Lineage Under Siege

In pre-colonial Kenya, an aging Kikuyu man, confounded by his failure to sire a son, finally fathers one under secretive and harrowing circumstances that haunt him for the remainder of his life. Years later, in 1914, a young Kikuyu boy uncovers a terrible family secret, and flees home only to be swept into World War I as a British carrier. He later works for a retired British captain, who becomes an aristocratic settler farmer.
Crossing into adulthood, the young man stands torn between the Western comforts he can access, and his cultural identity. Driven by the desire to reconnect with his long-lost kin, he struggles under the weight of ancestral duties, which places the burden of continuing a controversial bloodline squarely on his shoulders. This epic narrative first captures the scenario that existed between the last active Kikuyu traditional society and the first British colonial occupation at the turn of the 20th century.
It then explores the personal problems that arise within the household of a socially disgraced Kikuyu family, becoming more complex with the arrival of the Whiteman, as British rule begins to gradually take effect, extending a long colonial shadow for the next 130 years. During this entire period, several characters struggle to preserve the lineage, one generation after another, against the backdrop of colonialism, the Mau Mau uprising, independence, and the rise of an African ruling elite that only ushers in a new era of injustice.
This is a powerful tribute to those whose lives were forever altered by British imperialism, as reflected by the members of one family lineage who are bound by love, separated by guilt, and scarred by wrong decisions as they try to find healing and redemption through a never-fading sense of family duty.