# Quote — Ngugi wa Thiong'o, A Grain of Wheat

> A man came into the office yesterday. He told me about a wanted terrorist leader. From the beginning, I was convinced the man was lying, was really acting, perhaps to trap me or hide his own part in the movement. He seemed to be laughing at me. Remember the African is a born actor, that's why he finds it so easy to lie. Suddenly I spat in his face. I don't know why, but I did it.

- Author: [Ngugi wa Thiong'o](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ngugi-wa-thiongo.md)
- Book: [A Grain of Wheat](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ngugi-wa-thiongo/a-grain-of-wheat.md)
- Page: 55
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_Grain_of_Wheat#Quotes) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/ngugi-wa-thiongo/a-grain-of-wheat/a-man-came

## More from this book

> Koina talked of seeing the ghosts of the colonial past still haunting Independent Kenya. And it was true that those now marching in the streets of Nairobi were not the soldiers of the Kenya Land and Freedom Army but of the King’s African Rifles, the very colonial forces who had been doing on the battlefield what Jackson was doing in churches.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ngugi-wa-thiongo/a-grain-of-wheat/koina-talked-of-seeing.md)

> I despise the weak. Why? Because the weak need not remain weak. Listen! Our fathers fought bravely. But do you know the biggest weapon unleashed by the enemy against them? It was not the Maxim gun. It was the division amongst them. Why? Because a people united in faith are stronger than the bomb. They shall not tremble or run away before the sword.”

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ngugi-wa-thiongo/a-grain-of-wheat/i-despise-the.md)

> I am important. I must not die. To keep myself alive, healthy, strong—to wait for my mission in life is a duty to myself, to men and women of tomorrow. If Moses had died in the reeds, who would ever have known that he was destined to be a great man?

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ngugi-wa-thiongo/a-grain-of-wheat/i-am-important.md)