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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. -
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". -
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. -
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. -
British Colonialism in Nigeria and Kenya: a Post-Colonial Study Through Things Fall Apart and the River Between»
Trabajo de Fin de Grado «BRITISH COLONIALISM IN NIGERIA AND KENYA: A POST-COLONIAL STUDY THROUGH THINGS FALL APART AND THE RIVER BETWEEN» Autora: Paula Sánchez Conejero Tutor: Maurice O’Connor Doble Grado en Estudios Franceses y Estudios Ingleses Curso Académico: 2018-2019 Fecha de presentación: 23/01/2019 Facultad de Filosofía y Letras INDEX 0. Abstract ....................................................................................................................... 2 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................ 3 2. The Scramble for Africa ............................................................................................ 6 2.1 British colonialism in Nigeria and Kenya, two different realities .................... 7 3. African literature ...................................................................................................... 13 3.1 Chinua Achebe .................................................................................................... 15 3.1.1 Things Fall Apart .......................................................................................... 16 3.2 Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o .............................................................................................. 19 3.2.1 The River Between......................................................................................... 20 4. Post-colonial analysis ................................................................................................ 22 4.1 Tradition -
Ngugi Wa Thiong'o's Fight Against Colonialism and Neocolonialism ;An
NGUGI WA THIONG'O'S FIGHT AGAINST COLONIALISM AND NEOCOLONIALISM: AN EXPLORATION OF THE THEME OF BETRAYAL by James Stephen Robson B.A., Simon Fraser University, 1972 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in the Department of English 0 James Stephen Robson SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY December 1987 All rights reserved. This work may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without permission of the author. APPROVAL NAME : JAMES STEPHEN ROBSON DEGREE : MASTER OF ARTS TITLE OF THESIS: NGUGI WA -THIONG '0's FIGHT AGAINST COLONIALISM AND NEO- COLONIALISM: AN EXPLORATION OF THE THEME OF BETRAYAL EXAMINING COMMITTEE : Chairperson: David Stouck Ma1 colm Page. Senior Supervisor Professor of Engl i sh Chin Banerjee Associate Professor of English Diana Brydon External Examiner Associate Professor of English Date Approved: December 4, 1987 PARTIAL COPYRIGHT LICENSE I hereby grant to Slmn Fraser Universlty the right to lend my thesis, project or extended essay (the title of which is shown below) to users of the Simon Fraser University Library, and to make partial or single copies only for such users or In response to a request from the library of any other university, or other educational institution, on its own behalf or for one of Its users. I further agree that permission for multiple copying of this work for scholarly purposes may be granted by me or the Dean of Graduate Studies. It is understood that copying or publlcatlon of thls work for financial galn shall not be allowed wiPhout my written permission. -
Ngũgĩ Wa Thiong O
Critical Theory Institute University of California, Irvine 2010 Wellek Library Lecture Series www.humanities.uci.edu/critical Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o (Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature and English, University of California - Irvine) The Hegelian Lord and Colonial Bondsman: Literature and the Politics of Knowing Monday, May 17, 5:00-7:00pm Wednesday, May 19, 5:00-7:00pm Friday, May 21, 5:00-7:00pm Humanities Gateway, Room 1030 Critical Theory Institute Following Monday’s lecture the audience is 433 Krieger Hall UC Irvine cordially invited to attend a reception for Irvine, CA 92697-5525 Ngũgĩ in Humanities Gateway, Room 1010, Phone: 949-824-5583 7:00PM-8:00pm. Director: Kavita Philip Admin. Coordinator: Lisa Clark For information concerning accommodations for disabilities, please [email protected] contact Lisa Clark at 949-824-5583 Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o: A Bibliography for the Occasion of the 30th Wellek Library Lectures Compiled by John Novak, UCI Research Librarian An electronic version of this and previous Wellek Library Lecture bibliographies with working electronic links will be maintained at this Web site: http://www.lib.uci.edu/about/publications/wellek/wellek-series.html Table of Contents Works by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o Memoirs .............................................................................................. p.1 Novels and Short Stories .................................................................... p.1 Plays ................................................................................................... p.2 -
[Review Of] Ngugi Wa Thiong'o. Detained: a Writer's Prison Diary
rise and fall of segregation in state-supported graduate schools like those at OU, as well as Clara Luper's explanation of the NAACP's struggle for civil rights during the 1960s by staging lunch-counter sit-ins and other demonstrations in Oklahoma City. Luper's remembering of how the segregated walls of the Katz Drugstores came tumbling down is by itself worth turning to first for the feeling of triumph over bigotry which it evokes. For the most part, however, the main proportion and attraction of the volume are the selections which deal with the early, frontier era in Oklahoma history. Alice Mary Robertson's "Christmas Time in Indian Territory"; Emma Ervin Christian's "Memories of My Childhood Days in Choctaw Nation"; J.H. Beadle's "Indian Territory in the 1870s" -such accounts as these verify just how intrinsically Native American Oklahoma is in its ancestry and atmosphere. Outside of Beadle, who was the western correspondent for the Cincinnati Commercial and wrote for an audience of prospective settlers, most if not all of the authors are average men and women who wrote these reminiscences in a straight forward way, based on keen observation and a spirit of inquiry. Thus Oklahoma Memories is representative of people's history and shines all the more fo r its blemishes and bumps. Ann Hodges Morgan, now Vice President fo r Programs at the Kerr Foundation in Oklahoma City, and Rennard Strickland, Research Professor of History and Law at the University of Tulsa, deserve the reader's gratitude for their good taste and sense in selecting, arranging, and commenting on twenty-seven "memories" of interest to both professional historians and amateur buffs. -
Ufahamu: a Journal of African Studies
UCLA Ufahamu: A Journal of African Studies Title National and Revolutionary Consciousness: Two Phases of Ngugi's Artistic Praxis Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/623976wt Journal Ufahamu: A Journal of African Studies, 18(2) ISSN 0041-5715 Author Aborisade, P.A. Publication Date 1990 DOI 10.5070/F7182016831 Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California 59 National and Revolutionary Consciousness: Two Phases of Ngugi's Artistic PraxisI by P. A. Aborisade Introduction This essay is a resumption of the investigation set in motion by Omafume Onoge a decade and a half ago in what he perceptively termed "the crisis of consciousness in modem African literature."2 Now, as then, the situation still bears being described as one of crisis, although not an unmitigated one. Modem African literary culture (writing and criticism) clearly exhibits sometimes highly contrastive and sometimes complementary perspectives and features. In any case, however, concerning the writer, theorist or critic, the perspectives can easily be placed in specific spaces elaborated within the spectrum of African literary discourse. Whatever the developments that might have taken place within modem African literature to date, the classificatory paradigms elaborated by Onoge still stand as the most appropriate to place any perspective, or an inflection of one, in terms of the patterns of consciousness of the African writer and his responsibility to his African heritage. Briefly, we may synthesize these patterns into four. They have been arrived at by analyzing the realism brought into the artistic process by the writer, taking into account the socio-historical conditioning of the writer's consciousness. -
“Weep Not, Child” Is Set in a Gikuyu Village in Kenya During the 1952-1960 Emergency
WEEP NOT, CHILD Introduction “Weep Not, Child” is set in a Gikuyu village in Kenya during the 1952-1960 Emergency. It was a tumultuous and violent period. Ben Okri wrote in the introduction of the book, “One of the signal novels to emerge from an artist listening to both the well of tradition and the troubled oracles of his time . In Weep Not, Child, Ngugi’s art is at its purest… tale of young love set against the backdrop of opposing families and a world seething with violence and injustice.” Weep Not, Child is Ngugi’s first novel. It is a moving novel about the effects of the Mau Mau uprising on the lives of ordinary men and women, and on one family in particular. Two brothers, Njoroge and Kamau, stand on a garbage heap and look into their futures: Njoroge is to attend school, while Kamau will train to be a carpenter. But this is Kenya, and the times are against them: In the forests, the Mau Mau is waging war against the white government, and the two brothers and their family need to decide where their loyalties lie. For the practical Kamau, the choice is simple, but for Njoroge the scholar, the dream of progress through learning is a hard one to give up. Some of his works published around the time- Weep Not, Child, 1964, The River Between, 1965, (describing the Mau Mau rebellion and the unhappy relationship between Christians and non- Christians). A Grain of Wheat, 1967-where he explicitly made clear his political view and after which he converted to exclusively African-Languages writing.