Themes in Chapter 5 of Devil on the Cross
- Exploitation and Capitalism:
The chapter exposes the grotesque nature of capitalism through the “feast,” where capitalists boast about their methods of exploitation. - Neo-colonialism:
Local elites mimic their colonial masters, showing how colonial ideologies still persist in independent Kenya. - Greed and Corruption:
Each speaker at the feast reveals an extreme form of selfishness and corruption, glorifying exploitation as success.
Symbols in Chapter 5 of Devil on the Cross
- The Feast:
Symbolizes the shameless glorification of theft and exploitation by the rich. - Speeches of the Robbers:
Represent ideological justifications for systemic oppression.
Summary of Chapter 5 of Devil on the Cross
Warĩĩnga and Gatuĩria leave the cave during the competition’s lunch break. As if in a dream, they begin to chant patriotic verses together in response to the treacherous and avaricious behavior they just witnessed in the cave. After they come to from these incantations, Warĩĩnga suggests that she and Gatuĩria head to Njeruca to eat. When he fails to understand exactly what Njeruca is like, however, Warĩĩnga goes off on an instructional digression about the class segregation of Ilmorog. Ilmorog is split into multiple sections: on the outskirts of town are where the peasants live, but also where the banks and shops are; in the wealthier of the two residential areas, the Golden Heights (where they just were), opulence rules and foreign extravagances are the norm; finally, in the poorer of the two residential areas, Njeruca (New Jerusalem), filth is everywhere and people cannot even remove dead animals and human waste from the streets.
Warĩĩnga and Gatuĩria eventually arrive at a butchery and sit in the back room to eat. Gatuĩria mentions that he could not believe his eyes in the cave, listening to and watching his own people talk about theft and robbery in such ways, and Warĩĩnga asks him if he has found the devils that he is looking for. Gatuĩria says that he believes his composition should be inspired by patriotic love rather than hate for these thieves, but Warĩĩnga reminds Gatuĩria that one cannot clearly and fully love anything if they do not also know what they hate. This talk of hatred then reminds Gatuĩria of his own upbringing. Gatuĩria tells Warĩĩnga that he was born to a business tycoon father in Nakuru who wanted him to follow in his footsteps, but when Gatuĩria sympathized more with his father’s exploited workers than his own father, he was sent to America to study abroad and get the finishing skills necessary to be a tycoon himself.
Once there, however, Gatuĩria saw that American slavery as it existed in the past was exactly what peasants in neocolonial Kenya had to contend with. He decided to specialize in music, but upon returning home and telling this to his father, his father scorned him and told him that he had been ashamed in front of his peers—and especially, in front of his church. Ever since, Gatuĩria has avoided going home to confront his father. After he finishes this story, Warĩĩnga then reminds Gatuĩria that she herself is from Nakuru, and she asks who his father is. Out of shame, Gatuĩria will not tell her. Shortly after, Warĩĩnga begins to discuss with Gatuĩria about the amount of women that such tycoons, thieves, and robbers in the cave have ruined through their “sugar” relationships. She then reveals that she was once in such a relationship, and that it almost drove her to commit suicide. She then commences to tell Gatuĩria the story of her young life.
Warĩĩnga was born in 1953, during the days of the Emergency and the Mau Mau Uprising. Her parents were both detained for political reasons by the time that she was two, so she went to go live with her aunt in Nakuru. Her uncle worked for the railroads, and later he was on the Nakuru town council. As a young girl, Warĩĩnga had a good education and enjoyed going to church most of all, despite grotesque imagery of the Devil that inspired her recurring nightmare of the Devil on the cross. Warĩĩnga’s parents were freed in 1960, after which they moved back to Ilmorog, leaving Warĩĩnga in Nakuru in the hopes that, through a good education, she could free her parents from poverty. Warĩĩnga excelled in school, particularly in math, and she dreamed of one day going to the university and becoming one of very few female engineers. Warĩĩnga’s youth, marked by her obedience and devotion to her school and church, then reached a turning point when she saw death for the first time one afternoon, in the form of a man who had thrown himself in front of a train and become completely obliterated by the train’s force.
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By the time of Warĩĩnga’s early adolescence, she had developed into a shapely and attractive girl. Noticing this, her uncle—the type of man who served at the feet of white, foreign lords and worked domestically on their behalf—made an arrangement for Warĩĩnga to advance his own social and financial standing. Having gained real estate assistance and financial assistance from a wealthy old man from Ngorika, Warĩĩnga’s uncle wanted to return the favor by giving him Warĩĩnga as a sugar girl. Though Warĩĩnga hardly noticed at first, the Rich Old Man was soon insinuated into her life—picking her up from school, driving her to and from parties, and so on. He started to give her money, and they began to have sex. This changed Warĩĩnga’s life: she now began to feel that an effortless life of wealth and luxury lay at her feet, if only she would be with the Rich Old Man. The Old Man even told Warĩĩnga he would divorce his wife for her. Warĩĩnga started to loathe school and began to travel with the Rich Old Man even more: often, they would travel to Hot Springs and play a game called “The Hunter and the Hunted.” The Rich Old Man would chase her with a pistol while she ran away and fire a shot of victory into the sky when she was finally caught. One time, they switched roles, and Warĩĩnga was exhilarated by the feeling of power given to her by the gun. When she finally caught up with the Old Man, she fired the victory shot and almost hit him, instead hitting and killing an antelope. She apologized, and they never switched roles again, with the Old Man saying that he “wouldn’t miss” Warĩĩnga if he was really aiming for her (163).
Eventually, Warĩĩnga became pregnant with the Rich Old Man’s baby, but she was not worried because she had faith that the Old Man would marry her according to tradition. He did not initially voice a complaint when she told him of her condition, but the next day, he accused her of sleeping around and told her that he did not believe the child was his. He abandoned her on that day and never spoke to her again. Warĩĩnga was at a loss, not telling anyone about her private sorrow, but she tried to do what she could to help herself. She asked girls at school about ways of aborting a pregnancy (but spoke of it as if it were only a rumor), thought of going to a back-door abortion doctor (which failed when she saw a neighbor outside and got too embarrassed to proceed), and even thought of asking a nurse she knew for help (but words failed her when she tried to talk of her condition). When Warĩĩnga walked home from this last encounter, she almost walked into a tree, an accident which reminded her of the possibility that she could kill herself by throwing herself into a crater.
Eventually, she attempted suicide by drowning herself in the Nakuru High School swimming pool. Just as she snuck in and was about to throw herself in, the nighttime security guard saw her and asked her what she was doing there. She got him to go away, but this confrontation made her realize that even suicide was hard and not something one can just commit willy-nilly. Finally, however, Warĩĩnga remembers the encounter with the man who had been obliterated by the train.
She resolves the next day to kill herself similarly before a train. She wants nothing more than for her name and identity to be wiped from the earth. The next day, she is waiting at the same crossing where she saw the other man killed. She makes eye contact with the night watchman from the high school, but he eventually walks off. The train then appears, and its song beats in time with Warĩĩnga’s heart and appears to mimic a song from her youth. Just as she is about to die, an unknown man rescues her and pulls here aside. She wakes up in bed with her aunt next to her and realizing that her aunt pities and feels for her, tells her all about the Rich Old Man from Ngorika.
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