NOT CRUSHED
While I was wrapping up on my Masters in Paris and looking for a PhD, he was one of the professors I contacted. He was Distinguished Professor in Comparative Literature in University of California. He was happy to hear from me, and was willing to guide me through, but my focus had shifted to other endeavors and I couldn't maintain the contact. I read his WEEP NOT CHILD when I was in junior high school.
Many years on, while heading down to Nairobi through the Kiambu County of Kenya, the team lead indicated to me Kamirithu, Ngugi wa Thiongo's hometown. I asked if I could take a photo in/near his house. It was pretty late so that was not possible. But I was taken to Ngugi's theater school which has now been converted to Kamirithu Polytechnic. I signed the visitors' book on a page adjacent to one signed by Ngugi himself when he visited the school recently.
The school doesn't have a single monument in his honour, apparently because of some political undertones. Sources close to the school indicated to us that a monument is now being considered for him. His theater school was tagged to be raising voices of dissent and so the powers that be wanted to obliterate him and any memories of him. But today, Ngugi is doing bigger things elsewhere and for those of us who read his works, his memories will forever remain in our hearts.
We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed. 2 Corinthians 4:8-9
If we're going to make any lasting impacts on earth, let's also admit that we're going to have to come up against many forces pressing us down; physical and spiritual forces. We must wake up very early enough to realize that Christianity is not a walk in the park. We may not be OF this world, but until Christ returns, we're IN this world. What that means is that we're going to be pressed, crushed and even perplexed. We'd be hungry, we'd lack money, we'll be ejected from our apartments, our kids will be sacked from school for fees. We'd suffer everything the everyday man goes through here.
But one thing is sure; we'd not be forsaken by the one who called us. We'd not be destroyed by the vagaries. The grace of God will ensure this.
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