Ngugi Wa Thiong’o | 1987
Book Review by Michael D Sollars
Published in the African Writers Series
by Heinemann, Matigari is a deeply
felt call to workers, peasants, and students to rise up against what the
Kenyan-born author Ngugi Wa Thiong’o refers to as “imperialism.”
In keeping with the themes and attitudes
of his first two decades of writing, the book was published in his native
language, Gikuyu.
Its pairing of Western Marxist thought
with an allegorical story based on a Gikuyu folktale makes Matigari a quintessential postcolonial novel.
This is the story of Matigari, who
first renounces violence after slaying his colonial masters, and who, in the
pursuit of truth and justice for the people, later rearms himself against a
corrupt native polity.
After the publication of the novel, the
figure of Matigari took on the quality of legend among peasants in Kenya.
The police sought to arrest this man, but
upon discovering that he was a character in a book, they seized all copies of
the novel instead. In “A note on the English edition,” Ngugi laments that “with
the publication of this English edition, [Matigari,
the figure and the book] have joined their author in exile.”
Any discussion of Matigari must necessarily consider the novel’s form as well as
plot. The story is prefaced by the five-verse song “To the Reader/Listener.”
This address, which points out that the
story is to be heard and read, alerts the reader that the shape of the novel is
influenced by the traditions of oral storytelling.
For instance, the story is divided into
three parts, each of which is similarly structured. All the sections begin with
a determination on Matigari’s part to lay down arms in the first, to seek truth
and justice in the second, and to rearm in the third.
They then feature a public display of
Matigari’s benevolence, strength, and desire for a fair and just home.
Finally, they conclude with a conflict
between him and the police, but each time a question is left floating among the
public: “Who was Matigari?” This type of repetition, restatement of themes, and
recurring formal structure encourages ease of remembrance and retelling and is
crucial to what Ngugi terms African “orature.”
Readers of this novel will also encounter
the overwhelming presence of rumors, hearsay, reports, and gossip.
Radio broadcasts, or the Voice of Truth, are heard many times
over the course of the story.
These italicized interruptions in the
narrative report on local, national, and international events, and are
complicit with the hegemonic interests of the corrupt leader!
His
Excellency Ole Excellence. Though the Voice of Truth issues what are supposed to be definitive
statements, there are nonetheless countless incidences of gossip and
speculation between citizens about Matigari,
and these undermine the authority of the Voice
of Truth.
While the Voice of Truth on the radio emphasizes his status as a dangerous
criminal, and the popular rumors about him suggest that he is the Second Coming
of Christ, both exaggerate his status and emphasize the potential power of oral
discourse.
By the end of the story, Matigari comes
to the conclusion that “one had to have
the right words; but these words had to be strengthened by the force of arms.”
The story is a revolutionary call to
action for workers, peasants, students, and patriots who seek to oppose the
dishonest and unjust forces of capitalist greed.
In Matigari,
these insidious forces find shape in the institutions of government, religion,
and industry.
Crucially, the power of words, language,
and speech are primary to the task of resistance, a fact emphasized both
formally and thematically throughout the novel.
It is language, voiced words, that
mobilizes a local population toward the goal of seizing power out of the hands
of the few, while its role as universal allegory encourages a larger audience
to align their own struggle with that of the most vulnerable members of their
global community.
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