The River Between

Chapter 6 shifts protagonists, centering on Nyambura as she and her sister, Muthoni, sit on a water barrel next to Honia. It is “chilly and cold in both Kameno and Makuyu” (31). Reflections on Honia’s life-giving properties leads Nyambura to consider how the waters are used to numb the skin for circumcising both girls and boys. Because this ritual has been outlawed by the Christian church, she castigates herself for thinking about it. She cannot imagine that her sister has ever had such thoughts. Their father, Joshua, is a staunch man of God, and they are all Christians. Nyambura notices that Muthoni is acting differently, and Muthoni confides that she wants to be circumcised. Astonished, Nyambura stresses their family’s conversion to Christianity, but Muthoni is convinced that she needs to be circumcised in order to become “a real girl, a real woman, knowing all the ways of the hills and ridges” (33). Muthoni cites the fact that although their mother and father are circumcised, they are still Christians. Muthoni wants to mix the two religions, for Christianity alone does not sate her. 

Feeling both distraught and inadequate, Nyambura helps Muthoni to form a plan to be circumcised by an aunt in Kameno, for she knows that Muthoni is stubborn.