BOYI PDF ANALYSIS – Gloria Mwaniga

A Silent Song and Other Stories

Characters in Boyi

• Boyi
• Baba
• Mama
• Chesober - Baba's friend
• Matwa Kei – military gang leader
• Saulo
• Kimutai
• Koros – neighbour
• Chesaina - Baba's friend
• Simoni
• Narrator - Boyi's sister

 

Focus

• Devastating effects of war
• Conflicts ruin families/communities

 

Boyi Summary

War ruins families and communities. In Boyi, Gloria Mwaniga recounts the horrifying experiences meted upon families in Mt. Elgon alluding to the insurgency carried out by a self-styled militia, the Sabaot Land Defense Forces (SLDF) between 2006 and 2008. The leaders of the ragtag group claimed they were out to correct injustices committed during a land distribution exercise in the region.

The villagers erroneously think the militia’s mission is to protect their ancestral land from being given to “lazy strangers” but they are shocked when their own kinsmen go on an indiscriminate spree of rape, murder, torture, abduction, theft, destruction of property and physical punishment of perceived enemies or traitors. The saviour turns out to be a veiled savage enemy that leaves devastation in his wake. 

What starts as a simple mission to protect community land deteriorates into a bloody massacre …  and “war is a maggot that nibbles and nibbles at the hearts of men.” (pg. 95)

The narrator recounts the anguish they experience as a family after her brother is forcefully recruited into the militia when he is only 15 years old.

The militiamen raid their home to demand 40,000 land protection tax which the father could not raise. Matwa Kei, the leader of the illegal outfit demands 10,000 land protection tax and 30,000 betrayal tax since Baba lent a panga  and makonge ropes to the government surveyors. In his desperation to save his family, he brings out everything of value that he owns including his savings, his precious Sony transistor radio and his hunting gun.  He promises to sell his bull Mtambakaki and give Matwa Kei the cash. Matwa Kei declines. That is when he’s forced to hand over Boyi to the ruffian, as collateral, till he can raise the money.

Boyi’s mother is stunned, when his son is dragged away into the darkness. She tears her headscarf and starts to shout, enraged with madness. Baba is adamant that he had to surrender the boy to spare the rest of the family the wrath of the barbarian gang who are now infamous for chopping off people’s heads, carrying off the heads like trophies and hanging them on trees, eating them like Iddi Amin, and torturing them by chopping off their ears and feeding them worm-filled earth. 

Boyi and his sister (the narrator) must have been devastated by Matwa Kei and his army's callousness since they had laughed off the idea of being attacked by their own kin. After all the militia was formed to protect them against the strangers who had been given their land, or so they thought. 

Baba regrettably sums up the hopelessness they felt the day Boyi was yanked from their care when he says sadly: “Our very boys, who ate oaths to protect our ancestral land have turned to us like the angry chameleon that eats its intestines” (pg 92)

Boyi’s mother spends her subsequent mornings sitting in the kitchen alone, numbed by the devastation. She does not answer greetings. She would shriek at the narrator, “Stupid girl, you want to finish tea and your brother will come from the caves hungry. Leave him some.” She sits gazing at the walls and declares that she had seen a vision of her son returning from the caves. Her monologues alternated with torturous silence in the room. The narrator feels her mother is running mad.

The neighbours stream in to console the family following the anguish of losing a son to the ruthless ruffian army. Soon after, the stream of visitors dies down.

The government later sends the army to quell the vicious onslaught of the militia. About 200 soldiers descend mightily upon the region.

Boyi’s mother stops eating and starts muttering to herself, sadly wondering why she has to suffer like this. This goes on for weeks. She refuses to participate in escorting Boyi’s spirit away when Baba and his cousin, Kimutai, bury a banana stem a - custom performed to wade away the spirits of death.

The narrator hopes her brother is more powerful than the soldiers so that he is not killed. She is encouraged by the stories of how the militia drank magic portions from Orkoiyot (spiritual ruler) that made their bodies like stone and how their bodies were made invisible when they were embalmed in bloody cow dung. She also heard that earth God Yeyiin protected them.

The war prevented people from working on their farms. The militia stole young crops and animals like goats. Women did not work. They sat in groups and recounted how the militia killed people and dumped them in rivers, pit latrines and wells. They went door to door recruiting boys as young as ten and forcing them to kill close family members in order for them to be strong.

The war leads to the displacement of many fearful villagers who flee their homes in Kopsiro, Saromet, Chepyuk and Chelebei to Bungoma, Chwele and the neighbouring country Uganda.

The militia whose mission was to protect community land turns completely rogue and abducts young girls to go and cook for them. River Cheptub-burbur floats with human heads. The men rape their own blood relatives and they give birth to “pale babies.”

The war also interrupts schooling in the region. The narrator is haunted by thoughts of being raped or killed by her own brother (p 95). Boyi’s mother is an obedient woman who always sides with her husband but now she says she could never run away and leave her son behind.

In January, a neighbor brings disturbing news that Boyi is now Matwa Kei’s right hand man and is thus a marked man. The war has turned an innocent pious boy who recited his psalms earnestly to a cold blooded savage. His parents shed painful tears when they fathom this. The narrator misses her brother so much. She remembers his boyish laughter and their childhood games and mischief. She sympathises with him when she imagines his harrowing experience in the cold caves. She fantasizes about his return and hopes to fascinate him with tales about the army soldiers. 

That night mother and daughter experience different emotions when lightning strikes the Nandi flame tree in their compound. The girl senses something was wrong whereas the mother declares that the evil that had struck their home had been stricken down by the lightning.

The following morning news reaches the family that their son and brother Boyi had been brutally killed alongside other leaders of the militia. Simoni, a neighbour, brings a copy of the Nation newspaper that bears the grim news. The headline forlornly screams Ragtag Militia Leaders Killed by Army Forces.

"Boyi was hoisted to the aircraft and then after it had ascended up, up like a kite, he was shoved out by Sah-gent 'without a parachute, imagine'" (p97) 

Baba crumples on the floor like an old coat. Mama laughs in despair. The narrator is too devastated to weep. The mother is too stunned to mourn or roll on the ground. She only stares at her husband, with lunacy filled eyes. The situation is sombre. 

The devastation caused by the meaningless war culminates into mourning for the family when they lose their innocent son. The narrator's deluge of tears soak her blue silk blouse and purple boob top as she sits on Boyi's bed with her grieving mother. The father dumps his Sony transistor radio and the Nation newspaper in a pit latrine. 

As the country celebrates the killing of murderous militia brutes, the family mourns the loss of a loved one – a cheerful boy who spoke good English and played with his sister, who fondly refers to him as Boyi.

Next: Cheque Mate analysis 

Read A Silent Song and Other Stories Essays and Answers PDF here

DECEMBER ANALYSIS PDF (Filemon Liyambo)

DECEMBER ANALYSIS PDF (Filemon Liyambo)

A Silent song and other stories

Characters in December by Filemon Liyambo

• September
• Ezekiel – September’s Grandfather (a.k.a Tateluku)
• Josef – Ezekiel’s brother
• December – September’s sister
• Tshuuveni – September’s childhood friend
• Silas Shikongo – September’s father

 

Key events in December by Filemon Liyambo

• KFC
• The hoeing mishap
• Traditions (Ezekiel’s hiding something)
• Silas' naming convention
• At the hospital
• Past visits to the hospital
• Rude nurse
• Catching up with Tshuuveni
• Meeting December
• Family members affected by December's illness
• Ezekiel buried with his secret

 

Key issue 

• Mentall-ill patients need love and care in order to cope

When Ezekiel dies, he takes his secret to the grave. He had meant to let the cat out of the bag to his grandson September before he first left for the UK but he did not. He wanted to explain why he forbids December from eating chicken. December’s story is shrouded in mystery. She abruptly and mysteriously goes from an exceptionally good student to a psychiatric patient. 

Ezekiel insists that she was bewitched.

December is a story about the relationship between mentally ill patients and their family members and the impact of traditions and myths on the condition. 

December Summary

December by Filemon Liyambo opens with September visiting his sister at the psychiatric ward. December suffers from a mental illness which seems to run in the family. Her younger grandfather Josef and her late father Silas Shikongo also exhibit characteristics of mental illness.

When his younger brother Josef started losing track of time in his teenage years, Ezekiel called it idiotism. September remembers his grandfather when the rude attendants at KFC sneers at him. The old man does the same thing anytime he notices what he calls “traces of idiotism” in his grandson September.

September is at KFC to buy some chips for his sister. December is two years older than September. When he was four years old, December accidentally grazed him on the side of the head while weeding tomato plants. She ripped her T-shirt to stem the bleeding. When he returned from hospital she helped to nurse him.

December does not eat chicken. Her grandfather forbids it but never discloses the reason to September. September is wise enough not to question traditions.

Can you dispute customs without being disrespectful? 

You may be wondering about the odd names. Well, blame Silas Shikongo. He is September and December’s late father. He named his last four children after the month in which they were conceived. His friends thought he was a fool. His father Ezekiel was afraid his idiotism would affect his grandchildren. Silas had an erratic conception of time.

The same attribute is manifested in Josef, who lost track of time is his teens and December, whose life is on pause.  

Was Silas also suffering from mental illness?

September visits the mental health facility to see his sister. Trouble started when she started having problems with classmates, fighting, hurling insults at them and even walking naked talking to herself. September was puzzled that she suddenly fell ill, almost inexplicably.

Apart from December, Ezekiel’s younger brother Josef also suffers from a mental illness. He started developing challenges tracking time in his teens. His brother Ezekiel thought he was  teasing and thought the “idiotism” would pass but it worsened. He went missing for a month. 

December on the other hand fell ill shortly before completing her secondary school education. Ezekiel was heartbroken that the affliction befell his favorite granddaughter just before she achieved her dream – enrollment at the teachers training college. The old man was convinced that other forces were at work.

December is now confined in a mental health facility with windows reinforced with metal bars.  The other restriction is dietary - her grandfather forbids her from eating chicken. 

September has visited her several times before. The hospital surroundings are familiar to him. He has been abroad for two and a half years studying in the UK. Now he is back and he notices some changes at the hospital, for instance, the new glass doors and reinforcements on the windows. 

On previous visits, he brought mutton or beef, never chicken; she always said she was fine but kept complaining that she was tired. 

September wonders whether she was tired of the hospital or of her health condition. She is trapped in both.

The service at the hospital is terrible just like the one at KFC. The nurse who speaks to September is impudent. She asserts that it is past visiting hours but September is adamant that he must see his sister. Luckily for him, when the rude nurse calls security to throw him out, the head of security Tshuuveni is his old friend. 

Tshuuveni used to pursue December when she was younger. The two friends catch up and September is allowed to see his sister. He has 20 minutes

December is in a sorry state when he finally sets his eyes on her. Her hair is scattered, she is gaunt – thin and her lips are swollen. 

The last time she appeared this thin was when her ignorant, conservative grandfather had taken her to a healer in his desperate attempt to save his favorite granddaughter from the clutches of the mysterious affliction. The clueless healer left her looking skeletal while attempting to starve out the voices in her head. 

It is important to question potentially harmful traditions or beliefs. A better insight about mental illnesses will lead to the kind of questions that will result in change. 

September gives his sister a T-shirt – a replica of the one she tore during the weeding mishap, a jersey, a book with puzzles and the chips he bought at KFC. 

December's illness had broken their mother’s heart. She aged faster.

September was angry that his sister's life was on pause as life moved on. When she remarks that Tateluku (grandfather) had not visited for a while, September suddenly holds back the urge to inform her that he was dead. That is the reason he was back from the UK.

Ezekiel had a dream that Josef was at a pond, where leopards drank. He was found there, eating. He was then taken to a healer by the elders. Ezekiel was asked what his brother was eating in his dream. 

Was it chicken? Is this why the old man forbade December from eating chicken? 

Ezekiel was interred while firmly holding on to these secrets.

Mentally ill patients suffer stigma and neglect as a result of ignorance. 

Our relationship with mentally ill patients should be based on love and care. 

This is how September shows his sister December love:

• endures rude treatment at KFC to buy his sister her favourite meal
• visits December several times 
• insists on seeing December at the hospital 
• cries for December when travelling abroad, needs reassurance from grandfather 
• shares a loving bond with the sister 
• brings December gifts 
• conceals the news of their grandfather’s death from December 
• he shows sympathy for her 
• embraces her tightly before he leaves 

Next: Boyi analysis 

Read A Silent Song and Other Stories Essays and Answers PDF here

THE TRULY MARRIED WOMAN ANALYSIS PDF

A Silent Song and Other Stories

 

Characters in The Truly Married Woman

• Ajayi
• Ayo - Ajayi's wife
• Omo -Ayo's neighbour
• Oju - Ajayi's son
• Bimbola – local nurse
• Chief clerk
• Jonathan Olsen – white missionary

 

Key events in The Truly Married Woman

• Daily routine
• The priest
• Beating Oju
• Meeting the missionaries
• Decision to wed
• The problems (Ajayi's sister, Omo's jealousy)
• Negotiations
• The wedding
• Truly married woman

 

The Truly Married Woman Summary

Ajayi and Ayo have lived together for 12 years but they are not married. They have three children and another on the way. Ayo’s mother remarks that Ayo is enthusiastic when it comes to true work of a woman – having children.

Ajayi and Ayo are used to each other and to daily routines and patterns of life. Ajayi is comfortable with this lifestyle. He has always meant to marry Ayo ever since they had their first child but he keeps postponing it. 

The cost of the ceremony also seems to scare him a bit.

Every morning Ayo wakes up at 5 to make tea for Ajayi. Apart from taking his weak, sugary tea without milk, his other morning rituals include: taking six deep breaths to prevent diseases of the chest, a quick bath, taking bitter medicine which he believes can cure about 20 different diseases and illnesses; and beating his son Oju to stop him from wetting his sleeping mat.

Although Ajayi and Ayo are happy with their arrangement, the church and her parents are not. The priest is categorically against unmarried couples living together. Ayo’s father hoped she would marry a high school teacher. Ajayi is a government clerk.

Ajayi loves his mistress because she is patient and honest. She is dark and beautiful with white teeth and neat hair. She is also obedient and rarely disagrees with him.

The one time they differed about Ajayi beating his son Oju, Ayo informed him that it is wrong to punish children for bed wetting. She learned that from Bimbola, a local nurse who studied in England and America. Ajayi is impressed by the enlightenment of his deceptively quiet wife.

This makes Ajayi thoughtful. Coupled with another incident, he considers marrying Ayo.

This is the visit by three missionaries working with World Gospel Crusading Alliance (WGCA) from Minnesota in USA. Ajayi had contacted the organization hoping to get free bibles to donate or sell and large religious pictures to put up on his bedroom wall. The visitors, led by Jonathan Olsen, visit Ajayi’s home. Ajayi is pleased by the way Ayo handles the visitors.

At short notice, she buys fruit drinks, replaces raunchy calendars with family photographs and magazines with religious books and hides wine glasses. The children and she dress smartly in Sunday clothes. She even borrows a wedding ring from a neighbour in order to appear like a truly married woman. She awes Ajayi when she speaks some English when she is introduced to the visitors. 

She does all these instinctively after learning that the visitors are not regular white men whom she presumes drink whisky and iced beer but are friendly, religious-looking men.

Ayo’s protest about Oju’s beating and her demeanor during the visit convince Ajayi to marry her. Another reason is the white man had taken some photographs of their family and millions of Americans would see their picture as ‘one God-loving and happy African family.’

When he tells Ayo that he wanted to marry her, she becomes worried thinking he is ill. She even cautions him: “let us get married but do not say I made you do it.”

They agree to have a church wedding.

That night when Ajayi pulls Ayo to him as they lay in bed she declines and tells him to wait until after the wedding.

Ajayi’s people welcome the idea of marriage except his skeptical sister who feels Ayo would become more important in the family than she was. She even visits a soothsayer in an attempt to scuttle the wedding plans but Ayo beats her at her own game.

When Omo, Ayo’s friend that she gossips with and who lends Ayo her wedding ring from time to time, hears about the wedding plans and sees Ayo’s wedding gifts she becomes jealous.

Meanwhile, Ajayi borrows a lot of money to cater for the wedding needs. He misses his normal routine especially his cup of tea, since Ayo had gone back to her parents’ home.

Ajayi finally marries Ayo after lengthy customary, back and forth discussions between the two families. About 60 people attend their church wedding. Ayo cries as if in disbelief, for she finally gets married in her mid-thirties.

An old aunt advises them to live peaceably and resolve disputes before going to bed. She cautions Ayo against gossiping with other women lest they steal her husband and warns Ajayi against using violence on their daughter. She adds that a wife is just as exciting as a mistress.

The morning after the wedding, Ajayi is met with a rude shock when he wakes up. Ayo does not wake up early to prepare breakfast as usual. He concludes that maybe she was taken ill. When he asks her, she replies nonchalantly that he should wake up and make himself a cup of tea. She even contemptuously wonders if something is wrong with his legs. Surprisingly, she demands respect from him asserting that she is now a truly married woman.

Next: Talking Money analysis 

Read A Silent Song and Other Stories Essays and Answers PDF here

THE SINS OF THE FATHERS PDF ANALYSIS

A Silent Song and Other Stories

Characters in The Sins of the Fathers – Charles Mungoshi

• Rondo Rwafa
• Selina - Rondo's wife
• Mr. Rwafa - (Ex-minister, liberation war veteran)
• Basil Mzamane - Rondo's father-in-law (MP, Businessman)
• Gaston Shoko - Rondo's colleague and friend
• Yuna (6) and Rhoda (5) - Rondo's daughters
• Rondo's mother
• Mrs. Quayle

 

In Charles Mungoshi's The Sins of the Fathers, we revisit scars of the past and appreciate how past hurts can cause present and future pain if the victims do not heal and forgive their supposed enemies. 

Mr. Rwafa, an ex-minister and liberation war veteran, clings onto hatred and this obstinate refusal to forgive and forget causes the tragic death of his grandchildren and his son’s father-in-law, when they perish in a car crash he engineered.

The biggest sufferer of Rwafa's sins is his son, Rondo. Rwafa exerts unwarranted pressure on Rondo causing him grief, leaving him with bitter memories and ruining his life. 

Focus

• Parents' wicked actions can destroy their children
• Children suffer when mistreated by parents 

The Sins of the Fathers Summary

Rondo Rwafa wistfully imagines how his father-in-law Mr. Basil Mzamane and his daughters Yuna and Rhoda, met their untimely deaths. He hopes they died happily, trying to erase his own pain. The three jolly family members perished in a tragic car crash after attending the girls' birthday party at Rondo’s house in Borrowdale.  He has been grieving for a week now, numbed by the pain.

Rondo is surprised when his father avers that one day Rondo will be grateful and glad that the tragedy happened then and not later. He adds:

 “You will remember me and thank me.” (pg. 28)

Rondo’s thoughts wander to a distant introspection, when his father leaves. The thought that he lives in his father’s shadow gnaws him. He is not his own man. His wife thinks she could do better in his pants and he is a laughing stock among his friends and colleagues.

Selina, his wife, seems to be the more confident and influential of the pair. This can be attributed to the fact that they were brought up differently – Selina was brought up by people with “long hearts” – people who forgave others while Rondo's father is an unforgiving savage.

His father is a bombed out battlefield of scars.

“And his deepest scar is that he cannot forgive: Not just his enemies,” says Mrs. Rwafa, his wife. (pg. 31)

He cannot even forgive his wife or his son. His bitterness arises from the past when his Zezeru-Karanga clan was attacked by the maDzviti-Ndebele clan. The war affected him so much that he always remembers the pain of the scars rather than the relief of healing. The situation is compounded by the fact that his son Rondo married into a muDzviti family. 

Furthermore, he gives birth to two girls, instead of a grandson who would inherit Rwafa’s wealth and qualities like his charisma. Mr. Rwafa is so disappointed in Rondo that it affects Rondo's personality. 

It is Mr. Rwafa’s ill treatment of his only son that makes Rondo a timid laughing stock among his peers.    

It is thus suspicious that the grandchildren that Mr. Rwafa considers inglorious die in an accident together with their grandfather whom Rwafa detests so much. Rondo starts to put two and two together while interacting with his colleague and friend Gaston Shoko. Shoko refers to the accident that claimed Rondo’s children’s lives as a typical Second Street accident, a subliminal hint that Mr. Rwafa may have been the architect behind the accident.

The bad blood between Rwafa’s family and Mzamane’s family is apparent at the party. Although Basil Mzamane is benevolent and compassionate, Rwafa remains obdurate and unforgiving. The two men’s speeches are the birthday party turn sour betraying the underlying resentment. 

A day before the party the two men also disagreed on the matter of white people in the country. Mr. Mzamane proposes that people should be viewed as individuals because some are good while others are bad. On the other hand, Rwafa holds blanket condemnation of groups of people and views anyone who seemed supportive of his supposed enemy as a traitor.

Further back, Mr. Mzamane had taken care of the expenses of their  children’s wedding, while Rwafa skipped the ceremony altogether, claiming he was away on “state business” for two weeks.

Mr. Rwafa also hungers for a certain farm owned by a white man known as Mr. Quayle and he is ready to get it by all means.

At the party, they try to conceal the boiling agitation between them behind the tight smiles and loud laughs. Later on, Mr. Rwafa recklessly talks about betrayals and enmity between clans and families causing visitors to leave uncomfortably one after another. In the course of his rant, Mr. Rwafa derides their weak sons who marry into families of their enemies, and contaminate the pure blood of the family.

In his father’s presence, Rondo always felt powerless. His mother insists that the old man loves his son but does not know how to show it.

The story ends tragically when Mr. Rwafa takes his own life using his service pistol, after being confronted by his son who he haughtily labelled ‘slob'.

With that soft muffled plop, the bitter past filled with pain, is probably buried.

The sins of the fathers are washed away by their own blood. 

In the words of acclaimed American rapper and mogul, Shawn Corey Carter (Jay-Z), “Nobody wins when the family feuds.”

The Sins of the Fathers - Rwafa's sins

Let's discuss how Rwafa's actions ruin his son Rondo:

• Second Street Accident: Rwafa engineers and accident that cuts short the lives of Rondo's daughters. This causes Rondo untold pain. 
• Laughing Stock: Rwafa's treatment makes Rondo a laughing stock among his friends and workmates. He forces Rondo to work as a journalist. He refers to his son using contemptuous terms like slob, making him a defenceless fool and laughing stock. 
• Ignominy: Rwafa vehemently opposes Rondo's choice of spouse. He calls Rondo effeminate for marrying Selina, an ignominious muDzviti, siring daughters and poisoning the pure blood of Rwafa family. 
• Old guitar: Rwafa destroys a Rondo's guitar by breaking the strings and throwing it into the fire. Rondo was only four and this was his first disappointment. Fear is planted in him and all the courage gutted out of him. 
• Heir: It is difficult for Rondo to accept his father's wish for a grandson to inherit his cars, houses, money and charisma. Rwafa is prepared to destroy his only son in his endeavour to have a duplicate. His is irreversibly disappointed when Rondo has two daughters with Ndevere blood. 
• Stammer: Rondo develops a stammer because he was unable to answer any of his father's questions. Rwafa's zealous pursuit of his duties ruin Rondo because the old man could not distinguish party from family. 
• Wedding: Rwafa leaves two for two weeks to attend to 'state business' because he purposely wanted to skip his son's. Rondo's mother cries when her husband asks who was wedding. 
• Birthday party rant: Rwafa ruins the birthday party when he rants about betrayals, enemies, and effeminate, spineless sons who married their enemies and poison the pure blood of the Rwafa clan. Rondo sits rooted, unable to wave goodbye to the guests, who leave in shame. 
• Mango incident: Rwafa joins a neighbour and thrashes his son Rondo without bothering to find out why the boy was being thrashed. After all these years, the haunting site of his mother dragging herself on her knees and begging the men to spare her only child gnaw Rondo. 

The Sins of the Fathers Practice Question 

Children suffer when their parents mistreat them. Write an essay to support this statement, citing illustrations from Charles Mungoshi's The Sins of the Fathers. 

Next: The Truly Married Woman analysis 

Read A Silent Song and Other Stories Essays and Answers PDF here

GOD SEES THE TRUTH, BUT WAITS ANALYSIS PDF

GOD SEES THE TRUTH, BUT WAITS ANALYSIS PDF – Leo Tolstoy

When Ivan Dmitritch Aksionov is falsely imprisoned for murder, he puts his trust in God to see him through his tribulations.

Leo Tolstoy, in God Sees the Truth , but Waits , preaches the virtue of forgiveness. The tale takes the form of a parable which adjures the reader to consider forgiving their transgressors rather than taking vengeance.

Focus

• True justice comes from God
• Forgiveness is liberating 

Characters in God Sees the Truth, but Waits

•       Ivan Dmitritch Aksionov
•       Makar Semyonich

 

God Sees the Truth, but Waits summary

Ivan Dmitritch Aksionov is a young merchant from the town of Vladimir. He owns two shops and a house.

As a young man, he was unruly and given to drinking a tad too much, but he stopped drinking when he got married.

One day he bids his family goodbye as he is leaving for the Nizhny Fair. His wife dissuades him from going since she has had a bad dream about him. She dreams that he would return when his hair is quite grey. She beseeches him to put off the journey till a later date. Ivan Dmitritch Aksionov laughs it off and says that that is a lucky sign and carries through with his intended journey.

Halfway through the journey he meets a merchant, who is an acquaintance of his. They spend the night at the same inn, have tea together and sleep in adjoining rooms.

The next morning  Ivan Dmitritch Aksionov awakens his driver, pays the owner of the inn, and they leave before dawn.

After about 25 miles, Aksionov decides to rest while his horses are fed. He is then approached by an official accompanied by two soldiers. The official questions him, revealing that the merchant he spent the night together with at the inn had been murdered. Aksionov is the prime suspect since he was with the man and then left suspiciously early. Aksionov denies having taken part in any wrongdoing but when his luggage is searched the officer finds a blood-stained knife.

The official insists that Aksionov murdered the merchant and continues to cross examine him on how he did it and how much money he stole. Aksionov pleads innocence claiming that he only has 8000 rubles and that the knife is not his.

With the odds stacked against him, trembling and looking guilty, Ivan Dmitritch Aksionov is apprehended. His money and goods are seized. He weeps bitterly. Inquiries are made about him in his hometown of Vladimir and it turns out that he used to drink a lot and loaf in his younger days but he is a good man. 

Nonetheless, he is charged with murder of the merchant from Ryazan and stealing 20,000 rubles from him.

His wife visits him in prison. She is restricted from seeing him at first. After begging, the officials  allow her and the small children to see Aksionov.  She faints at the sight of her loving husband in prison attire and in chains, locked up with thieves and criminals. 

They talk a bit and he tells her that she must petition the czar to spare an innocent man the anguish of unfair retribution. His wife informs him that her efforts to petition had borne no fruits. She then reminds him of her portentous dream about the grey hair and says: “Vanya dearest, tell your wife the truth was it not you who did it?” Ivan Dmitritch Aksionov  weeps in disbelief when even his dear wife is dubious, disbelieving, and suspicious. 

He realizes that only God knows the truth and it is only to Him that he should appeal.

After that, Aksionov stops writing petitions and gives up all hope, praying only to God. He is condemned to flogging and sent to the mines. He is flogged with the knots and sent to Siberia. He lives in Siberia for 26 years as a prisoner. His hair and beard turn grey and he transforms into a frail old man who walk slowly, speaks little and never laughs. 

He spends all his time praying, reading “The Lives of the Saints” and singing in church. He earns the names “Grandfather” and the “Saint” owing to his meek disposition. All the prisoners respect him. He also serves as a mediator between them and the prison officials and whenever there is a fall out, the pious old man serves as an arbitrator.

One day a new inmate named  Makar Semyonich from Vladimir narrates what he was convicted for. He was accused of stealing a horse. He asserts that he only borrowed it, but still ends up behind bars. He confesses that long ago he committed a more severe offense and should have been convicted by right then but he got away with it somehow.

When Makar Semyonich learns about how Ivan Dmitritch Aksionov ended up in prison he is utterly surprised.

He even quips: “How old you’ve grown Gran’dad.”

Ivan Dmitritch Aksionov begins to suspect that Makar Semyonich is the one who committed the murder he had been accused of. This makes him deeply afflicted that he contemplates taking his own life. He remembers his earlier life as a freeman with fond nostalgia. He feels deeply downcast when he recalls the happier times with his laughing wife; seeing his little children and how young, happy and free from care he was.

He also remembers the day he was apprehended, the flogging, the executioner, chains, convicts and the twenty six years in undeserved confinement and hard labour.

He feels  deep anger and hatred for Makar Semyonich and longs for revenge. He prays all night but finds no peace. His preceding days and nights are riddled with misery.

One night, he stumbles upon Makar Semyonich attempting to dig a hole under the wall to escape. Makar Semyonich threatens to kill him should he tell on him.

To which Ivan replies that “… you killed me long ago. As to telling of you - I may do so or not, as God shall direct.”

When the convoy soldiers discover the tunnel and question Ivan Dmitritch Aksionov, he responds that it’s not God’s desire that he should tell. He reasons that he will gain nothing taking revenge on Makar Semyonich, even if he made him pay for his transgression. He has no  faith in the human justice system.

That night Makar Semyonich comes to Ivan Dmitritch Aksionov's bed and confesses his crime and begs earnestly for forgiveness. Makar Semyonich sobs as he desperately pleads with the old man to pardon him. Ivan Dmitritch Aksionov also begins to weep.

Surprisingly, he says simply “God will forgive you. Maybe I am a hundred times worse than you.”

At this point, his heart grows light and he no longer desires to leave the Siberian prison and go home. He only desires to die and be with God.

Makar Semyonich confesses to the authorities but by the time they order for Ivan Dmitritch Aksionov’s release he is already dead.

 

God sees the Truth, but Waits Analysis

When Aksionov is falsely imprisoned, and no one believes his side of the story He chooses to live a more spiritual life. He realises that only God can deliver true justice.

Aksionov loses everything except his trust in God. When he is physically separated from his earthly attachments (that is his family and his material possessions like his shops and his house) he grows stronger in his quest for spiritual freedom.

The state judges and punishes physically but God judges the soul. After facing physical tribulations, Aksionov's faith is strengthened.

When he is wrongly accused of killing a man,  the Czar declines his petition. He is convicted for murder, flogged and sent to Siberia to work in the mines. Even his wife doubts his innocence. 

Aksionov realizes that real justice can only come from God and not human beings. He becomes saint-like and a model for the readers to emulate.

Even though he chooses the path of piety and meekness, he is sometimes prone to bitterness, contemplates suicide and even toys with the idea of taking revenge. These symbolize regression into sin or setbacks on the path of a man seeking righteousness. His thoughts also go back to his family and this indicates that it is hard to let go of worldly attachments.

Aksionov forgives Semyonich because he does not believe in human justice. God is the only true judge. 

Forgiveness is more liberating, fulfilling and meaningful than trying to assert one’s innocence.

Aksionov lets go of all worldly desires including freedom.

Faith and belief in God give him strength and saves him from bitterness. He is physically locked up but spiritually free because of his faith and belief in God.

At the end of this tale, Aksionov’s desire shifts from materialism to spiritualism.

True freedom can only be found when one lets go of human attachments. This seems to be the message that Leo Tolstoy espouses artistically in this compelling but rather sombre tale.

Read A Silent Song and Other Stories Essays and Answers PDF here

Next: The Neighbourhood Watch analysis  

Would you have forgiven Semyonich if you were in Aksionov's shoes?

A SILENT SONG ANALYSIS PDF

A SILENT SONG ANALYSIS PDF – Leonard Kibera

A Silent Song and Other Stories 

“Mbane, Do you believe in God?” Ezekiel asked.

“I don’t know. I don’t think it matters.”

Mbane, a blind disabled young man is the epitome of anguish. His short life is filled with pain and hopelessness and thus he sees no reason why he should believe in God. Despite the unrelenting bleakness, he has an iota of hope. He dreams of a future bright life beyond the pangs of darkness, and this gives him optimism and he sings his own happy song, silently to himself, secretly. 

He hopes that death will free him from his pain. 

 

Characters in A Silent Song

• Mbane
• Ezekiel – his brother
• Sarah – Ezekiel’s wife

 

Key Events In A Silent Song

• Pain (pg. 17)
•  Resigned (pg. 17)
•  Hard street life (pg. 18)
• Unfulfilled dreams (pg. 18)
• Loneliness in the streets (pg. 19)
• Judgmental Christians (pg. 19)
• Hope and the silent song (pg. 20)
• Freedom at last (pg. 20)

 

Focus

• Plight of people living with disability
• Difficulties that come with disability 

 

A SILENT SONG SUMMARY

The gloomy tale opens with a description of Mbane’s agony. He suffers paralyzing pain in his spine and stomach. The torturous moment is short lived but he anticipates another attack. Mbane capitulates in despair. Giving up the fight, he lets go his chin and hits his forehead on the flea ridden floor.

Mbane is utterly hopeless. His desolate world is filled with gloomy darkness. Things like time, day or beauty have no meaning to him. Due to his sightlessness, such things are beyond his reach. In his desperation, he lives only to withdraw. He never hits back. Since he is lame, he crawls away from threats, resignedly awaiting his impending ominous end.

As much as his current situation is despondent, it was worse before. He lives in a suspicious hut after his brother, a preacher, rescued him from the streets of the city. He is rescued from the difficult life on the rugged, noisy streets where he survived on the mercy of the busy city people who occasionally heeded his entreaties and dropped a copper in his hat.

In the serenity of his new domicile, Mbane felt meaning in his brother’s silence and strangeness in his voice. His brother avers that he rescued him so that he could “see the light of God.” (pg. 18)

As much as the street had come to being his life, Mbane had no capacity to perceive its length, width, beauty or size. He could only hear but not share about the bright weather, lovely morning or beautiful sunset. He was taunted by the pedestrians’ songs about the blue sky and their whistles to the gay morning which to him were totally indiscernible. He was happy about the gay people since they answered his plea unlike the dull, anxious people with empty pockets.

During the day, Mbane endured the torturous heat of the unforgiving sun and the tenacious  flies while at night he had no choice but to brace the biting cold. He also had to put up with the occasional thieves. The city people worked during the day and enjoyed themselves in bars and brothels at night. The strange rhythms from the buildings in which they had fun, lured Mbane.

Mbane’s brother married around his own age. Mbane can only harbor fruitless desires for such fulfillment but his reality is a world of darkness and lameness.

When his brother’s wife gives him medicine, he experiences another bout of pain. She encourages him with thoughtful words but he knows that she is not frankly optimistic for him. When his brother comes in, both men remain silent for a long time. This is not unusual for Mbane who was accustomed to speaking to himself in his thoughts while on the streets.

Ezekiel, his brother, asks him if he believes in God and he replies that he doesn’t know and it doesn’t matter.

Their late religious mother equated all men to one stream, flowing through the rocks of life. They cried in the falls and wild whirl-pools but laughed and sang when the flow was smooth and undisturbed. The water branched into a narrow heavenly pool and a wide gulf of a chaotic flood. Mbane feels distant and removed from this mythical description of humanity that he is not part of. He feels like the bitter fluid in his own throat, not the good water. He sees no reason to believe in God. (pg. 19)

While God represents light, Mbane wallows in forgotten darkness. While some Christians offered him coins on Christmas Day, others cursed him calling him an able-bodied pest crippled by his lazy loafing ways.

In his world of eternal darkness, Mbane clings on to his belief and dream of future life. He hopes for a bigger, meaningful, glorious feeling beyond his sightlessness. He sings a secret silent song that fills him with expectation and desire. He wishes for his journeys end so that his soul could experience this wonderful destination. Mbane's soul is imprisoned in his sweaty, unwashed body and he wishes that it was free. That is a welcome reprieve from his suffering and damnation.

His brother desperately wants him to accept Jesus and be baptized before he dies. That is why he brought him here.

Before long, Mbane dies a peaceful, painless death – smiling.

What are some of the challenges that Mbane experiences? 

Next: Ivory Bangles analysis 

Read A Silent Song and Other Stories Essays and Answers PDF here