38 pages • 1 hour read
A Grain of Wheat
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Chapters 6-8Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 6 Summary
Gikonyo was one of the first detainees released. When he returned to the village, he immediately began work as a carpenter, and then as a merchant, buying maize and beans at low prices and saving them until they were in demand. Although his wife and mother had been living in poverty, Gikonyo did not support them while he reestablished himself. Eventually, he prospered and eased the lives of his mother Wangari and Mumbi.
Now Gikonyo and a group of five other men have gathered to buy a small farm belonging to a white man leaving Kenya after the transfer to home rule. Gikonyo travels to Nairobi to visit an MP about the land purchase. The flags and general atmosphere of celebration in Nairobi excite him. However, the official does not help him, and tells him that he will contact Gikonyo with any news. When Gikonyo voices his discouragement, the official reassures him that “The loans are there. It is just a question of knowing the ways” (63).
The people of Thabai praise Mugo. Although he behaves strangely, this too is seen as something positive—Mugo is different from the others, a survivor of detention centers, and certainly a hero. Mugo is unaware of his new status and still puzzled by the late night visit to his hut. He has made only one speech in his life, at a rally for Kenyatta. As a former detainee, he was pushed forward to speak about his imprisonment, and became disgusted with himself for talking about home. What was home to Mugo? He had no parents, no wife, and no children.
Remembering the meeting in his hut, Mugo wonders why General R. had mentioned Kihika’s betrayal and his arrangement to meet someone a week after his arrest. He thinks about how he was the one who betrayed Kihika, asking, “Yes, could they really have asked him to carve his place in society by singing tributes to the man he had so treacherously betrayed?” (66).
That night Gikonyo visits Mugo to talk to him about Gikonyo’s troubles. He and Mugo spent time at the same detention center, although their experiences were very different. Thompson had often beaten Mugo, while Gikonyo was never beaten. Gikonyo confesses that he was a coward next to Mugo—he both admired and hated Mugo for withstanding the torture and never making a confession.
Now, Gikonyo says that although he has everything he could want—a family, wealth, a respected position in society—he is still missing something. He tells Mugo that he once loved Mumbi, but the Mumbi he loved was the one he left behind when he went to the detention center.
Chapter 7 Summary
Gikonyo explains the significance of the train at the Rung’ ei station. The Kikuyo first feared the train as an “iron snake” (71), but later embraced the train station as a general meeting point. When the train arrived on Sunday nights, all the young people would meet at the station and go into Kinenie Forest to play music and dance.
When Gikonyo was a boy, his mother Wangari, had been beaten by her husband and forced from his home. Together, Wangari and Gikonyo resettled in Thabai, where Gikonyo discovered a love of carpentry. Gikonyo worked hard, fueled by the ambition to provide his mother with a home and by his desire to impress Mumbi, the beautiful sister of Kihika and Kariuki. Gikonyo would often visit with Mumbi’s family, but grow shy around her. In contrast, Karanja was boisterous and loud and had Mumbi’s attention.
One day Mumbi came to visit Gikonyo in his carpentry shop, and he sang her a song. She gave him a panga that needed a new wooden handle. Gikonyo worked on the new replacement for her over the next few days and brought it to her on a Sunday. That day, he listened to Kihika and Karanja talk about politics and religion. Kihika had been a friend of the Reverend Jackson Kigondu, who preached to him about the Christian faith and was one of the first Christians to be killed as a traitor by the Mau. Kihika himself left his religious school over a disagreement about female circumcision, which Kihika supported. When Kihika discovered the Movement, he found a new religion.
That night in the forest, while Kihika talked about the need for unity, Gikonyo listened, amazed. When they realized it was late and they would miss the arrival of the train, the young people all started running. Karanja, Mumbi, and Gikonyo brought up the rear. Gikonyo felt embarrassed that Karanja was such a fast runner, but Mumbi purposefully held him back. Gikonyo and Mumbi walked off into the woods together and made love, cementing their relationship.
At the station, Karanja was horrified to realize he had arrived alone, and that Gikonyo and Mumbi were alone in the forest. On the station platform, Karanja had a strange vision of the train entering his flesh and felt weak. He promised himself that the next time he was with Mumbi he would confess his feelings for her, before it was too late.
In the Kinenie Forest, Kihika danced with Wambuki and promised her that he would not leave her alone.
Mumbi was happy as Gikonyo’s wife, and Wangari was happy with her daughter-in-law. The British imprisoned Jomo Kenyatta and other Movement leaders and declared a state of emergency. One day, Mumbi saw her brother Kariuki approaching with bad news: Kihika had run off to the forest to join the rebellion. Wambuki promised to join Kihika. Mumbi felt like a coward for not wanting Gikonyo to join the fighters. Though he did not join the Mau Mau fighters, British soldiers arrested him anyway.
Gikonyo’s time in prison was first filled with hope, because Jomo Kenyatta was expected to win his case and be released. When this did not happen, the prisoners became depressed and felt abandoned. Nevertheless, the men were determined not to confess anything about the oath they had taken as part of the Movement. They made plans for what they would do upon release. While imprisoned, Gikonyo missed Mumbi horribly and could only daydream about his return. He confided in a fellow prisoner named Gatu, who later hanged himself in the cell. Gikonyo, losing hope, found himself consumed by the thought of being with Mumbi again and voluntarily confessed to having taken the Movement oath.
Six years later, when Gikonyo was released from detention, he made his way back to Thabai with one thought: to see Mumbi. Yet when Mumbi greeted him, she had a young child strapped to her back. Gikonyo understood instantly that this son was not his, but was horrified to learn that Karanja was the father. Although Mumbi wept and tried to speak to him, Gikonyo claimed he would rather sleep. He heard the child cry and wished it were gone. As a condition of his release, he was required to report to the Chief in the village. Gikonyo was shocked to see that Karanja was now the Chief, having gone to work for the white man. Karanja pretended not to know Gikonyo, and it became clear that he was the father of Mumbi’s son. Filled with rage and hatred for Mumbi, imagining her in the arms of Karanja, Gikonyo returned home, intending to harm Mumbi, but the door was locked. When he had forced his way inside, he fell to the floor.
Chapter 8 Summary
Gikonyo finishes telling his story to Mugo, ending with the revelation that in the years since he has returned to Thabai, he has not slept with his wife. Instead, he has thrown himself into his work, becoming wealthy and successful. Gikonyo leaves. Mugo wants to call him to come back, so Mugo can unburden himself in turn, but refrains.
To clear his head, Mugo goes in search of a cup of tea. On the way, he remembers one of his happiest days working the land, which happened during the Emergency, before the restrictions affected him and one week before Kihika sought refuge in Mugo’s hut after killing DO Robson.
In the teashop, Mugo encounters Githua, who praises him as a hero and calls him Chief. General R. tells Mugo he will visit him in the morning. Mugo decides to be honored at the Uhuru celebration; the past, after all, is just the past.
Chapters 6-8 Analysis
Gikonyo, unable to talk to his wife since discovering her infidelity to him, unburdens himself to Mugo. Ironically, Mugo, who desires nothing but to be alone and left to his own thoughts, has become a sounding board for the problems of his fellow villagers.
The story of Gikonyo and Mumbi stands in contrast to the relationship between John and Margery Thompson. Margery Thompson’s adultery is callous and meaningless; when her lover dies, she feels only regret at having to return to a state of boredom. Mumbi’s adultery is far more complicated—although she regrets her one-time slip, she loves the son produced by her brief relationship with Karanja; nevertheless, she deeply misses her former relationship with Gikonyo. John Thompson seems either unaware of or indifferent to his wife’s adultery, while Gikonyo cannot forgive Mumbi’s unfaithfulness.
The theme of what makes success, and the ways public and private actions shape the way a person perceives himself is developed through Gikonyo and Mugo. Gikonyo maintained a steadfast devotion to the Movement, but chose not to join the Mau Mau fighters. In detention, he was so driven by the need to return to Mumbi that he confessed to taking the Movement oath, hoping that capitulation would mean freedom. Despite using the seven intervening years to become an outward success story in Thabai—the kind of man Kenya needs in its independence—he is internally haunted by feelings of cowardice and failure. He never beaten in detention, missing the chance to prove his toughness; now, his marriage to Mumbi is sexually dysfunctional because of her affair. Similarly, Mugo who castigates himself for betraying Kihika, is outwardly hailed as a hero for never buckling under savage beatings in detention and emerging a changed man, with odd behavior that marks him as a survivor.
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