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During a writers' conference at Makerere, Ngũgĩ shared the manuscript for his debut novel with revered Nigerian author Chinua Achebe.

In one section, Ngũgĩ called out Chinua Achebe - the author who helped to launch his career - for writing in English.

Achebe forwarded the manuscript to his publisher in the UK and the book, named Weep Not, Child, was released to critical acclaim in 1964.

So I keep returning to Achebe’s reflections on the stool and trouble: “When suffering knocks at your door and you say there is no seat for him, he tells you not to worry because he has brought his own stool.”

As I chronicle and try to navigate the long Trumpocene and Donald Trump’s return to power, I have been rereading Chinua Achebe’s “How Things Fall Apart.”