Satirical Art in Ngugi Wa Thiongo's Novel Devil on the Cross

Abstract

On their fight to changing their societies, many African intellectuals have been committed to the denounciation of what they considered to be the major barriers that prevented their societies from moving forward. In fact, many African people believed that chasing the white man from power in the colonies and replace by their own country-fellows on key state's positions would certainly change the socio-economical and political situations of Black folk . Unfortunately, after implementing their strategy, the Africans would simply be disillusioned to notice that the situation got even worse in some countries, as a new ruling class involved in evil practices like snobbery, corruption, megalomania and women's disintegration took control of the destiny of their countries. Thus, based on the framework suggested by Ngugi wa Thiong'o, the Kenyan writer, in his novel Devil on the Cross , I have tried to scrutinize some burning issues which truly help understand the why and the how African new ruling class behaved and still behave foolishly in their daily life when they are given key responsabilities in their countries. These issues are of paramount importance to the development of Africa.