Brent has a Ph.D. in American culture, specializing in film studies, from the University of Michigan. She is a freelance writer and teaches courses in the history of American cinema. In the following essay, Brent discusses the themes of family and betrayal in Ngugi's story.

In Ngugi's story, the themes of family loyalty and betrayal function as antitheses, or competing sets of values between which Njoroge, the main character, is caught. Njoroge works as the "houseboy" of Mrs. Hill, a white European colonial plantation owner. Njoroge is involved in an organized rebellion that involves the murder of individual white plantation owners by the Africans whose land they have stolen, and who have been forced to work for them. The historical significance of this setting is that the white European colonial settlers had first forced the Kikuyu (or Gekoyo) people of Africa off of their own land...