By Takura Zhangazha *
The great African writer and intellectual Ngugi wa Thiong'o
(Ngugi) has left us here on earth. He passed away this week after a long
illness as described by his family. I did not know or interact with him
personally.
I only met him via his amazing novels and Pan African essays as I encountered them in the Waterfalls and more significantly Dzivaresekwa district libraries in Harare, Zimbabwe. Moreso when I was at University and had a lot more intellectual curiosity.
And it was initially encountering his literary works that
had me in complete awe of him.
Encounters that started with the plays that he co-wrote with
Ngugi wa Miri (who I met personally via my maternal uncle Mr. Maphosa when I
was a wannabe intern with what was then referred to as the Zimbabwe Dance
Association)
That play was called "I Will Marry When I Want". I
watched it being dramatised in Pan Africanist fashion and was slightly lost at
its double meaning.
The second time I encountered Ngugi and his intellectual
prowess was when my brother Fidelis was studying African literature and brought
back home a set-book titled, "A Grain of Wheat" by the same author.
Our black and white television was not working at that time and
we had no option but to read whatever was at our disposal. The “A Grain of
Wheat” novel was complex for me as a teenager at that time but I sort of got
its anti-colonial and historical gist.
From inferences about
the 'iron snake' which turned out to be the train and railway track through to
the romantic contests of village lovers at a time of seismic colonial and
cultural change in a Kenyan village setting.
From then on Ngugi became a key feature of my library and
literary life. I read almost anything
and everything by Ngugi.
From the 'River Between', 'Weep Not Child', 'Devil on the
Cross' and the seminal 'Decolonising the Mind' collection of essays on language
and Africaninity among many other works I will not list because both in the
past and present there are to many to write for the purpose of a blog.
But there are many symbolic matters that Ngugi taught us as
Africans. Not just by way of his amazing writings but also by way of his Pan Africanist
activism. And I am writing this from an intellectually distressed moment. Ngugi,
in my view taught us to tell the radical pre andpost independence resistance
story.
We read the likes of the “Trial of Dedan Kimathi” but also
quickly encountered “Devil on the Cross” with its mixture of post-colonial
socialist resistance and religious dictum of the "Voice of the
People" being "The Voice of God".
We initially thought it was just literature in English from
Africa until Ngugi dramatically declared he was now going to only write novels
in his native language Gikuyu.
A language in which he authored among others, “Matigari” and
the seminal “Wizard of the Crow” novels as critiques of past and contemporary
African governments.
He also authored memoirs of his time in Moi's prisons and
gained international acclaim for his intellectual bravery in the face of
repression against literary free expression and consciousness. This made him a
global icon. And he has remained so,
even in his passing.
They never gave him the Nobel Peace Prize for Literature
though we knew as Africans he more than deserved it. Much more than Barack
Obama. Even if it was in a different field.
But we also knew that even if they did not give it to him,
Ngugi was so ingrained in our African being and progressive intellectual
consciousness that it do not matter
whether the proverbial white gaze recognised him at its highest levels or not.
The key was what he was teaching us through his writing.
This included what was to become a speicif academic field on 'decolonisation'
both intellectually and culturally.
Based on his novels and occasional essays. Now we have many African intellectuals that
focus on this field and teach young African students to think beyond what the
technology, including Artificial Intelligence imposes upon them from a western
or post/neo-colonial perspective.
Or in other instances we have young cdes that still borrow
from his more romantic novella scripts to do more Afrocentric films that are realistically and historically
grounded.
But I am writing this more from an African mourners perspective.
Ngugi changed my initially youtfully naive perspectives of
what it meant to be African. Reading his novels and other intellectual output
made me understand so many organic issues about what it meant to be African.
I realised that for example in the midst of a changing rural
and colonial context love is always possible. That it is not about flowers and trips
to exotic places but that it can be found within the hardest of existential circumstances.
I also learnt that religion was more an albatross on African society than it
was liberatory.
And among many other things, I learnt to read between the
slogans of our African liberation parties and identify corruption and the self aggrandizement
of our contemporary African leaders. All thanks to Ngugi.
The question is how do we as Africans now say a physical
farewell to an African giant who occupied and will still occupy our minds with
his astounding progressive Pan African consciousness?
He taught us many things. He led us in new horizons of
African literature and activism. The only answer is that fingers crossed, we
will pursue the tasks that he did not complete. Looking forward and
understanding who we are and who we can be. As Africans. As he would have wanted.
And remembering what a “Grain of Wheat” can and cannot do. With
or without a biblical reference.
*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity
(takura-zhangazha.blogspot.com)
Takura Zhangazha
Email: kuurayiwa@gmail.com
Skype: kuurayiwa1
Blog: takura-zhangazha.blogspot.com
Twitter: @TakuraZhangazha