Weep not, childWeep not, my darlingWith these kisses let me remove your tears,The ravening clouds shall not be long victorious,They shall not long possess the sky...
-- Walt Whitman - American poet (Epigraph)

Importance: The first line of this quote provides the book with its title, Weep Not, Child, and captures the sense that the darkness cannot go on forever, which is apparent in Njoroge's attitude throughout the novel. In the original poem, the child is a daughter, on the beach with her father; however, at the point where Njoroge fails to see the light, when he contemplates suicide, it is his mother who comes to take him home. Although the genders are reversed, it remains the role of the child's parent to show them that the light still remains and will return when the storms have ceased.

That's why you at times hear Father say that he would rather work for a white man. A...
-- Kamau (chapter 2)