Imagining Kenya in Ngugi's Fiction

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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.
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.
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 [.
(LALIGENS), Ethiopia Vol. 4 (2), Serial No 10, May, 2015: 31-44 ISSN: 2225-8604(Print) ISSN 2227-5460 (Online) DOI

LALIGENS, Vol.4 (2), May, 2015 An International Journal of Language, Literature and Gender Studies (LALIGENS), Ethiopia Vol. 4 (2), Serial No 10, May, 2015: 31-44 ISSN: 2225-8604(Print) ISSN 2227-5460 (Online) DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/laligens.v4i2.3 The Non-Conformist Intellectual’s Role as a Socio-Political Activist in Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s Wizard of the Crow Akani, Julius Nsirim Department of English Studies, University of Port Harcourt Choba, Port Harcourt Tel : +2348038746350 E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] Abstract The study of the intellectual character in the African novel can be done in two parts, namely: the conformist intellectual, on one part and the non-conformist intellectual on the other. This paper focuses on the non-conformist intellectual. Generally, the paper is basically an analysis of the non-conformist intellectual’s role as a socio- political activist in Ngugi’s Wizard of the Crow. The obvious absence of critical attention on Wizard of the Crow gives this study a special place in Ngugi’s scholarship. Indeed, this paper is pathbreaking and it is meant to open up discussions on Ngugi’s classic of postcolonial African experience, Wizard of the Crow. This is clearly visible in this present researcher’s attempt at paying adequate attention to the intellectual perspective in the novel. The paper gives us an insight into the roles of the non-conformist intellectual in the novel. The role of Kamiti, the non-conformist intellectual in the novel, is appreciated more through a study of his alienation from the socio-political values of the power structure in the novel; and in his desire to play an important part as a leader in the fight for the liberation of the poor masses of Aburiria.
Leisure Corrupted: an Artist's Portrait of Leisure in a Changing Society

Leisure corrupted: an artist's portrait of leisure in a changing society By: Sevil Sönmez, Kim Shinev, Leane Marchese, Chris Veldkamp, and G. W. Burnett Sönmez, S., Shinew, K., Marchese, L., Veldkamp, C., and G.W. Burnett (1993). Leisure Corrupted: An Artist's Portrait of Leisure in a Changing Society. Leisure Studies, 12(4):266-276. Made available courtesy of Taylor and Francis: http://www.taylorandfrancis.com/ *** Note: Figures may be missing from this format of the document Abstract: Theoretical arguments that leisure is the basis of any culture are available. Yet, scarcity in the literature of serious consideration of leisure in non-Western societies demonstrates that the topic has been neglected. One possible explanation for the failure to achieve progress in cultural comparisons of leisure is the lack of data. At least three approaches permit this type of comparison. This paper focuses on a literary approach by investigating how East Africa's most prominent creative writer, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, treats leisure in his most important English language novels. This analysis centers on two of his novels, A Grain of Wheat and Petals of Blood. The two novels are complex, intricate stories drawing heavily on Western philosophy and literature as well as African folklore. Although Ngugi suggests that leisure is the foundation of civilization, the fibre that makes the cloth of society, he portrays leisure distinctively in social terms likely to surprise those familiar with Western traditions of leisure. Article: Introduction Two concepts of leisure now compete in Western societies. One conceives leisure as that which is done after work: a reward for work, a recreation, and a preparation for yet more work.
Revolutionary Nationalism and Women's

BOEHMER Makeup 3/22/05 2:55 PM Page 42 John's G5:Users:john:Public:John's Mac: John's Jobs 2 ‘The master’s dance to the master’s voice’: revolutionary nationalism and women’s representation in Ngugi wa Thiong’o A writer needs people around him. For me, in writing a novel, I love to hear the voices of the people . I need the vibrant voices of beautiful women: their touch, their sighs, their tears, their laughter. (Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Detained)1 With these affirmative words, the Kenyan writer Ngugi wa Thiong’o points to the strong position that women characters have held in his work over the years. It is a position virtually unique in Anglophone African literature. Not only is it the case that the internationally renowned African writers concentrating on themes of national self-assertion have by and large been male, but that in their work the emancipation of women has generally been rated as of secondary importance relative to the liberation of nations or of peoples. For this reason Ngugi’s exertions to include women in his vision of a Kenya liberated from neocolonial domination merit recognition. Yet, at the same time, precisely because of the prominence of his achievement, the enduring masculinist cast of his ideas cannot be ignored. For it is by singling out female voices, by fixing women beneath the evaluative epithets ‘vibrant’ and ‘beautiful’, that Ngugi gives way to that tendency to objectify women which, even in the 1989 Matigari, qualifies his attempt to grant them a leading role in the revolution- ary struggle for Kenyan liberation.2 The ambivalence in Ngugi’s attitude towards women forms a significant, if not metonymic, part of a wider contradiction undercutting his populist nationalist programme for a new Kenya.
Politics and the Religious Unconscious in Ngugi Wa Thiongo’S a Grain of Wheat and His Other Works

Scriptura 92 (2006), pp. 248-264 POLITICS AND THE RELIGIOUS UNCONSCIOUS IN NGUGI WA THIONGO’S A GRAIN OF WHEAT AND HIS OTHER WORKS Peter Mwikisa Department of Theology and Religious Studies University of Botswana Abstract This article reflects on the extent to which the accretion of Biblical themes and allu- sions in Ngugi’s work may be re-read in order to provide a way of re-imagining his decolonising project beyond the confines of disciplinary regimes of radical Marxist politics which have largely appropriated his work. Keywords: Biblical themes, Marxism, Ngugi Wa Thiong’o Christianity is not only a salvation religion, it is a confessional religion: It imposes strict ob ligations of truth, dogma and canon… Christianity requires yet another form of truth obliga tion different from faith. Each person has the duty to who he is, that is to try to know what is happening inside him, to acknowledge faults, to recognize temptations, to locate desires: And everyone is obliged to disclose these things either to God or to others in the community and, hence, to bear public or private witness against oneself. Michel Foucault, Religion and Culture Part I In this paper I wish to reflect on the extent to which the accretion of Biblical themes and allusions in Ngugi’s work may be re-read in order to provide a way of re-imagining his decolonising project beyond the confines of disciplinary regimes of radical Marxist politics which have largely appropriated his work. As a self-proclaimed Marxist revolutionary, Ngugi shed his Christian name “James” to suggest that he had divested himself of that faith and the colonial mentality he alleges it engenders.
History and Fiction: Ngũgĩ Wa Thiong'o's Vision

ZESZYTY NAUKOWE UNIWERSYTETU RZESZOWSKIEGO SERIA FILOLOGICZNA ZESZYT 90 / 2015 STUDIA ANGLICA RESOVIENSIA 12 doi: 10.15584/sar.2015.12.14 Simona KLIMKOVA Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra [email protected] HISTORY AND FICTION: NGŨGĨ WA THIONG’O’S VISION Abstract: Since postcolonial writing has always been rooted in the historical process of colonization, the narratives, especially in the early stages of postcolonial literature, bore an imprint of the historical development in the colonies. With local writers often addressing the pressing historical and political issues of that time and authors being seen as “beacons, soothsayers, and seers of political movements” (Boehmer), literature became implicated in the turmoil of public happenings. The paper seeks to examine the relation between history and fiction as presented in Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s early novel A Grain of Wheat. Thiong’o, who is known for his zealous political activism, sees literature not only as a medium which reflects social reality but rather as a creative process that is conditioned by historical social forces and pressures. The paper challenges the concept of fiction as representation of history but also ruminates upon the role of Thiong’o’s writing within the context of Kenyan historiography. Key words: postcolonial literature, history, politics, community, individualism History is very important in any people. How we look at our past is very important in determining how we look at and how we evaluate the present. (Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, 1978) The rootedness of postcolonial writing in the historical process of colonialism and the subsequent post-independence period, often referred to as the period of neo- colonial rule, has shaped the character of postcolonial literary production to a large extent.
Individualism and Community in the Novels of Ngugi Wa Thiong'o

o n- b-c\S RECONSTRUCTING IDENTITY IN POSTCOLONIAL AFRICAN FICTION: Individualism and Community in the Novels of Ngugi wa Thiong'o Dianne O. Schwerdt A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of English University of Adelaide November L994 N,n' t\t t\ \'\ct" CONTENTS Abstract I Statements Í1 Acknowledgements lV 1. Introduction: Defining the Territory 1 2. Reconstructing the Past: Ngugi's Kenya 42 3. The Divided Individual: Social and Cultural Displacement in The River Between andWeep Not, Child 73 4. Redef,rning the Emergency: The Fragmented Community in A Grain of Wheat r20 5. Individual Choice and Communal Solidarity: Class Alliance in Petals of Blood r64 6. The'Way Home: Restoring Community in Devil on the Cross and Matigari 205 7. Conclusion: Redefining the Future 247 Works Consulted 270 ABSTRACT The intention of this thesis is to examine the way in which Kenya's most significant writer, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, has portlayed the impact of colonialism on the relationship between individualism and community in postcolonial Africa. The views ù expressed in his fiction ale shaped as much by the political, economic, social and cultural forces that have eroded communal structures and values, as by African resistance to those folces. They reflect not only his own disillusionment, but the disenchantment felt by many African intellectuals in the aftermaths of national independence. The changes expedenced by Afiican societies as a rcsult of colonial intervention in Africa were characteristically lapid. Ngugi poltrays tl-re processes by which traditional alliances between individuals and their co--.rnities were disrupted, and the various ways in which new relationships wele forged that could fiuitfully accommodate emerging identities that were not necessarily grounded in the traditional community.