The Narrative of Ngugi in the River Between: Colonial and Postcolonial Dispensations

Abstract

This study examines the representations of tensions between traditional beliefs and modern perspectives through the analysis of Ngugi's The River Between. The article scrutinizes to what extent Ngugi writings explores problems that beset his fellow Kenyan People and the Psychological impact of colonialism in their minds. This is a critical and theoretical textual analysis study grounded in Postcolonial theory. The novel under analysis was selected on the basis of its theme which epitomizes the dual opposition of African traditional and modern lives, and as it introduces Balogun's (1997:29) liberal nationalist critique theory which projects radical nationalism based on violence, at one hand, and on the other hand the liberal perspective which envisages that people can conquer their freedom through formal colonialist education. The findings from the textual analysis unravel that Ngugi's The River Between projects a failed decolonization given to the alienation system that the African subject experiences when he tries to unite two different cultural realities. The fact that colonial formal education has been considered as an alternative in fighting against colonialism rather than an education based in African cultural principles sets as the motif for the failure of decolonization.