The New Press to Publish New Works by Ngũgĩ Wa Thiong'o
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Imagining Kenya in Ngugi's Fiction
AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF Ram Prasansak for the degree of Master of Arts in English presented on July 29, 2004 Title: Imagining Kenya in Ngugi's Fiction Abstract approved: /-( Laura Rice The relationship between literature and nation-building has been one of the most crucial issues in postcolonial studies. The novel in particular is regarded as a means by which writers forge national consciousness among the colonized during the time of colonization. Many African writers themselves, for example, conceive of their work as an arena of resistance to European colonialism which disfigures the identities of Africans and denies their history. In this study, I investigate how Ngugi wa Thiong'o, the foremost Kenyan writer, attempts to construct what Benedict Anderson calls "imagined communities" in Kenya during the colonial era, decolonization, and the post-independence period as reflected in three of his novels: The River Between (1965), A Grain of Wheat (1967), and Petals of Blood (1977). Far from being an unchanging entity, nationalism is a social construct that is constantly redefined and historically contingent. In The River Between, Ngugi draws upon Gikuyu cultural practices, especially the contested and value-laden rite of female circumcision, as sources of collective identity on which Kenyans might build to construct a nation. As he moves toward A Grain of Wheat, he identifies Kenyan nationhood with the Mau Mau struggle against British rule. In this novel, Ngugi not only contests the British account of the national liberation movement as barbaric, criminal and tribal, but also critiques the government that urges the Kenyan to forget about the Mau Mau because of its violence. -
ABSTRACT DANIEL WRIGHT Ngugi's Nationalist Shift
ABSTRACT DANIEL WRIGHT Ngugi's Nationalist Shift (Under the Direction of Professor TIMOTHY CLEAVELAND) Critics of Kenya's famous author Ngugi wa Thiong'o have long been fascinated with his adoption of Fanonist Marxism in the late 1960s and early 1970s. This shift has typically been described as a radical and abrupt change in Ngugi's epistemological beliefs, resulting in an aesthetic and ideological departure from his three previous novels. This essay attempts to explain this shift by combining biographical information with a close reading of Ngugi's early novels for cultural/nationalist themes. When viewed through a nationalist context, Ngugi's adoption of Marxism represents a discernible and logical evolution in his perception of Kenya's national character. Rather than a break with the past, Ngugi's shift can be best understood as an attempt to solve the troubling problems he observed through his first three novels. While Ngugi certainly jettisoned a great deal of his faith in Western culture and education as vehicles for a modern Kenya, his adoption of Mau Mau as a national symbol reflects not so much a departure with his previous ambivalence towards the movement as an attempt to reposition the nature of Kenyan nationalism away from its traditional ethnic and cultural underpinnings. INDEX WORDS: Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Mau Mau, Kenya, Nationalism, Gikuyu NGUGI'S NATIONALIST SHIFT by DANIEL WRIGHT A Thesis Submitted to the Honors Council of the University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree BACHELOR OF ARTS in HISTORY with HIGH HONORS Athens, Georgia 2010 NGUGI'S NATIONALIST SHIFT by DANIEL WRIGHT Approved: ______________________________ ________________ Professor Timothy Cleaveland Date Faculty Research Mentor Approved: ______________________________ ________________ Njeri Marekia-Cleaveland, J.D. -
Gender and the Erotics of Nationalism in Ngu˜Gı˜ Wa Thiong'o's Drama
Gender and the Erotics of Nationalism in Ngu˜gı˜ wa Thiong’o’s Drama Evan Maina Mwangi Evan Maina Mwangi is Assistant Professor of English at Northwestern University, where he researches the intersection of nationalism, gender, and sexuality in African literatures and popular culture. He is coauthor (with Simon Gikandi) of The Columbia Guide to East African Literature since 1945 (Columbia University Press, 2007) and the author of Africa Writes Back to Self: Metafiction, Gender, Sexuality (forthcoming, State University of New York Press). His current book project, “(M)Other Tongue Matters: Translation and Gender in Indigenous African Literatures,” focuses on Ngu˜gı˜’s and other writers’ use of sex as a theme and a metaphor in creative works and polemical essays. TDR: The Drama Review 53:2 (T202) Summer 2009. ©2009 90 New York University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/dram.2009.53.2.90 by guest on 27 September 2021 Introduction Kenyan author Ngügï wa Thiong’o has been a leading voice in African indigenous-language community theatre for over 30 years. In 1977 his first literary work in Gïküyü, Ngaahika Ndeenda (published in 1980 and translated as I Will Marry When I Want in 1982), coauthored with Ngügï wa Mïriï in collaboration with peasants and workers from their hometown of Limuru, led to his detention without trial by the Kenyan government. This kind of politically engaged performance forms the centerpiece of Ngügï’s artistic production. The influence that -
Ngugi Wa Thiong'o and the Search for a Populist Landscape Aesthetic." Environmental Values 3, No
The White Horse Press Full citation: Binder, Renee and G.W. Burnett, "Ngugi Wa Thiong'o and the Search for a Populist Landscape Aesthetic." Environmental Values 3, no. 1, (1994): 47-59. http://www.environmentandsociety.org/node/5506 Rights: All rights reserved. © The White Horse Press 1994. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism or review, no part of this article may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, including photocopying or recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission from the publishers. For further information please see http://www.whpress.co.uk. Ngugi Wa Thiong’o and the Search for a Populist Landscape Aesthetic RENEE BINDER* AND G.W. BURNETT† *US Forest Service Sumter National Forest Mountain Rest, South Carolina 29664 USA †Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management Clemson University Clemson, South Carolina 29631 USA Direct correspondence to: G. W. Burnett, Room 263 Lehotsky Hall, Clemson University, Clemson, SC 29631. ABSTRACT: This essay examines how Ngugi wa Thiong’o, East Africa’s most prominent writer, treats the landscape as a fundamental social phenomenon in two of his most important novels, A Grain of Wheat and Petals of Blood. Basing his ideas in an ecological theory of landscape aesthetics resembling one recently developed in America, Ngugi understands that ability to control and manipulate a landscape defines a society. Nostalgia for the landscape lost to colonialism and to the corrupting and alienating influences of international capitalism needs to be replaced by its progressive evaluation as it is reshaped by collective action for a new future. -
Character Names and Types in Ngũgĩ Wa Thiong'o's Devil on the Cross and Wizard of the Crow
UCLA Ufahamu: A Journal of African Studies Title Character Names and Types in Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s Devil on the Cross and Wizard of the Crow Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2qv2b257 Journal Ufahamu: A Journal of African Studies, 38(3) ISSN 0041-5715 Author Ndĩgĩrĩgĩ, Gĩchingiri Publication Date 2015 DOI 10.5070/F7383027729 Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Character Names and Types in Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s Devil on the Cross and Wizard of the Crow* Gĩchingiri Ndĩgĩrĩgĩ Character names and character types are recognizable devices that mediate themes in Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s fiction. These charac- ter names and character types encapsulate the social reality that the author writes about and comprise a fresh way of understand- ing his novels. From this encapsulation, authorial partisanship and worldview are decipherable. A cursory review of Ngũgĩ’s fiction reveals that these two aspects are sporadically found in his ear- lier fiction—The River Between, Weep Not, Child and A Grain of Wheat—but they become more evident features of Ngũgĩ’s style in Petals of Blood and are used to maximum effect in Devil on the Cross, Matigari, and more recently in Wizard of the Crow. For pur- poses of brevity, however, the discussion in this paper focuses on Devil on the Cross and Wizard of the Crow.1 The section on Devil on the Cross appeared originally in Ufahamu and only minor changes have been made in the analysis of the text in that section.2 The section on Wizard of the Crow is entirely new. -
Wanjiru's Search for Self in Ngugi Wa Thiong'o's "Minutes of Glory"
Afrika Focus, Vol.8, Nr.2, 1992, pp 93-103 WANJIRU'S SEARCH FOR SELF IN NGUGI WA THIONG'O'S "MINUTES OF GLORY" Owen G. MORDAUNT English Department University of Nebraska at Omaha Omaha, Nebraska 68182-0175, USA SUMMARY This paper deals with Ngugi wa Thiong'o 's portrayal of the protagonist in his short story "Minutes of Glory". Wanjirufinds herself trapped in an urban setting and is a victim of her situation and low self-esteem. The story is a poignant and touching study of this young woman who is battling with an identity problem and is seeking acceptance in a post-independence setting where women are exploited by men of the New Africa elite. She is regarded as "a wounded bird in flight: a forced landing now and then but nevertheless wobbling from place to place ... " The story affirms female self-realization rather than perpetual self-alienation, and that validates the persistence in attaining her desired goal. KEY WORDS: Kenya, literature, psychology, short story INTRODUCTION The male protagonist is the focus of a large body of African literature in English, the general theme being the conflict with the inroads of Westemization upon his world.(l) In the works of the contemporary Senegalese novelists Ousmane Sembene and Aboulaye Sadji, however, women are given a significant role.(2) Karen Smiley-Wallace's encapsulation of African women is worth noting: 93 Downloaded from Brill.com09/26/2021 02:58:28PM via free access "Through their vast and colorful tableaux of women figures (market women, wives, mothers, daughters, political leaders, prostitutes, teachers, secretaries, etc.) Sadji and Sembene illustrate the tormenting world of the double self, anxiety and alienation. -
Facets and Functions of Linguistic Displacement in Ngũgĩ Wa Thiong'o's Petals of Blood
Revue du CAMES Littérature, langues et linguistique Numéro 3, 1er Semestre 2015 Facets and Functions of Linguistic Displacement in Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s Petals of Blood: A Functional Structuralist Perspective. Léonard A. KOUSSOUHON & Yémalo C. AMOUSSOU Université d’Abomey-Calavi Abstract – This paper analyses the various uses of linguistic displacement or time game in Petals of Blood (1977) in order to show how they have helped Ngũgĩ waThiong’oexpress his vision of time and history and to project a socialist revolution in Kenya towards 1978-9. It uses the functional structuralist approach, based on the identification and critical analysis of discourse- strings as related to the expression of time by the omniscient observer or narrator and characters in order to point out instances of the use of cultural, psychological and historical time and their inclination to un-date or mis-date and mix-date, andto show the gap between the writer’s discourse and story time. Key words: linguistic displacement, story time, discourse time, a-temporality, polychronic time. Résumé – Cet article analyse les différents usages du déplacement linguistique ou ‘jeu de temps’ dans le roman ‘Petals of Blood’ de l’écrivain kényan Ngũgĩ-wa-Thiong’o pour démontrer comment les manipulations du temps lui ont permis d‘exprimer sa vision du temps et de l’histoire et de projeter une révolution marxiste Il s’appuie sur la théorie structuraliste fonctionnelle, basée sur l’identification et l’analyse critique de séquences de discours se rapportant à l’expression du temps par le narrateur omniscient et les personnages afin de ressortir les différents aspects de temps (culturel, psychologique et historique) et la tendance de ceux-ci à ‘ne pas dater’, ou à ‘mal dater’ et ‘pluri dater’ les événements, et de révéler la différence entre le temps de l’histoire et le temps du récit. -
A Critique of Ngugi Wa Thiong'o's the River Between
ISSN 2394-9694 International Journal of Novel Research in Humanity and Social Sciences Vol. 4, Issue 5, pp: (35-50), Month: September-October 2017, Available at: www.noveltyjournals.com A CRITIQUE OF NGUGI WA THIONG'O'S THE RIVER BETWEEN AVOMAH OSCAR MAC AKAMPIRIGE Abstract: Most novels written by Africans a reflections of their various societies or communities. In The River Between, Ngugi, in a similar manner, brings out vividly the life and tradition of his rural a Kenyan society. The novel is set in Central Kenya in pre-independent days, dating as far back as the 1930’s when Kenya was under colonial rule. The themes of the novel – a struggle for leadership and the influence of European culture and religion on the African – are very realistically delineated. The novel, one may say, could be set in any other African country; for the incidents of power struggle, cultural and religious clashes are common characteristics of the coming of Europeans to Africa. The main reason for choosing to critique Ngugi’s work for study is to critically look at it, analyze and assess its values and contribution to the world of literature. Writers and critics of African writing hold different views as to what African Literature really is. It is for this reason that most African writers strive to find suitable definitions for the terms "African Literature". One renowned Nigerian novelist, Cyprian Ekwensi, for instance, holds the view that: "African Literature is literature based on African characters and psychology. This means that the main theme may be anthropological, traditional or modern, but the traits, temperaments, and reactions of the characters will be peculiarly African due to influence by tribe, culture and history". -
——————— Ά Subversion and the Carnivalesque
NICK MDIKA TEMBO ——————— Subversion and the Carnivalesque Images of Resistance in Ngg wa Thiong’o’s Wizard of the Crow A BSTRACT The carnivalesque as a guiding concept provides a useful approach to technique and thematic concerns in the African novel, as some contemporary African novelists have integrated elements of resistance to some form of hegemonic dis/order in their novels. What this essay claims is that Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s Wizard of the Crow deploys the carnivalesque as an ideology and weapon of resistance, where the popular voice of the marketplace wo/man is employed to subvert instituted authority. The essay interrogates globalization and Structural Adjustment Programmes, arguing that they are re-invented ideologies of colonization for the twenty-first century. To examine elements of resistance in this novel is thus to examine the ways, both salient and silent, in which the postcolony can combat monstrous postcolonial African régimes and the largely negative impact of globalization on Africa. Introduction I thought they were going to reform society and rule justly, and so I watched their proceedings with deep interest. I found that they made the other regime look like a golden age.1 GŨGĨ WA THIONG’O is one of the most important of Africa’s writers, and certainly the foremost voice of East African literature. N From Weep Not, Child, The River Between, and A Grain of Wheat to Petals of Blood, Devil on the Cross, Matigari, and Wizard of the Crow, he has consistently used the medium of prose fiction and other artistic devices to critique, lampoon, plead, lament, threaten, and paint a picture of the disaster 1 Plato, in Desmond Lee, “Introduction” to Plato, The Republic (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1982): 14. -
Ngugi Wa Thiong'o's the River Between and Matigari
Allegory and the Retrieval of History: Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s The River Between and Matigari Eriks Uskalis There is a need for analysis of postcolonial writing which, instead of as- suming dissent as a given, locates its forms and conditions of possibility within contexts that both determine and set limits on its expression. If dissent is defi ned by the effects of the power against which it reacts, it follows that different contexts will call for varied expressions of dissent. In terms of literary production the effects of dissent are often seen as shifts in form and genre. Through acts of dissemination and interpella- tion, the state, as well as the relative hegemonic strength of colonial and postcolonial discourse, have signifi cant ramifi cations on the formation of the context of dissent. I would argue, then, that an analysis of dissent which takes these factors into consideration should “study what was able to emerge within, and against, what seems at fi rst glance to be a domi- nant fi eld of social perception” (Polan qtd. in Lipseitz 31). It should come as no surprise that class plays a major part in the con- ditions out of which literature is produced, but the tenets set out in the above statements work against dismissals of texts which do not express dissent in terms of class. Class formations, in postcolonial times, are often too overdetermined to provide coherent forms of dissent. This can be fl eshed out by a discussion of Ngugi Wa Thiong’o’s novels The River Between and Matigari. -
Ngũgĩ Wa Thiong'o's Wizard of the Crow and Postcolonial Pedagogy
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s Wizard of the Crow and Postcolonial Pedagogy RAPHAEL DALLEO Florida Atlantic University [email protected] ABSTRACT The encyclopedic nature of Ngũgĩ’s Wizard of the Crow makes it an overt summing up of the author’s previous work. At the same time, the novel explicitly positions itself as a break from what came before by rethinking the anticolonial ideologies contained in the earlier work in light of what Wizard of the Crow references as an expanding postcoloniality. This shift can be seen in the philosophy of pedagogy the novel puts forward. Unlike the radical oppositionality of the anticolonial stance, postcolonial pedagogy is depicted as contingent, conflicted, but because of its decentralized, nonhi- erarchical nature potentially better able to redefine the field of possibili- ties than a radicalization of the master’s tools. Wizard of the Crow refuses to retreat from the intellectual’s obligation to oppose and critique global exploitation and inequality, positioning postcolonialism not as an abandon- ment or surmounting of anticolonialism as much as a re-imagining of its goals in changed circumstances. The novel seeks to imagine a decolonizing form of education that can stand against without replicating patriarchy and colonial hierarchy. n his review of Wizard of the Crow, Simon Gikandi notes the way the novel invokes Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s previous work, most obviously by introducing one of the novel’s main characters while she reads Devil on the Cross. This Iintertextual clue leads Gikandi to argue that “Wizard of the Crow is a repetition of Ngũgĩ’s later novels, especially Petals of Blood and [. -
Righting Land Wrongs with the Pen: the Leadership of Ngugi Wa Thiong’O and Ken Saro Wiwa
Leadership and Developing Societies Bwesigye Bwa Mwesigire (2016) Vol 1 No 1, pp. 29-58 DOI: https://doi.org/10.47697/lds.3434700 Righting land wrongs with the pen: The leadership of Ngugi wa Thiong’o and Ken Saro Wiwa Bwesigye Bwa Mwesigire* ABSTRACT This article analyses the leadership of Ngugi Wa Thiong’o and Ken Saro Wiwa in the protection of indigenous communities’ land rights in Kenya and Nigeria respectively. It uses a case study and ‘leadership as process’ approach to focus on events and actions by Ngugi and Saro Wiwa, alongside the Kamiriithu and Ogoni communities in 1976 – 1982 and 1990 - 1995, respectively. In the case of Kenya, the Kamiriithu community did not attain their land rights and other freedoms following the Ngugi-led activism. Instead, the Kenyan government turned to further repression of individual and collective rights. In Nigeria, Saro-Wiwa was hanged after a trial marred with irregularities. However, oil exploitation activities on land belonging to the Ogoni ceased. There has been progress in holding Shell legally accountable for environmental degradation and a study on the extent of damage done to the ecology has been undertaken. Both writers, despite different outcomes to their activism, played leadership roles in their communities’ struggle for land rights. Their creative writing abilities and achievements played a role in their emergence as leaders and strategies for leadership. Introduction This article sets out to identify the leadership role that writers play in the assertion and protection of the indigenous people’s rights over land as a natural resource. Two questions, guide the investigation, namely: how do creative writers emerge to lead indigenous communities and what are the results of their exercise of leadership? The paper looks at the two peculiar but related cases to understand the leadership role of creative writers in defending indigenous people’s land rights.