IntĂŠgritĂŠ: A F aith and Learning Journal Vol. 11, No. 2 (F all 2012): 38-45
³*UHDWHU /RYH´: Colonialism, A nti-Colonialism, and C hristianity LQ 1JXJLœV A Grain of Wheat C himi Woo 1JXJLœV A Grain of Wheat primarily GHSLFWV .HQ\DQ SHRSOHœV VWUXJJOH IRU the independence from the British rule during the years of the Emergency EHWZHHQ DQG DOWKRXJK LW ZDV SXEOLVKHG LQ DIWHU .HQ\DœV independence. 7KLV DUWLFOH DLPV WR H[DPLQH WKH QRYHOœV UHSUHVHQWDWLRQ RI &KULVWLDQLW\œV UROH LQ WKH DQWL-colonial movement of Kenya by contextualizing the novel in postcolonial literature and criticism. Ngugi brings into question the Christian vision that the male nationalists employ to mobilize people to the independence movement by depicting how their leadership brings about not unity but betrayal and division in the community. ,Q DGGLWLRQ WR WKLV 1JXJLœV QRYHO emphasizes the links between European Christianity and the evils of British colonialism in Kenya. However, his novel complicates its attitude toward Christianity by endorsing biblical value of love as an alternative to the male leadership and as the main force that drives people to build the independent Kenya as a more united, reconciled country. Before analyzing how Christianity is represented in A Grain of Wheat, it will be necessary to examine the QRYHOœV SODFH LQ SRVWFRORQLDO OLWHUDWXUH DQG criticism. Postcolonial literature has proclaimed the values of the marginal that have been suppressed by the Western concept of hierarchy and otherness. Therefore, many of postcolonial texts attempt to expose the ways in which colonialist ideology operates by employing stereotypes and images of colonial subjects that represent them as subordinate to colonizers. As Ania Loomba explains in Colonialism/Postcolonialism WKH SUHIL[ ³SRVW´ PHDQV DQ ³DIWHUPDWK´ both temporal and ideological and thus postcolonial literature and criticism not RQO\ SURFODLP WKH HQG RI FRORQLDOLVP EXW DOVR DWWHPSW WR ³WKH FRQWHVWDWLRQ RI FRORQLDO GRPLQDWLRQ DQG WKH OHJDFLHV RI FRORQLDOLVP´ Many critics have discussed Ngugi as one of the postcolonial writers committed to the subversion of colonial legacies in the years following decolonization. Ashcroft and others point RXW WKDW ³1JXJL KDV SXW IRUZDUG WKH DUJXPHQW WKDW ¾GHFRORQL]DWLRQœ PXVW LQYROYH D much more radical movement away from European values and systems, including WKH ODQJXDJH ZKLFK DV KH VHHV LW FDUULHV WKHVH YDOXHV´ Ngugi himself explains the significance of A Grain of Wheat in the history of postcolonial literature by placing it in 1960s when many of formerly colonized countries began to contend the rights to assert their identities by deviating from the Eurocentric perspectives. In his book Moving the Centre, Ngugi notes: