(toc) #title= (Table of Content)
General Overview
During the early part of the 20th Century, the interior central highlands in Kenya were occupied by British and other European farmers, who became wealthy farming coffee and tea. By the 1930s, approximately 30,000 white settlers lived in the area and were offered undue political powers because of their effects on the economy. The area was already home to over a million members of the Kĩkũyũ tribe, most of whom had no land claims in European terms (but the land belonged to the ethnic group), and lived as itinerant farmers. To protect their interests, the settlers banned the growing of coffee by the natives, introduced a hut tax, and the landless were granted less and less land in exchange for their labour. A massive exodus to the cities ensued as their ability to provide a living from the land dwindled.
This imposition of taxes and the inability of the natives to acquire land for agriculture resulted in various forms of resistance from the natives. Most writers wrote to protest the injustice. These events were recorded by Ngugi Wa Thiong’o in his novels especially Weep Not Child and A Grain of Wheat. We shall use these two novels in illustrating this issue. We shall also examine briefly the way land politics is portrayed in select African fiction.
SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 1
Explain why the white settlers were interested in acquiring lands
The Politics of land in East Africa
Considering the issue of dispossession of land by the Europeans, the Africans decided to take various measures to fight the injustice. One of such measures was the formation of Mau Mau [a guerrilla group] that attacked the British officers and some Africans who were in support of the Europeans. They had ammunitions with which they fight. They lived and operated from the forest. From October 1952 to December 1959, Kenya was under a state of emergency arising from the Mau Mau rebellion against British rule. The governor requested and obtained British and African troops, including the King's African Rifles.
In January 1953, Major General Hinde was appointed as director of counter-insurgency operations. The situation did not improve for lack of intelligence, so General Sir George Erskine was appointed commander- in-chief of the colony's armed forces in May 1953, with the personal backing of Winston Churchill. The capture of Warũhiũ Itote (a.k.a. General China) on 15 January 1954 and the subsequent interrogation led to a better understanding of the Mau Mau command structure. Operation Anvil opened on 24 April 1954 after weeks of planning by the army with the approval of the War Council. The operation effectively placed Nairobi under military siege, and the occupants were screened and the Mau Mau supporters moved to detention camps.
May 1953 also saw the Home Guard officially recognized as a branch of the Security Forces. The Home Guard formed the core of the government's anti-Mau Mau strategy as it was composed of loyalist Africans, not foreign forces like the British Army and King's African Rifles. By the end of the emergency the Home Guard had killed no fewer than 4,686 Mau Mau, amounting to 42 per cent of the total insurgents. The capture of Dedan Kimathi on 21 October 1956 in Nyeri signified the ultimate defeat of the Mau Mau and essentially ended the military offensive.
The Politics of land in Weep Not Child
As a novelist Ngugi made his debut with Weep Not Child (1964), which he started to write while he was at school in England. It was the first novel in English to be published by an East African author. The story entails the plight of the African people. Weep not Child is a story about a young boy, Njoroge, as he grows up amidst the Mau Mau war and the conflict between the African natives and the British colonial rulers. The book is in essence about the hopes and dreams of a young boy coming into being and affected by the outside world and how the outside world changes a person.
Two small boys stand on a rubbish heap and look into the future. One boy is excited, he is beginning school; the other, his brother, is an apprentice carpenter. Together, they will serve their country - the teacher and the craftsman. Those who get their education, the intellectual ones, are looked upon as saviours of the African land. Njoroge, the dreamer and accomplished student, must decide where his loyalty lies. In Kenya, those who receive education are looked upon as intellectual saviours of the land. The ironic aspect of the education is that it is being handed down from British rule. Njoroge, the youngest of four brothers, wanted nothing more than to receive an education and provide for the welfare of his family. Njoroge takes his education seriously and excels to the next level. Due to the fact that Njoroge is at a so-called “age of innocence” he has the opportunity to get schooling. The brothers before him have already made their tracks in the roles they are going to take in life. But this is Kenya, and times are against them.
In the forests, the Mau Mau are waging war against the white government, and the two brothers, Njoroge and Kamau, and the rest of their family, need to decide where their loyalties lie. For the practical man, the choice is simple, but for Njoroge, the scholar, the dream of progress through learning is a hard one to give up. The story is based entirely on the existence of the family of Ngotho in which their views and ideas are clearly expressed. The roles in which men and women accept are very evident throughout the entire book. Ngotho felt responsible for whatever happened to this land. He owed it to the dead, the living and the unborn of his line, to keep guard over this shamba. The land sloped gently to rise again into the next ridge and the next. Beyond, Ngotho could see the African Reserve. Ngotho was puzzled. Would the prophecy be fulfilled soon? Would these people ever go? It was said that they would eventually return the way they had come.
Also, feelings towards the different cultures; which resulted in certain stereotypes helped in portraying the entire atmosphere in which each culture saw the world through its own eyes. In the beginning of the book, the author explained the atmosphere which is upheld throughout the book. The Black, Indian, and White people all have something in common, they want and need power. Once they obtain this power, they will do anything to keep it and make sure lower class people never reach the status, which they have worked so hard for.
Conflicts have a vast impact upon the development of the plot in Weep Not Child. Weep Not Child is a novel by an African writer, Ngugi. The plot of this novel is generally about a boy and the hardships he goes through in the course of his life. Conflict is one of the main themes of this novel, and it helps in the development of the plot. The characterization of the people in the novel are mainly a result of the situation they are present in, which is mostly due to the conflicts surrounding each character. In the novel, conflicts have come in a variety of forms, e.g. political, cultural, and class struggles. The most noticeable conflict present in this novel is the political conflict. It can be seen that this novel is set at the colonial times; this was when the British were ruling over Africa.
“Later, our fathers were taken captives in the first Big War to help in a war whose cause they never knew. And when they came back? Their land was taken away for a settlement of the white soldiers.” Here it is seen that Africans dislike the British ruling them, and taking over their lands. Africans were controlled by their rulers; forcing them to speak European languages—they attempted to teach children (future generations) that speaking the foreign language was good and that native languages were bad by using negative reinforcement. Ngugi argues that colonization was not simply a process of physical force. Rather, "the bullet was the means of physical subjugation.”
Weep Not, Child is a powerful, very moving story about the effects of the Mau Mau war on the lives of ordinary men and women. Its author, Ngugi, is one of Africa's most influential and exciting writers, and this, his second novel, is one of the best-known novels in Africa. The novel also addresses the political conflict that was occurring in Kenya in the 1950s. The author incorporates a description of the power of the white rulers, the bitterness of the Africans at being enslaved on their own land and their attempt to rise up against the tyranny, and finally deals with the poor relations between the blacks and Indian merchants, who are looked down upon by the black community. It is a very powerful story; dealing with Njoroge's life, his thoughts and his feelings but due to the length of the novel (136 pages) one only gets a fairly superficial explanation of the historical and cultural context of the book. Also, this novel is a book in translation, so some of the sentence and grammatical structure can be a bit tricky at times. I will explore each of these conflicts in further detail, and prove that conflict plays a key role in making this story remarkable. Conflict is a major issue in this novel.
The Politics of land in A Grain of Wheat
This is a novel by Ngugi Wa Thiong’o set in pre-independence days in Kenya in the early 1950s - 60s. The place, a rural village in the heart of central Kenya, and through Ngugi's eyes, the landscape becomes alive with the sights, sounds and smells of the area. The book is centered on Mugo, a man affected by his childhood, the years in the State of Emergency, and his own demons within. He rejected his father and was brought up by a disgruntled Aunt who shaped Mugo into the man we see today. During the time of the State of Emergency, life was unkind, hard and brutal. The joys and tensions of this time in his life, reflected in other characters in the book and this leaves you feeling their hearts in a way that makes one wish that they too could have been there in that day and moment in time. Each character has something within him that we can all relate to. A woman will relate to Mumbi, a proud and beautiful young woman with a mind of her own and a love for her brother Kihika, and family. Her strength is admirable, and can be described, to borrow a phrase in a movie, "The greatest honor a family could have was to have a daughter like you".
Another character that gave insight into the soul of a man was Gikonyo. The epitome of manhood- strong, decent, hardworking, industrious and you'll find he is a lot more than what you would initially expect. The State of Emergency was a time when brother turned against brother; families lived in fear of their brethren and the ruling colonialists. It was a time when anyone was arrested on suspicion of being a member of the Mau Mau. And the Mau Mau fought to keep the struggle alive, and killed anyone who got in the way of their great cause. Ngugi tried to show both sides of the coin, the fear felt by Africans and Europeans alike of the Mau Mau fighters; and the people behind the name (Mau Mau) who sacrificed their livelihoods, abandoned their loved ones, realized their civic duty to their country and took up the struggle to take back what was theirs, their freedom.
The central action in this novel takes place in December of 1963 in a village in Kenya that is preparing for the coming of Uhuru (Independence). However, the plot is non-linear, with a wealth of flashbacks and various twists and turns. There are also multiple storylines which are well-woven into a fascinating tapestry. The main story is indeed the coming of Independence Day, part of which involves identifying the person who betrayed Kihika, one of the leading freedom fighters from the village. Many of the flashbacks along this storyline involve the fight for freedom as well as details about what occurred in the detention camps. Another prominent storyline is that involving a love triangle between Mumbi and her two suitors, Gikonyo and Karanja. A third intriguing storyline involves Mugo, a man whom everyone recognizes as different yet feels drawn to. Ngugi portrays his inner conflict masterfully, especially in using biblical allusions to both Moses and Judas in relation to Mugo.
SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 4
Explain the theme of betrayal in A Grain of Wheat.
The Politics of land in other novels
The politics of land actually reared its head during the hey days of colonialism. Most educated Africans see the colonialists as scavengers who are willing to do anything to disinherit the Africans. They are seen as people armed with guns and the Bible to either dogmatize the Africans or force them to accept the western values. Thus, the colonial masters from North, West, East and South Africa are seen as people with negative values that impinge on the development of Africa. The English colonialists invaded the hinterlands through the use of warrant officers, Africans who impose rules, taxes and acquire the peoples’ properties like land under the guise of implementing the laws of the colony. A similar theme runs through Achebe’s novels. In Chinua Achebe’s Arrow of God, Ezeulu was imprisoned by Captain Winterbottom for not accepting the role of a Warrant Officer in Umuaro. Earlier in the novel, Ezeulu played a positive role in resolving the land dispute between his community Umuaro and Okperi, a neighbouring village. The cause of the dispute is basically greed as Nwaka would have wished to use his financial might to acquire the lands whether it was theirs or not.
Another example of the centrality of land is seen in Peter Abraham’s work. In Peter Abrahams’ Mine Boy, Xuma is struggling to do his best for his country, his land undermining the harsh apartheid realities in South Africa. Xuma discovers that he lives in a land where love has vanished and the realities show that atypical black South African has no right to his ancestral land. This same theme runs consistently in most southern and eastern African literatures.
At another level, we see how Africans perceive land as a precious inheritance in their cultures. In Elechi Amadi’s The Concubine, Madume and Emenike struggled for a piece of land which led to Emenike’s death and later to Madume’s death after being beaten by a spitting cobra. In
Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, we see how the acquisition of farm lands ranks as one of the indices for measuring a man’s greatness.
SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 5
How do African novelists reveal the theme of land politics beyond colonialism?
CONCLUSION
African novelists have been treating the theme of land politics in Africa with extreme concern. Especially in East Africa Novelists like Ngugi Wa Thiong’o attempted to present through fictional recollections how the issue of land disinheritance caused the people to go into guerrilla warfare with the colonialists and the African saboteurs. The African novelists see the disinheritance of their lands as a real colonial omen which affected the people’s psychological and mental growth. The formation of the Mau Mau fighters is a case beyond the independence of Africans. It is a reaction forced out of a basic necessity revolving on the issue of land politics. Land is a spiritual facility to Africans. It symbolizes a culture, ancestry, birth and death. It is believed that a landless person has no ancestry.
Apart from the East African treatment of land politics, we see the South African treatment of land politics as a more serious one. This is because Apartheid was a very stringent policy of the white rulers in South Africa that maimed the blacks and made them voiceless and powerless. This is the reason why the theme of apartheid dominated the entire South African literatures. The other literary blocks revealed the politics of land in diverse ways but the East African block is very glaringly presented especially in the works of Ngugiwa Thiong’o.
SUMMARY
African writers write with a purpose. The main focus of African writing is to reflect the experiences of African people in time and space especially regarding their historical experiences. The issue of land is an age-long fact relating to the essence of African culture and personality. There is no African community without recourse to land as a high spiritual essence. In Ngugi Wa Thiong’o’s novels: Weep Not Child and A Grain of Wheat, we see how Kenyans fought to recover their land because of the way the white settlers took over their land and use them as manual labourers on their land. The trauma was unbearable to the extent that the people decided to take up arms to fight for their land. This led to the years of guerrilla wars in East Africa until the demise of colonialism in the region. Ngugi Wa Thiong’o presented the realities of the war of land in Kenya and the fight for Uhuru (Independence). The other writers reflected politics of land in other ways as in Achebe’s and Amadi’s novels earlier treated. There are other treatments of politics of land in African novels but none can be seen as very serious like the East African situation.
Leave a comment behind