Freedom and Independence

Throughout the novel, the author uses their main character Yetu as a narrative device by which they explore the innate human desire for freedom and independence. Yetu is a unique protagonist in that as the appointed wajinru historian, she is the only one “allowed to remember” her people’s past (5). Because this past is defined by oppression, pain, and suffering, Yetu feels bogged and entrapped by the wajinru History. The gravity of her ancestors’ experiences, therefore, augments Yetu’s pre-existing longing for autonomy over her body, mind, and identity.

Throughout the early chapters of the novel, Yetu’s entrapment appears strictly begotten of her responsibilities as wajinru historian. However, in Chapter 6, after Yetu has spent considerable time away from her home, people, and History, her reminiscences reveal the ways in which Yetu’s entrapment has preceded her historian role. The narrator explains that when...