Topic:1 A Grain of
Wheat as a narration of nation?
name : Makwana Ankita
Roll no:01
Paper No: 14 The African Literature.
Enrolment No: PG13101020
Submitted to: Departmnt of English
Enrolment
No: PG13101020
NamaAbout the author
Ngugi Wa
Thiongo’s
Born: January 5, 1938
Education: Makerere University
Awards: Tahtifantasia Award.
Ø
- Thiongo also transliterated as Ngugi. Kenya novelist, playwright, essayist, short story writer, children’s writer and critic.
Ø Ngugi
is widely regarded as one of the most significant writer of East Africa.
v About his works.
Ø Weep
not child
Ø Petals
of Bloods
Ø The
River Betwee
Ø His
first novel,Weep not , child , was the first English language novel to be
published by an East African and his account of the “ Mau Mau “ emergency in A
Grain of Wheat presented for the first time an African perspective on the Kenya
armed revolt against British colonial rule during the 1950s.
Ø A
Grain of Wheat and many of NNgugi wa Thiongo early novel were written in English.
john McLeod claims that…
Ø “Ngugi
use of the lEnglish Language and the literary forms as the means to create a
distinetly national representation”
Ø The
title of the novel is taken from the New Testament, and refers to a passage
from Paul’s first letter to Corinthians which is placed as an epicgarph at the
very beginning..
Ø “thou
fool, that which thou sowest
is not quickened,
except it die
And that which
thous sowest,
Thou sowest not
that body that shall be, but grain…”
Ø The
reference to the “A Grain of Wheat” links this epicgraph to a second one, taken
from john’s Gospel, which opens the last part of the novel, “Verily, verily say
unto you, Except a corn of Wheat fall into the ground and die…”
Ø The
ideological character of the historical and geographical construction of the
nation becomes evident when one realizes that the frontiers imposed by the
colonizers were totally arbitrary and that the historiographical foundations of
the political genealogy of the movement proposed here are, at best, thin.
Ø The
Gikuyu see the arrival of the white missionaries with curiosity and nobody pays
attention the prophency of Mugo Wa Kibiro, who had predicted that the newcomers
would bring only misfortune.
Ø Ngugi
was not interested in perpetuating the rhetoric of the “Liberators “ , he gives
place to the heroic narration of the only in as much as the masses themselves
endow some figures with meaning ,transforming them into myths that help to
mobilize the people and trenghten the horizontal solidarity among colonized.
Ø According
to Ngugi…
Ø “Africans
writing in English fall victim to a kind of “Europeanized Writing”, he however,
recognize his own complicity in this scheme.
Ø Ngugi
also talking about anti-colonialist betrayals is through his descriptions of
Karanja’s speech interactions with his European official for whom he works.
Ø Many
times Karanja had walked towards Thompson determined to ask him a direct
question.Cold water lumped in his belly, his would thunder violently when he
came near the Whiteman.
Ø This
passage shos the Karanja’s inability, to communicate with the whites. Karanja’s
deference and subservience directly contrasts Kihika’s “Cult of Personality”
and presence against colonialist oppression.
Ø Most of these historical movements were too
heterogeneous to be reduced to unity, but Ngugi as noticed by James Ogude,
intends to show the “Mau Mau” as a unity force with a consistent nationalist
standing and a firm class-rooted view discards all the aspects of the movement,
which contradict this narrative.
Ø Ngugi
also includes a new song in Gikuyu , Written by Kihika that also addresses
revolutionary concerns….
“Gikuyu Na
Mumbi,
Gikuyu Na
Mumbi,
Gikuyu Na
Mumbi,
Nikihui
ngwatiro”
Ø This
song written by Kihika in Gikuyu and making explicite reference to the language
and heritage of Kenya, comes to embody all aspects of the Kenyan nationalist
and independence movement.The song also suggest that link between heritage and
Language.
Ø However,
in addition to his song in Gikuyu about independence, Ngugi also incorporates
revolutionary songs in English. One such song is…
“We shall never
rest,
Without land
Without Freedom
true
Kenya is a
country of black people”
Ø Though
this song represents Kenyon’s Zeal for independence, it places all of its
empahasis on the revolutionary struggle.
Ø The
nation that the people will “ never rest “ and that they are “ without land “
and “ without Freedom” highlights Kenyan’s status as a colony; though the song
expresses a desire for independence , Uhuru has not yet come.
Ø In
addition to these songs in both English and Gikuyu and, Kihika also relates
another piece of African text in Swahli: “Watch ye and pray; Kihika said,
calling on his audience to remember the great Swahili proverb: Kikulacho Kimo
nguoni mwako” .
Ø “Watch
ye and pray” is a message of hope.
Ø The
idea that kihika parallels a Christian maxim with a Swahili one is a motif that
recurs throughout the novel. At several’s point, Kihika uses language from the
Bible in English the message to have revolutionary significance.
Ø The
Bible does not talk about circumcising women”. At several points in the novel,
Kihika references the Christian Bible in order to strengthen his appeal for
nationalism.
Ø According
to Mcleod…
“Kihika’s
knowledge of the Bible is used to resists the colonial teaching he is exposed
to. The Bible was one of the chief resources that Christian missionaries used
to condemn indigenous African religious practice”
Ø Ngugi’s
inclusion of numerous Biblical passages to promote nationalism is also
linguistically significant, in that the Bible was a tool used by missionaries
not only to gain converts, but also to teach English.
Ø One
of the main Biblical verse with a note that they are “underlined in red in
Kihika’s Bible” . Kihika’s uses several verses from Exodus in a revolutionary;
he employs passage describing “the affliction of [God’s] people with that of
the Israelites in Egypt, again lending a revolutionary interpretation to a
traditional tool of colonial oppression.
Ø According
to McLeod’s…
“Kihika’s has a
larger-than-life personality; this passage also ties Kihika’s Christianity to
nationalism.”
Ø As
John Hawley cites, Ngugi an other Africans author “replace the Eropean
christian story, which they associate with the religious and cultural
subjugation Foucault observed, with an indigenized or Hybridized Christianity
aligned with liberation and justice.
Ø From
the very beginning of the novel, Ngugi intentionally calls attention to the
‘Politics of time’.
Ø Gikonyo’s
decision to betray his Mau Mau oath, Gikonyos psychological breakdown manifests
the extent of the horrors of detention life.Suffering without knowing the
committed “crime”, these detainsees were contantly threatened to be swallowed
by their despair.
v Conclusion.
In short, The word ‘Uhuru’ means freedom.It is about freedom
for nation. Kihika has been killed by the time of the ‘Uhuru’. Throuhout the
novel there remains the tension between individual and collective action that
is never fully resolved. Ngugi is Following Fanon’s concept of nationalism is
making the people for the novel.
