The River Between

by

Ngugi wa Thiong’o

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on The River Between makes teaching easy.

Waiyaki Character Analysis

The protagonist of the story, Waiyaki is a young Gikuyu man from Kameno. Waiyaki’s father, Chege, believes that Waiyaki—a natural-born leader—is the prophesied savior who will rescue the Gikuyu from the white colonialists. Because of this belief, Chege sends Waiyaki to Siriana to study with the white missionaries and learn the white people’s knowledge to use it against them, though he cautions him not to become corrupted by their culture and vices. But after Siriana bans all Gikuyu children with “pagan” parents, Waiyaki and his friends Kinuthia and Kamau build a school in Kameno, determined to bring education to the Gikuyu children. This sparks a widespread education movement, and Waiyaki quickly becomes the most influential leader in the ridges despite being so young. The tribe calls him “Teacher” and thinks of him as their savior—the one who will lead them to victory against the white colonialists. Waiyaki sees that, more than education, the villages need to reconcile their differences. The people of Makuyu and Kameno (Christians and non-Christians, respectively) must unite to fight for their political freedom. However, Waiyaki misses his chance to call for unity because he is afraid of risking his popularity. At the same time, his rival, Kabonyi, tricks Waiyaki into taking an oath of purity to never break tribal custom. When Waiyaki falls in love with Nyambura, the daughter of the anti-tribal Christian preacher named Joshua, Kabonyi accuses Waiyaki of trying to marry an uncircumcised Christian woman and thus betraying the tribe. The tribe demands that Waiyaki renounce his love for Nyambura. When he will not, they take him away for judgment. The education movement in the ridges fail since the people have destroyed their savior, and the Gikuyu people fall prey to the white colonizers.

Waiyaki Quotes in The River Between

The The River Between quotes below are all either spoken by Waiyaki or refer to Waiyaki. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Colonialism Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1 Quotes

The ridges were isolated. The people there led a life of their own, undisturbed by what happened outside or beyond. Men and women had nothing to fear. The [white people] would never come here. They would be lost in the hills and the ridges and the valleys.

Related Characters: Waiyaki
Related Symbols: Makuyu, Kameno
Page Number: 3
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 3 Quotes

[Waiyaki’s] eyes were large and rather liquid; sad and contemplative. But whenever he looked at someone, they seemed to burn bright. A light came from them, a light that appeared to pierce your body, seeing something beyond you, into your heart. Not a man knew what language the eyes spoke. Only, if the boy gazed at you, you had to obey.

Related Characters: Waiyaki, Kabonyi, Joshua
Page Number: 10
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 4 Quotes

The ridges slept on. Kameno and Makuyu were no longer antagonistic They had merged into one area of beautiful land, which is what, perhaps, they were meant to be.

Related Characters: Waiyaki, Chege
Related Symbols: Makuyu, Kameno
Page Number: 16
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 5 Quotes

“Arise. Heed the prophecy. Go to the Mission place. Learn all the wisdom and the secrets of the white man. But do not follow his vices. Be true to your people and the ancient rites.”

Related Characters: Chege (speaker), Waiyaki, Kabonyi
Page Number: 20
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9 Quotes

That night, a feeling that [Waiyaki] was lacking something, that he yearned for something beyond him, came in low waves of sadness that would not let him sleep.

Related Characters: Waiyaki
Page Number: 43
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10 Quotes

The knife produced a thin sharp pain as it cut through the flesh. The surgeon had done his work. Blood trickled freely on to the ground, sinking into the soil. Henceforth a religious bond linked Waiyaki to the earth, as if his blood was an offering.

Related Characters: Waiyaki, Muthoni
Related Symbols: Circumcision
Page Number: 44
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 13 Quotes

“Take Siriana Mission for example, the men of God came peacefully. They were given a place. No see what has happened. They have invited their brothers to come and take all the land. Our country is invaded. This Government Post behind Makuyu is a plague in our midst.”

Related Characters: Kinuthia (speaker), Waiyaki, Kamau
Related Symbols: Makuyu
Page Number: 62
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 14 Quotes

Schools grew up like mushrooms. Often a school was nothing more than a shed hurriedly thatched with grass. And there they stood, symbols of people’s thirst for the white man’s secret magic and power. Few wanted to live the white man’s way, but all wanted this thing, this magic.

Related Characters: Waiyaki, Muthoni
Page Number: 66
Explanation and Analysis:

Circumcision was an important ritual to the tribe. It kept people together, bound the tribe. It was at the core of the social structure, and a something that gave meaning to a man’s life. End the custom and the spiritual basis of the tribe’s cohesion and integration would be no more.

Related Characters: Waiyaki, Reverend Livingstone
Related Symbols: Circumcision
Page Number: 66
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 15 Quotes

Nyambura was not circumcised. But this was not a crime. Something passed between them as two human beings, untainted with religion, social conventions, or any tradition.

Related Characters: Waiyaki, Nyambura
Related Symbols: Circumcision, The Honia River
Page Number: 74
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 19 Quotes

Day by day [Nyambura] became weary of Joshua’s brand of religion. Was she too becoming a rebel? No. She would not do what her sister had done. She knew […] that she had to have a God who would give her a fullness of life, a God who would still her restless soul; so she clung to Christ because He had died on the Tree, love for all the people blazing out from His sad eyes.

Related Characters: Waiyaki, Nyambura, Muthoni, Joshua
Page Number: 99
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 20 Quotes

Many teachers came from all over the ridge to see him, and many elders and children came to him with various problems. But in spite of all this Waiyaki was losing that contact with people that can only come through taking part together in a ritual. He was becoming too obsessed with the schools and the widening rift and divisions.

Related Characters: Waiyaki, Nyambura, Joshua
Related Symbols: Kameno
Page Number: 110
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 22 Quotes

“You must not [marry Nyambura]. Fear the voice of the Kiama. It is the voice of the people. When the breath of that people turns against you, it is the greatest curse you can ever get.”

Related Characters: Waiyaki’s Mother (speaker), Waiyaki, Nyambura
Related Symbols: Circumcision
Page Number: 119-120
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 24 Quotes

No! It could never be a religion of love. Never, never. The religion of love was in the heart. The other was Joshua’s own religion, which ran counter to her spirit and violated love. If the faith of Joshua and Livingstone came to separate, why, it was not good. […] She wanted the other. The other that held together, the other that united.

Related Characters: Waiyaki, Nyambura, Joshua, Reverend Livingstone
Page Number: 131
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 25 Quotes

For Waiyaki knew that not all the ways of the white man were bad. Even his religion was not essentially bad. Some good, some truth, shone through it. But the religion, the faith, needed washing, cleaning away all the dirt, leaving only the eternal. And that eternal was that the truth had to be reconciled to the traditions of the people.

Related Characters: Waiyaki
Page Number: 137
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 26 Quotes

The land was now silent. The two ridges lay side by side, hidden in the darkness. And Honia river went on flowing between them, down through the valley of life, its beat rising above the sark stillness, reaching into the heart of the people of Makuyu and Kameno.

Related Characters: Waiyaki
Related Symbols: Makuyu, Kameno, The Honia River
Page Number: 148
Explanation and Analysis:
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Waiyaki Quotes in The River Between

The The River Between quotes below are all either spoken by Waiyaki or refer to Waiyaki. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Colonialism Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1 Quotes

The ridges were isolated. The people there led a life of their own, undisturbed by what happened outside or beyond. Men and women had nothing to fear. The [white people] would never come here. They would be lost in the hills and the ridges and the valleys.

Related Characters: Waiyaki
Related Symbols: Makuyu, Kameno
Page Number: 3
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 3 Quotes

[Waiyaki’s] eyes were large and rather liquid; sad and contemplative. But whenever he looked at someone, they seemed to burn bright. A light came from them, a light that appeared to pierce your body, seeing something beyond you, into your heart. Not a man knew what language the eyes spoke. Only, if the boy gazed at you, you had to obey.

Related Characters: Waiyaki, Kabonyi, Joshua
Page Number: 10
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 4 Quotes

The ridges slept on. Kameno and Makuyu were no longer antagonistic They had merged into one area of beautiful land, which is what, perhaps, they were meant to be.

Related Characters: Waiyaki, Chege
Related Symbols: Makuyu, Kameno
Page Number: 16
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 5 Quotes

“Arise. Heed the prophecy. Go to the Mission place. Learn all the wisdom and the secrets of the white man. But do not follow his vices. Be true to your people and the ancient rites.”

Related Characters: Chege (speaker), Waiyaki, Kabonyi
Page Number: 20
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9 Quotes

That night, a feeling that [Waiyaki] was lacking something, that he yearned for something beyond him, came in low waves of sadness that would not let him sleep.

Related Characters: Waiyaki
Page Number: 43
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10 Quotes

The knife produced a thin sharp pain as it cut through the flesh. The surgeon had done his work. Blood trickled freely on to the ground, sinking into the soil. Henceforth a religious bond linked Waiyaki to the earth, as if his blood was an offering.

Related Characters: Waiyaki, Muthoni
Related Symbols: Circumcision
Page Number: 44
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 13 Quotes

“Take Siriana Mission for example, the men of God came peacefully. They were given a place. No see what has happened. They have invited their brothers to come and take all the land. Our country is invaded. This Government Post behind Makuyu is a plague in our midst.”

Related Characters: Kinuthia (speaker), Waiyaki, Kamau
Related Symbols: Makuyu
Page Number: 62
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 14 Quotes

Schools grew up like mushrooms. Often a school was nothing more than a shed hurriedly thatched with grass. And there they stood, symbols of people’s thirst for the white man’s secret magic and power. Few wanted to live the white man’s way, but all wanted this thing, this magic.

Related Characters: Waiyaki, Muthoni
Page Number: 66
Explanation and Analysis:

Circumcision was an important ritual to the tribe. It kept people together, bound the tribe. It was at the core of the social structure, and a something that gave meaning to a man’s life. End the custom and the spiritual basis of the tribe’s cohesion and integration would be no more.

Related Characters: Waiyaki, Reverend Livingstone
Related Symbols: Circumcision
Page Number: 66
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 15 Quotes

Nyambura was not circumcised. But this was not a crime. Something passed between them as two human beings, untainted with religion, social conventions, or any tradition.

Related Characters: Waiyaki, Nyambura
Related Symbols: Circumcision, The Honia River
Page Number: 74
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 19 Quotes

Day by day [Nyambura] became weary of Joshua’s brand of religion. Was she too becoming a rebel? No. She would not do what her sister had done. She knew […] that she had to have a God who would give her a fullness of life, a God who would still her restless soul; so she clung to Christ because He had died on the Tree, love for all the people blazing out from His sad eyes.

Related Characters: Waiyaki, Nyambura, Muthoni, Joshua
Page Number: 99
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 20 Quotes

Many teachers came from all over the ridge to see him, and many elders and children came to him with various problems. But in spite of all this Waiyaki was losing that contact with people that can only come through taking part together in a ritual. He was becoming too obsessed with the schools and the widening rift and divisions.

Related Characters: Waiyaki, Nyambura, Joshua
Related Symbols: Kameno
Page Number: 110
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 22 Quotes

“You must not [marry Nyambura]. Fear the voice of the Kiama. It is the voice of the people. When the breath of that people turns against you, it is the greatest curse you can ever get.”

Related Characters: Waiyaki’s Mother (speaker), Waiyaki, Nyambura
Related Symbols: Circumcision
Page Number: 119-120
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 24 Quotes

No! It could never be a religion of love. Never, never. The religion of love was in the heart. The other was Joshua’s own religion, which ran counter to her spirit and violated love. If the faith of Joshua and Livingstone came to separate, why, it was not good. […] She wanted the other. The other that held together, the other that united.

Related Characters: Waiyaki, Nyambura, Joshua, Reverend Livingstone
Page Number: 131
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 25 Quotes

For Waiyaki knew that not all the ways of the white man were bad. Even his religion was not essentially bad. Some good, some truth, shone through it. But the religion, the faith, needed washing, cleaning away all the dirt, leaving only the eternal. And that eternal was that the truth had to be reconciled to the traditions of the people.

Related Characters: Waiyaki
Page Number: 137
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 26 Quotes

The land was now silent. The two ridges lay side by side, hidden in the darkness. And Honia river went on flowing between them, down through the valley of life, its beat rising above the sark stillness, reaching into the heart of the people of Makuyu and Kameno.

Related Characters: Waiyaki
Related Symbols: Makuyu, Kameno, The Honia River
Page Number: 148
Explanation and Analysis: