Weep Not, Child: Chapter 7 Summary & Analysis

At the beginning of the next school year, Njoroge and Mwihaki learn that they’ve both passed their exams, meaning they can continue their education. Joyously, they run home together, holding hands until they break off and go to their own houses. When Mwihaki enters her home, though, she finds her mother and siblings in a somber huddle. “I’ve always said that your father will end up by being murdered!” her mother shouts, and when Mwihaki asks what has happened, she receives no answer. Meanwhile, Njoroge comes home and finds his mother distraught. “It’s the strike!” she says, and he suddenly remembers that the strike was supposed to start on that day.

“Many people had gone to the meeting that was being held on the first day of the strike,” Ngũgĩ writes, indicating that Ngotho was in attendance. First, Kiarie spoke, urging his listeners to strike in order to resist the exploitative white settlers. “Remember,” he says, “this must be a peaceful strike. We must get more pay. Because right is on our side we shall triumph. If today, you’re hit, don’t hit back…” At this point, a white police officer accompanies Jacobo to the front of the crowd. “It was only when Jacobo had begun to speak and was urging people to go back to work and not to listen to some people from Nairobi who had nothing to lose if people lost their jobs that Ngotho understood,” Ngũgĩ explains. “Jacobo, the richest man in all the land around, had been brought to pacify the people.”

Listening to Jacobo, Ngotho grows angry. Jacobo, he determines, is a “traitor,” a man who has betrayed his people. “He became the physical personification of the long years of waiting and suffering,” Ngũgĩ notes. Before he knows what he’s doing, Ngotho stands and advances upon Jacobo. “All of a sudden, as if led by Ngotho, the crowd rose and rushed toward Jacobo,” Ngũgĩ writes. Suddenly, chaos overtakes the meeting, as police officers use tear gas and shoot guns into the crowd. His courage quickly failing him, Ngotho runs through the crowd without knowing where he’s going. A police officer hits him in the face with a baton, though Ngotho continues to run until, finally free of the mob, he falls to the ground and loses consciousness. Before long, his fellow villagers find him and take him home.

In the aftermath of this incident, Njoroge and his family members wonder how Jacobo got involved with the white settlers in the first place. “Few knew that to the government and the settlers around, Jacobo, being a rich man, had a lot of influence on the people,” Ngũgĩ writes, suggesting that Jacobo “impressed” his importance on “the local white community, including Mr. Howlands, who had not taken him seriously until the hour of need.” Indeed, when the time came, police officers had called upon Jacobo, who “could not have refused” their offer.

In the days following the bloody encounter, everyone is abuzz with opinions about what happened. “I would have done the same thing,” says a man at the barber’s. “It would have been all right if it had been a white man, but a black man—like you and me! It shows that we black people will never be united. There must always be a traitor in our midst.” Turning their attention more specifically to Jacobo and Ngotho, the patrons of the barbershop lament what has happened, saying, “It’s sad what has happened to Ngotho. He has been told to leave Jacobo’s land.” In response, a man says, “But Jacobo found him there when he bought the land from the previous owner.” Seeing a police officer approaching, the group disbands. “By now many people knew that the strike had failed,” Ngũgĩ notes.

Having been kicked off Jacobo’s land, Ngotho and his family are “given a place to build by Nganga,” who takes pity on the family despite the fact that Kamau never liked him. Still, though, this kindness doesn’t make this period any easier for Njoroge and his family, since they need money to build new huts. Furthermore, the fees for Njoroge’s school have increased, and Mwihaki has left for a girls’ boarding school far from town. On his third day in school, Njoroge is sent home because he doesn’t have enough money, and so he spends his time praying and trying to figure out how he will achieve his academic goals. Thankfully, Kamau has recently received a raise, and so he gives his brother his extra earnings. In conjunction with money that Kori lends him, Njoroge is able to return to school.