Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o and the Writing of Political Freedom

We tend in African Studies to think of Ngg wa Thiong'o's emblematic progressive political commitment, not least in his championing of African language literatures and the necessity of polycentric translation.It is less certain that this commitment has a settled status in his fiction, which exhibits aesthetic variations.We reflect upon the early historical realism of Weep Not, Child (1964) and The River Between (1965), the complex interiority of A Grain of Wheat (1967), the epic history of Petals of Blood (1977), the Africanization of aesthetic form and language choice in Devil on the Cross (1987) and the mirthful political caricature of Matigari (1990) and Wizard of the Crow (2006).These landmark texts speak to Ngg's creative range, but we should not overlook the political implications of rewriting and changes in narrative design.I analyze Ngg's transformation of two short stories in Secret Lives into episodes in his most famous novel, A Grain of Wheat.Ngg tells us that he originally wrote "The Return" and "Goodbye Africa" between 1960 and 1963 (1975, unpaginated preface). 1As fictional accounts of the Mau Mau war, the stories likely pre-date both formal Independence (December 12, 1963) and the publication of A Grain of Wheat (1967).As Ngg scholars have remarked, elements of A Grain of Wheat are present in these stories in early form.Clifford B. Robson states that "Goodbye Africa" exhibits the "complex and sympathetic approach that marks [Ngg's] vision in A Grain of Wheat" (1979, 81), and Brendon Nicholls observes that "The Return" shares "thematic and ideological affinities" with A Grain of Wheat (2010, 76).Simon Gikandi calls both stories "working prototypes of A Grain of Wheat" (2000, 103).I argue that while A Grain of Wheat attempts to model decolonial narrative sovereignty following Kenyan independence, it unconsciously enters into identificatory dependency.I conclude that Ngg's literary career follows a trajectory that seeks to undo this creative bind.Ngg's rewriting involved acts of creative choice.In any creative choice, a purposeful consciousness works within the shaping force of the political.Purposeful consciousness, I would add, is allowed by the newness of the moment in which it finds itself.Put another way, the transformation of unlinked stories into

Political freedom · Politics · African cultural and philosophical studies · African studies and sociopolitical issues · Colonialism, slavery, and trade