Eros and Politics: Love and its Discontents in the Fiction of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o Felicia Annin (Mrs) A dissertation submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of English, University of the Western Cape. Supervisor: Associate Professor F. Fiona Moolla https://etd.uwc.ac.za i DECLARATION I declare that “Eros and Politics: Love and its Discontents in the Fiction of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o” is my own work, that it has not been submitted for any degree or examination at any other university, and that all sources I have used or quoted have been indicated and acknowledged by complete references. Name: Felicia Annin (Mrs) Student number: 3674118 Signature: Date: 17th September 2019 https://etd.uwc.ac.za ii ABSTRACT In this study I focus on how Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s fiction portrays his socio-political vision through the prevalence of the intimate relationships it displays. The study critically analyses the significant role romantic love and friendship play in the novels The River Between (1965), Weep Not, Child (1964), A Grain of Wheat (1967), Petals of Blood (1977), Devil on the Cross (1982), Matigari (1987) and Wizard of the Crow (2006) against the backdrop of Ngũgĩ’s other fiction, plays and non-fiction. Ngũgĩ identifies himself as a Marxist, anti-colonialist/imperialist, and anti- capitalist writer, for whom there is no contradiction between aesthetic and political missions. The aesthetic and political projects take form through the representation, very importantly, of romantic love in his fiction. The significance of eros, which is clear in the fiction, is not, however, present in Ngũgĩ’s theoretical reflections on his writing as formulated in his essays. In Ngũgĩ’s early novels, we see love attempting to break the boundaries of religion and class in the creation of a modern nation-state. But there are obstacles to these attempts at national unity through love, the only relationship apart from friendship that is self-made, and not determined by kinship relations. In the fiction from the middle of Ngũgĩ’s career, we see romantic love consummated in marriage. The achievement of unity is, however, undercut by betrayal, which is a repeated theme in all the novels. The “betrayal” of the ideal of romantic love by materialism is the most significant threat to love. Friendship emerges in one of the later novels as a kind of “excursus” to romantic love that foregrounds, by default, the ways in which Ngũgĩ’s political vision seeks be consolidated through the personal relationship of romantic love. In Ngũgĩ’s final novel, we see his personal and political visions coming together in a utopian erotic union for first time. Because of the nature of the exploration, which aims at opening up the wider significance of eros, the study is not framed by a dominant theory, most of which would lead to understanding eros through gender and power https://etd.uwc.ac.za iii relations. Instead, the study has been framed through concepts and debates on romantic love that emerge in sociology, anthropology, philosophy and literary history. KEYWORDS: Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, postcolonial literature, African literature, romantic love, politics, marriage, monogamy, polygamy, adultery, exploitation, friendship, sexuality. https://etd.uwc.ac.za iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS To God be the glory, great things He has done. It is by God’s grace and mercy that brought me this far to pursue this PhD programme. I am indebted to my supervisor, Associate Professor Fiona Moolla, whose immense support and encouragement saw me through. She has been an inspiration to me throughout my study. Even when it became tough, you were patient and understanding. You taught me how to write and organise my ideas. I have really learnt a lot from you and I am grateful for your interest in my topic. You will forever have a place in my heart. To all the lecturers in the English department, I thank you all for your support. I am also grateful to Mrs. Sandra James, librarian of Faculty of Arts and inter-library loans staff, especially Helena, who made sure that I got all the books and articles I needed for my study. I am appreciative of my family, especially my mother, Maame Pomaa, who stood in for me as both a mother and grandmother to my children. Antie, I thank God for the gift of you. May God replenish all that you have lost on me. To my husband, Mr. Eric Annin, I say God bless you for holding the fort while I was away. And to all my lovely children, Panyin Afriyie Annin, Kakra Afriyie Annin, Kofi Karikari Annin and Adwoa Aborasika Annin who were able to cope with an absentee mother and understood the fact that I had to add value to myself, I am extremely grateful to you all. My sincere thanks go to my sisters, Maa Harri and Maa Awura, for your prayers, advice and support. Finally, to all my friends, Professor Irene Boateng, Dr. Cecilia Addei, Dr. Frimpong Kodie, Mr. Akuffo, Kwabena Agyekum, Bassi Madu and Evans Sekyi, thanks for your prayers and encouragement. I am also grateful to my institution, Valley View University, Ghana, for their financial support and the permission granted me to travel to and from Cape Town, South Africa, to pursue https://etd.uwc.ac.za v my study. I am especially grateful to my Vice Chancellor, Professor Daniel Bediako, and the former Vice Chancellor, Professor Daniel Buor, for their confidence in me. May God bless Valley View University and make it great and strong. https://etd.uwc.ac.za vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 1 Tracking Ngũgĩ Through Scholarship: The Overlooked Debate on Romantic Love 10 • Explorations of Love in Africa 28 • Love in African Literature, Orature and Popular Culture 36 • Overview 44 Chapter One Boundary-Breaking Love and The Modern Nation-State: Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s The River Between and Weep Not, Child 46 •A Nation Divided: Ngũgĩ’s “Things Fall A part” in the Early Novels 50 •What’s Love Got to Do with Education? 71 • Bridging Divides: Romantic Love and Education 75 Chapter Two The Personal Is Political: Love, Betrayal and Adultery in Ngũgĩ’s A Grain of Wheat and Devil on the Cross 77 • For Better or for Worse: Marriage and Adultery in A Grain of Wheat 83 • Gerontocratic Betrayals: “Sugar Daddies” in Devil on the Cross 105 Chapter Three Love and Money: Erotic Materialism in Petals of Blood 123 • The Harlot’s Curse and the Death of Marriage 131 • Paradoxes of Prostitution in Petals of Blood 149 Chapter Four Excursus: Friendship in Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s Matigari 157 • The Politics of Love and Friendship 167 Chapter Five Love in The Time of Dictatorship: The Reconciliation of Love and Politics in Wizard of the Crow 185 • The Dictatorship of Love: Relationships Under Authoritarianism 194 • The Dictatorship of Love and Love Overcoming Dictatorship 204 Conclusion 219 https://etd.uwc.ac.za vii Works Consulted 224 https://etd.uwc.ac.za 1 INTRODUCTION The Kenyan writer Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o has been one of the strongest voices in post- independence Africa in his demand for an African aesthetics that projects the images and concerns of the African continent. His reputation is such that he has been described as the best-known African writer who emerged in the period of African independence during the late 1950s and early 1960s (Lovesey 1). Ngũgĩ fascinates me because of his passionate commitment to African development, explicitly addressed through his active focus on political and economic issues in his novels. But Ngũgĩ fascinates me also since, almost without exception, he expresses political, economic, social and cultural issues through a range of romantic relationships presented in his plays, short stories and novels. Heterosexual romantic love appears to be the human relationship in which Ngũgĩ invests the most importance, followed by the relationship with the mother. As we shall see, Ngũgĩ’s work is shaped by his life; for this reason it is necessary briefly to consider his biography. Ngũgĩ was born in Kamiriithu Village near Limuru in the Kiambu District of Kenya on the 5th of January 1938 to Thiong’o wa Nducu and Wanjiku wa Ngũgĩ. Ngũgĩ reflects positively in his autobiographical works on growing up in a polygynous household but, interestingly, the question of polygyny hardly ever comes up in his fiction, where intimate relationships and monogamous marriage are frequently represented. His father, Thiong’o wa Nducu, married four wives and Ngũgĩ’s mother was the third wife. He had more than twenty siblings (Sicherman 3, Lovesey 12) and Ngũgĩ was the fifth child of his mother’s six children: three sisters and three brothers. In spite of the peaceful coexistence between the father and his wives, Ngũgĩ was emotionally affected as the child of a broken home as a result of the separation that ensued between his parents. In his memoir, Dreams in Times of War (2010), we read that https://etd.uwc.ac.za 2 Ngũgĩ and his younger brother were ejected from their father’s compound. Ngũgĩ attended the mission-run Kamaandura School and Independent Schools (Narang 5) and continued his secondary education at Alliance High School (1955–1959) and Makerere University College in Kampala, Uganda (1959–1964), where he studied English Literature. In an interview with Amooti wa Irumba, Ngũgĩ discusses his personal life experience from primary school to university and elaborates on the suffering of his mother after the separation: My father and mother separated in 1946 or 1947, and thereafter my mother was the one who took care of us; ... She virtually shouldered every responsibility of our struggle for food, shelter, clothing, and education.