Dreams in a Time of War

A Swahili word that refers to an open place for public meetings. Ngũgĩ uses this word to describe the compulsory meetings that chiefs and headmen imposed on their constituents to listen to government propaganda and issue communal labor parties.

A marital gift from the husband’s family to the wife’s. In traditional Gĩkũyũ society, bridewealth often consisted of the exchange of cattle. Ngũgĩ discusses bridewealth in connection to his parents’ marriage and the difficulty of returning the cattle after their separation, which is why formal divorce is typically avoided in these kinds of marital arrangements.

Control of people or an area by a dominant power. Dreams in a Time of War is a story about the violence of British colonial rule in Kenya.

A militia composed of Africans loyal to the colonial state. The Home Guards terrorized Africans associated with the Mau Mau resistance movement. They also enforced the orders of chiefs and headmen propped up by the colonial government.

A strategy used by the British—particularly in their colonies in Africa and Asia—to govern and control local populations through preexisting power structures. If local leaders did not comply with colonial dictates, then the British would appoint their own chiefs and headmen to carry out their policies. Ngũgĩ writes about the disruptive effects of indirect rule on communities in Kenya.

A Gĩkũyũ term to characterize independent African schools that promoted values of self-reliance and pride in African knowledge processes and institutions. Ngũgĩ’s second school, Manguo, is originally a Karĩng’a school, and he discusses its differences with missionary and government-run schools, also known as Kĩrore schools.

A Gĩkũyũ term to characterize missionary and government-run schools that train Africans to support the goals of the colonial state. Ngũgĩ’s first school, Kamandũra, is a missionary school, and he discusses its differences with Manguo, originally an independent African school, also known as a Karĩng’a school.

A militant political movement in Kenya that emerges in the 1950s to oppose British colonial rule. Ngũgĩ’s details his brother’s participation in the Mau Mau resistance movement and the increasingly repressive tactics of the British to quell the Kenyan struggle for independence.

A Gĩkũyũ term that typically means corn. In the Mau Mau resistance movement, it can also refer to bullets. Ngũgĩ’s older brother, Good Wallace, tells their mother to cover the mbembe, a code message for her to bury the bullets that he threw into her plot of land.

A social system where men hold power and reinforce male supremacy. Ngũgĩ discusses the patriarchy of Gĩkũyũ society through the example of his father although he also notes the relative autonomy of some of his wives, like his mother, who defies his father’s abuse and sets up her own household.

Having more than one spouse at the same time. Ngũgĩ’s father has four wives, a common traditional family arrangement in Kenya and one which which Ngũgĩ views positively as the wives support one another and their children.

A flowering plant grown in Kenya that often is used for medicinal purposes and to make insecticide. Ngũgĩ discusses Lord Kahahu’s pyrethrum plantation where he and his siblings sometimes work for menial wages.