perceived as too consequential of a thing to ignore, and the fact that he had been estranged from the tribe for a while now means that he cannot explain himself. Waiyaki is, as Linda Jordan Tucker notes, “ultimately failing the people and placing himself in danger…he has a messianic vision of himself but is not able to fill it.” In defense of Waiyaki, it is almost an impossible prophecy that Chege laid out for his son. Apollo O. Omoko sees this as the basis for the novel’s tragic elements, for “its ill-fated hero is burdened with the weight of an unrealizable but authoritative prophecy. That Waiyaki fails to lead the people beyond coloniality calls into question the founding authority of prophecy and the organic community it would foreordain.” It would seem as if Ngugi is antipathetic towards all single, solitary figures who claim to have the solution to the tribe’s problems—Joshua, Chege, Waiyaki, Kabonyi—and that there needs to be a more collective, communal decision-making.
Returning to the issue of Waiyaki and Nyambura specifically, the fact that they proposed a middle way of sorts but could not be allowed to enact it is a reflection of Ngugi’s pessimism regarding the ability to achieve reconciliation. Elias Bongmba explains that “Waiyaki stands precisely between these two worlds as a symbol of this syncretic possibility, offering a third discourse in the form of African nationalism”—but neither side is willing to embrace it yet.
The novel thus ends pessimistically, its final image of the Honia a significant one, as Charles E. Nnolim writes: “It is a disturbing end, a tragic one, for Ngugi seems to look on Honia River as symbolizing the continued and eternal strife between the Makuyu and Kameno tribesmen.”
