Don't cry, oh child

Do not cry, oh child, a novel about a boy named Nguogui who grew up during the Mau Mau rebellion that swept Kenya in the 1950s and early 1960s as a secret movement to resist colonial oppression, and about Nguogui's pursuit of learning and love for Moyihaaki, the daughter of his family’s tormentor. The Mau Mau issue ended and became part of the past, but the novel Do not cry, oh child, was followed regardless of its historical context, then Kenya gained independence and was ruled by many African leaders, but one thing remains eternal: the story of Nguogui’s life. Books change over time in a wonderful way if written with the ink of art, it is an indication of how accomplished Nguogui is as a writer in reconstructing the thoughts, atmospheres, tensions, and the state of the Mau Mau era. It was also written in its own time, carrying the power that makes us feel the fixed facts: the hopes of youth, the impossibility of the world, the way politics affects our intimate lives, the necessity of resistance, and the value of family. And if Nguogui had written no literary work other than Do not cry, oh child, he would have occupied a distinguished place in African literature. He belongs to protest writers. In fact, Jomo Kenyatta, who is the black Moses in the novel, is the one who imprisoned Nguogui in 1977 for a year of solitary confinement.