Ngugi dared to dream big in a time of war

In his poem, Homesick in Heaven, Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote, “Where we love is home, home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts.” But Oscar Wilde as usual had the last word, “You cannot go home again.”

In his new book, Dreams in a Time of War: A Childhood Memoir, celebrated Kenyan writer Ngugi wa Thiong’o tries to “go home again.”

It is a nostalgic return to a familiar, albeit changed landscape, as Ngugi reminisces about his childhood.

It has been correctly said that childhood is a welter of impressions, small events, accidents, close shaves, misunderstandings, broken promises, smells, sounds, and feelings — all blending into innocent wonder, curious adventure and amazing discovery.

We all have childhood memories; whether it is laughter of a friend long gone, or the warmth suddenly recalled of a long-forgotten embrace from a parent no longer in the land of the living.

But what was it like growing up in Ngugi’s time?

Apparently, some things are universal in childhood.

And as we read the book, Ngugi reminds us of our own childhood dreams in technicolour — with idealistic aspirations of love, school, careers and living happily ever after.

That is, until the scares of adulthood shatter our youthful innocence and our dreams fall by the wayside as the realities of life bite.

Suddenly, gone are the dream wedding, the Rolls Royce career, the carriage rides and voyages to faraway lands.

Prince Charming turns into a frog and the Fairy Queen never really appears.

We feel cheated. We enter the cruel, cynical world of adults, of shattered dreams and faded hopes.

It is then that we realise with a sigh, that the world is an unjust and lonely place.

Following a trend

Ngugi seems to be following in the footsteps of Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka, who has already written his childhood memoirs, Ake: the Years of Childhood.