A Grain of Wheat

by

Ngugi wa Thiong’o

Lt. Koina Character Analysis

Lt. Koina is General R.’s friend, a fellow Freedom Fighter and comrade of Kihika. Lt. Koina joins General R. in searching for Kihika’s betrayer, believing that it must be Karanja after running surveillance on him in Githima. As a young man, Lt. Koina once worked for Dr. Lynd, but after realizing how much money she spent on her dog (enough to feed several Gikuyu families) he steals her weapons, butchers her dog, and joins the Freedom Fighters. However, when Koina sees Dr. Lynd again, years later, with even more money and another dog, he begins to suspect that Kenya will not be any different after Uhuru than it was before.

Lt. Koina Quotes in A Grain of Wheat

The A Grain of Wheat quotes below are all either spoken by Lt. Koina or refer to Lt. Koina. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Colonialism Theme Icon
).
Chapter 14 Quotes

Koina talked of seeing the ghosts of the colonial past still haunting Independent Kenya. And it was true that those now marching in the streets of Nairobi were not the soldiers of the Kenya Land and Freedom Army but of the King’s African Rifles, the very colonial forces who had been doing on the battlefield what Jackson was doing in churches.

Related Characters: General R., Lt. Koina, Rev. Jackson Kigondu
Page Number: 216
Explanation and Analysis:
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Lt. Koina Quotes in A Grain of Wheat

The A Grain of Wheat quotes below are all either spoken by Lt. Koina or refer to Lt. Koina. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Colonialism Theme Icon
).
Chapter 14 Quotes

Koina talked of seeing the ghosts of the colonial past still haunting Independent Kenya. And it was true that those now marching in the streets of Nairobi were not the soldiers of the Kenya Land and Freedom Army but of the King’s African Rifles, the very colonial forces who had been doing on the battlefield what Jackson was doing in churches.

Related Characters: General R., Lt. Koina, Rev. Jackson Kigondu
Page Number: 216
Explanation and Analysis: