The book has been specifically written to describe the Mau Mau Uprising in Africa. The novel also describes how an entire people had to face the astonishing dispossession of their ancestral land.
While writing "Weep Not, Child", Ngugi was studying at Makerere University.
The story is more inclined towards describing the culture, violence, and the situation in the contemporary society. The novel aims less to tell a few stories. The story is told through several perspectives.