New world Politics and Role of Creative writers
With reference to Ngugi wa Thiong’o and Chinua అచేబే by గుర్రం సీతా రాములు
When we are reading a novel, short story or poetry, we may ask some questions .How good is the work? What does it mean? What moral values emerge from it? What does the work reveal about the society, directly or indirectly or is it irrelevant to society? We expect something from that work to the society. We cannot separate the literature from the society. In this paper I want to write new world politics and role of creative writer with reference to Ngugi wa Thiong’o and Chinua Achebe
‘African literature is politically committed’, declared Leopold Sedar Snghor at the first international conference of Negro writers and artists at the Sorbonne in 1956, most of the African writer’s revolt against colonial rule resentment at racial discrimination. The ugly face of the colonial rulers and their slave trade, inspired African poets in the first place. We can see slavery is still one of the main themes of Negro poetry. The development of black writing has been closely connected with the renewal of African culture and political consciousness after the demoralizing effects of the slave trade and colonialism. In its earlier stages,, African and black written literature was a matter of racial pride showing that black men could succeeded and answer back within European cultural forms. This was followed by the gradual evaluation of the African Black cultural experience to an equal dignity the European. The period of cultural Affirmation has now passed.
“The rise of independent African and west Indian states during the late 1950’s and 60’s was parallel by a phenomenal flowering of Black writing as writers have turned from the older problems of colonialism towards the new issues resulting from political independence, some of the new issues resulting from political independence, some of the original pan African idealism and concern for arrival cultural heritage have been lost the second Black and African arts festival therefore seems on occasion to see black literature in its historical and intercontinental perspectives”.
‘Aime Cesaire’ another West Indian also from Martinique was to play a much more important role in the development of French African Literature. Aime Cesaire is primarily a poet. The popularity of poetry among black writers stems from that genres capacity for experimentation with language so as to allow for the rendering of a new and very special experience. It is Cesaire who claims.... In the beginning was the world no one has believed this mere fervently than the poet. The power of the poetic ‘’word’’ becomes Cesaire miracles weapon, the beating of the wave of the mind against the root of the world. Cesaire’s poetry represents a pioneering effort to impose a new subjectivity upon an inherited literary form. Aime Cesaire gave the definition of Negritude is the most important thing in the history of African literature. The desperate optimism of 1930’s
Spread the ideology of negritude now confronted with the harsh unyielding reality of postcolonial societies, this effervesces scene seems frustrated.
The group ‘Leon Damas’ , ‘Aime Ceasire’, ‘ Leopold Senghor’ and ‘James Baldwin’ called “That ache to come in to the world as men finds the political and cultural implication of negritude under attack. In recent interview Ceisere explained,
“Negritude has brought with it same danger it has tended to become a school, a church, a theory an ideology, I am for a negritude which is literary and somewhat like a personal ethic , but I am against an ideology founded on negritude .. I refuse to be considered in the name of negritude, the brother of Francois Duvalier critiquing myself to only the dead.”
“I believe it is impotent to write anything in Africa without some kind of commitment, some kind of message, some kind of protest...because there were people who thought we didn’t have a past. What we were doing was to say we did- here it is”
Chinua Achebe
“Violence in order to change an intolerable, unjust social order is not savagery: it purifies man. Violence to protect and preserve an unjust, oppressive social order is criminal, and diminishes man”
Ngugi wa Thiong’o
Both Chinua Achebe and Ngugi are committed writers. The two statements quoted above by Achebe and Ngugi clarify the nature of their commitment as writers
Chinua Achebe:
‘Chinua Achebe’ is probably the most widely read of contemporary African writers, both on the African continent and abroad. His reputation was quickly established with his first novel ,’Things fall Apart’ which won him the ‘Margeret Wrong Memorial Prize’ as well as scholarships and grants, After the publication of his second novel , No longer at Ease, He was awarded the’ Nigerian National Trophy’ for literature, and for his third novel Arrow of the god he received the New states man Jock Campbell award .over the last decade, Achebe lectures and essays have provoked much debate the criteria for assessing African writers and his influence on younger novelists has been considerable. He has been nominated for the Nobel Prize for literature. ‘Chinua Achebe ‘Born in Odgidi, in the eastern part of Nigeria in 1930, his father was an evangelist and church teacher, although many of his relatives and neighbours adhered to the Ibo religion and customs ,Thus Achebe writes , he grew up “at the crossroads of cultures”
“The literature written about Africa during this time generally tended to reinforce those assumption of the British and helped them defend colonial rule as enlightenment to primitive peoples without a valid civilisation of their own Hence Africa was seen as a dark continent a symbol of irrational, nourishing undifferentiated and child like peoples governed by fear and superstition rather than reason, a people only too ready to welcome and, indeed, worship, the Whiteman. “
Chinua Achebe grew up at a time when Africans were not only opposing European rule through political action, but also beginning to question with increasing vigour and clarity the cultural assumptions used to justify that rule .Like many other people of his generation, Achebe was given a British education, first at the local mission school then at the government school then government college in Umuahia, and finally at University college Ibadan, Where he had planned to study medicine. Both as a creative writer and as a critic, Achebe has had a great influence, particularly on younger African writers. His novels have made an especially powerful impression upon young Ibo writers who first became acquainted with his works as high school or University students.
“The African writer has been very much influenced by politics, probably because the African intellectual is a part of the political elite. The writer is a sensitive point within his society .Thus, African literature has tended to reflect the political phase on the continent .Chinua Achebe is a very suitable example. Beginning during the colonial days his writings spans the succession of political crisis which has beset Nigeria. Also, more than any other Nigerian writer, He has made statements on the role of the writer in his society.
His conception of the writers’ duty is has also tended to change with the political situation in his country. By examining the both his creative and his pronouncement, we can obtain an interesting picture of how the quality of the literature cab be directly influenced by the degree of the writer’s political commitment.”
Achebe’s first statement on the social responsibility of the African writer was made in lecture entitled “the role of the writer in a New Nation” Delivered to the Nigerian Library Association in 1964. Achebe talked specifically about the role of the writer in what he called the new Nigeria. The major problem all over the world, he said, was the debate between white and black humanity, a subject which presented the African writer with a great challenge:
“It is in convincible to me that a serious writer could stand aside from this debate or be indifferent to this argument which calls his full humanity in question .For me at any rate, there is a clear duty to make a statement .This is my answer to those who say that a writer should be writing about contemporary issues – about politics in1964 about city life the lost coup d’état.
Of course, these are legitimate themes for the writer but as for the writer but as far as i am concerned the fundamental theme themes must first be disposed of. This theme put quite simply is that African people did not hear of culture for the first time From European; that their societies were not middle but frequently had a philosophy of great depth and value and beauty that they had poetry and above all, they had dignity .It is this dignity and self respect. The writer’s duty is to help them regain it by showing them in human terms what happened to them, what they lost.
The writer can tell the people where the rain began to beat them. After all the novelist’s duty is not to beat this morning’s headline in topicality, it is to explore in depth the human condition. In Africa he cannot perform this task unless he has a proper sense of history.”
He refused to believe that African writer could be alienated from his society in spite of the fact that the education of Africans was largely Western-Oriented, the relationship between European writers and their audience will not automatically re produced itself in Africa . In Africa Achebe said, Society expects the writer to be its leader. He revealed that many people have asked him to bring out more forcefully the lessons to be learned from his stories. Achebe said that the role of the African writer should be that of a social transformer and revolutionary. In a paper presented at a political science seminar in Makerere in 1968, entitled “The African writer and the Biafran cause “he said that a writer is only “a human being with heightened sensitive’s” and therefore “must be aware of the faintest nuances of injustice in human relations The African writer cannot therefore be unaware or indifferent to, the monumental injustice which his people suffer”. African writers are committed to a new society which will affirm their validity and accord them identity as Africans, as peoples. On the relationship between politics and the writer, He says that some measure of politics is bound to intrude in to writing epically in Africa. He himself could not abstain although he would not deny the right of any writer to do so. For him however one can only avoid commitment by pretending or by being insensitive. Achebe is correct that politics and social affairs cannot be kept out of literature in Africa; at least not for some time .Yet the writer’s approach to these issues will be crucial to the quality of his work. In order to be objective, he must be detached, must not become emotionally in involved.
In African literature the town has become a symbol of contact with the west, with it blemishes and attractions. The shock of the invasion of the European civilisation in to tribal African society has been dealt with even more explicitly. Several African writers here found it fine subject for novel. First there is the Nigerian Chinua Achebe with Things Fall A part. This is the story of the Decay of the social structure of an igbo villege under pressure from administration and missionaries the suicide of the hero Okenkwo after he has taken part in burning down the missionary school and killing a British official with his own hand is an admission of his importance to stop the course of history as much as final gesture of rebellion, against the new order He chooses to die rather than submit.
Ngugi wa Thiong’o:
Like Achebe, Ngui wa Thiong’o has also attracted critical attention from different parts of the world and there is a large body of critical writings on Ngugi works. As we discussed earlier, it is with the intention of studying this functional relationship between literature and politics closely that study of the writings of only one writer. Ngugi wa Thiong’o who is not only the most prolific of contemporary Kenyan writers but who is also the most prominent one.
Besides having a tradition of oral literature – Orature , as Ngugi wa Thiongo would like to call it which various communities in Kenya share with most other communities in other parts of Africa . Kenya has also had a tradition for over two hundred years of written literature primarily poetry in Swahili which as we know is a kind of trade’ Language ‘ used around the coastal areas of east Africa .Of the various British colonies in Africa , Kenya was perhaps the last emerge on the map of literary writing in English. Finding it difficult to express their thoughts in Swahili particularly poetry , Kenyan writers took the writing in English primarily prose in a big way ,It is Ngugi wa Thiong’o who has singlehandedly through his writings fictional as well as nonfiction forced scholars and critics of African literature to pay serious attention to Kenyan writing in English
Born in 1938, in the family of a land less squatter on the land of a well to do farmer in Kimiithu village Near Limeru in Kiambu district, Ngugi wa Thiong’o went to mission run school Kamaandura school in Limeru and later to a school of the independent schools Movement, Later, he joined the Alliance High school Kenya’s first full fledged school for Africans run by an alliance of the protestant denominations in Kenya. It is here that Ngugi’s religious awareness about Christianity a fact which is more than obvious from his writings.
Ngugi was fourteen when a state of emergency was declared in Kenya in 1952 on October 20. His passion for education seems to have weighed heavily with him in his decision to continue with it and as a result he missed out on actual participation in the movement. This fact seems to have given him a kind of guilt complex and is perhaps one of the major reasons for making the freedom struggle, particularly the Mau Mau phase, reputedly the theme of most of his books. After finishing his school education at alliance High school, Ngugi joined B A in English at Makerere University college at Kampala, Uganda which was the only University college in the whole Africa. Ngugi got trouble with political Authorities over the portions of His ‘Petals of Blood’ in which he dealt for the first time with situations in post independence Kenya. Also the text of play ‘Ngaahika Ndeenda’ ( I will marry when i want) about presents independent Kenya which he wrote together with’ Ngugi wa Mirii’ in his mother tongue Gikuyu and which was performed at the kamirithu community education and cultural Centre, Limeru in 1977, was objected by the authorities who eventually banned its performance on November 16, 1977. On the 31 st December 1977 Ngugi was taken to a police station near his residence for routine questioning but was detained without trial for almost a year Until December.
Ngugi has made Kenyan history, including the freedom struggle, as the theme of his powerful writings. For reasons consistency and homogeneity of analysis, the study has been confined to only one genre, namely fiction, although Ngugi is an equally, powerful play Wright, short story writer and essayist.
According to G.D Killam who wrote the book” An introduction to the Writings of Ngugi” in his book “The life in his novels is shaped by the presence of Christianity and his first novel The River Between was written when he was a devout to Christian Christianity is a major influence in both the colonial and neo colonial novels of Ngugi.
‘A grain of wheat’ and’ Petals of Blood’abound in biblical allusions
History is yet another major influence on Ngugi’s fiction His first four novels cover a span of six decades and draw on documented historical fact as background Both Achebe and Ngugi focus on the historical aspect in their fiction. Killam also accounts for the influence of Marx and Fanon on Ngugi writings,
With the publication of “Weep not child” in1964, Ngugi appeared on the African literary scene, becoming the first novelist from East Africa. Ngugi’s appearance marked the belated beginnings of the novel in East Africa at a time when the West African novel was already well established. Ngugi most serious commitment lies in his quest for a socialist order and a revolutionary culture through the process of the Decolonisation of mind and decolonisation of African literature His ‘Petals of the Blood ‘attempts this direction.
Ngugi concerned with the history of his people and seeks to extrapolate from his consideration of the influence of Europe on Kenya the means for making a better future. There are tow predominating influences on his third and forth novels these are Karl Marx and, epically Frantz Fanon .It is Marx who articulates a political and economic philosophy which will suit Ngugi’s conviction about post independent Kenyan development. It is Fanon who places the thinking of Marx in the African context.
Killam says “Ngugi strength as a novelist proceeds from the way in which he encrusts his political vision with material derived from his own Kenyan background ,the present values which are the real values as opposed to those new First World values which are taken on by the blacks who became the leaders in the post- independence circumstance .These are contemptible people so far as Ngugi is concerned because of the way they exploit their own kind and secondly, for their repudiation of the heroes of the revolution who brought about those circumstance in which they are able to act as they do. Thus ‘Dedan Kimati ‘ is legitimate hero his vision was straight forward unflinching uncompromising ultimately successful”.
After Petals of The Blood” Ngugi wrote’ Ngaahika Ndenda” (I will Marry when i want), the play which brought about his arrest .At least and at last in the production of the Kikuyu play Ngugi seems to have found an answer for a question he raised as far back as 1969 when he said “I have reached a point of crisis; I don’t know whether it is worthy any longer writing in English ....The problem is this – I know whom I write about. But whom do I write for? “He has found the medium to convey his message and though he knew all along what he wished to say and on whose behalf he wished to say it, he discovered that the audience for what he had to say was the same as those on “(p 15).
We can see two phases in Ngugi’s life one is before independence another one is after independence. In Kenya, “Weep not child,”the first published novel but the second written brings Ngugi to his central theme which is the struggle for Kenyan independence and the effect of the struggle on the lives of individuals within the Kenyan context. Both of the novels “Weep not Child” and “A grain of Wheat “The themes are the same where we find reference to various historical revolutionary activities before Mau mau independence movement got under way in1950s. In both “weep not child” “A grain of wheat”, causes and the prosecution of Mau mau aspirations are dramatised. The independence struggle is important to Ngugi and he has written this novel to explain inartistic terms and through a sustained comparison with Christian teaching action and theology the origins of the struggle and epically its legitimacy .He does in detail drawing in much of the same historical and political material as he has used in Weep not Child and River Between”
Ngugi lists the names of those Kenyans who martyred themselves over a fifty year period for Kenya’s independence the list includes Waiyaki, Harry Thuku, and Jomo Kenyatta and their activities are briefly sketched into show their inspirational effect on Kihika sees in Waiyaki’s failure and death, the seeds of future success. I want to conclude this article with the Argument
“The novels of Achebe and Ngugi”by K Indra Sena Reddy
..Political power for supremacy and self-rule dominate the colonial novels of” Things Fall apart”, Arrow of the god, The River Between “and to a large extent in A Grain of wheat which culminates in Kenyan independence. Petals of the Blood, and Anthills of the Savannah the two post colonial novels are concerned with the misuse and abuse of power by the Native black masters and call for a resolution with a sence of urgency about it through a sustained struggle The motifs of power and struggle run as an undercurrent in all the novels under discussion and provide a connecting link between Achebe and Ngugi’s fiction.
Bibliography:
1. Ngui wa Thiong’o Weep not child: Henemann, 1964.
Ngui wa Thiong’o The Revier Between: London: Heinemann, 1964.
3 Ngui wa Thiong’o A Grain of Wheat: London: Heinemann, 1967.
Ngui wa Thiong’o Petals of The Blood. London, Heinemann, 1977.
Chinua, Achebe. Things Fall Apart, London, Heniman, 1958.
Chinua, Achebe. No Longer at Ease, London, Heniman, 1960.
Chinua, Achebe. Arrow of the God, London, Heniman, 1964.
Chinua, Achebe. Anthills of Savannah, London, Picador, 1987.
Killam,G D An introduction to writings of Ngugi, London Henimann,1980.
