Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o by Oliver Lovesey

Abstract

REVIEWS WORKS CITED Calder, Alison. Rev. of The Literary History of Alberta, Volume 2. Canadian Literature 170/171 (2001): 240-41. Gunnars, Kristjana. Rev. of The Literary History of Alberta, Volume 2. Great Plains Quarterly 21.3 (2001): 246-47. Keith, W. J. Rev. of The Literary History of Alberta, Volume 2. Uni­ versity of Toronto Quarterly 70.1 (2000/2001): 550-51. Melnyk, George. The Literary History of Alberta. 2 vols. Edmonton: U of Alberta P, 1998-1999. Park, Elaine. Rev. of The Literary History of Alberta, Volume 2. Canadian Ethnic Studies 32.2 (2000): 157-58. DICK HARRISON / Sechelt, British Columbia Oliver Lovesey. Ngugi wa Thiong’o. New York: Twayne Pub­ lishers, 2000. 167. $32.00 (U.S.) cloth. In the Asmara Declaration, signed in Eritrea on 17 January 2000, a diverse group of writers and scholars from all regions of Africa joined together to declare the importance of writing, reading, and teaching in African languages because “African languages are essential for the decolonization of African minds and for the African Renaissance.” The very language of this im portant declaration, in particular the reference to Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s book Decolonizing the Mind, shows the indebted­ ness of a generation of writers and intellectuals to Ngugi’s as­ sertions on the cultural politics of language. He has long been a vocal advocate of writing in one’s first language, Gikuyu in his case, rather than in the language of the colonizers. Ngugi’s legacy, beyond his works of fiction, drama, and non-fiction, is an acknowledgement of the “profound incongruity in colonial languages speaking for the continent” noted in the declaration. Together Ngugi, Chinua Achebe, and Wole Soyinka are the best-known African writers to have emerged from Africa’s inde­ pendence and post-independence movements of the 1950s and early 1960s. All still active, they have written novels, plays, po­ etry, books of social commentary, and literary criticism that have attracted attention from within Africa and from around 779 ESC 28, 2002 the world. Ngugi stands out from the two Nigerian authors, however, in his constant dedication to a search for a distinc­ tively Kenyan form of expression. W hen one is teaching African literature, it is difficult to avoid assigning works by the three authors. The novels of Ngugi, however, are perhaps the most difficult to teach. This could be because of the strongly allegor­ ical nature of his later novels or because of the historical nature of his early realist novels. It could be because of his elliptical use of language, his refusal to adhere to Western forms, or his syn­ tactically challenging way with words (what L. D. Erapu calls the “cyclic, repetitious, yet cumulative style of the oral tale”). It could also be because of his didactically Marxist messages or his arguably sexist portrayals of women. Whatever the reason for the difficulty of the novels, Oliver Lovesey’s recently pub­ lished addition to the Twayne World Authors Series, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, is a welcome addition to Ngugi studies. As a teaching guide and as a more in-depth guide for scholars of Ngugi’s work, it successfully updates G .D . Killam’s benchmark An Introduc­ tion to the Writings of Ngugi published twenty years ago. Lovesey’s discussion of Ngugi’s life and work is both thor­ ough and engaging. He separates the chapters into an epony­ mous introduction on Kenyan history, Ngugi’s life and career, and his position in postcolonial studies; a chapter on the early novels ( Weep Not, Child, The River Between, and A Grain Of Wheat)-, a chapter on the later novels (Petals of Blood, Devil on a Cross, and Matigari); a chapter on the plays and films (Ngaahika Ndeena, This Time Tomorrow, and The Trial of Dedan Kimathi among others); and a chapter on the literary and social theory (ranging from Homecoming, Decolonizing the M ind, and Moving the Centre to his recent Penpoints, Gun­ points, and Dreams). Each of the chapters contextualizes the novel in the social, historical, and political context of Kenya as it provides a relevant plot summary and an adequate dis­ cussion of the critical responses to the works. More time might...