Dreams in a Time of War : Ngugi Wa Thiongo

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It's been a while since I read a memoir. There was a time in 2006 and 2007 when my reading list consisted almost entirely of memoirs. I was fascinated with the lives that authors chose to reveal - ordinary lives turned into extraordinary tales of courage and inspiration. Ngugi Wa Thiongo's critically acclaimed Dreams in a Time of War was on my wish list for a while, but the prohibitive price put me off till I obtained a discount coupon from Flipkart that allowed me the luxury of buying a +$10 book.

As I write this I learn that Dreams in a Time of War has also been longlisted for the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction, considered to be one of the UK’s most prestigious literary prizes. As a memoir, I feel that it deserves to be there on that list. Ngugi Wa Thiongo had a difficult childhood - but he had a dream - the pursuit of education. The possession of knowledge even when the world you know is crumbling around you. The desire for learning even when you wonder if you will have enough to eat the next day. And a promise he made to his mother that he would give his best. Always. And that was all his mother asked for.

I would always try my best whatever the hardship, whatever the barrier.

I admired Thiongo as a kid. As an author I admired him even more for the deft voice he lends to the narration. There is no self-pity here - only a remarkable understanding of the circumstances of his childhood and the memories that shape him into an adult. His love for Kenya is all too apparent, and he paints a touching portrayal of a family that has many roots but one abiding bond - that of love. And nowhere is this love more apparent than in the promise made to his mother that Ngugi steadfastly keeps.

Ngugi's scope is vast - he takes through a rapidly transitioning Kenya, yoked under British oppression, a country in turmoil and confusion yet brimming with hope for a future that it knows one day will be. And Ngugi never stops dreaming that education and learning would empower him to achieve more than has ever been imagined in the small Kenyan town of Limuru. Remarkably, for someone who endures what seems to an outsider, a life of turbulence, Ngugi shows us a rich tapestry of African life - he recounts fondly the oral tradition of storytelling, of the large family that he was born into, considering that his father had four wives, the shared communal life, and the joys found in learning. The Mau Mau rebellion, which threatens to turn Kenya into a bloody swamp of chaos also looms large in the memoir. I had a problem here - after around 150 pages, there were too many names introduced that left me confused. And the deep depths into Kenyan history left my mind aching. But this is not about Kenya. Not about the historical twists and turns of a country's eventual journey into independence. No. This is about a child. His journey into adulthood. And above all, that child's willingness to believe in a dream.

And I wish there were more dreams to go around in this beleaguered world of ours that has perchance lost faith in that most human of all illusions.

Verdict : Revealing memoir into an inspiring author's childhood. 


Rating : 3/5