Over the years, Africans in order to adapt to the new way of life that the British had imposed on them have incorporated their enemy's values. Now they valued education and the art of having a craft highly, as the British did. Some even valued money as well. Njoroge and his family illustrate this in the novel. In the process of incorporating the new values, they have accepted the idea that they were inferior to the British.
Njoroge's father represents the traditional values of land being important yet adapting to the British values. His father is still attached to his passed belief that having land is very important. Nevertheless, realizes in order to succeed in the new world he must conform, educated his children, and give them a trade to follow, as done by the British colonist. Therefore, educating Njoroge and giving a trade in carpentry to his bother Kamau. An example of how some Africans were starting to value education more was Nyokabi, Njoroge mother, "She was very proud to have her son in school. " All she wanted was the honor of saying, "Look, I've a son as good and as well educated as any you can find in the land. " However, Njoroge beliefs were different from his fathers and mothers. He believed that land and education go hand and hand in value, "I think Jacobo as rich as Mr. Howlands because he got education. " Mr. Howlands is a wealthy man because he owns lots of land yet Jacobo was educated. Nonetheless, in Njoroge eyes they both mean power and status. Therefore pointing out even further how Africans" changed over time from holding only land as the only means of wealth and power to seeing education as well as a trade being equal or at times above land. .
Africans" felt betrayed by the British. As they were helping in the British war effort, others were taking their land and moving them, somewhere else as Kamau (Njoroge brother) stated. "The land was gone. My father and many others had been moved from our ancestral lands.