Integrite Fall 2012

Chimi Woo 41 7KH QRYHOœV VHFRQG FKDSWHU FRQWLQXHV WR GHVFULEH WKH KLVWRU\ RI WKH development of the movement by positioning it as a movement against these white men. We learn in this chapter that one of the warrior-leaders of Kenya, Waiyaki, is the person who started the movement. And Ngugi here depicts :DL\DNLœV VDFULILFH LQ ELEOLFDO WHUPV SDUWLFXODUO\ E\ XVLQJ WKH QRYHOœV WLWOH DQG WKH verse quoted from 1 Corinthians 15: 36. 7KH QDUUDWRU GHVFULEHV :DL\DNLœV GHDWK E\ XVLQJ WKH V\PERO RI ³JUDLQ´ ³7KHQ QRERG\ QRWLFHG LW EXW ORRNLQJ EDFN ZH FDQ VHH WKDW :DL\DNLœV EORRG FRQWDLQHG ZLWKLQ LW D VHHG D JUDLQ ZKLFK JDYH ELUWK WR D movement whose main strength thHUHDIWHU VSUDQJ IURP D ERQG ZLWK WKH VRLO´

In this chapter, the nationalist leaders begin to break with Christianity of British colonizers while still appropriating their terms. As the chapter depicts, they saw themselves as the Israel people under the oppression of Egypt in the %LEOH ³WKH\ UHIXVHG WR HDW WKH JRRG WKLQJV RI 3KDUDRK LQVWHDG WKH\ FKRVH WR FXW JUDVV DQG PDNH EULFNV ZLWK WKH RWKHU FKLOGUHQ´ The next warrior-leader Harry Thuku as another Moses figure fought against the white meQ ZLWK ³*RGœV PHVVDJH *R XQWR 3KDUDRK DQG VD\ XQWR KLP OHW P\ SHRSOH JR OHW P\ SHRSOH JR´ (12). The village elder Warui WHOOV WKDW .HQ\DQ SHRSOH VDZ ³JUHDWHU ORYH´ QRW LQ the white men but in their people who followed the warrior-leaders by sharing whatever they had with each other while fighting against the British colonizers.

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After showing how Kenyan independence movement deviated from British Christianity, the novel highlights the actual failure of the male heroism, SDUWLFXODUO\ WKURXJK WKH VWRU\ RI .LKLNDœV OLIH Kihika succeeds these warriorOHDGHUV E\ OHDGLQJ SHRSOH IURP 7KDEDL DQG 5XQJœHL ZKHQ -RPR .HQ\DWWD DQG other leaders were arrested in 1952. The second chapter depicts .LKLND DV ³D VRQ RI WKH ODQGDV RQH RI WKH KHURHV RI GHOLYHUDQFH´ E\ JLYLQJ DFFRXQW RI KLV triumph, especially the capture of the big police garrison at Mahee. After that HYHQW ³SHRSOH FDPH WR NQRZ .LKLND DV WKH WHUURU RI WKH ZKLWHPDQ´

However, the real relationship of male leadership to the movement has lost its earlier prominence and becomes more complex and problematic. Ngugi subtly criticizes both Kenyan male leaders and British Christian colonizers by finding a similarity between them. Both of them use Christianity as a tool for their political agendas. 1JXJLÂśV QDUUDWLYH HPSKDVL]HV WKH FRQQHFWLRQ EHWZHHQ WKHP WKURXJK WKH fact that many of those male nationalist leaders are educated at missionary school either in Kenya or in Britain. .LKLNDÂśV YLVLRQ RI D QHZ DQG LQGHSHQGHQW Kenya is colored by his reading, and revolutionary interpretation, of the Bible, and the novel shows that his vision is not able to claim authority to all villagers.

The main reason for the failure is that male nationalist leaders consider nation only as the domain of men and they believe that the nation has been largely constructed upon the public heroism and martyrdom of male leadership. A Grain of Wheat depicts why the charismatic, heroic nationalism of male leadership fails WR XQLWH DOO FRPPXQLW\ PHPEHUV E\ VKRZLQJ .LKLNDÂśV IDLOXUH WR FRQVLGHU SHUVRQDO needs of other people and his obsession with the needs of the nation. .LKLNDÂśV leadership advocates self-sacrifice, but he fails to place his love for individual people before his political agenda of turning the village people to freedom fighters