Broken drum

by David G. Maillu

1121 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1991

About the author

David Maillu was born in colonial Kenya on 19 October 1939. He went to school at age 12, at a Salvation Army School. After four years, he sat for a national colonial education examination, called Common Entrance Examination after which he joined Intermediate School whereby we sat for the Kenya African Primary Education (KAPE). There would be another examination after two years, called Kenya Junior Secondary Education, then finally the East Africa Cambridge School Certificate examination (The O-Level).

He went to a technical school to Painting and Decorating, which took 3 years. He also enrolled for the British Tutorial College, to study for the High School education. Right from his Intermediate and Technical Schools, he developed passion in African Art, Literature and Sociology.

He is married to a German, Hannelore, from Berlin.

Reviews

[Dora Okeyo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This has to be the biggest book I have read that's been published by a Kenyan Author- it's voluminous but you can't help but wonder what aspect of Ngewa's life (the main character) you are going to learn.
I rated it with 4 stars because of four critical things.
One, it has such in-depth history of the colonial times and the views of an old man-Nzimba, on life after independence.
Two, Vikirose- that is Ngewa's wife is portrayed as the modern woman and she is forever at war with him about his traditional values and thoughts on life.
Three- they are educated, but both have different outlook on life and still do in a way get along just because they are married and have to.
Four- the flow of the story is beautiful and it takes you back and forth without losing focus on Ngewa.
I'd recommend it to any Kenyan who'd love to know more about the country's history and doesn't want to bother with heavy historical files.