INTRODUCTION
Culture is the
bedrock of development in any given society. A healthy culture is a culture of
equality, free from all forms of exploitation and rooted in true tradition of
the people. Talking about culture, Ngugi is quoted by
David Cantalupo in The world of Ngugi wa
Thiongo as saying
that “Culture that change to the ever changing dynamics of internal
relations and which maintain a balanced give and take with external relations
are ones that are healthy”.(6)
The creative writer
therefore concerns himself with how his target audience receives his message.
Consequently, he uses his imaginative art to palliate his intentions on the
surface value and thus conveniently criticizes, instructs, educates and
entertains. He is a historian and artist who chronicles his people’s past as he
projects into the future. Such projection does not fail to embody experiences
which are already lived or ongoing in his society.
The unfolding
socio-political issues in Africa have, continued to form the message in most
contemporary African literary works and Ngugi is no
exception. Carl Wood attests to this about Ngugi in
these few words thus: “cut the Kenyan novelist, Ngugi
Wa Thiong’o,
and he bleeds politics.”(www.runmuki.com)
As social crusaders,
the power of the African writer depends on how skillful he manipulates his
literary message and style to depict the society in which he finds himself.
This is because the essence of literature is to effect a functional change in
society. That is why Ngugi tries to re-enact the
history of the Kenyan people’s historic struggle by extolling their heroic
struggle and that of Africa in general in the wake of colonialism and now
neo-colonial era. Paul Dorn affirms this
commitment thus:
One
African writer with an explicit desire to overturn and end “the whole thing” is
Kenyan (Gikuyu) writer, Ngugi
Wa Thiong’o.
Through his numerous plays, essays and novels, Ngugi
has constantly positioned himself as an advocate for the ordinary peasants and
workers of Kenya, and more generally, Africa (www.runmuki)
The history of all
hitherto existing society is the history class struggle - the oppressor and the
oppressed who are in constant opposition to one
another, a fight that each time ended either in a revolutionary re-constitution
of the society at large or in the common ruin of the classes. Such struggle is
what one finds in almost all of Ngugi’s literary
works. He gives an account of this in history, showing how each of these
contending classes emerged in the decisive moment when the Kenyan people
reacted to foreign invasion. Thus, the Mau-Mau struggle is seen as the
culmination of the previous struggle wage by the other resistance heroes in
Kenya. Therefore, one function African literature has continued to play is that
of mapping out unique political and cultural consciousness as part of a larger
project of liberating the Africans from the harsh conditions and realities
created by imperialism and neo-colonialism.
African novelists
respond with a certain urgency to the need not only to
decolonize the minds of the citizens but also to expose and condemn the subtle
and indigenized forms which oppressive power has taken in the post-colonial era
in Africa. This conforms to Tirop Simatei’s
assertion that:
The
novelist’s relevance to the society is attained through a conscious
intervention in the unfolding of history; an intervention which, as a kind of
artistic mission, is already over-determined by the inhuman politics of both
colonial and post-colonial epoch. (10)
From the above
therefore, literature is an important tool in the struggle for national
liberation and in the formulation of national consciousness. However, the
specific historical realities and conditions that dictate a writer’s response
to such events differ from place to place. For this reason, Ngugi’s
tone is certainly dictated by the collapse of the dreams of independence in
Kenya, an experience that is considered as a betrayal of the masses who
sacrificed their “limbs” and “blood” to see a Kenyan nation ruled by Kenyans.
His reactions and criticisms are thus directed to the immediate historical
forces shaping these events – the ruling class. Tirop
Salman Rushdie’s Imaginary Homelands
affirms this position thus:
Writers
and politicians are natural rivals. Both groups try to make the world in their
own images; they fight for the same territory. And the novel is one way of
denying the official politician’s version of truth. (14)
Therefore, Petals of Blood and Wizard of
the Crow are two novels through which Ngugi
attempts to rival politicians’ version of truth.
THEORETICAL
FRAMEWAORK
For the purpose of a
clear understanding of Ngugi’s ideological stance in
his literary achievement, this paper adopts Marxist theory that has continued
to influence Ngugi’s works.
Marxism
Marxism as a social
and political theory seeks to explain the course of human history and the
structure of past, present, and future societies. It provides a unifying and
integrating set of values for the prescription of the future. For this reason,
there is a vital link between history as observed by Andre Brink that “A
literary text can never be a mere transcription of the historical document, but
a re-invention of it” (143)
Literary Marxism, evaluates and interprets literary works based on
the material and economic forces that shape them with regards to their origin
and depiction of struggle between social classes. Prominent
figures in this theory includes Karl Marx, Fredrich
Engels, Terry Eagleson and others. This artistic
process of re-inventing social realities from historical antecedents is heavily
explored by Ngugi in Petals of Blood and Wizard of
the Crow where he call on Kenyans and Africans generally to resist
colonialism and neo-colonialism in all its ramifications. It is through this
too that Ngugi encourages gender complementarity to
fight the common enemy in Africa – the political leadership.
Meyer Howard Abrams
attests to this fact that Marxist critics have “concerned themselves with the
power of literary culture to intervene and to transform existing economic and
political arrangements and activities” (151) in the society. Affirming this, Ngugi categorically states that:
I
believe in the socialist vision. I believe that a writer must write not only to
entertain people, but also to change society for the better. And as far as I am
concerned, only if you are working towards a socialist vision, can you be
working for the better. (23)
It is from this stand point that Ngugi strongly advocates mass protest of the working class
and the oppressed peasants against corruption and dictatorship of the leaders
in these two novels, even a violent protest. Thus, the themes of corruption and
protest stand out clearly in the novels under review. To the Marxist, history is made by the low (peasants) in society and
not by kings, heroes or generals. So the issue of protest becomes strong in
Marxist oriented writings.
Many people consider
women’s ‘second class’ status as an imbalance and inhuman portrayal of the
feminine gender in all spheres of influence while many others believe that the
‘second best’ status is a just measure for women, that it has its roots in the
Holy Bible right from creation. This second set of people base their claim on
the book of Genesis:
To
the woman He (God) said: “I will greatly multiply your sorrows and your
conception: in pains you shall bring forth children; your desire shall be for
your husband, and he shall rule over you. (Gen. 3:16)
To many, including women, this is where
women’s present woes lie. Selden, Widdowson and Brooker affirm this in A
Reader’s Guide to Contemporary Literary Theory that this position is “an
imbalance which goes back to the old testament” and that “being dispersed among
men, women have no separate history, no natural solidarity; nor have they
combined as other oppressed groups have” (126-127). The point to note here is
that when God created the woman for Adam, God was creating woman as a helper
because God discovered that the man He created was not cheerful and he was lonely.
The moment God handed the woman to Adam, Adam became a
poet to sing glories of his new found companion, love and happiness. Many
critics therefore quote Genesis 3:16 out of context and this is what Ngugi attempts to put straight by always attaching his female
characters to the male ones for solidarity.
Ngugi sees the
importance of the African woman in the struggle to dismantle corruption,
dictatorship, oppression and neo-colonialism which stands in the way of
development of the African continent and other third world nations. This
solidarity is seriously explored by the author
METHODOLOGY
The method of data collection and analysis
employed for this research is basically textual analysis of the two novels by Ngugi wa
Thiongó, using the purposive sampling technique. The purposive
sampling technique is adopted because it points the reader to specific portion
of the novels that buttress the arguments raised by these researchers. These
include excerpts from other critical works written on Ngugi’s
literary oeuvres by other literary critics.
A BRIEF
SYNOPSIS OF PETALS OF BLOOD AND WIZARD OF THE CROW
Petals of Blood
Petals
of Blood opens
with the arrest and detention of the four protagonists, Munira
a village headmaster and fundamental Christian, Abdulla a former Mau-Mau
warrior, Wanja is presented as a prostitute and now
madam of a brothel and Karega, a former teacher and
now a trade unionist. Three pages later, the paper “the Daily
Mouthpiece” carries the headlines “Mzigo, Chui, Kimeria murdered” (Petals,
4). According to the paper, the three men were lured into a house in
Ilmorog (by who?) where they were burnt to death.
What the paper failed
to highlight is the fact that these so-called men, held as models for new Kenya
were all betrayers and exploiters of their people. It was Kimeria
who impregnated Wanja in her primary school days and
drove her into prostitution. He also betrayed Karega’s
brother (Ndiguri) as a Mau-Mau to the police. He also
rapes Wanja during the Ilmorogians
mass treck to the city. Chui, who once led strikes in
Siriana Mission School against Europeans expelled Munira and Karega in the same
school when he became principal because they participated in strikes. Mzigo acquired the right to thengeta
and the building belonging to Wanja and Abdulla. Thus, forcing them out of business.
After
the incidence, police begin their investigation. The four suspects Munira, Abdulla, Karega, and Wanja are known to be involved in the fire incidence that
killed the three directors. It is here that the reader is gradually led into Ngugi’s controlling voice that those being questioned are
not the real criminals in the society, rather, the police
should go deeper into the lives of the common people to find out what is going
on or risk the inverted justice which is enacted through the investigation.
This point is better understood by the confrontation between the police and the
people after the arrest of Karega who is Ngugi’s mouthpiece in the novel.
Apart
from telling a thrilling story of a crime,
Petals of Blood shows the changing circumstances in the life of Karega twelve years after independence where the hope of
meaningful independence has been frustrated. At the investigation of Karega, backed by the old Nyakinyua,
a decision is reached to march to the city to meet the Member of Parliament and
complain about drought and neglect in Ilmorog. The
result of the mass trek instead of alleviating the people’s sufferings brings
more hardship than envisaged, as Ilmorog now turns
into a modern city with all its associating problems. It is under this
background that the enactment in P.4 of the novel signifies the end of the
story.
Wizard of the Crow
Ngugi Wa Thiong’o’s
Wizard of the Crow is set in the
imaginary country of the Free Republic of Aburiria
with the ruler as he is popularly known down with a curious illness which has
generated various rumours from the citizenry. The
imaginary Free Republic of Aburiria in Wizard of the Crow and Ilmorog in Petals of
Blood are microcosms of any other African country that has come under a
similar corrupt and dictatorial rule like that of Imorog
and Aburiria respectively.
The ruler’s illness
has generated a lot of rumour mongering regarding the
cause of the illness. The stronger version holds that the ruler’s illness is
the result of a curse involving the anus of a “wronged he-goat” and hair stolen
away by the ruler’s barber. The second strong version has it that the illness
is the handiwork of demons housed in a special chamber in the State House. All
the projects especially “Marching to Heaven” aimed at giving the ruler an
unequalled popularity and fame in the whole world have come to nothing. He is
surrounded by political sycophants. He is just like any typical dictator who
seized power with the help of some western connections. He has been in power
for such a long time that he has not remembered how long his reign had been:
His
rule had no beginning and no end: and judging from the facts one may well
believe the claim. Children have been born and given birth to others and those
others to others and so on, and his rule had survived all the generations. So
that when some people heard that before him there had been a first ruler … they
would simply shake their heads in disbelief saying, no, no those are just the
tales of a day dreamer: Aburiria had never had
another and would never have another ruler, ‘because had not this man’s reign
begun before the world begun and would end after the world has ended? (Wizard, .5-6)
Kamiti and Nyawira find themselves allied in opposition to the ruler’s
despotic quest for personal glorification at the expense of the well-being of
the nation’s citizens. This quest is represented by the ruler’s attempt to
secure a loan from the Global Bank to build the world tallest building, a
monument of the ruler called “Marching to Heaven” in the midst of hunger,
poverty, corruption and massive unemployment.
As
it is a common thing with most African states, the streets of Aburiria are littered with garbage and a large number of
beggars, an evidence of unemployment and starvation. Out of desperation to
maintain himself in power, the ruler employs the services of a sorcerer, The
Wizard of the Crow (Kamiti) who had before now been
considered as hostile to the regime.
Thus, Kamiti and Nyawira
triumph in the sense that they evade with their success as a counterpoint to
the beginning of a new circle of exploitation. The ruler has been succeeded by Tajirika (now known as Emperor Titus Flavius Vespasianus Whitehead). Loans have also been acquired from
Global Bank.
It
is against this background that Ngugi advocates
protests even if it is violent one. He restates this fact in an interview with Marcuson thus:
I
am not a pacifist. I do not condemn violence indiscriminately. For the
oppressed have no option but to use violence (31).
This stance is truly portrayed in the pages
of Wizard of the Crow.
THE THEMES
OF CORRUPTION AND PROTEST IN THE TWO NOVELS
A critical study of
these two novels by Ngugi shows that his
preoccupation has been complete rejection of neo-colonialism which is
characterized by corruption in high places thereby alienating the poor peasants
and workers from their political representatives and government in
general. The sad issue of corruption has
eaten deep into African polity, bringing with it underdevelopment, starvation,
insecurity, self-seeking individuals as well as suspicion. This is a common
phenomenon affecting most African countries. In petals of Blood, Ngugi gives a most
comprehensive picture of what he sees as the evil that is pervasive in Kenya
and Africa in general under black rule. The member of Parliament (MP), Nderi wa Riera,
whose corrupt activities were barely suggested in the earlier novel appears as
a real life-size character in Petals of
Blood continue to demonstrate his incompetence, corruption and indifference
to the people’s sufferings in a number of telling scenes. He converts the money
he had collected from his constituency for a water project into security for
loans, buying shares in companies and investing in land and other small
businesses, thereby enhancing the further alienation of the poor peasants from
their ancestral lands and property.
Nderi has
become one of the country’s wealthiest capitalist, a fitting illustration of a
common phenomenon in Africa where politics is used as a stepping stone to
material aggrandizement. The party in power is also subjected to the most
scathing denunciation because of its corruption, thuggery,
sectionalism and indifference to the people’s plight.
In Wizard of the Crow, the level of corruption
and the resultant effects of dictatorship is portrayed
in the physical appearance of the streets of Aburiria.
The streets are filled with beggars, refuse dumps, garbages
and a fleet of unemployed youths. Ngugi puts it more
comical when he states in the novel that:
tourists,
beggars and prostitutes dogged one another in the streets during the day and
met again in the evenings outside Seven-Star hotels as if these shrines of
luxury belonged equally to the rich, the tourists, the beggars and the prostitutes,
the major difference being that at night, the rich, the tourist and prostitutes
stayed in while the beggar found himself out in the open, enduring rain or
cold. But as soon as down broke, they all reconnected (34).
The above statement is what befalls a nation
that is ruled by insensitive and corrupt leaders. The party forces people to
swear to an oath intended to complete the dominance of a particular group of
people the political class, while blinding itself to the real problems of their
countries which are – poverty, starvation, inadequate housing, health and
educational provisions. Ironically, the ideology that informed the Mau-Mau
struggle are defeated as people wake up to the realization of what their
efforts altogether have produced – disillusionment. The liberation fighters are
the most degraded and exploited in independent Kenya. That is why Abdullah can
express his disgust about the country in Petals
of Blood thus:
I
waited for land reforms and redistribution.
I
waited for a job.
I
waited for a statue of Kimathi as a memorial to the
fallen
I
waited. (254)
To Ngugi, the only
remedy to this ugly trend is mass protest by the workers and peasant of Africa
and elsewhere. In Petals of Blood,
this protest is chronicled in the journey to the city by the Ilmorogians. It is against this background that the
peasants and workers under the leadership of the courageous Karega,
backed by the old Nyakinyua leads the tradition of
protest (the mass trek to the city to seek redress from their M.P) indelible in
the history of Ilmorog and Kenya in general. This
corresponds to Karl Marx’s assertion in The
Manifesto of the Communist Party that:
The
weapons with which the bourgeoisie fell
feudalism to the ground are now turned against the bourgeoisie itself ... But
not only has the bourgeoisie forgot the weapons that brings death to itself; it
has also called into existence the men who are to wield these weapons – the
modern working class – the proletarians (41)
In
Wizard of the Crow, protest is humourously
presented in the activities of Nyawira and her women
of the “people’s court” as they call themselves (433-437). Governed by magical
realism, the novel treats the dominant theme of corrupt dictatorship in
post-colonial Africa. The ruler’s strategy to maintain himself
in power is to plot discord among his ministers and community against
community. This is clearly enhanced by the ruler’s cabinet ministers and
upstarts like Kanuiru who constantly plots to undo
the others and win favours in the eyes of the ruler. Ngugi buttresses this in the novel thus:
The
dictator’s reputation for making ministers plot against minster, region rise
against region, and community fights against community was now a matter of
legend. He would side with one warring faction, which would rejoice at its
alliance with power only to wake up one morning to find that the dictator has
sided with its adversary … (231)
This is a typical portrayal of how politics
is done in post-colonial Africa, especially in countries that have come under a
dictatorial regime like that of the Free Republic of Aburiria.
It is from this background that Ngugi advances the
theme of political resistance in the novel for which Nyawira,
Kamiti, and Movement for the Voice of the People
stand for.
The history of Kenya
has been the history of resistance, first against the white imperialists and
now against neo-colonialism. Ngugi in most of his
recent novels, has continuously re-enacted this
resistance and struggle against exploitation. In Petals of Blood, this resistance and protest is played out in the
encounter between the people of Ilmorog and their M.P
(Member of Parliament), Nderi Wa Riera – during the mass
trek to the city to complain about the level of neglect and decay in Ilmorog:
Somebody
in the crowd shouted: these are the people who are misusing our freedom; and
this was greeted with a general murmur of protesting assent. Suddenly, a stone
flew and hit Nderi on the nose. This was followed by
a hailstorm of orange peels, stones, sticks, anything. For a few seconds, Nderi tried to maintain his dignity and ignore the
miscellaneous missiles which flew about him. Then a bit of mud hit him on the
mouth. It was too late to make a dignified exit. He suddenly took to his heels
… He ran across Jeevanjee gardens towards the central
police station with a few pursuing him and shouting Mshike!
Mshike! Huyuu. (182)
In
Wizard of the Crow, Ngugi re-creates the spirit
of resistance in the calculated attempts by Nyawira’s
movement for the voice of the people in making sure that they disrupt any
gathering organized by the ruler to glorify himself.
It is illustrative of the people’s fighting spirit in the face of provocations,
an act which Ngugi portrays Thus:
He
stopped, for suddenly near the centre of the
multitude issued a bloodcurdling scream. A snake! A Snake came
the cry taken up by others. Soon there was pandemonium. People shouted and
shouted in every direction to escape the snake unseen by many ... The head of
the secret police woke up from a stupor and whispered to the ruler. This might
be the beginning of a coup d’etat and within seconds,
the ruler was on his way to the State House … (22)
Ngugi has
created stereotype of Africa’s brand of dictatorship in Wizard of the Crow from which other dictators could be viewed and
from which he advocates a collective solution by people of all ages and sexes –
young and old, men and women alike. This is a steady but gradual war to end
dictatorship and corrupt leadership in Africa and enthrone a genuine African
democracy devoid of Western dependency. This resistance is echoed in the slogan
by the beggars during the ruler’s birthday celebration:
Marching
to Heaven is Marching to Hell. Your Strings of Loans are Chains of Slavery.
Your Loans Are the Cause of Begging. We Beggars Beg the End of Begging. The
March to Heaven is Led by Dangerous Snake. This last
slogan was chanted over and over. (74)
Elsewhere in Writers in Politics, Ngugi
himself asserts that:
A
writer is always trying to persuade us view not only a certain kind of reality,
but also from a certain angle of vision often, though perhaps unconsciously, on
behalf of a certain class, race, or nation. (6)
Ngugi always
tries to re-enact the history of the Kenyan people’s struggle by extolling the
heroic struggle of the Kenyans and Africans in general in the wake of
colonialism and after. He feels that as the tentacles of colonial oppression
still spread and exist, the down-trodden must rise to the challenges of the
times. Cook and Okeninpke attest to this fact in Ngugi wa
Thiongo: An Exploration of his Writings thus:
Ngugi is a man who identifies himself
unequivocally with a progressive and radical line of thoughts concerning all
the pressing issues of his time and who eagerly deploys every means at his
disposal to further the views and policies that he advocates. His fictional and
polemic writings, his activities and lifestyle reinforce this image. (266)
Ngugi is a
strong advocate of violent protest by the workers and peasants who are the sole
producers of the nation’s wealth. He defends his preoccupation in The Works of Ngugi
wa Thiongo:
Towards the Kingdom of Woman and Man thus:
Violence
in order to change an intolerable, unjust social order is not savagery: it
purifies man. Violence to protect and preserve an unjust oppressive social
order is criminal and diminishes man (8)
This violent confrontation is echoed in Petals of Blood between the police and
the workers during Karega’s arrest:
“Within
a few hours, word had spread. The workers in a hostile mood marched towards the
police station demanding his release. A police officer came out and spoke to
them in a surprisingly conciliating manner”
“Please
disband peacefully, Karega
is here for routine questioning. And it is not about your last decision to take
a strike action. It is about murder – murder in Ilmorog.”
“Murder
of the workers” somebody retorted.
“Murder
of the workers’ movement”
“Please,
disband” appealed the officer desperately.
“Disband
yourself … disband the tyranny of foreign companies and their local black
skins! Out with the exploitation of our sweat! (4)
The preceding confrontation corresponds to
Lenin’s view of what a class struggle of the proletariat should be like:
The
class struggle of the proletariat comprises economic struggle (struggle against
individual capitalists or against individual groups of capitalist for the
improvement of workers’ conditions) and the political struggle (struggle
against the government for the broadening of the people’s right) … (11)
Looking at Petals of Blood and Wizard of the Crow from a Marxist point of view, it is important
that a re-visitation of history be made in order to raise national
consciousness especially in a society like Kenya and Africa in general where
corruption, exploitation and oppression by the leaders are common phenomena.
Therefore, only a mass movement of peasants and workers can usher in an
equitable social order where everyone will be his brother’s keeper.
GENDER
COMPLEMENTARITY IN PETALS OF BLOOD AND WIZARD OF THE CROW
Even though these two novels by Ngugi Wa
Thiong’o contain varied narratives, this paper only
focuses primarily on the common technique of gender complementarity in the two
novels. Petals of Blood is unique with its
multiple protagonists and conflicting symbols. Simon Gikandi
in Reading the African Novel applauds
this style thus:
The
most salient feature of characterization in Petals
of Blood is no doubt Ngugi’s use of a group of
characters from different social backgrounds who are nevertheless, consciously
presented as agents of authorial views and thus function as instrument of
mediating the character of the neo-colonial state in modern Africa. (135)
In fact, after The River Between, Ngugi begins to focus
on multiple characters to exhibit African communalism. From then on, it has
been a galaxy of multiple characters in one text.
There is however, a
shift from Ngugi’s well known
style of writing from the previous novels to magical realism in Wizard of the Crow. Lewis Nkosi (qtd in Cantalupo,
197), commenting on Ngugi’s shift in style in Wizard of the Crow argues that:
Ngugi’s gradual relinquishment and realist
representation for the world of fairytale and daydream may provide us with yet
another sign of crises afflicting the post-colonial novel in Africa, generally
in its attempt over these past three decades to plot the story of corruption
and exploitation under the leadership of civilian-military dictatorship …
One unique feature of
Ngugi’s narrative technique is his distribution of
individual and shared roles among his male and female characters. This is one
major area that has clearly portrayed him as a feminist. In most of his novels,
if not all, the reader finds his female characters (even though most times
portrayed symbolically in a negative way on the surface value) playing
complementary and sometimes leading roles to their male counterparts. In Petals
of Blood, one finds the old Nyakinyua and the young Wanja uniting the other three protagonists – Munira, Abdulla and Karega. Wanja’s arrival in the remote village of Ilmorog from the city after a tiring life of prostitution, brings back life to the once dull village as
both young and old gather around her for company. Her presence also changed the
face of Abdulla’s shop and bar.
Nyakinyua sharpens Karega’s knowledge of the history of Ilmorog.
She gives Wanja the secret of brewing real Theng’eta which she used with Abdulla that would later
become an international drink in the hands of the capitalists: Chui, Mzigo and Kimeria. The exemplary
old woman is appropriately called “mother of men” and she is an embodiment of the
values of Ilmorog society and the custodian of its
legends and history.
In Wizard of the Crow, this union of
female and male bonding is seen in Kamiti and Nyawira. A union which started from the pursuing police, came up with the idea to frighten their pursuers.
The novel derives its title from the notice being hanged on the wall to scare
the policemen away. This notice will subsequently become the advertisement for
“his” trade as sorcerer:
The
other beggar tied the bones and rags together. He then took a felt pen from his
bag and wrote on the cardboard in big letter” WARNING! THIS PROPERTY BELONGS TO
A WIZARD WHOSE POWER BRINGS DOWN HAWKS AND CROWS FROM THE SKY. TOUCH THIS HOUSE
AT YOUR PERIL. SGD WIZARD OF THE CROW. (77)
What started like a joke coincidentally
becomes true and within a short period of time, his fame spread all over Aburiria, and even to the United States of America where he
is requested, given VIP treatment to go and cure the ruler of his illness.
Even in the sorcery
business, the reader finds Nyawira taking charge as the Wizard of the
Crow whenever Kamiti is away. She organizes her women
to disorganize any function organized by the ruler to popularize himself. Nyawira’s movement for
the voice of the people also help Vinjinia salvage her
marriage by beating and warning Tajirika never to
raise his hand against a woman again:
A new order of justice created by today’s modern woman. You are
now appearing before a people’s court … we are hawkeyed justice. We float in
the air, our ears wide open to the cries of women. Now
it has come to our ears that you beat your wife night and day (435).
Such is the worth and value Ngugi has given his female characters in most of his
novels. They control the men that matter in the society.
In Petals of Blood, Ngugi
portrays this gender complementarity in the role played by Akinyi
who acts as a link between Karega in prison and the
workers union:
I
have been sent to you … They sent me … The other workers … with a message. They
are with you … and they are … We are planning another strike and march through Ilmorog (343).
Nyakinyua and Wanja represents two different
aspects of the Kenyan woman and also by implication, two different cultural
perspectives. The older woman stands for the Moribund
past in every respects while Wanja, the younger woman
represents the turbulent present. Each in her own way plays a significant role
in the struggle which society has also been engaged in. when Nyakinyua tells the story of her past, and the past of Ilmorog, that story reflects the situation in which man and
woman labour equally to protect the heritage of Gikuyu and Mumbi. She belives that until the younger generation return to the
knowledge of themselves, all will not be well, hence she is always telling
stories of that past to assist the youths towards that understanding. One finds
this determination in her as a struggle to her last drop of blood even when
others refuse to join her. She preferred to die than allow her land to be taken
over by black imperialists:
Nyakiyua, the old woman, tried to fight back.
She tramped from hut to hut calling on the peasants of Ilmorog
to get together and fight out … she tried to convince them that all these were
one and that she would fight them. Her land would never be settled by strangers
(276).
Even as she is left alone to fight the
course, she chooses to fight it her own way. This is a significant portrayal of
stiff resistance to the forceful seizure of lands by black stooges: “I’ll go
alone … my man fought the white man. He paid it with his blood … I’ll struggle
against the black oppressors alone … alone …” (276). It is her sacrifice that
is worth remembering.
In
Matigari, this gender complementarity is
exhibited in the person of Guthera and Mriuki as they risk their lives to rescue Matigari from prison. An act in which Guthera
is shot by the police thereafter that she almost lost her life:
Guthera screamed and fell to the ground. Matigari and Muruiki threw
themselves to the ground too, but they were not hurt … ‘Go, just go!’ she told Matigari. ‘Leave me behind. Let me die, let me die’. But Matigari lifted her in his arms and carried her towards the
river. (146)
The reliance of Ngugi
on the younger generation of men and women in his novels has been a continuous
message that the desired change in the socio-political and economic life of
Kenya and Africa can only be achieved by the younger generation since the older
ones in modern African society have become tired. According to James Ogude in Ngugi’s Novels and
African History: Narating the Nation:
The
struggle crystallized itself in the Mau-Mau anti-colonial war, a struggle which
should continue to inspire new resolves for freedom and dignity in Kenya’s
post-independence period (9).
One can therefore, assume that this is why in
most of Ngugi’s novels especially the recent ones, he
focuses attention on the youth when it comes to resistance against
neo-colonialism. Even when such youthful characters act in company of adults,
the youths excel in surprisingly startling colours.
This is evident in Petals of Blood
with Karega and Wanja:
Jacinta in Devil on the Cross; Guthera and Muruiki in company of
Matigari in Matigari. Just as
we have Kamiti and Nyawira
in Wizard of the Crow among others.
For
someone who has been a constant witness to the inhuman treatment, the
resistance and bloodshed of his fellow Kenyans, it is possible that Ngugi has seen the vision of a renewed vigour
in the youths to carry on with the struggle where their forefathers stopped. He
urges in Globalistics: Theory and the Politics of knowing that
for him:
My
intellectual awakening was thus molded by colonialism and the anti-colonial
resistance that generated what the British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan
famously described as a wind of change sweeping across the continent. I was a
witness (10).
This is truly why he chooses to awaken the
intellectual awareness of the youths who are now witnesses to neo-colonialism
with its attendant problems.
CONCLUSION
Ngugi in these
powerful novels, is advocating a resumption of the
broken dialogue between Africa and her past to revive those internal dynamics
which have existed from time immemorial. His desire is not only to revive them
but also to adopt these dynamics to the present needs of the struggle towards
an equitably free and humane society. To achieve this, a relationship with
history has to be made – especially in Africa where corruption, exploitation
and oppression are common phenomena. Therefore, only a mass movement of the
workers and peasants, young and old, men and women can usher in such a society.
Leaning on Marxist
literary theory, the reader understands and appreciate
issues of corruption, protest and class struggle prominent in the two novels.
When the Marxist’s process of re-inventing social realities from historical
antecedence from past and present societies to shape the future is brought to
bear on Ngugi’s novels, it aids a better understanding
of his agitations.
This
explains why gender complementarity becomes a common feature of Ngugi’s novels. He has constantly alluded to the fact that
men and women play complementary roles in finding solutions to Africa’s
problems. The various instances in this paper indicates that Ngugi is consistently looking forward to a society in which
both men and women will hold hands as equals in fighting against the same cause
in order to enthrone a harmonious society as of old.
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