Land, Loss, and the Disillusioned Self in Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s Weep Not, Child

Sangamithirai C; Parvathy G

doi:10.36948/ijfmr.2025.v07i03.46841

Land, Loss, and the Disillusioned Self in Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s Weep Not, Child

Author(s)	Ms. Sangamithirai C, Dr. Parvathy G
Country	India
Abstract	This research article a critical reading of Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s Weep Not, Child (1964), and it examines the psychological, socio-political, and cultural significance of British colonialism in Kenya. Through close reading of characters, narrative structure, and symbols, the study elucidates how Ngugi marks out individual trauma while at the same time entering into a wide-ranging discourse on national dispossession, with land being a metaphor for ancestral identity, colonial violence, and loss of self. The shattering of Njoroge's idealism, especially his belief in education as a liberating force, is examined as symbolizing the trampling of hopes under colonial pressure. Through the emphasis on the psychological and emotional topographies of colonial trauma, the study maintains that Weep Not, Child is more than nationalist discourse but instead a profound investigation of the cost of hope in a colonial environment. The article tries to deal with the loss of self through the sequential psychological breakdown of Njoroge, whose early idealism is undermined by the brutal reality of colonial domination. Once full of hopes of liberation through education, Njoroge becomes trapped in a vicious cycle of broken hope as the very institutions- education, religion and family, over which he had set his hopes, disappoints him ultimately. The falling back into silence can be seen as not individual weakness but a systemic failure and disintegration of one’s identity under colonial domination.
Keywords	land dispossession, nation, self.
Published In	Volume 7, Issue 3, May-June 2025
Published On	2025-06-05
DOI	https://doi.org/10.36948/ijfmr.2025.v07i03.46841
Short DOI	https://doi.org/g9pzwk

View / Download PDF File

E-ISSN 2582-2160

doi

CrossRef DOI is assigned to each research paper published in our journal.

IJFMR DOI prefix is
10.36948/ijfmr

Downloads

Research Paper Format Copyright Permission Form and Undertaking Form Cover Page Vol 7 Isu 3 Cover Page Vol 7 Isu 2 Cover Page Vol 7 Isu 1

All research papers published on this website are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, and all rights belong to their respective authors/researchers.

CC-BY-SA

About IJFMR Fees & Payment Current Issue Publication Archive	Submit Research Paper Track Submission Status Publication Guidelines Publication Ethics Peer Review & Plagiarism	Join as a Reviewer Editors & Reviewers Reviewer Referral Program Get Reviewer Membership Certi.	Website/Journal Policies Usage Policy Content Policies Privacy Policy

Contact Us		+91-9687-828-838	editor@ijfmr.com

International Journal For Multidisciplinary Research

A Widely Indexed Open Access Peer Reviewed Multidisciplinary Bi-monthly Scholarly International Journal

Land, Loss, and the Disillusioned Self in Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s Weep Not, Child

Share this