Ngugi Wa Thiong’o is an African Writer Free Essay Example

Ngugi wa Thiong’o is an African writer who represents his experience of colonial racism from a native’s perspective. In his novel, “A Grain of Wheat”, Ngugi wa Thiong’o pictures the years of Kenya’s struggle for independence and liberty, through the Uhuru. His novel examines not only the African understanding of Kenyan history, but also tries to demonstrate the outlook of the colonizers, the British landlords.

“A Grain of Wheat” addresses the people of Thabai, during Kenya’s revolutionary war, known as, the Mau Mau movement, which took place between 1952 and 1960.

Although Africa and the rest of the world viewed the Mau Mau movement as an anti-colonial movement, it has been recorded, according to the British as a threat to Western modernity and civilization. This note is clearly stated on page fiftey-five of the book, when Thompson describes how he sees the Mau Mau movement as a danger and demolition to values adapted by civilization.

As for the criticism of imperialism from the natives’ viewpoint, Ngugi mentions Mugo, who receives kudos from the innocent natives and is seen a hero, especially after suffering in his detention camp as a colonial victim.

However, he is later connived at the demolition of Kenyan anti-colonial movement, for later in the book, he confesses betraying his friend Kihika who, on the other hand, is a freedom fighter to the imperialist power. Kihika is a member of the Party, who is willing to give up his life for the sake of his country and its freedom.

On page two-hundred and eighteen, Mugo confesses his betrayal to Kihika, by stating: “You asked for the man who led Kihika to this tree, here.

That man stands before you, now. Kihika came to me by night. He put his life into my hands and I sold it to the white man. And this thing has eaten into my life all these years.” Mugo admits that he preferred the British, who obviously are the imperial power itself, over his own people. Maybe at last Mugo felt like he belongs to his society by both confessing his betrayal to Kihika and saving Karanja’s life.

By mentioning this betrayal, along with other ones, Ngugi complains about the African’s reactions to the imperial power: they put the whites in the center and denied the class. It is true that , though overcoming imperialism is discussed in the book, like in chapter 7, when Kihika, Karanja, Gikonyo and Mumbi gather to sort out a plan to get rid of the British, there is always someone who doesn’t share the same opinion and would prefer imperialism , for they see that it is the closest way to modernity and civilization.

In an interview done with Ngugi, the interviewer asked Ngugi about how his attitude towards imperialism is shown through A Grain Of Wheat and Petals of Blood. In response to that question, Ngugi states hoe concerned he was about imperialism in Kenya in its two stages: the colonial and the neo-colonial. He points out how imperialism affects the people, the colonized, and on several basis. “The imperialism is a total phenomenon- an economic, a political and a cultural phenomenon. So, we can say that the struggle against imperialism is also total: it’s economies, it’s political, and it is also cultural.” Ngugi also states how he tried to show these aspects in A Grain Of Wheat. Almost each character, more specifically Mumbi, Karanja and Mugo , show unfaithulness in their own way, either to their friend, community, or country: Mumbi shows it when she betrays Gikonyo and carries Karanja’s child, and both Mugo and Karanja show this disloyalty by choosing the whites’ leadership on Kenya instead of their own people. Here, we can see how this imperial power affected society and ruined many friendships.

Some strategies in which the author tells his story is through flashbacks. Although the actual events of the book happen only for four days, the characters’ stories and perspectives are revealed through flashbacks and returns to the past. Usually, the protagonist is clearly identified, and that is due to how the narrator tells the story , and to whose perspective. However, in this novel, the narrator seems to jump from one point of view to the other. What’s common between Ngugi and Silko’s way of writing is the flashbacks and memories that describe the characters.

Moving on to Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony, we can start with talking about the author a little. She herself is a Native American, a half-breed. In her various novels, she tries to explain her view towards her traditional beliefs, and practically what it’s like to be half an American and half and Indian living in American territories. In Ceremony, she describes her view through Tayo, also a half-breed, who has gone to war to fight for the Americans in the Second World War. The story goes on to describe Tayo’s recovery from the trauma that the war has caused him, both physically and mentally.

Silko emphasizes the American’s paradoxical aspect on the Native Americans. Their whole lives, the American treat the natives as second-class people, but when they need them the most to fight for them, for America, they are seen as heroes and are thus idolized. However, after the war, that feeling seems to disappear as they go back to treating the natives as inferior. The narrator explains this aspect when Tayo realizes how once he joins the army, he is accepted in the “White Society”, and earns the biggest respects. “White women never looked at me until I put on that uniform, and then by God I was a U.S. Marine and they came crowding around. All during the was they’d say to me ‘Hey,soldier,you sure are handsome. All that black thick hair’·they never asked me if I was Indian.”(Ceremony,37) Furthermore, when Tayo was being congratulated, he realized that the uniform was actually the one receiving credit. The posters that encouraged them to go to war were supposed to give them a sense of respect and belonging, for wanting them to fight for their country. After that, they are back to being treated like blacks. Silko emphasizes on the subject that although the natives are the first to actually live on the American lands, these lands were taken from them, and what’s more is that they are treated with disrespect. They take advantage of the natives’ talents and exploit them for their own good, but once they are done with them they go back to seeing them as ‘savages’.

After doing some research, I was able to identify some symbols that Silko used in her book to mark the colonized people. She utilizes the cattle metaphor to illustrate how Americans view the Native Americans as marginalized, “Tayo thought about animals then, horses and mules, and the way they drifted with the wind” .In that respect, the Native Americans drift around the country with no land of their own.

The whole story talks about Tayo’s recovery from the war, for it had affected him emotionally and physically. Silko uses the natives’ rituals and ceremonies to do so. Eventually, Tayo improves very much, and by that Silko was able to prove that his people’s traditions and cures did help, even when he was facing the biggest contradictions America had offered. She successfully pointed out the several paradoxes that America has to offer. However, these paradoxes do not, in any way reduce the country’s greatness, but rather remind us how little we value those who made us the people we are today. It is noticeable that Silko uses a poetic way of writing and delivering her message. I believe that the reason for that is to reach the reader’s sense of humanity while she brings out the irony that America shows in its history, values, cultures and leadership.