The Rise of the African Novel: Politics of Language, Identity, and Ownership by M?koma wa Ng?g?

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Rise of the African Novel: Politics of Language, Identity, and Ownership by Mũkoma Wa Ngũgĩ Abdelkader Ben Rhit The Rise of the African Novel: Politics of Language, Identity, and Ownership BY MŨKOMA WA NGŨGĨ U of Michigan P, 2018. 228 pp. ISBN 9780472053681 paper. The Rise of the African Novel: Politics of Language, Identity, and Ownership explores the identity of African literature or rather the lost identity of African literature. In this book, Mũkoma wa Ngũgĩ raises the question, “What is African literature?,” which he answers with “African literature is a question to itself.” (188) He strongly disagrees with the canonization by the writers who gathered in Kampala for the first Makerere African Writers Conference, dubbed the “Conference of African Writers of English Expression.” His book raises some pertinent questions regarding African literature’s unending battle with the language issue, which has been a matter of disagreement between Ngũgĩ’s father, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, and Chinua Achebe. Ngũgĩ argues that writing in African languages is a necessary step toward cultural identity and independence from centuries of European exploitation, and it is part and parcel of the project of decolonization. However, Achebe argues that African identity can be expressed through English, the colonizer’s language. Although the language question features prominently in The Rise of the African Novel, Ngũgĩ’s main argument is that African literature predates the Makerere generation. He takes issue with “the elision of earlier African writings such as the South African examples” (Cajetan 228) and the longstanding assumption—cultivated by publishers and literary critics over the decades—that the “African novel” began with the Makerere generation. This, Ngũgĩ believes, is the critical issue. “What does it mean for the African literary tradition when there is an absence of sustained critical readings of African writing before the Makerere writers?” (106). In his book, the younger Ngũgĩ reiterates the vital importance of writing African literatures in African languages because writing in English has contributed to the ascendancy of English and the thriving of African literature in English at the expense of literature written in African languages, like the earlier African writings from South Africa that Ngũgĩ highlights in his book. He states, “In The Rise of the African Novel I am exploring the question of why African literature means writing in European languages” (9). To this end, Ngũgĩ proposes the reconstruction of the history of the African novel, taking into consideration the writings of those who predated the Makerere generation. [End Page 209] The book is divided into an introduction and five chapters. The introduction highlights the major issues to be discussed throughout the book, namely the identity of the African novel, the Makerere writers, and questions of language, identity, and ownership. In chapter one, “No Shrubbing in the English Metaphysical Empire, Please: A Question of Language,” Ngũgĩ explores the “various ways Makerere and post-Makerere African writers have responded to the language question in African writing” (26). In chapter two, “Amos Tutuola: Creating the African Literary Bogeyman,” Ngũgĩ considers the “aesthetic costs and opportunities of noninterventionist editing” (26). His analysis of Amos Tutuola’s The Palm Wine Drinkard (1952) reveals a poor command of English, arguing that editors did the author an injustice by leaving grammatical errors in the text. In chapter three, “Africa’s Missing Literary History: From A. C. Jordan’s Child of Two Worlds to NoViolet Bulawayo’s Fractured Multiple Worlds,” Ngũgĩ traces the genealogy of the African novel and African literary criticism beyond their conventional beginning in the 1950s and 1960s. He takes issue with critics who “chronicle African literature commencing from the “wrong literary epoch” (qtd. in Muchiri 1), showing that Africa’s body of fictional texts is enriched by reaching “back in time … and across space” (107). In chapter four, “Manufacturing the African Literary Canon: Costs and Opportunities,” he argues that the binary between what is literary and what is popular is “a false opposition” (154) because this has led to the canonization of the African political novel at the expense of other forms and genres in African writing. His creation...