By Toyin Falola
For Ngugi and his intellectual ballistics―the ones he launched against oppressors of the state―contexts matter. Men of courage in his time armed themselves with sufficient knowledge and the courage to dare the devil and organized their resistance struggles in ways that ordinarily conscripted anyone with a flair for liberation and emancipation. In their arsenal, one would find different instruments of resistance, but the most fundamental one to their yearnings is knowledge, for it is not impossible to persecute a group of people who have wielded no firearms, no nuclear weapons or no ballistic missiles, but use words in challenging the authority of mindlessly callous power-drunk people in the helm of affairs. Professor James Ogude insists that the period that produced Ngugi was one circumscribed by the series of atrocious encounters that was inevitably gliding the East African region into the abyss of terror, disorderliness, chaos and hostilities, the ones initiated by the emerging neocolonial African leaders who have absorbed into their system the inglorious patterns of oppression, exploitation and totalitarian disposition of the colonial imperialists. Incidentally, these groups of tyrants were ruling with rods, whereas the colonial imperialists ruled with glove hands. And then it became a deliberate invitation to suicide to call them out, for they did not value human lives and existence and would waste anyone who dared to challenge them with reckless abandon.
As if the universe was specifically against the struggles of emancipation for Africans of the period generally, and Kenyans particularly, because not only did they have an internal combustible system that was irreconcilable with growth, but they were also surrounded by countries with hostile leaders which made the idea of desertion from their own country a completely meaningless decision. For illustration, any Kenyan of the 1960s and 70s seeking to leave Kenya to provide more visibility to their emancipation struggles, seeking shelter in Uganda, would be treated with disdain and possibly be at the risk of a more brutal experience because if the coup leader were not deporting them back to their homeland that was naturally hostile to them, he would be stripping them of any conceivable honour which must have been left with them. In essence, embracing the responsibility of an activist taking the identity of a freedom fighter, especially for Kenyans of the time, was tantamount to being suicidal. It was during this time, Ogude insists that Ngugi gave his literary ambition an unprecedented level of commitment. Maybe humans are generally enthused by the act of courage, or they are usually waiting for an external spark to nudge them into action. The fact that many individuals from the country had their careers determined by the selfless sacrifices and determination to see changes undertaken by Ngugi underscores the unrivalled importance of the writer to the evolution of their collective thoughts. Ogude makes no pretence as to how the literary luminaries of the time, the highest echelon of which Ngugi was seated comfortably, influenced even his own career decision.
For Ngugi, the familiarization of his students with the historical contexts that produced African dispersal to various places in the world was fundamental not just to their intellectual evolution but to their consciousness of the African fate, imagined and also shaped by colonial expansionism. This was, perhaps, the reason for his indoctrination of his students to Caribbean literature, just so that they could begin to understand the dimensions of servile relationships which had been central to the colonizer-colonized dynamics of the period. It was very clear, of course, that Africans who found themselves in the Caribbean carry a long memory of dented experiences that ultimately reduced their personhood to the barest level. They faced very despondent problems in the diaspora and were introduced to unfamiliar treatments to make them understand the heartrending pains that would communicate to them the status of unmistakable slaves that they had. In the unfolding drama, they must learn to navigate the dangerous territory and survive; otherwise, they will continue to languish in the wanton abyss of terror, of penury, of retrogression, of oppression. Even when they rose against oppressors, it was not that they were guaranteed the opportunity to escape the stringent problems already set in motion for them. Instead, they would be able to use that to reveal to the coming generations the sacrifices that they made. This is something important, and Ngugi would spare no breath in educating Africans and the world about it.
Ngugi’s writings convey more than the accolades of creative imagination expressed, for instance, by an author who is inherently gifted in the art of telling stories. For many authors, the expression of their creative insight sometimes gives them the unalloyed attention of the readers of their works. In many cases, these authors must have arrested the minds of their readers, who are usually engrossed in the content of their literary productions and expressions to the extent that they always seek more. In fact, many authors are like that. At least many of us have read from authors whose paintings of real-life experiences in their textual productions will almost lead us to make generalizations that are usually empty in the long run. For Ngugi, it is not like that. Ogude remarks that much of his intellectual and literary bent has an (auto) biographical import from which it was drawn. In essence, when you come across Ngugi drawing Western ideas side by side with the Africans, he must have been particularly interested in the dangers of the outright repudiation of the African practices, which have untold consequences for the people. He understood that when a practice is effaced because of the pressure coming from external influences and individuals, it is often because they are uninterested in the actual sociological impact of the practice. If external figures champion the movement for the eradication of a practice, such an action is understandable within the context of colonization. But when those who practice it succumb to such, it shows an inclination to servitude, to which he reacted against.
However, it is important to note that times and tides do not have elastic patience for humans as they move on without concern for what happens to humanity. Each generation always comes with its peculiarity, and it is the mark of an evolving human to also integrate the changes and experiences of their time so that they can make the maximum use of the world that they have. Ogude submits that contrary to the assumption that Ngugi is a pedantic intellectual who remained immutable to change, he was actually a progressive individual who updated himself based on the dictates of the world around him. When Ngugi argued in the 1960s for the continued repudiation of European languages so that the literary reputation of Africans would be protected, many people protested that he was merely static, unable to understand that the tides had changed. Inherent in their discontent against him was an undertone of condescension to a writer who they believed was rigid and would not bring himself into any evolution, even if it meant sacrificing what was very important. However, Ogude insists that this is an absolute mischaracterization, for Ngugi, he mentions, made efforts to understand and even appreciate the sensitivity of his time and environment. He maintains that Ngugi’s removal of the circumcision aspect in his novel The River Between comes as a result of his reconsideration of his stance in light of the protest by people who considered him insensitive to gender dynamics in the world today.
In everything, we cannot underplay the biographical bent of his intellectual engagements when we understand that he experienced firsthand the fact of displacement. It was the case that during his childhood, his family came under pressure from the colonial imperialists, who subsequently overtook their land and exposed them to economic and social stigmas. His family, therefore, was exposed, and that came with pangs of emotional struggles that traumatized his childhood. In essence, when you read about how the man continues to challenge the establishment, especially in relation to the emancipation of the people, that is partly an expression of his discomfiture in the general scheme of things. But then nobody can deny that Ngugi was, and still is, a tireless voice that continues to seek liberation for the African people for how the author works which helps us to understand the interconnection between the African colonial past and their struggling presence leaves everyone, including his critics, spellbound. It does not actually matter whether they have been conferred independence for some time now; the detrimental effects of having to forcefully rule over Africans cannot be overridden just like that.
