Matigari Reading Journal

to cross reference with Notion and Paul's site

I.

  1. He is not a warrior anymore; he is turning towards peace → he’s matured, much like circumcision and boyhood turning to manhood.
  2. He almost reached home but decided not to return until he had found his people — his family — by his side.
  3. The new regime had outlawed gatherings, unions, and opposition parties.
  4. The people — spectators — now drove their own cars but did not really own them. He decides to find his people in the factory.
  5. He sees children (his children) paying to go through rubbish, and goes after them.
  6. He talks to a boy and goes to take the children home; they stone him in front of the workers and spectators.
  7. A worker, Ngaruro, and the boy, Muriuki, take Matigari to a restaurant as he tells them about his fight against the settler whose house he had built — a fight that lasted many years.
  8. They have dinner but Matigari eats only water. Women are the cornerstone of family but work at the bar.
  9. A prostitute, Guthera, tries to take Matigari; he refuses, then saves her from the police who harass her for not submitting to one of them.
  10. Guthera tells him how she was asked to trade her virginity for her father’s life by a policeman. She tells him to go to the plantations.
  11. The plantations are empty, foreign-owned. They decide to go home to sleep.
  12. The real thieves pun!! → Matigari meets John Boy and Settler Williams’ sons, who are exactly alike. They whip him. The white man is “superior” through individualism. Matigari offers to share the house with John Boy’s Europe-educated son, but he sends the police, who carry him away.
  13. The prisoners share Matigari’s food in prison, complaining about being detained for nonsense reasons. Only one day after (1). Matigari is called the seeker of truth and justice.
“The forest in the heart is never cleared of all the wood. One carefully selects what to cut and what to leave.”

II.

  1. The kids gather around the radio — news about repression (Marx banned, students arrested demonstrating against apartheid).
  2. Dull day.
  3. People see Matigari but don’t remark him; they keep wondering about rumours as he asks about truth and justice.
  4. Same thing — factory, song of war.
  5. Same thing — restaurant (factory).
  6. Same thing — Guthera.
  7. Same thing — farmlands.
  8. Same thing — religious think it’s the second coming (courts).
  9. News bulletin.
  10. The truth seeker doesn’t lose hope.
  11. “What was to be righted first? The condition which led people to sin, or the souls of the people who sinned?”
  12. An old woman collecting trash says truth and justice are in people’s actions — to look for those who study or teach, because books are today’s stars.
  13. Rain or sun are better than lukewarm.
  14. A student from I.13 is terrified by crackdowns, police beatings, arrests. He wants a bank job or U.S. scholarship → two types of students: those who love the truth and those who sell it.
  15. The teacher is terrified and wants to move countries (those who accept vs those who want to change).
  16. The priest skirts questions — Jesus has the truth of the afterlife; “Render unto Caesar…” Guthera sleeps with policemen and gives keys to the boy for escape.
  17. A parrot for the Party — KKK... Minister of Truth and Justice presents to the people as prisoners and Ngaruro are rounded up. They speak up; Matigari compares the people to hares who listen but do not speak, or “go into the leopard’s house,” from which none return. “Victory belongs to the people.” Everyone sings; Matigari and Ngaruro are sent to the mental ward.
  18. Matigari and Ngaruro talk about revolution in prison.
  19. Who was Matigari? Return after forty days?

III.

  1. Matigari gives up the belt of peace (one day later).
  2. They escape from the mental ward.
  3. Radio: western countries fund the country’s military and police.
  4. Hypocrite priest hears of the escape.
  5. Looking for the woman and the boy.

Radio announcements:

  1. Send any madman-looking people to the police station (unkempt, wearing rags).
  2. Long beards... like Jesus! or Marx.
  3. Shoot madmen on sight.
  4. Report no bus fare (madmen).
  5. Don’t arrest white men; they don’t go mad — you racists.
  6. Ngaruro is shot down.
  7. It’s revealed one of them is Matigari.
  1. Matigari, Guthera, and Muriuki decide to take up arms: truth and justice are won by true words armed by force.
  2. They speak of how humans, unlike animals, plan ahead and only starve if it is some human’s intention. They decide to steal a lover’s Mercedes to reach the tree with the guns.
  3. They drive through businesses and crowded homes, reaching people’s houses — one lover is the minister’s Christian wife. Rumours spreading.
  4. Children’s village — everyone but Matigari goes back to the house. God is the people.
  5. The whole nation waits.
  6. Matigari meets an informant at a petrol station.
  7. The police chase them into the house; the car explodes inside, the house catches fire, arson and liberation songs.
  8. Matigari escapes through the window; he, Guthera, and Muriuki head for the tree but the police and dogs come — big rain. Guthera and Matigari disappear down the river.
  9. Muriuki reaches the tree and arms himself. Victory shall be ours.