The African literature

                    Assignment

Name: Rupa Bambhaniya

Paper No: 14 The African  literature 

Enrollment no: 2069108420200002

Class: M.A sem 4

Submitted by: Smt.S.B.Gardhi, Department of English

Email I'd: rupabambhniya166@gmail.com

Ngugi Wa Thiongo , A Grain of Wheat

     “A Grain of Wheat  Is complex, powerful novel exploring the psychology of a hauntedman – haunted by an act of treachery to a hero of Kenya’s freedom movement.”

Introduction : 

Ngugi wa Thiong'o, currently Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Irvine, was born in Kenya, in 1938 into a large peasant family.

He is also Honorary Member of American Academy of Letters. A many-sided intellectual, he is novelist, essayist, playwright, journalist, editor, academic and social activist.

The Kenya of his birth and youth was a British settler colony (1895-1963). As an adolescent, he lived through the Mau Mau War of Independence (1952-1962), the central historical episode in the making of modern Kenya and a major theme in his early works.

Set in the wake of the Mau Mau rebellion and on the cusp of Kenya's independence from Britain, A Grain of Wheat follows a group of villagers whose lives have been transformed by the 1952–1960 Emergency. At the center of it all is the reticent Mugo, the village's chosen hero and a man haunted by a terrible secret. As we learn of the villagers' tangled histories in a narrative interwoven with myth and peppered with allusions to real-life leaders, including Jomo Kenyatta, a masterly story unfolds in which compromises are forced, friendships are betrayed, and loves are tested.

A Grain of Wheat is a political and historical novel which portrays the Gikuyu and Mau Mau struggle against political and social disorder of imperialism and exploitation in all its evil manifestation.

Ngugi wa Thiongo was born in Kamiriithu, near Limuru in Kiambu district in Kenya. Ngugi was born on January 5th 1938. A Grain of Wheat was published in 1967.

Ngugi, by using the title A Grain of Wheat alludes to the Bible with the belief that something small like a grain of wheat can give fruitful results in form of high yields. It is the people’s sacrifice of a few grains and that those grains should die, rot and bear new fruits.

Ngugi’s idea of heroism is what makes A Grain of Wheat a political and historical novel. It is a celebration of Kenya’s heroes like Waiyaki wa Hinga, Harry Thuku and Jomo Kenyatta, the founding father of Kenya. After the death of Waiyaki, political parties were born and this in effect strengthened the liberation struggle.

Summary

Over a period of four days leading up to independence, the people of the village of Thabai ready themselves for the celebration of freedom. However, the troubling events of a not-too-distant past continue to affect the book’s characters, who are still reeling from the Emergency, when any of the people in Thabai or surrounding villages could be forcibly detained, imprisoned and tortured as suspected Mau Mau conspirators. The novel frequently shifts from the present to the past and back again, because each character has a present-day crisis that stems from their Emergency experiences.

The story revolves around a few central characters, whose experiences during the Emergency have altered their present-day lives. Some were detained; some tortured in detention. Others turned against their countrymen, working for the British administration or betraying members of the Rebellion to save themselves. The villagers of Thabai united around one loss in particular—that of Kihika, a man known for his heroic actions against the British during the Emergency. Although he has been dead for several years, Kihika’s story frames the plot—at times, literally, since passages underlined in Kihika’s Bible introduce the sections of the book.

In the present, many people in Thabai try to convince Mugo, a quiet man regarded as a hero for his actions during the Emergency, to speak at the Uhuru celebration. Mugo seems strangely reluctant—in fact, he is hiding a dark secret that will emerge only much later in the narrative. Gikonyo and Mumbi, an estranged husband and wife, both seek out Mugo to persuade him to participate and, in the process, reveal their own secrets from the Emergency.

While the native Kenyans are preparing for their independence, the British administrators are preparing to hand over power and leave. John Thompson, once a perpetrator of cruel acts against detainees and now a disgraced official, is depressed at the thought of the British abandoning their progress—his life’s work—in Kenya. Karanja, a Kikuyu who worked for the British as a member of the homeguard during the Emergency, is also distressed at the thought of the transfer to home rule, as he will lose his favored status among the white administrators and the respect and fear of his own people. However, Karanja hopes to remain in Thabai to be close to Mumbi, whom he has long loved and whose child he fathered while Gikonyo was in detention. Most of the villagers suspect Karanja of having betrayed the heroic Kihika, Karanja’s boyhood friend.

As the novel reveals more and more secrets and desperate acts from the Emergency, it becomes clear that Mugo, regarded by many as a hero to rival Kihika, was in fact responsible for Kihika’s death. Mugo confesses to Mumbi, but she keeps his secret to prevent further loss of life. At the Uhuru celebration, villagers ask the traitor to come forward, and many look at Karanja. However, Mugo steps forward, admits his guilt, and feels relieved and unburdened. Soldiers of the new regime lead him away for trial. Karanja, having lost his place in the new society and any hope of Mumbi’s love, leaves Thabai. In the book’s final scene, Gikonyo realizes his love for Mumbi still stands and plans to reconcile with her.

Variouse Themes in “Grain Of Wheat”:

The major themes in "A Grain of Wheat" by Ngugi are Betrayal and guilt and redemption. More specifically, the story's protagonist finds redemption after dealing with the guilt of his actions. Others major themes in Grain of Whete is like,

1) Colonialism:

Kenya was colonized by the British in 1895 and was not independent until 1963. In the subsequent years the country struggled to negotiate a post-colonial reality in which the divisions caused by political and economic oppression, the Emergency, violence, racism, exploitation of rivalry and competition amongst Kenyans, and psychological trauma endured and deepened. Even though Ngugi does not take his readers into the days after colonialism, he hints at the difficulties the characters will face. Thompson's claim that Africa will always need Europe may not be true in the sense he wishes it to be, but it is prescient in that Europe's involvement in the region can never fully be erased. Finally, on a more personal level, all of the characters' lives are affected by colonialism, whether they are in detention camps or the Movement or losing their homes and land or trying to repair their fractured families or dealing with paternalistic colonial administrators. Colonialism is an inescapable reality, even after it is ostensibly over.

2) Individuals and the Community:

The novel's narrative focuses on the individual, with time given to Mugo, Mumbi, Gikonyo, Karanja, Kihika, and even minor characters like General R and Koina. Individual stories are significant, especially Mumbi's, as they facilitate greater growth for the self and for the community. As for that community, it is also Ngugi's focus, and one that has attracted a large amount of critical writing discussing whether or not he successfully managed to convey the struggles of the masses at the same time as he relayed the individuals' tales. Indeed, some of the individual characters seem as if they are thinly drawn in order to promote the understanding that they are merely part of the Kenyan people as a whole, and when individuals do make choices for themselves those choices reverberate back through the community.

3) Forgiveness:

Many of the characters in this novel do reprehensible things: they betray loved ones and their community and the Movement, they commit acts of violence, they engage in selfishness and bitterness, and they compete and fight with each other. Some characters ask for forgiveness (either directly or subtly), while others do not. Forgiveness is important on both a personal and communal level, and those levels are related to each other. Individuals must work to forgive those who have wronged them in order to work together to build a stronger community. In the vacuum left by British rule, it will be more important than ever for Kenyans to trust each other, work together, and create a mutually sustaining and fulfilling community. Mugo's public confession, an act of asking for forgiveness, is significant, and indicates a model for the future

4) Violence:

When colonization is main part of the novel then it was next to turn into Decolonization. But Decolonization always comes with violence. Decolonization is a violent event. Decolonization is quite simply the substitution of one "species" of mankind by another. The substitution is unconditional, absolute, total, and seamless. Decolonization, which sets out to change the order of the world, is clearly the agenda for total disorder. It is also known as historical movement.

5) Theme Of Betrayal:

Individual’s betrayals are representative of the vast betrayal of the whole society by its power elite. Karanja was more powerful and in power position so, Mumbi betrays Gikonyo when he was imprisoned and slept with Karanja and also having child, too. Mugo betrays the whole village with his idea and because of it only some people were caught by British people. He was the person who betrays the entire village, so it is also known as one of main theme of this novel. Mugo’s betrayal of his friend Kihika. And Both saw their life from different stands. Mugo’s confessional speech:

" I wanted to live my life. I never wanted to be involved in anything. Then he came into my life, here, a night like this, and pulled me into the stream. So I kiled him.”

So, Mugo’s guilt conscious is then mitigated by his bravery and He is taken to various detention camp.

* 6) Love:

We can find example of love marriage of Gikonyo and Mumbi in this novel and even if we think in platonic way then we can realizes that every person of this novel is in love with Uhuru, self-freedom and nativism. They want to fight for their native land and want to see their self-free from British Colonization, so Love is also noticeable theme of ‘A Grain of Wheat’.

7) Unity:

This is another similar theme that is found in the works of Ngugi. Being unified help the Kenyans stand against the Europeans. The Mau Mau revolt was established to achieve one particular aim,

“Fight for our land and Freedom”

Despite the death of Waiyanki and Kihika, the other forest fighters still maintained their stand. They continued fighting to the last.

                   "United we stand, divided we fall.”

Despite the unity that exists, some of them were divided. But in unity, Kenyan got its independence in 1963.

8) Land

In most of Ngugi’s works, there is an importance attached to land. in Weep Not Child Ngotho believed strongly in the prophesy of Mumbi -Gikonyo (Adam and Eve). The land was his source of hope. In the Trials of Dedan Kimathi, Kimathi struggled for the land of Kenya. Moat noticeable among others is depicted in Grain of Wheat. The reason the Mau Mau revolution was set up was not because of the existence of the Europeans in Kenya. Rather, the Europeans invaded and forcefully acquired theland which belongs to the Kenyans “ The supreme importance which the Kikuyu attach to their land has been described by Jomo Kenyatta in his anthropological treatise, Facing Mount Kenya, where implications go beyond economic: 

“As agriculturalists the Gikuyu people depend entirely on the land. It supplies them with material needs of life, through which and spiritual contentment is achieved. Communication with the ancestral spirit is perpetuated through contact with the soil in which the ancestors of the tribe lie buried. The Gikuyu considers the earth as mother.. that feeds the child through lifetime; and after death it is the soil that nurses the spirit of the dead for eternity…”

9) Freedom:

There is one motive that inspired the blacks against the whites despite their oppression freedom. Ngugi is known as a novelist of the Gandhian message because the story of Gandhi of India is his source of inspiration. The Kenyans, as depicted in Ngugi’s A Grain Of Wheat, struggled for their freedom against oppression and foreign rule. In their struggle for freedom. Waiyaki was captured and buried alive; Kihika was captured and hanged publicly; other blacks were disposed without trial. So many blacks were restricted of their freedom:

“The soldiers beat them with truncheons… Manyan (detention camp) was divided into three different compounds: A,B and C. Every compounds was then subdivided into smaller units, each enclosing ten cells. One big cell housed six hundred men”

To estimate. Thousands of Kenyans were restricted of their freedom. 

10) Role Of Woman;

Ngugi Wa Thiongo’s presented the role of woman in several aspects. Woman took care of the family. Mumbi took care of Gikonyo’s mother and her (Mumbi) son in Gikonyo’s absence. Woman were perceived as a link between the people in the village and the freedom fighters in the forest. Wambui, on an occasion, took a gun to the forest fighter. Woman also played a role of worthless people.

11) Corruption:

Despite the colonization, corruption was not abolished. Ngugi pictured two policemen who stopped a bus. The bus was discharged when a little settlement of money was given to the policemen. Ngugi also pictured a corruptible M.P who secretly bought a huge plot of that Gikonyo and some others have made plan for.

So, in this way the there are numbers of themes works in the novel.It shows man’s defeat from his desire.

Work citation :

Berry, John William 2006. “Accultrative stress” in Cambridge Handbook of Multicultural Perspective on stress andcoping, Dallas, T.X. Spring, 

Mercer, Kobena 1990. “Welcome to the Jungle: Identity and Diversity in Postmodern politics” in Jonathan Rutherford(ed.) Identity: Community, Culture Differences, London,Lawrence & Wishart.

Semwal, Sakshi 2015. “The Delineation of Women Characters in Ngugi Wa Thiong’o’s Fiction” in Research Journal of English Language and Literature, Uttarakhand, India,Vol.3 (July-Sept).

Lèfara, Silué 2014. “Cultural Clash and Social Identity Rehabilitation in Child of two worlds by Mugo Gatheru”in Revue de Littérature et d’Esthétique Négro Africaines ,Abidjan, C.R.E.S., Vol.

Gikandi, S. (2000). Representing decolonization: A Grain of Wheat. In Ngugi wa Thiong'o (Cambridge Studies in African and Caribbean Literature