The River Between (Masterplots II: British and Commonwealth Fiction Series)
At a glance:
- Author: Ngugi wa Thiong'o
- First Published: 1965
- Type of Work: Social realism
- Time of Work: From the 1890’s to the early 1930’s
- Setting: The rural, highland Kikuyu communities of Kameno and Makuyu in Kenya
- Principal Characters: Waiyaki, Chege, Kabonyi, Joshua, Muthoni, Nyambura
- Genres: Long fiction, Social realism
- Subjects: Culture, Africa or Africans, Tradition, Politics, Colonies or colonization, Race, Nineteenth century, Education or educators, Religion, Manners or customs, 1910’s, 1920’s, 1930’s, Christianity, Death or dying, Rites or ceremonies, Christ figures or saviors
- Locales: Kenya, Kameno, Kenya, Makuyu, Kenya
The Novel
Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s third-person omniscient narrator opens the novel with a brief, symbolic evocation of the mythic landscape in which the plot unfolds. In the remote highlands of central Kenya, two ridges, each the home of a small Kikuyu community, rise on opposite sides of the river Honia, whose name means “cure, or bring-back-to-life.’’ Isolated even from other Kikuyu villages, this region bears the legacy of tribal identity, being the site of the Kikuyu origin myth where Murungo, the supreme deity, created Kikuyu and Mumbi, the first man and woman. Also...
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