50 years later, we still cannot face our children and whisper, 'Weep Not, Child'

Renowned academic and former political detainee Prof. Ngugi Wa Thiongo with his son Nducu wa Ngugi addressing members of the press at a Nairobi hotel during a breakfast meeting with journalist on 03/06/2015. [PHOTO/FIDELIS KABUNYI/STANDARD]

Weep Not Child was published in 1964, a year before I was born. I have a special relationship to it, not only because my father wrote it but because of the images it conjures every time I hear the title, Weep Not, Child.

When I first read the novel I remember seeing my grandmother, Wanjiku wa Thiong’o, in the opening: