A Critique on A Grain of Wheat

Name : Parmar Shubhda A.

Roll No: 30

Subject: Paper -14 (The African Literature)

  Submitted to :   

                      Department of English

                     Maharaja Krishnkumarsinhji

                     Bhavnagar University.

Introduction:

                      ‘A Grain of Wheat ‘has been well-known as Nugugi wa Thiong'o's most excellent novel. It was voted as one of the Best 100 African Books in the Twentieth Century by the Zimbabwe International Book Fair. ’Ngugi wa Thingo’s’AGrain of Wheat’ is a story about events and relationships important up to a country’s independence. Thing’o’s centers the work on a Kenyan village, where its members work together in preparation for local events. In many senses, (Thiong'o, A grain of Wheat)is a hybrid author and in A Grain of Wheat. This socialist portrayal of a disappointed and disillusioned people is offered from the very opening epigraph: ‘the situation and the problems are real – sometimes too painfully real for the peasants who fought for the British yet who now see all that they fought for being put on one side.

                     The structure of the novel is complex. In A Grain of Wheat, different characters are presented in similar situation at parallel times but in different spaces, and each character experiences the similar situation from a different perspective and in a different way. This hidden character was there at independence and was there when the struggle started; he or she seems to be the spirit of the Kenyans identifying himself with the people whenever he or she addresses the reader. In this sense, A Grain of Wheat is a novel with multiple centers, that is, Ngugi's protagonists feature in story lines which at times run comparable with each other, at times coincide and cross each other, and which at times combine together.

                      A Grain of Wheat is made up of one main plot and two subplots which are presented in the form of flashbacks.

                         The central action of A Grain of Wheat takes place in December 1963 in the village of Thabai, near Rung'ai Market, in rural Kenya during preparations for the approaching celebration of Uhuru, that is, Independence.

                       Kihika, a local Mau Mau freedom fighter from Thabai, leads a group of Mau Mau forest fighters in an attack on. Kihika is afterward hunted down and hung by the British. There is a widespread feeling that Kihika had been betrayed by someone in the area. Mugo had given protection to Kihika before he shot District Officer, at the Uhuru celebrations, General asks for the person who betrayed Kihika to come forward and declare in public. Mugo himself comes forward and confesses that he was the person who betrayed Kihika.

                      In general, it is the impact of the detentions on rural village life which Ngugi stresses - villages which were once full of young men and characterized by a vibrant social life become dull and lifeless. Both Mumbi and her mother's huts were burned down and Mumbi was forced to build a new hut.

                  Ngugi, then, depicts the effects of British colonialism on rural village life and the sacrifices made by the Gikuyu peasant communities - both the men and the women - as they struggled for their freedom and independence.

                     This is a significance of A Grain of Wheat. At root, Ngugi reveals that during the Mau Mau fight heroism was mixed with betrayal and sacrifice with his life amongst the freedom fighters that left their rural villages to join the fighters in the forest. At the end, after all the sacrifice, there are no true winners.

                  This is a forceful account of the confusion that inflamed Kenya in the 1950s and its impact on people’s lives. Five friends and age mates make different choices when the Mau Mau rebellion erupts in colonial Kenya. Kihika joints the freedom fighters in the forest; Gikonyo supports the rebels, but is arrested and detained. So the issue of loyalty is a discussed and examined in depth. As we learn more and more about the different characters we get a more view of each. Each has a unique history that includes loyalty and disloyalty, and it is attractive to see what is suitable and what is not. Mumbi , Gikonyo’s wife, works to keep family and home together in the village. Karanja chooses to support the more powerful British masters. Mugo finally betrays his friends and loses his life in a worried attempt to stay alive and stay neutral.

                    A Grain of Wheat is a great example of political as well as historical fiction. At times Nugugi states his political theories of the end of colonialism in Kenya more than creates in strength characters. However, large range of heroes, villans, lovers and rival transparent black successes and failures give this book the wide viewpoint that helps to understand a complex issue.

                        One of the most main concepts that Ngugi tries to convey through his masterpiece, A Grain of Wheat, is betrayal is betrayal. This letter is chiefly depicted via five different characters,  Mugo , Mumbi, Kihika, Gikonyo and Karanja.

                    Ngugi evokes complex responses to Mugo. His betrayal of Kihika, the leader of the movement, is induced partly by his jealousy, in part because the trouble in the land threatens his purpose never again to experience the hardship of his childhood. Kihika is brought up in the bosom of his family and friends. He also has the chance to go to school. All these support him to live for his holy target, Uhuru. Mugo has not any of these. He is orphan and left lonely to live with his heartless aunt. When his aunt passes away, he becomes a poor person, filled with fear, hatred and lack of self confidence, troubled by the image of his own failure. Another reason for Mugo’s betrayal of Kihika is simply because he wants not to be drawn into the connection with other people. , (Thiong'o, A grain of Wheat)“I wanted to live my life. I never wanted to be involved in anything. Then he came into my life, here, a night like this, and pulled me into the stream. So I killed him.” (p161).

                Mugo’s betrayal of Kihika is, however, in some part mitigated by the suffering he experiences in the various arrest camps he is put in for his bravery in Kihika’s lover. Mugo finally unloads this burden on Mumbi, Kihika’s sister, who then shares his guilt and withholds it from the rest of the community, easing his lonely.

                Ngugi conveys the idea of betrayal in Gikonyo and Mumbi. Both them felt guilty, for both have broken down their relations. Gikonyo builds up the picture of Mumbi alive in his mind. She provides a basis of inspiration greater than of nationalism. His wish for her is so all strong that he betrays to the cause of freedom in order to return to her. When he comes back, he cannot settle himself to Mumbi’s unfaithfulness and is worried by visions of Mumbi responding avidly to Karanja’s body.

                      While Mumbi commits betrayal, she doesn’t mean to betray her husband. Mumbi has been left exposed in the center of a hopeless crisis, lonely and hungry. For six years she has lived for the day when he will return pick up the threads and make life begin again. Finally, she gives herself to Karanja at the time when he brings her the news of Gikonyo’s free from prison. The sexual come upon becomes the final extension of her extreme joy in hearing of her husband’s free.

                      Gikonyo is angry with his disaffection for her and therefore he doesn’t want to listen to her reasons and decided not to open his heart for her any more. As his mother sees that both Gikonyo and Mumbi are suffering, she says words reducing his pain,

‘See hoe you have broken your home. You have driven a good woman to misery for nothing, let us now see what profit will bring you, to go on piosonong your mind with these things when you should have accepted and sought how best to build your life.But you , like a foolish child, have neverwanted to know what happened. Or what woman Mumbi really is.’

                    Mugo’s declaration of guilt of his betrayal makes Gikonyo understand his wife. So his decision to want the stool for Mumbi indicates that he can forgive and not recall the past and his love for Mumbi has returned.

                    Ngugi gives another example of betrayal through Karanja. Karanja is among those men who traitorously choose to side with British Colonialists. He joins the home guards instead of taking the Mau Mau movements. He becomes known for his cruelty in the treatment of his own people.

“That is when Karanja became a chief. Soon he proved himself more terrifying than the one before him. He led other home guards into the forest to hunt down the freedom fighters.”

(P-143).

                   Karanja has a continuing struggle with Gikonyo that stems from both an attraction to Mumbi. So, while Gikonyo is at the arrest camps, Karanja takes the chance to betray him by making love to his wife, Mumbi. When Mumbi hears that her husband is coming, she becomes happy as if she is mad. Karanja takes the chance on making love to her, as he knows that she is not able to control herself and she responds passionately to his desire. On the other hand, though, Karanja’s mother opinion her son not to follow the British or he pays a heavy cost for his betrayal of his own people. When Uhuru Day has come, it has created freedom, freedom of a surprising kind, for Kenyan people. But no such freedom comes to Karanja.

“Don’t go against the people. A man who ignores the voice of his own people comes to no good end. “(p-222).

                    Ngugi’s master piece is an originality of characters woven together by connection of traditional values that are the features typical of African village setting. Ngugi makes use of the first person and second person narrative technique to a microcosm of village. Ngugi explores the choices people make in times of difference and above all, betrayal personal, political, romantic, and sexual. He is a superb story-teller, creating bright, troubled characters, dramatizing the violence and horror of the Emergency as well as the nature of life in a small village and conveys excitements and suspense to the novel.

Conclusion:

                   This book is not only a great example of African literature, but one that shows the reality of any position in the world where people suffer from oppression, suppression or colonial rule. The novel is shaped of multiple narrative lines and, far from being linear in structure, is collected of a large number of flashbacks, that is, shifts in time frames. At the end, after all the sacrifice, there are no real winners. Mugo cannot run away confessing his guilt and offering himself up for sacrifice. The tragedy is that Mugo's death is a dead end - it makes no difference to the survivors, one way or the other. The only sight of a useful Uhuru that Ngugi leaves us with is in the reconciliation of Gikonyo with Mumbi and her son.

                    A Grain of Wheat is a great advance in Ngugi’s development as a novelist, and his appears in the interrelated betrayals and their consequent effect on Ngugi’s five characters. The latter had been involved in the events that led to Uhuru, and were slaves to the memories of their own personal inadequacies. Mugo becomes an outsider an outsider fraught with guilt, confusion and a great remorse. Gikonyo despite Mumbi’s betrayal, he is able to forgive her, and reconsider their relationship. Whereas, Karanja decides to go to live in Githima in order to escape his punishment for his betrayal on the Uhuru day. By so doing, Karanja is another voice in the dark side.

Works Cited

-          (Thiong'o and Thin'go)

-          (Wikipedia)