Revolutionist’s View of African Fiction as a Protest Literature: Ngugi Wa Thiong’o’s A Grain of Wheat

Abstract

Protest in African literature developed out of the misrule, marginalisation, exploitation, deprivation, forced labour, slavery, and subjugation perpetrated by inept, colonialist and neo-colonialist governments in Africa. In South Africa, it is a protest against apartheid;in East Africa, it is a protest against colonial domination of the land; and in West Africa, the protest is centred on the marginalisation and subjugation of the natives by the British colonialists. Aside from these, there is a general protest that spreads the entire continent against blacks’ inhumanity to fellow blacks at the corridor of power – the neocolonialist forces. Hence, there is the African struggle for decolonisation in African novels as evidenced in A Grain of Wheat. Therefore, this paper explores the elements that constitute protest in the novel. In its findings, it is discovered that characteristics such as environment, socio-political, religious and cultural situations prevalent in Africa are the factors that necessitated protest in the novel and African literature generally. This paper concludes that the protest in A Grain of Wheat is a struggle for decolonisation of an African Nation – Kenya and by extension the African continent. The paper recommends the sustenance of the commitment (which has made African fiction a protest literature) of African writers towards liberating African nations from the shackles of neo-colonialism in the 21st century.