Grotesque Images of Colonial and Mau Mau Violence in Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s Weep Not, Child and A Grain of Wheat

Abstract

The chapter presents a comparative analysis of colonial and Mau Mau violence, and the consequences the two forms of violence have on the personal relations of individual characters in Ngugi wa Thiongo’s Weep Not, Child and A Grain of Wheat. The novels under study depict artistically the history of imperialism in Kenya, where land is of central concern. The dispossession of Africans of their land by the colonial government sparks off protests that culminate in armed struggle. The anti-colonial violence carried out by Mau Mau as portrayed in Weep Not, Child and in A Grain of Wheat is essentially about freedom, identity, and restoration of land to the Africans. The focus in this chapter is on colonial violence of annexation of territory, the psychological violence of colonial education and the anti-colonial violence of the Mau Mau struggle for political independence. The anti-colonial struggle is exploited by the colonial state to promote brute force, indiscriminate killings, and lawlessness. The chapter concludes by showing that what is more severe and lasting amidst the destruction of human life and property is the traumatic experience of violence and subsequent hopelessness of individual characters as portrayed in Weep Not, Child and A Grain of Wheat.