The River and the Source (Motif)
Throughout the book, Ogola repeats the motif of “the river” to talk about Akoko’s bloodline. When Akoko is born, her father comes to reevaluate a daughter's role in the family by saying “a home without daughters is like a spring without a source.” For the generations in the book, Akoko becomes that source—the matriarch of the family. It is from her strength, wisdom, and hard work that the rest of the family flourishes. When Akoko heads off to make her case before the District Officer, the motif is brought up to talk about how her actions will change the direction of the family for years to come. At Nyabera’s death, again Ogola brings up this motif to reference how at one point the river was at a point of petering out until Elizabeth had seven children. Tracing the family’s bloodline through the motif of the river highlights the importance for the women in the novel not just of giving birth but raising, guiding, and caring for the family from generation to generation.
Great Snaking Metal Road (Symbol)
The "great snaking metal road," as the Luo people call the railroad the British built, is a symbol of colonial rule. The building of the train accelerated British control and influence in Kenya, and so is an apt symbol of their rule. The language the Luo use to describe the train shows how foreign the technology and its people are for the Luo.
Kong’o (Symbol)
During key moments in the novel, kong’o, the local beer, is present for major life events to mark friendship, especially between two families. During Akoko’s betrothal to chief Owuor Kembo, kong’o is drunk throughout the bridal negotiations, including offering libation to their principal god Were. Notably, when the two families are negotiating Akoko’s return to her husband’s compound, kong’o is not brought out until an agreement is reached and the two families are on good terms once again.
Akoko’s death (Symbol)
Akoko’s death symbolizes the end of an era. Akoko, as the matriarch of the family, grows up in a pre-colonial era, when tradition rules daily life. Over the course of her long life, society and culture have slowly changed, yet her death is a symbolic marker of the end of that era. In the following two parts of the book, her progeny will face an increasingly modernizing world.
Vera’s Nightmare (Allegory)
Vera has a recurring nightmare that she is walking compulsively through a wide-open, monotonous space and cannot stop. She gets increasingly closer to the horizon until she reaches the edge which falls off into a bottomless abyss. In terror she hangs there, suspended. When Vera has this dream she is on the verge of making a big life decision, and this dream serves as an allegory for how she has been living her life. Just as in the dream, Vera has gone headlong toward her future, pursuing an education and career without stopping to think about who she is and what she wants. Now that she is finally stopping to contemplate this, she realizes the future she’s been heading toward is missing something, just like the bottomless abyss in her dream. It is this realization that sends her on a search for meaning, eventually leading her to a more spiritual and fulfilling life.
