What was it like growing up in the rural Kenya of 1938, prior to WWII? Dreams in a Time of War (a Childhood Memoir) by world-renowned novelist, playwright, critic, and author of Wizard of the Crow, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, is an evocative and affecting memoir of childhood that relates those year of the author’s life. The title is similar to President Barack Obama’s Dreams of My Father, and though I don’t know for sure the parallel is intentional, I think it probably is. This memoir is about how Kenya used to be when the author was a young boy, living through the violence and turmoil of WWII, with Africa split up between England and Germany, and Africans from various countries fighting against each other based upon which country had claimed them as a colony. It’s also about Ngugi’s being the fifth son of the third of the four wives his father had, his close and loving relationship with his biological mother (each wife had her own hut, where she raised her own children), and a complex one with his father’s other wives (each of whom he also called mother, though there was a hierarchical structure in which the first wife was considered to be preeminent).
Perhaps most importantly, Dreams In a Time of War is about the beginnings of Ngugi’s love of education, of knowledge, and his dream to one day be a writer. He was thrilled when his mother suggested to him the idea of attending school, and he embraced the suggestion wholeheartedly and with gusto. His mother warned him that she didn’t have much money, that it would cover the tuition and a simple school uniform, but that he might have to sometimes miss his noon meal. This was no deterrent to him, though–one of his uncles had attended the same school he was destined to go to, and also, it was the one the landlord’s children went to, and he knew that if he wanted to make it in this world, education was crucial to any of his other dreams coming true.
Even with the wars going on–WWII and the resultant wars between African colonies–in many ways, life was idyllic for Ngugi. This changed after his father banished his mother, Wanjiku, and her children from their community. They took refuge by going to live with Wanjiku’s parents. This could have been a terrible setback for Ngugi and his dreams for attaining an education, and it was likely very traumatic for him at the time. Ngugi did, as a result, gain a closeness with his grandfather that he had never known with his own father, and his dreams did not diminish or die out because of his parents’ separation or any other hardships or struggles he endured.
As I read Dreams In a Time of War, I was struck by how much Ngugi desired to learn, and to make his dreams come true. He faced many trials and tribulations along the way to eventually becoming an accomplished novelist, playwright, and social activist, and to holding the title of distinguished professor at the University of California, Irvine.
To be offered the chance to go to school at all, in a time when few African children got the opportunity to attend one, was almost miraculous. His mother had to use her own money, which she had earned at the market, to pay for Ngugi’s tuition, and many of his relatives only went a year or two at the most, due to either the cost, their indifference to learning, their being needed to work in the fields or to go to war, or a combination of factors. Then, to somehow still manage to continue his education and go to college, despite his father’s hardships and the breaking up of his parents, and to wind up in America teaching in California, made me think that at least in some cases, dreams really can come true.
If you are like me, and like to read about different cultures and nationalities, and see how we’re all really the same when it comes to our needs, our wants, our goals, our desires, and our dreams, then I’d highly recommend that you read Dreams In a Time of War.
