A Grain of Wheat Quotes

“A clear drop of water was delicately suspended above him.”

“We are not yet beaten,Africa can't, can't manage without Europe Page 101.”

“He felt low. He had been like that for two days now. He could not understand it.”

“Something gave way in my heart, something in me cracked when I saw our home fall.”

“Wikipedia: A Grain of Wheat”

“How was it that Mumbi's story had cracked open his dulled inside and released imprisoned thoughts and feelings?”

“Life had no colour. It was one endless blank sheet, so flat. There were no valleys, streams, no trees–nothing.”

“About Jesus, they could not at first understand, for how could it be that God would let himself be nailed to a tree?””

“Mugo's throat was choked; if he spoke, he would cry. He shook his head and stared straight ahead." **Chapter 3, **page 23”

“Gikonyo greedily sucked sour pleasure from this reflection which he saw as a terrible revelation. To live and die alone is the ultimate truth.”

“As long as he did not know the truth, he could interpret the story in the only way that gave him hope: the coming of black rule would not mean, could never mean the end of white power.”

“But whom do we see in the motor cars and changing them daily as if motor cars were clothes, it was not those who took part in the Movement...some even outright traitors and collaborators.”

“I die for you, you die for me, we become a sacrifice for one another. So I can say that you, Karanja, are Christ. I am Christ. Everybody who takes the Oath of Unity to change things in Kenya is Christ.”

“He wanted to shout: that is not it at all; I did not want to come back; I did not long to join my mother, or wife or child because I did not have any, Tell me at point, whom might I be able to have cherished.”

“Then nobody noticed it; but looking back we can see that Waiyaki’s blood contained within it a seed, a grain, which gave birth to a movement whose main strength thereafter sprang from a bond with the soil.””

“The African only came there to sweep the streets, drive the buses, shop and then go home to the outskirts before nightfall. Gikonyo had a vision of African businessmen like himself taking over all those premises!"”

“The world had conspired against him, first to deprive him of his father and mother and then, to make him dependent on an ageing harridan. The more feeble she became, the more she hated him. So, Mugo was haunted by his own inadequency.”

“They looked beyond the laughing face of the whiteman and suddenly saw a long line of other red strangers who carried not the Bible, but the sword. The iron snake... was quickly wriggling towards Nairobi for a thorough exploitation of the hinterland.”

“It changed names, leaders came and went, but the Movement remained, opening new visions, gathering greater and greater strength, till on the eve of Uhuru, its influence stretched from one horizon touching the sea to the other resting on the great Lake.””

“Many of us talked like that because we wanted to deceive ourselves. It lessens your shame. We talked of loyalty to the Movement and the love of our country. You know a time came when I did not care about Uhuru for the country anymore. I just wanted to come home.””