The play, 'The Black Hermit,' written by Ngūgī wa Thiongo, highlights challenges faced by a newly independent African country.

The interaction among the characters, and events unfolding in the play, occur four years following the country becoming a self-ruled State.

Tribalism and tribal loyalties, corruption, racism, and outdated customs, are some of the problematic issues facing the post-independent African country.

The country typifies African States that, despite enjoying decades of self-rule, are faced with numerous problems.

The problems facing African countries have hampered economic development in the continent and consequently, driving millions of Africans to dire poverty.

Structure of the Play 

The play is divided into three Acts. Each Act contains three scenes. The First and Third Acts occur in a countryside (in the village of Marua) whilst the Second happens in the City (the capital of the country).

Act One

In the first scene, Thoni is kneeling on the floor near the hearth in a hut sorting out beans spread in a basin. Nyobi, her mother-in-law, enters carrying a water barrel which she puts down in a corner of the hut.

She asks Thoni if she has finished sorting out the beans. Thoni replies they are about ready. Nyobi notices Thoni has been crying. She asks her whether she has been crying. Thoni turns her head aside.

She tells Thoni it pains her to see her youthfulness wasting away. She asks her to get another husband, and even if the man will not marry her, he would at least give her a child. Thoni responds she won’t allow herself to become a public ball, that is, a common whore. She will wait for her husband even if it will take twenty years or more for him to return back to his matrimonial home.

Nyobi reflects how the world has changed. Sons no longer respect their mothers, and carry out their wishes. Nyobi says she has seen a lot. She has seen the sun rising and setting, seasons followed by many others, including birth and death alternating. She has tasted the pain of beatings, and experienced the pangs of birth and death’s blow. She says she has learned the joys of a woman. However, she is puzzled why her son has never replied to her numerous letters. Thoni tells her mother-in-law it is not her, Nyobi, her son hates but her, Thoni.

They hear a voice outside the hut. They become excited. It must be Remi. Their excitement is diminished when they realize the voice is that of an elder. The elder enters, and Thoni exists. The elder influences Nyobi to bless the traditional medicine, and the people who will take it to the city. He tells Nyobi he has been sent by the elders for they believe once Nyobi blesses the medicine it would aid in bringing Remi back to the village.

After the elder exits, Nyobi looks for a shawl. She believes she has done unchristian thing by blessing a traditional medicine. Will God punish her by not bringing Remi back because she has accepted to bless a traditional practice that is against Christian teachings? She must see the pastor and urge him to go to the city to convince Remi to return to his homeland.

In Scene II, the elders and their leader have gathered for a meeting in an open area. They are discussing the difficulties their tribe is undergoing and that their tribe isn’t represented in the current government. For instance, the leader says that independence hasn’t benefited their tribe. Instead, it has brought them heavier and heavier taxation. “We are told about roads, about hospitals; but which hungry man wants a road...” He tells them they should make sure once Remi returns he should not be influenced by his mother or the pastor.

In Scene III, Nyobi is running after the pastor to exhort him to go to the city. At first, the pastor refuses. After a while, the realization he’s growing old leads him to accept Nyobi’s plea. He acknowledges the church needs a young blood which is energetic. He agrees to go to the city to look for Remi, and urge him to return back to his homeland since the church in the village needs him.

Act Two

In this Act, we come across Remi. He is working in the city, in an oil company, as a clerk. He is seeing a woman, Jane, who is of European descent.

In the first scene, Jane finds Remi lying on a sofa. She asks him why he is not ready for a night out. He replies he is tired. Jane laughs reminding him how in the previous year he used to go from one nightclub to another like someone who was haunted - running away from something.

In Scene II, Omange, Remi’s friend in the City, visits him. After the greetings, the discussion focuses on politics. In Scene II, we learn Remi had fallen in love with Thoni but as shy as he was then he found it difficult to tell her he had fallen head over heels in love with her. The day arrived for him to go to the City to study. He left his homeland without having told Thoni of his love for her

While studying in the City, he received a letter informing him of his brother and Thoni getting married. His elder brother dies six months later after the wedding, in a car accident. His father having learnt the death of his firstborn becomes ill. The shock of his son's death leads to his demise a few days later. As is the customary law of Marua tribe, Remi has to inherit his brother’s wife. He tells Omange he has a wound in his heart, and that wound has been inflicted by a woman–Thoni.

As they are discussing about Thoni who ‘broke’ Remi’s heart, the leader of the elders and two elders come into limelight. Omange leaves at Remi’s instruction to find Jane to inform him not to go to his room for important people have arrived. The elders plead with him to return to his land factoring their tribe isn’t represented in the government. Since Remi is educated, and was involved in politics whilst a student at university, he is better suited as a political leader to steer his tribe in the political direction. Remi refuses their offer and pleadings, insisting he will remain in the city. They tell him they’re hopeful he will return to his homeland. They leave behind a bundle - traditional medicine - wrapped with banana leaves.

Following the elders exit, the Pastor enters. He too wants Remi to return because his mother, his wife, and the church needs him. Remi offers the Pastor various reasons he does not want to go back. All of a sudden, he turns to the pastor with an ironic smile and tells him, “Go back to the village. Tell the elders this; if they need me, I’ll come. If you Christians want me, I’ll not fail you. If my mother calls for me, I’ll not disappoint her hopes. Go and tell it to all: The ridges, hills and the mountains. Tell it to all the land.”

The Pastor leaves behind his Bible. After the Pastor exits, Remi weighs the Bible and the bundle wrapped in banana leaves. He utters, “These…These…pieces of superstition meant to lure me home. Shall I find my peace and freedom there? These are part of me, part of my life, my whole life.”

In Scene III, Jane pleads with Remi to go with her to his homeland. Remi tells her she will not be able to adapt to the traditions of his tribe, she doesn't understand the sufferings his people are going through, and to her, things like tribe and tribal customs, are abstraction. She tells him she will try to adjust to the ways of his people but Remi refuses. She prods Remi why he wants to return to his homeland, and who are they who are calling him to return to his homeland. She learns from Remi he has a wife. This sets a confrontation between the two of them. It is at this point we learn person characteristics of Remi from Jane which offers an insight of how his superiority attitude leads to the catastrophic events that will unfold when he returns to his homeland. Jane tells him to go back to his little wife, and storms out of the room.

Act Three

Nyobi and Thoni are in the hut tiding while talking about Remi’s return. The Pastor had communicated Remi’s message that he will come back to his homeland. Thoni tells Nyobi she fears Remi will be different. She tells her of a terrible dream she had the previous night. In the dream she saw a man who had a face like that of an insane man. Nyobi too had dreamt the same.

Remi delivers his speech in his village on the same day he arrives. Nonetheless, his speech is not received well by a section of the villagers. Even when alone with his mother, wife, the Pastor, and Omange, he utters harsh words to his mother, and says he had made a mistake in marrying Thoni.

Thoni leaves silently. Nyobi is the first to realize her disappearance. She goes out to look for her. The Pastor leaves to pray for her.

In Scene II, a village woman is persuading Thoni not to leave. Thoni is adamant she will leave. She tells the woman she longs for the country she had experienced when she was young. It is a country where “there is no light and no people. It’s all darkness, swallowing you wholly so that no man from this world may know or recognize you.” Thoni leaves despite the village woman’s insistence she can stay at her place if she finds it difficult living under the same roof with her husband, Remi.

In Scene III, the beating of drums is heard followed by men carrying a dead body. Remi kneels beside her, a broken man. He wishes she had sent him the letter earlier. He was handed the letter by the village woman who had persuaded Thoni not to leave. When he asked her whose letter it was, she had replied, “She was kind. She who was true. A tender sapling growing straight though surrounded with weed.” Confused, he asked her again. She responded angrily, “The best woman the village had ever borne. Many curses on you.”

As he stares at the dead body, he says “I came back to break Tribe and Custom, instead, I’ve broken you and me.”

1. Death

A large number of people dread entertaining the thought they'll die some day. Some try different techniques in the hope of prolonging their lives. However, a few, like Thoni, crave death. A number of reasons drive individuals, or influence their minds, to want to die, chief among them, depression.

It's not clear why Thoni, from a young age, desired to be dead prior to committing suicide. And, why, as she slipped to death, at a small age, having fallen ill, she didn't fight for her life so she could be with her parents. Also, it's not apparent if she was suicidal prior to taking her own life.

But, it's undoubtedly evident Remi's utterance - he made a mistake marrying someone else's wife who never loved him - in front of her, her mother-in-law, the Pastor, and Omange, exacerbated her mental health condition, and consequently, intensified her desire for death.

Silently, she left them without any of them, save Omange, noticing her exit until some time later.

She had already made up her mind. She wanted to be dead. For in death there was no hurt. No pain. No suffering. She would be the one to bring an end to her own life.

On her way to execute her long-held desire to be dead, a village woman stopped her, and in the process, attempted to dissuade her from killing herself, but to no avail.

The impact of Remi's statement on her is noted when she told the woman,

"I can't stay here in this place. To be like an unwanted maize plant that has been pulled out and flung on the bare path. To be trodden beneath men's feet, and left to wither and dry up in the sun."

"Can't go back to a house of shame and humiliation, to be laughed at, to be flouted, to be driven out, and by him, my husband, when I'd wanted to give him my body, my heart to keep."

She described to the woman the state of death she termed as a darkened country which she had experienced briefly at a young age after being taken ill. She said,

"...I'll go through the world a maid flouted by both fate and man. And I'll go to a country where I've many times thought of going. There, there is no light and no people. It's all darkness, swallowing you wholly so that no man from this world may know or recognise you."

"...It was so dark there and so quiet, and the only song and talk was that of deep darkness. A darkness that showed nothing of pain, laughter or suffering. But peace…peace…"

2. Tribalism

Tribalism was one of the major problematic issues facing Marua tribe that Remi had set his mind to root out of his village.

On returning to his village, Remi held an open-air meeting. One of the subjects he addressed was tribalism. The Pastor describes that moment - Remi's attitude on the subject of tribalism, and reaction among some of the villagers - as follows:

"...His voice. He was angry. He was not alone. He was with a man from another tribe. He made him stand on the platform, and linking hands with him, said: This is a man from Njobe tribe. He is my brother and yours. You should have been there, how he blamed the elders, the Leader and the others, for preaching tribalism, misleading us all. Our salvation lay in National Party. People were then quiet. Some turned their heads away stung by his wrathful words. Other elders went away in guilt and shame."

Tribalism was not only felt in Marua village but also in the whole country. Even the government wasn't spared of its influence. This is noted by Omange when conversing with Remi on political happenings in the country.

Following Remi's speech, and alone with Remi, Omange told him,

"That is the kind of thing we want in our country. Yes, deal with tribalism with ruthless vigour."

Prior to Remi returning to his village, Omange engaged Remi on a political discussion at Remi's rented room in the city. Omamge lamented on several issues, one of them being tribalism. He said,

"...But take tribalism for instance. Since independence tribalism and tribal royalties seem to have increased. And even leaders who were the supporters of the Africanist Party are the very ones who are encouraging these feelings…"

In the Marua village, tribalism was particularly deep-seated among the hearts of Marua elders. This is noted in Remi's speech, and the reaction of some of Marua elders in reference to Remi's condemnation of elders, the Leader, and others, who practised tribalism. Another instance of tribalistic nature of Marua elders, particularly the leader of Marua elders, is seen when the Leader, and two elders, who embarked on a journey to the city to persuade Remi to return to his homeland, and lead his people as their political leader, told Remi,

"We want a tribal political party."

"A Prime Minister from the tribe."

The Leader, and the elders, desired recognition of their tribe in the government, to see it rise above other tribes in the country, and to dominate all of the tribes constituting the country.

Their reason for seeking Remi's political leadership in the Marua village was partly influenced by the vision the tribe's diviner purportedly received from God of the tribe's expansion and domination.

The vision had some element of tribalism in it. The elder sent to Nyobi to seek her blessings for the Marua medicine, and the elders who will take it to the city, and leave it in Remi's room, told her,

"...Last month our diviner had a message from God. He had a vision, and there, he saw the tribe expand, becoming powerful, dominating the whole country. But here was a problem. The tribe had first to tend a plant. A green plant in their midst. The green life would lead us to power and glory."

3. Womanhood

Womanhood is defined as the state of being a woman. It is largely accepted, in the modern age, a female child attains womanhood at the age of eighteen.

In the Marua village, a woman wasn't considered a woman if she lacked a child of her own. This, Nyobi told Thoni as she reflected on her married life.

Nyobi advised her daughter-in-law to look for another man because her husband, Remi, had deserted her. If the man she found didn't want to marry her, he would at least give her a child.

Thoni had told her mother-in-law that she wanted to have a child of her own. A child who would call her mother. A child who would make her feel a new-self.

By analyzing the conversation between Nyobi and Thoni, it becomes apparent that in Marua village, a woman was understood to be a female individual who had given birth to a child.This implies womanhood was seen in the light of motherhood, that is, being a mother.

Being a woman, and at the same time a mother, had its share of joy and sadness. Reflecting on her married life, Nyobi said,

"I am an old woman. These eyes have seen the rain come and go. Have seen sunrise and sunset, seasons followed by many others, birth and death alternating. All these have taught me, the lot of women will never change. For you and me, Anjiru, Njene, Wihaki, independence has no meaning than the one I knew yesterday: I have tasted the pains of beating, the pangs of birth and death's blows. One lesson only have I learnt: a woman's joy is scolding her children. It lies in seeing their smiles and cries, doing little things for them, the loved ones. A woman without a child is not a woman. But I've also learned that to be kicked and humiliated follows this joy when the children grow…"

For Nyobi, being a woman, and a mother, brought her untold joy. She derived joy from having, and raising, her child(ren). But, being a woman also had its downside. In the case of Nyobi, she had experienced physical abuse at the hands of her husband, physical pain in delivering her two children, and experienced psychological pain at the loss of her husband and elder son.

Thoni desired to have a child. A child who would call her mother. It's from having, and raising, a child, she would derive joy, and feel a new-self. However, joy wasn't limited to having a child. Having a man to call a husband, a man to prepare evening meal for, and wash his clothes, also fulfilled, or completed, her womanhood.

It remains uncertain when Thoni was initially married to Remi's elder brother and when she took her own life. However, the mentions of her as a 'tender sapling' by Nyobi and the village woman imply that she was married and died at a young age.

As per the Marua's definition of a woman, Thoni never experienced womanhood for she died without having given birth to a child.

4. Cultural Beliefs & Practices

i) Superstition

Superstition is defined by Merriam-Webster Dictionary as "a belief or practice resulting from ignorance, fear of the unknown, trust in magic or chance, or a false conception of causation."

Firstly, the Marua elders had unwavering faith in Marua medicine to perform wondrous, or supernatural, acts. They believed the Marua medicine had the potential to counter the spell cast on Remi, and subsequently, cause him to return to his ancestral land.

The elder sent to Nyobi told her,

"We want to send a man to the city, a man who will carry a little medicine, to make Remi turn to the tribe."

The Leader of Marua elders told his fellow elders in an elders' meeting,

"...When we went to the diviner, he asked us to choose three elders who would go to the city and, using the medicine he gave us, seduce Remi back to the tribe..."

Secondly, the elders had a false conception of causation of Remi deserting his tribe. They believed Remi deserting his tribe - not leading them, politically, was influenced by a spell cast on him by the surrounding tribes. The elder sent to Nyobi told her,

"...You know what our neighbours are. The tribes that surround us don't want to see us rise. Who knows? You are there. I, your neighbour, here can't I use black magic to turn your mind against the tribe and this hearth?"

The Leader asked his fellow elders in an elders' meeting,

"Who can doubt that Remi's mind was spoilt by the evil eyes of our neighbours?"

From the conversation Remi had with Omange in his rented room, Remi deserting his village was because he was trapped by his tribe in marrying a woman he held never loved him. Finding it difficult to stay under one roof with a woman he believed betrayed his love for him, Remi deserted her, and subsequently, his tribe.

It can be gathered a spell wasn't cast on Remi by the neighbouring tribes because they're jealous of Marua tribe having been the first to produce a tribesman whose attainment of education rivalled those attained by their own. They didn't bewitch him to turn his mind against his tribe. Remi, on his own accord, turned against his tribe, because he held the tribe had trapped him in marrying a woman whom he believed betrayed his love for him. A woman he concluded never loved him.

This is the reason why Remi quit politics. He would have led his people as their political leader as was the desire of Marua elders. Instead, he went to the city, and found for himself a job as a clerk in an oil company, and entered in a relationship with a young woman of European descent.

Not only did Remi consider the belief in Marua's medicine potential to do wondrous exploits as superstition, but also held Christianity as a religious superstition. Alone in his room, after the elders, and later, the Pastor, had exited, Remi held the medicine and the Bible left behind on both of his hands. Weighing them, he said to himself,

"These... These...Pieces of superstition meant to lure me home. Shall I find my peace and freedom there? These are part of me, part of my life, my whole life."

ii) Divination

Divination is defined by Dictionary.com as "the practice of attempting to foretell future events or discover hidden knowledge by occult or supernatural means." Bible Gateway defines it as "the practice of consulting beings (divine, human, or departed) or things (by observing objects or actions) in the attempt to gain information about the future and such other matters as are removed from normal knowledge."

The Marua tribe had its own diviner who revealed to the Leader and the elders, who had visited him, of a vision he received, purportedly from God, of the tribe's expansion and domination. This is noted in the Leader's utterance in an elders' meeting, and of the elder sent to Nyobi.

The Leader told his fellow elders,

"...When we went to the diviner, he asked us to choose three elders who would go to the city and, using the medicine he gave us, seduce Remi back to the tribe."

The elder sent to Nyobi told her,

"...Last month our diviner had a message from God. He had a vision, and there, he saw the tribe expand, becoming powerful, dominating the whole country..."

What's the end-means of divination? The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Anthropology describes the end-means of divination as follows:

"A good first way of approaching divination is to consider it as a means of arriving at answers to a personal or social quandary. As such, divination may be diagnostic, in that it offers advice, guidance, rules, and taboos to be followed. It can also be forecasting, by predicting future events, and it may even be interventionist, by intervening in the receptor’s spiritual and physical health or indeed in their destiny."

In relation to the definition of divination, the purpose of divination, the entailment of divination, and the reason why people consult diviners, it can be gathered from the play:-

Through the vision the diviner saw, he foretold the occurrence of a future event - the expansion of the tribe, and it becoming a dominative tribe in the country.

The diviner offered advice on what should be done to realise the foretelling - a green plant in the midst of the tribe had to be tended for it would be the one that would lead the tribe to power and glory.

The diviner gave the Leader and the elders who visited him a medicine that would counter attack the spell cast on Remi, and thereby, turn Remi's mind back to his tribe.

The diviner was shown the future state of the tribe by a divine being, purportedly, God.

iii) Bride Inheritance

Following his brother's death, Remi was told by his father as is the custom of Marua tribe, he had to marry his brother's wife. Initially, Remi refused to be subjected to this aspect of Marua customs. His refusal led to his father to seek the assistance of the elders who persuaded him to adhere to the Marua customary law of wife inheritance.

The elder sent to Nyobi told her,

"We knew him once for a good son. He acceded to our wishes and married this woman, a daughter of the tribe, instead of going to a white-skinned woman. We were happy..."

From the elder's utterance, it can be ascertained Remi had a girlfriend prior to accepting the elders' persuasion to inherit his brother's widow, Thoni. Thus, it can be said Remi might have married his 'white' girlfriend if he wasn't asked by the elders to marry a woman from his tribe, Thoni.

Remi, agreeing to adhere to the sacred custom, wasn't because he still had romantic feelings for Thoni. He had closed his heart to her a few days after she was married to his brother. His marrying Thoni was a form of repayment to the elders for having agreed to support the Africanist Party when he asked them to whilst active in politics. This, he revealed to Omange. He said,

"...The elders of the tribe came and prayed to me to do a father's wish and obey a sacred custom. Here were people I was leading. I had asked them to be true and faithful to the Africanist Party. They had obeyed me. Now they were asking me to show similar obedience. Finally I agreed to live with her."

When Jane remarked she thought Remi was against primitive practices such as wife inheritance, Remi responded,

"The tribe had reared me. Given me education. They had followed me. How could I bring myself to hurt them? I obeyed them."

Remi's remark shows he was against the Marua custom. His remark to Jane's statement shows he agreed to adhere to the custom because of his village having raised and educated him.

Not too long after marrying Thoni, Remi deserted his wife, and went to live in the city. His deserting his tribe, by quitting politics, and thereby not leading his people in the political direction, was, as he stated, as a result of the tribe having trapped him in obeying the sacred custom. One of the reasons Remi was against Marua customs was because he was told to adhere to the customary law of bride inheritance by marrying his brother's wife, Thoni. A woman whom he loved prior to her getting married to his brother. A woman he concluded betrayed his love for her. To him, Thoni never loved him. It pained him to be told to obey the custom in marrying Thoni who had inflicted a wound in his heart by getting married to someone else when she knew he loved her.

But, what if, early on, following Thoni's husband's death, Remi learned Thoni loved him, and at that, loved him so much? Would he have readily accepted to adhere to the sacred custom as told by his father, and marry his brother's wife? The answers seems to be, 'Yes.'

Kneeling beside the remains of Thoni, Remi, with a heavy-heart, said,

"And she is gone now, gone from me and my heart, with her words of love still ringing in my heart. Dear Remi - I loved you all my life. Oh, what have I done? Thoni, what have I done? I wish you had sent the letter earlier. But I never gave you a chance. Not even tried to understand you. I came back to break Tribe and Custom, instead, I've broken you and me."

5. Hermitage

A hermit is defined as a person who distances themselves from society to live a solitary life, mostly for religious reasons. Hermitage is the state of being a hermit.

Remi identified himself as a hermit. In his last conversation with Jane, he told her he no longer wanted to be a hermit for his tribe was calling him to go back.

Jane, astonished at Remi identifying himself as a hermit, asked him, "A hermit?"

Remi responded he went to the city to seek solitude. Jane, not believing her ears, asked him whether his definition of solitude meant going to night-clubs and wild parties. Remi defined, for her, what he understood seclusion and hermit to mean. He said,

"Seclusion from what was formerly around you is solitude. To be a hermit means escaping from what's around you. My tribe was around me."

Jane objected to Remi's definition of a hermit, that is, the aim of being a hermit, and his definition of seclusion ( a component of hermitage).

Furious at learning from Remi he was a married man, Jane questioned his self-identification as a hermit, and told him what she understood as the reason for one being a hermit. She said,

"You call yourself a hermit! A black hermit? You are not a hermit. A hermit looks for the truth. You ran away from the truth of your position. Tell me, why did you run away from your wife?"

Jane's version can be attested to be the right version, as opposed to that of Remi, of the reason for an individual becoming a hermit, as follows. His mother, Nyobi, attempted to make Remi understand the depth of his wife's love for him. But, Remi didn't want to hear any of it. She told him,

"My son, don't be dazzled by the blaze which will burn for a night and tomorrow it is out [in reference to Remi, pridefully, having stated everything will give way to his leadership]. All ashes and blackness, look to your house: and there you will see the fire that blows all night and day, between three hearthstones. There is food and the warmth of life waiting for you "

The Pastor, too, tried to drive Nyobi's point home. He told him,

"Listen to your mother, and don't be hard on the woman, she has waited for you, bearing all the ills of the land."

Remi responded,

"I will no longer be led by woman, priest or tribe. I'll crush tribalism beneath my feet, and all the shackles of custom. I was wrong to marry her who was another's wife, a woman who did not love me."

Remi's last statement pained Thoni. She left silently without Remi, Nyobi, and the Pastor, noticing her immediate absence. Only Omange saw her leaving.

Nyobi responded to Remi's utterance,

"Everything is not tribe and custom. Your mother, your wife or child are not merely tribe. Search your heart. You have never known her."

Remi reacted, obviously pompously,

"I know all. My stay in the city has taught me everything."

Did being a hermit, in the City, teach him everything, as he claimed, including Thoni's state of love for him? Not really!

Kneeling beside the dead body of Thoni, Remi, filled with sorrow, said,

"Oh, what have I done? Thoni, what have I done? I wish you had sent the letter earlier. But I never gave you a chance, not even tried to understand you. I came back to break Tribe and Custom, instead, I've broken you and me."

It's in reading the suicidal letter penned by Thoni, and in Thoni's death, Remi learned the truth of his wife's undying love for him.

It can be said, in reference to Jane's statement on the reason for one becoming a hermit, if Remi had remained in the village, and searched for the truth (why Thoni got married to Remi's deceased brother when she knew Remi loved her), he would have learned the truth of Thoni's love for him. Instead, he ran away from the truth.

Being a hermit didn't teach him everything. It didn't teach him the truth of the state of his wife's love for him. He learned the hard way, in his wife's death, he didn't learn in the city, as a hermit, he thought to be, everything there was to be learned.

It can be said, in relation to Jane's statement, Remi wasn't a hermit. Instead of searching for the truth, he ran away from it, thereby disqualifying his self-assertion as a hermit. Even if he was a hermit, as he claimed to be, he would have attempted to ascertain why Thoni accepted to get married to his brother instead of him.

Lastly, Omange discerned his friend's misheld belief of his wife's love for him. He was right in telling Remi to go back home after Remi narrated to him the reason for fleeing his tribe. He doubted Remi's remark that Thoni never loved him for Remi never asked her if she did love him.

He told him,

"Remi, I think you had better give up a mere clerk's job in an oil-company. Go home."

When Remi received Thoni's letter from the village woman, who threw it at him angrily, he trembled after reading it. Omange asked him why he was trembling. Remi pointed at the letter. Omange, after reading the letter, said,

"I don't understand. I told you she loved you."

a) Symbolism

Symbolism refers to representation of something through symbols such as an object, an animal, a person, a word, or an idea.

Examples of symbolisms used in the play are:

• When I'd wanted to give him my body, my heart to keep. (pg 50)

Symbolically, the heart represents feelings, emotions, desires or wants of a person.

Despite her husband deserting her, Thoni's love for him remained steadfast. She declared her willingness to patiently wait for her husband's return to their matrimonial home, no matter how long it would take. Even if he never returned, she would continue waiting for his return until her dying day.

When she told the village woman she had purposed to give Remi her heart to keep it implies she loved and cared for him. She intended to trust him with her heart that he would love and care for her as his wife. Even though she knew Remi hated her, and the reason why he hated her, she was still open to welcoming him back, and hoping he would reciprocate the love and care she had for him.

• And now I must go for darkness calls. (pg 52)

In literature, darkness is symbolically employed to mean, or represent, death.

When Thoni told the village woman she was heeding the darkness's call, it implies she felt the urge, the need, the desire, to be dead. The urgency to be dead resulted from Remi's utterance that he regretted marrying her; a woman who didn't love him. Remi's statement stung her heart, and resurfaced, or intensified, the past hurts. She couldn't bear the intolerable pain she felt.

She recounted to the village woman of an out-of-the-world experience she had felt when she visited the darkened country after being taken ill at a young age. The darkened country refers to death.

In death, there is no recognition of an individual for in dead there is lack of consciousness. The lack of awareness was one of the reasons reasons for Thoni's desire for death. She told the village woman,

"See, see! I am not afraid. I'll go through the world a maid flouted by both fate and man. And I'll go to a country where I've many times thought of going. There, there is no light and no people. It's all darkness, swallowing you wholly so no man from this world may know or recognise you.

"I'll go there, I shall never meet anyone who'll see me and pause to whisper: there is a girl no man will touch. There is stillness, all stillness in that country which I saw only once when I was a child..."

Furthermore, in death, there is no hurt. In this non-existent state, she wouldn't experience emotional pain and mental suffering. She told the village woman,

"...A darkness that showed nothing of pain, laughter or suffering..."

Most importantly, in the darkened country, peace permeates. It's the most important thing she longed - peace of mind and heart. She told the village woman,

"...And the only song and talk was that of deep darkness. A darkness that showed nothing of pain, laughter or suffering. But peace...peace..."

For Thoni, her 'short-lived' life was filled with overwhelming pain. She saw death as a release from the intolerable pain she felt - offered a permanent escape from emotional and psychological pain.

• ...Last night I had a dream. I saw a man with the face of an irimu... (pg 43-44)

An irimû is a Kenyan Kikuyu word for a mentally ill person.

Thoni had a dream the previous night before the arrival of Remi which made her feel at unease. In the dream she saw the face of a mentally ill man. Even her mother-in-law had the same dream.

The 'mad face' Thoni saw in the dream suggests an impeding misfortune or adversity, arising from unforeseen actions by an individual, would likely occur soon.

The symbolism, or meaning, behind the dream came into fulfilment when Remi's return ushered in a tragedy that broke his heart - the death of Thoni.

And, Thoni's death would usher in other misfortunes in the Marua village. The village woman, talking to herself, said,

"She was ever a strange woman, unknown to us who have been with her for so long. But I must follow and turn her distracted mind the right way. Yet I fear, I fear for the ridge and the village whose peace and solitude will now be torn by strife and sorrow."

Nyobi, searching for her daughter-in-law, remembered the dream she had, and it hit her why Thoni disappeared from them. She said, to herself,

"I was told she went this way. Where is she now? Thoni! Don't leave me. Thoni! No answer? Thoooni! Oh my dream."

b) Personification

Personification is giving human-like qualities to non-human entities such as objects, animals, celestial bodies, and plants.

In 'The Black Hermit, ' the playwright has employed this literary device in different occasions.

• And now I must go for darkness calls. (pg 52)

Thoni told the village woman who was trying to convince her not to take her own life,

"... Goodbye mother, goodbye father, goodbye my village. And now I must go for darkness calls."

Herein, darkness has been endowed with human-like capability of talking. Thoni told the village woman darkness was calling her implying she felt drawn towards death. She desired to be dead, and the time had arrived for her to execute that desire. She longed for the peace or oblivion death would bring.

• Remi is not the only tree under whose shadow you can rest. (pg 51)

The village woman, attempting to dissuade Thoni from killing herself, told her,

"You must not let your mind wonder so. Come and stay with me. Remi is not the only tree under whose shadow you can rest."

The tree has been enbued with human-like quality of the ability to provide shade under which Thoni could rest.

The woman was implying there were other trees or sources of shade, that is, options, where Thoni could relax. Remi wasn't the only one who could provide a shade where she could rest under. He wasn't the only one under whose shade she could feel loved, cared for, belonging to, and valued.

• When I'd wanted to give him my body, my heart to keep. (pg 50)

Here, the heart is personified. It is likened to something that can be given to someone for safekeeping similar to an object entrusted for care.

Thoni purposed to entrust her heart to Remi for safekeeping signifying that she loved Remi, and wanted to entrust her emotions, feelings, and her future to him, expecting him to handle it with care.

It's a declaration of love and trust. It shows that she values the relationship and connection immensely.

Also, it's a way of expressing her deep affection and emotional attachment to Remi. They're essentially saying that they love you and have entrusted you with their feelings and emotions.

• You have again been crying letting the bitter water tear and wear your cheeks to acquire a face like mine. (pg 1)

The tears are personified through their actions of 'letting, tearing, and wearing' a person's cheeks.

By personifying the tears, Nyobi emphasizes the intensity (depth) and persistence (duration) of Thoni's tears (crying). This suggests that Thoni's emotional distress (pain) originated from inner (emotional) wound caused by Remi's hatred towards her. This left her feeling helpless or lacking control over her emotions, particularly sadness.

c) Metaphor

A metaphor is a figure of speech that makes a comparison between two unlike things, suggesting that one thing is another. Unlike similes, which use "like" or "as" to make comparisons, metaphors directly state that one thing is another.

• I shall die and have the grave for a bed. (pg 2)

The metaphor: have the grave for a bed

The metaphor compares death to sleeping in a bed. It suggests that the grave, typically associated with burial after death, serves as a final resting place similar to a bed that offers a temporal rest.

It also implies in death a person experiences eternal peace.

Thoni longed for death. She believed in death she would find and experience everlasting rest and peace. In death, she wouldn't experience any hurt, and would find permanent rest from all that troubled her.

• Remi was not the husband of Thoni, alone. Remi was also the new husband to the tribe. (pg 6)

The metaphor: the new husband to the tribe

Remi's relationship to his tribe is likened to his relationship with Thoni.

Similar to the important role a husband plays in a marriage, the elders of Marua tribe looked upon Remi as playing a significant political leadership role in the tribe owing to his 'big' education. He was looked upon as a political leader who would steer his tribe in the political direction. A man who would liberate his tribe. A man who lead his tribe to the limelight of the nation. A man who would represent his tribe in the government. A man who would lead his tribe to become a powerful and dominant tribe in the nation.

• It's not you he hates, it's my flesh and bed. (pg 3)

The metaphor: my flesh and bed

The metaphor draws a comparison between the bond Thoni shared with Remi. The flesh refers to her physical body and bed the matrimonial home.

Stating that her husband hated her flesh and bed, Thoni was implying that Remi loathed being with her, and living together as a couple under one roof.

• We no longer see your shadow. (pg 29)

The metaphor: 'your shadow

The metaphor represents the presence or influence of a person. Lack of a person's shadow, therefore, implies their presence or influence is not felt.

One of the elders who visited Remi at the village told him that he (Remi) left them, and another added that they (elders) no longer see his shadow. The Marua elders were puzzled why Remi didn't participate in politics by gaining a political leadership in the village. The lack of his involvement in political leadership in the village implies that his political influence was not felt in the village.

d) Simile

A simile is a figure of speech that compares two unlike things using the words "like" or "as" to suggest a resemblance between them. 

• I want him back Pastor. Remi left a young wife. And she, like a sapling' in a drought-stricken land, will also dry up in the heat of desolation. (pg 16)

The simile: like a sapling in a drought-stricken land

The simile compares Thoni's situation (deserted by her husband at a young age) to that of a sapling in a drought-stricken land.

It portrays an image of a young wife's fragility state, suggesting that she was struggling to survive in a harsh environment created by her husband who had deserted her.

Nyobi pleaded with the Pastor to go to City and persuade Remi to return as his desertion left his wife in a vulnerability state, and thereby she sought to elicit pity or sympathy for her plight. She wanted to emphasize to the Pastor of the emotional plea (of Thoni's) for her husband's return.

• Politics. He became lost to us. Like a seed which falling on the wayside lacked the nourishment of the rich earth, he dried up - was lost. (pg 16)

The simile: Like a seed which falling on the wayside lacked the nourishment of the rich earth

The simile compares Remi's situation - leaving Christianity as a result of engaging in politics - to that of a seed falling on barren ground, lacking nourishment and withering away.

It implies that Remi lacked nourishment - being fed the Word of God, that is, taught and discipled in living a Christian life - that caused him to leave Christianity and becoming swallowed (consumed) by politics.

• I hate to see your youth wearing away, falling into bits like a cloth hung in the sun. (pg 3)

Simile: falling into bits like a cloth hung in the sun

The simile compares the deterioration of youth to a cloth wearing away when exposed to sun.

Similar to a cloth that deteriorates, or fades away, when exposed for long in the sun, Nyobi was saddened in witnessing her daughter-in-law youth passing by without having a man to call her his wife, and a child to call her their mother.

She felt sorrowful in seeing Thoni's youth slipping away without experiencing marriage and motherhood as she entered early adulthood.

e) Rhetorical question

A rhetorical question is a question that is asked not to elicit a direct response, but rather to make a point, emphasize a statement, or provoke thought.

• Not nothing. It has brought us heavier and heavier taxation. We are told about roads, about hospitals; but which hungry man wants a road? (pg 11)

Rhetorical question: but which man wants a road?

The question asked by the Marua elders' leader challenged the idea that infrastructure projects like roads were valuable to everyone, particularly those in need.

By asking the question, the Leader implies that hungry, or needy, people prioritize basic needs such as food over infrastructure development. It implies that there were more urgent concerns, or issues, the government needed to address before investing in roads, hospitals, or other projects.

a) Thoni

Following the death of her husband, Thoni, as per the Marua customary law of bride inheritance, was married to her husband's younger brother, Remi.

It wasn't long after she was married to Remi, he deserted her, and went to stay in the city.

Nyobi, pitying her for the intolerable hurt she was experiencing at being deserted by her husband, advised her to get another man. If the man did not want to marry her, he would at least impregnate her.

Thoni declined to follow her mother-in-law's advice. She told him she'd wait for her husband even if it took twenty years, or more, for him to return back to his matrimonial home. She couldn't accept becoming a public whore similar to a ball passed from one player to another.

The return of Remi didn't go well for her. She felt shamed and humiliated by Remi stating he had erred in marrying her.

She knew Remi hated her, and why he hated her.

Unable to bear the shame and humiliation elicited by Remi's hatred and disdain for her, she concluded she was better off dead than alive.

Despite the village woman begging her not to execute her decision to take her own life, Thoni went ahead and killed herself.

From the play, Thoni is portrayed as:

i) Kind and truthful. The woman who had pleaded with Thoni not to take her own life, angrily threw a letter penned by Thoni at Remi, and said,

"She who was kind. She who was true. A tender sapling growing straight though surrounded with weed."

From the woman's statement, it can be deduced the woman knew Thoni to a certain degree. Her stating Thoni was kind and true denotes she knew Thoni possessed those qualities.

b) A faithful wife. Thoni remained true to her husband despite knowing her husband detested her; the reason he deserted her.

Her mother-in-law wondered loudly why her son hadn't responded to the many letters she had sent to him. Why the silence on her? Did he hate her? Thoni told her it's not her, Nyobi, Remi hated, but her, Thoni. Thoni knowing her husband hated her also means she had an inkling why he hated her.

Thoni was capable of finding another man to complement her if she had followed through with her mother-in-law's advice. But because of the undying love she had for him, she chose to remain faithful in the marriage.

c) Literate. Prior to her committing suicide, Thoni had written a letter which she gave to the village woman. 

Whether she wrote the letter in her native language, the national (Kiswahili), or in English language, isn't known. It's highly likely she wrote in the official language, English. This is because Omange, after reading Thoni's letter for a second time, laughed at her poor grasp of language for it contained numerous grammatical errors.

"She cannot write properly," he said to himself.

Not knowing how to write properly shows that Thoni knew how to write a letter, and that she wrote the letter in English even though her grasp of the English language was wanting. This implies Thoni gained education to a limited level.

It's also highly likely Nyobi dictated to Thoni in their native language what to write on the letters addressed to Remi, and she, Thoni, wrote down the dictations in English.

d) Fragile. Thoni had reached a tipping point that no amount of convincing could dissuade her from ending her own life.

She was a young fragile woman who needed emotional support.

When her husband ran away from her, she was left in the care of her mother-in-law. Nyobi, treating her as her own daughter, provided her with the much needed mental support.

In the first scene of act one, Nyobi, arriving in her hut, noted Thoni had been crying. She knew, instinctively, why Thoni had cried. She felt sorry for her. She asked her if she had reflected what she had told her - to get another man for a husband. Thoni stated she wouldn't treat herself cheaply in the eyes of men. Instead, she would wait for her husband's return no matter how long it took.

But, Nyobi knew the waiting would be detrimental to Thoni's mental health. She wouldn't withstand the waiting, the loneliness she felt, for long.

Consequently, Nyobi sought the Pastor to go to the City to convince Remi to come back for the sake of his wife. She told him,

"I want him back, Pastor. Remi left a young wife. And she, like a sapling in a drought-stricken land, will also dry up in the heat of desolation."

The village woman, who attempted to dissuade Thoni from ending her own life, told Remi when she had located him,

"She who was kind. She who was true. A tender sapling growing straight though surrounded with weed."

It's apparent, Nyobi and the woman referring to Thoni as a tender sapling (a young tree less than one year old), Thoni was married at a young age. Having been married at a young age, and deserted at a young age, enduring the emptiness, the loneliness, engulfing her matrimonial home, for a lengthy time, would be too much for her to withstand.

Thoni patiently waited for her husband's return even though it's ripping her heart.

Remi's return compromised the little strength of endurance she had in her. She couldn't bear the multiplication of hurt she felt following Remi's humiliating utterance.

Thoni was a young female that was in need of tender care. That care, as stated above, was provided by her mother-in-law. Remi's demeaning utterance elicited emotional responses of rejection, unwanted, shame, and humiliation. She couldn't bear those feelings, which amplified her desire to be dead.

e) Inscrutable. Inscrutable is defined by the Vocabulary dictionary as "Any person or thing that's mysterious, mystifying, hard to read, or impossible to interpret." Britannica Encyclopedia defines it as "difficult to understand: causing people to feel curious or confused."

Having failed in her attempt to deter Thoni from killing herself, the woman remarked to herself, before going after Thoni to further deter her from executing her decision to commit suicide,

"She was ever a strange woman, unknown to us who have been with her for so long..."

It appears those in her village who knew her considered her a strange young woman - difficult to understand.

b) Remi

Remi was the first of Marua's tribesmen to study to university level. While studying in university, Remi was involved in politics. Born to Nyobi and Ngome during the colonial era, Remi subscribed to the political party, Africanist Party, and the Prime Minister.

He abandoned his political aspirations, owing to his tribe's custom that trapped him in inheriting his brother's wife, Thoni. Finding it difficult to live with her, he ran away from his matrimonial home, and escaped to the city.

In the city, Remi engaged in a relationship with Jane, a young woman of European descent. However, the relationship ended didn't last long for Jane learned Remi was a married man.

Remi returned to his homeland following some elders, and later the Pastor, having visited him in the city, urged him to return to his ancestral land for the villagers were in need of his leadership - the elders, as a political leader, and the Pastor, as a religious leader.

The speech he addressed to the villagers when he returned wasn't well-received among a section of the villagers. Furthermore, the utterance he made that he had erred in marrying another man's wife who never loved him hurt Thoni, and subsequently, she killed herself.

Remi is portrayed in the play as:

i) An educated young man. He was the first person in his tribe, Marua, to attain a higher learning education.

The Marua elders were of the view Remi was bewitched by the surrounding tribes because they're jealous of his exceedingly acquirement of education. The elder sent to Nyobi told her,

"...Remi was not the husband of Thoni, alone. Remi was also the new husband of the tribe. Through his big education, he would have bound us together." But, he told Nyobi, the elders didn't understand why he abandoned politics, and deserted his village.

He told her the reason Remi turned his mind against his tribe, by deserting it, was a result of a spell cast on him by the neighbouring tribes who were jealous of his attainment of higher education. He told her,

"You know what our neighbours are. The tribes that surround us don't want to see us rise. Who knows? You are there. I, your neighbour here can't I use black magic to turn your mind against the tribe and this hearth?"

The elders reasoned Remi renouncing his political ambition, and dissipating in the city, was due to the envious eyes of their neighbouring eyes who weren't happy with the Marua tribe of having produced a 'highly' educated person.

b) Possessing leadership qualities. Remi might have succeeded in clinching a political seat if he had contested in the election that saw the Africanist Party's victory in running the country as a sovereign state.

Omange remarked to Remi when he had gone to visit him at his room in the city,

"Why then didn't you stand for election? You had a good chance and maybe now you would be in the government."

Omange's statement validates the Marua elders' leader who during a meeting among the elders stated,

"...The letters he wrote to us while he acquired knowledge at college and his speech asking us to join the Africanist that's now in power, show he could be a credit to the tribe..."

The elders had seen in Remi a potential political leader who would lead their tribe as a political leader, represent them in the government, and air the village's grievances to a higher authority, due to his 'high' education and his political involvement whilst a university student.

They might also have seen in him other leadership qualities that influenced their decision to ask him to lead the tribe as a political leader, including the diviner's vision of Remi being the tribe's saviour.

c) Was a haughtily arrogant man. Furious at having learned from Remi he was a married man, Jane told Remi, possibly in an angry voice,

"Yes, perhaps I am different from you. I know what I want. You don't know yourself, or what you really want. Only that you like thinking yourself a delicate being, superior and so much better than anybody else."

Jane's observation of Remi's personal characteristic, a superiority attitude, is seen in how he viewed her - inferior to him, and his tribe, based on her skin colour.

Jane had asked him to take her to his village. She'd like to live in in the rural area, with his tribe. She would learn to live like the women in his tribe. However, Remi's response implied that would never happen - taking her to his homeland.

He told her she was different from him, his tribe, from the people of his country. She wouldn't know, or even understand, what tribe and tribal customs entailed, the injustice of colonialism, and what African nationalism meant to Africans. According to him, these elements were intellectual abstraction - not a reality to her.

Remi held the belief his tribe, his countrymen and women, the black African people, were more important than what Jane represented - the white people, the white settlers, and the European colonialists. He considered her inferior to his tribe based on the difference between his and her skin colour, and what both represented.

Despite Jane's willingness to learn and adapt how to live in a culture different from her, Remi held to the belief that was an impossibility. He couldn't bring himself to the understanding that Jane, in spite of being a European woman, had the capability of learning, and adapting to the way of life lived by his people.

His arrogance is also seen in the statement he uttered towards his mother,

"Everything will give way to my leadership."

He was overconfident, believing nothing could stop him from becoming the tribe's political leader.

Lastly, on his return to his ancestral land, he stated openly in front of Nyobi, the Pastor, and Omange, that he had made a mistake in marrying Thoni, another man's wife who never loved him. His mother tried to justify of the young woman's love for him.

She told him,

"Everything is not tribe and custom. Your mother, your wife or child are not merely tribe. Search your heart. You have never known her."

However, Remi, proud, and arrogant, thought he knew better than his mother. He didn't want to listen to her justification of Thoni's love for him.

He responded to her mother's statement,

"I know it all. My stay in the city has taught me everything."

He learned the hard way, through her death, of her undying love for him. That she had loved him even before she was married by his brother, and that everything is not tribe and custom.

Kneeling besides the corpse of Thoni, he, heavy-hearted, said,

"And she is gone now, gone from me and my heart, with her words of love still ringing in my heart. Dear Remi - I loved you all my life. Oh, what have I done? Thoni, what have I done? I wish you had sent the letter earlier. But I never gave you a chance, nor even tried to understand you. I came back to break Tribe and Custom, instead, I've broken you and me."