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Individualism and Community in the Novels of Ngugi Wa Thiong'o

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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. His writing educes the real darnage done to individuals and their communities as a result of Europe's expansion into Africa. His tlctional representation of the African response to colonial dominance in Kenya-culminating in Mau Mau and the Emergency-+hallenges prevailing views: he both àsserts the continuity of an African resistance culture and mourns the final disintegration of ttaditional communal cohesiveness in the fragmentation tliat was experienced durlng the crisis of the fifties. Malking these as predominantly destrr.rctive changes in Afiica, Ngugi explores, in a systematic and dynamic way, the postcolonial history of his people, focusing on the primary sites of conflict that inevitably emerged: between individuals, between individuals and their cornmunities and ultimately between individuals and the broadest of communities, the nation. The earlier novels centre on individual alienation from traditional communities struggling to maintain themselves in the face of developing tensions and fissules, disruptions inevitably exacerbated by nationalism and the move towards independence. In the later works, Ngugi critically examines decolonisation in Africa and advocates the reasseúion of past communal values as the only appropriate foundation for a reconstructed, autonomous nation. The novels urge the transformation of self-interested individualism into an individualism that expresses itself more productively, if paladoxically, in collectivism. To examine the changing dialectic between individual and community, then, is to probe the central core of the novels, for such an approach explores not just the narrative substance but, as well, the social philosophy that produces Ngugi's reconstructions of the past and his persuasive vision of Africa's potential future. STATEMENTS This thesis contains no material that has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma in any University, and, to the best of my knowledge and belief, no material previously published or written by another person, except where due reference is made in the text or notes. I am willing to make this thesis available for'loan and photocopying if it is accepted for the award of the degree. Dianne O. Schwerdt ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Special thanks to Kevin Magarey, whose patience, encouragement and readiness to discuss so many aspects of this potentially enormous topic, saw the project to its completion. My thanks also go to Sue Hosking who cheerfully agreed to read and comment on the drafts. Many thanks to Peter Newnham in the Barr Smith Library, who enthusiastically assisted me in the location of material that sometimes proved difficult to find, and eff,rciently organised many inter-library loans in the initial stages of my research. Thanks also to the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies for access to its University staff and Library facilities. I am also grateful to the University of Adelaide for the Study Leave that made research overseas possible. And I thank those close to me for theil loving encouragement to get on with it----especially Lara, Kierau, Jetemy, Tirnothy and Berynn. Chapter One INTRODUCTION: DEFINING THE TERRITORY ...to receive independence is not tlie same as to take it.'.. (Jameson, "Third-'World Litelatule" 8 1) Writing for and about ourselves...lielps constitute the modern community of the natiolt, but we do it largeiy in languages imposed by 'the rnight of the legions'...European languages and European disciplines have been 'turned,' like double agents, from the projggts of thè metropole to the intellectual work of post colonial cultural life. (Appiah, In My Fa.îher',s Hou.se 55-6) Individualism and community: a ¡rolitico-economic relationship Colonialism has at'fected mole tlian half the cunent wodd's population in ways that have been plofound and illevelsible. Its cultulal, social, economic and political effects have irrpingecl on every aspect of the lives of the colonised, affecting the individual's sense of self and lelationship witl'r others and the wider community. While at independence colonial lule rnay officially have ended, writers fi'om fotmer colonies continue to write clitically of colonialisrt's temaining impact on their natrons Although any correlation between litelature and politics has always been problernatic, postcolonial litelatule, often overtly political, is also often radical, even stlident. Its authors ale chal'acteristically anti-colonial, challenging European views of theil nations' histories ancl the foleign hegernony over their.countries implied in their neo-colonial remnants. This is particular'ly ttue in Africa, where the remains of that hegemony lingel tenaciously, dividing nations between minorities who suppol't, alld benelit from, the intlusive rôle in national politics of Eulo-American mr-rltinationals, ancl the rnaj olities to whom such'benefits' remain foreign. Significant African wrjtels, clitical of neo-colonial Africa, use literaturc as the medium through which such political disenchantment is alticulated. The views of Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Keuya'S most plominent writer and dissident, on the 2 dialectical relationsliip between aesthetics and politics have established his works among the most impoltant Lo come out of Africa. His novels chronologically portray the postcolonial l-ristoly of Kenya, but do not sirnply provide a window on major histotical events. His fiction maps and analyses the changes these events have generated as they have af-fbcted, and continue to affect, the inter-relationship between individuals and their communities. Ngugi's writing, influential both at home and abload in tlie on-going struggle for libelation, has clitically probed and assessed his own society in the vel'y process of its transfolmation, in terms not only political and economic, but also human. It is this palticular aspect of Ngugi's work-his treatment of the changìng nexlls between individual and community in the context of postcolonial Kenya-that this study exarnines. In pte-colonial Kenya, tladitional strnctures, developed for the society's long term survival, r'ellectecl an inteldependence of individual, community and land, which colonialism changed. Bilt the assumptioll that with independence national restructuring would undo the calìses ol povetty and powet'lessness proved baseless. Kenya shares witl-r othel'Afiican nations a post-independence experience char.actelised by government corluption, political disillusionment and economic despair.. Democracy has given way to cor.rstitutional dictatolships, and the level of foreign investment declicated to economic developrnent has guaranteed continuing domestic poverty and despair. Postcolonial litelature locuses on a number of issues, and not the least on the ways in which Europe came to clominate those people who were gathered-often unwillingly-into the embrace of its extended empiles. The conditions attached to the embrace were, mole often Lhan not, economic, and postcolonial writing examines the ways in which colonially imposed socio-economic sttuctures altered the lives of the colonised, lblcing many olf their lands and into the labour market as paft of a docile, malleable and essentially powerless wotk force. Historically this new r'ôle allowecl the inclividual little oppoll-Lrnity for effecting, ot'even expecting, change. Ngugi depicts this periocl as one in which Africans were deceived, or 3 forced, into accepting colonial rule and the consequent plundering oflocal natural resoulces, pàrticlllarly lancl, whilst an ir-r'rported colonial culture denigrated Africa and things Afiic¿ur. At independence nothing changed. Optimistically Ngugi suggests that the cun'ent context gives every indication that there is potential
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