comment on language / style

Although many of Ngugi's later books were written in Kikuyu and then translated into English, Weep Not, Child was originally written in English. There is, nonetheless, a sense of the African voice in the rhythms of the work, through the use of oral storytelling, proverbs, and the spiritual connection to ancestral lands and deities. These, almost supernatural, connections and the language in which they are described are somewhat foreign to a Western audience, whose comprehension of spirituality may be limited, primarily, to that found within a church. It is apparent that Mr. Howlands, who lives within an African community, has little understanding of the attachment.