Reviews - El río que nos separa

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152 reviews for:

El río que nos separa

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o

3.66 AVERAGE

msgtdameron's review against another edition

4.0

emotional reflective tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

This work looks at colonialism through the eyes of the colonized. What does the white man bring? in this work just strife, anger, taxes, and theft. How do the indigenous people deal with what the white man brings? do they fight violently against the whites or do they take what the whites have and then integrate this knowledge into their own lives and traditions. It's this last question that runs most of the plot. The symbol of this last question run around female circumcision. To the local tribes in the Kikuyu area of modern Kenya female circumcision is the norm. It is how a girl becomes a women, how she moves into the tribe as marriageable, and how she then becomes one who can act with the other women of the tribe in the religious ceremonies. No female circumcision no part in tribal life and cut off from the tribal life how does one exist? Who are your friends and family? where in the universe do you belong? As a white man this work also shows how much damage we all have done to indigenous populations not only in Africa, Asia, Australia, and ALL the Americas. Side note: one can also include Gaza today as Zionism goal is to destroy Palestinians as the indigenous peoples of Palestine.. The whole work is the conflict of the indigenous peoples to take the best of what the white man gives and integrate that into the local traditions. Some, stay in the past. Some, join the white man, his church, planing, agriculture, and acceptance of the second class citizenship that this Sambo and Quimbo positions include. Some try to bring the mix and mostly loose to either or both sides in the inevitable fight that ensues. This question is what this work is about.