The Waiyaki Between

I think Ngugi made a few very significant points throughout The River Between. Waiyaki, one of the most prominent characters, was conflicted throughout the book by what he was taught/told to believe and what he is exposed to as he begins working among the ‘white men.’ As a child, Waiyaki looked forward to becoming a man of the tribe and his circumcision. The tribal customs and traditions were instilled in him at a very young age and taught to him as absolute truths. As he is introduced to the new ideas his comes across during his time being educated by the white men, Waiyaki begins to change. As he takes in these new ideas he begins to question what is right. As his circumcision drew closer, Waiyaki really experienced second thoughts about what circumcision stood for, the abandonment of some sort of control to the tribe. Waiyaki is caught between this internal and external struggle. It is also external because he is such a prominent leader and is being pulled in several directions by his tribe and the oath he made, what he believes to be right, Nyambura because of his love for her, the prophecy, his father/his father’s memory, etc… I think Ngugi is illustrating through Waiyaki a very important message. Throughout the novel, Ngugi doesn’t condemn either culture or their traditions, including circumcision. The one spot that stuck out to me in which Ngugi seemed to display some opinion regarding circumcision was near the end of the book. He wrote, “Circumcision of women was not important as a physical operation. It was what it did inside a person. It could not be stopped overnight. Patience and, above all, education, were needed.” I think, for Ngugi, there isn’t one right answer. I think he would say the important thing to do would be to be like Waiyaki and examine all areas, all ideas, all walks of life, and come to some sort of belief, some sort of compromise within one’s self, to fully believe in. Even though this is sometimes not enough, as we saw at the end of this book, it can only happen if individuals are willing to go against the grain, to stand up for what they believe in, unlike the people who had pledged allegiance to Waiyaki.