First-hand engrossing memoir of life during the years of the Mau Mau rebellion in Kenya, and the often brutal British colonial responses. ( )

Il grande scrittore keniano ci regala ora una meravigliosa autobiografia che copre infanzia e adolescenza. Attraverso i suoi occhi di bambino che cresce in ambiente rurale, ma a poca distanza dalla capitale, il lettore osserva la formazione di un giovane kikuyu. Non descrizioni di riti misteriosi: siamo piuttosto introdotti alle dinamiche familiari, ai sentimenti, a un campionario di individualità, a piccole gioie e grandi preoccupazioni… Questo, mentre la tragedia mau mau e la lotta per l’indipendenza irrompono nella quotidianità e nella coscienza di Ngũgĩ oltre che del Paese.
Leitmotiv del libro sono la passione del protagonista per la scuola, cui lo avvia con determinazione la madre, e la mamma stessa, alla quale egli vota un indefettibile amore e gratitudine. ( )

I thoroughly enjoyed this memoir of Ngūgī wa Thiong'o. His writing and storytelling abilities were quite good. ( )

Enjoyable and informative, definitely worth reading if you are curious to know more about the Mau Mau Rebellion 1952-1960 which lead to Kenyan Independence from Britain in 1963. Laid before you are the author's childhood memories up to his acceptance and arrival at high school. He is today a famed, contemporary African writer. This book focuses upon his quest for education, something all too many of us take for granted. It is about native Kenyan life. He was born in 1938, the fifth child of his father's third wife. Twenty-four siblings, four mothers, what is it like to be one in a polygamous family? You learn about life as one of the Kikuyu ethnic group in colonial Africa. Their land was taken from them, not once, but four times. Their culture was denied. There is a lot of history here, and it is not always told linearly. Furthermore the names are difficult, more so if you are listening to it as an audiobook. The narration by Hakeem Kai-Kazim is at times difficult to follow, particularly when the trial of Jomo Kenyatta is related with an angry tone, in an effort to emphasize the injustice of the events. I had to look on Wiki (Mau Mau Upprising and Jomo Kenyatta) to fully understand the scattered events splayed before me. It helped to see the names, to tie up the different threads. The book gives more depth than just reading at Wiki. What was his life like? How was it to have one brother as a Mau Mau rebel and another supporting the colonials? And what is it like to fight for the right to an education, to achieve that when you have no food, no shoes, no books and sometimes no light at all to work by. He succeeded. He didn't just succeed, he succeeded magnificently. His mother always asked him, "Is that your best?"

The prime message of this book is clear. Look at the title. In times of "war", we must have dreams to survive.

Completed July 17, 2013 ( )

Because Ngũgĩ is such a brilliant writer, this memoir of his childhood is so much more than the tale of a boy moving from an almost traditional village to the best high school, a boarding school, in Kenya. It is a portrait of a world that clings to some of the customs in the past while being changed both by colonialism and by modernity, an introduction to the history and culture of the Gikuyu and an indictment of British exploitation and oppression, a demonstration of the power and beauty of storytelling and oral history, a loving tribute to family, and a testament to courage and determination and the power, for the modern era, of education.