Browsing by Author "Waita, Njogu"

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Autobiographical Perspetives of Exile in East African Drama: An Analysis of Three Plays by John Ruganda
(2013-11) Njogu, Jackson Gikunda; Waita, Njogu; Muriiki, Anne Kinya
East Africa has undoubtedly been scarred by upheavals of various kinds, ranging from terrorism, tribal wars and political violence. The conflicts have often been between individuals, clans, tribes or systems, but there have also been conflicts within the individual which often lead to alienation or physical removal from the society. This paper critically examines John Ruganda’s representation of exile and a search for restoration in three of his plays. The texts selected for this analysis are Covenant with Death, (1973), The Floods (1980) and Shreds of Tenderness (2000). Each of these texts represents a decade of Uganda’s history as well as Ruganda’s personal experiences in his writing career spanning three decades. This paper argues that the life of an author is intricately related to literary outputs, and consequently, the texts under analysis can be read as one story the same way the dramatist lived one continuous life. The central focus is the playwright’s addiction with the theme of exile which is also a personal experience. The various dimensions of exile are explored through constituents of alienation, political causations and physical dislocation. The paper adopts a structural analytical approach proposed by Anne Gagiano, complemented by the linear model of Isaac Yetiv.
Identity Gender and Politics in Ngugi wa Thiong'o's Wizard of the Crow
(2013-07) Waita, Njogu
This paper provides a critical overview of the treatment of the questions of identity, politics and gender in Kenyan novelist Ngugi Wa Thiong’o’s work, The Wizard of the Crow. The issue of identity is explored against the backdrop of the experiences of slavery, colonialism, neocolonialism and globalization in Africa. The critical question raised in the novel is why the disease of contradicting identities continues to afflict the African.. The novel suggests that unless the African recaptures his identity, he/she would continue to exist in unredeemed state of alienation. The paper further discussed The Wizard of the Crow as a political Novel. We interrogate the political dispensation of Aburiria, a prototype African country immersed in a dictatorship that controls all aspects of the lives of the people. The paper discusses the authors emerging consciousness that indicate the new multi-party political dispensations as nothing but despotic mutations. Finally the paper explores the maturity of the novelist’s feminist vision. In the presentation of the character of Nyawira, we have an articulate woman ready to confront the social, cultural and political challenges of postcolonial Africa in the 21st Century. The paper concludes that this novel, does not offer any explicit solutions to the problems facing Africa. Nevertheless, it suggests that the African renaissance can never be achieved under a condition of alienation. Africa should reach out to other countries in the East like India and China and learn about the possibilities of resisting domination and minimizing the effects of globalization.
‘Identity, Politics and Gender Dimensions in Ngugi Wa Thiongos’s, Wizard of the Crow
(2013-07) Waita, Njogu
This paper provides a critical overview of the treatment of the questions of identity, politics and gender in Kenyan novelist Ngugi Wa Thiong’o’s work, The Wizard of the Crow. The issue of identity is explored against the backdrop of the experiences of slavery, colonialism, neocolonialism and globalization in Africa. The critical question raised in the novel is why the disease of contradicting identities continues to afflict the African.. The novel suggests that unless the African recaptures his identity, he/she would continue to exist in unredeemed state of alienation. The paper further discussed The Wizard of the Crow as a political Novel. We interrogate the political dispensation of Aburiria, a prototype African country immersed in a dictatorship that controls all aspects of the lives of the people. The paper discusses the authors emerging consciousness that indicate the new multi-party political dispensations as nothing but despotic mutations. Finally the paper explores the maturity of the novelist’s feminist vision. In the presentation of the character of Nyawira, we have an articulate woman ready to confront the social, cultural and political challenges of postcolonial Africa in the 21st Century. The paper concludes that this novel, does not offer any explicit solutions to the problems facing Africa. Nevertheless, it suggests that the African renaissance can never be achieved under a condition of alienation. Africa should reach out to other countries in the East like India and China and learn about the possibilities of resisting domination and minimizing the effects of globalization
“Innovation and Change in Social Construction of Gender as Depicted in Gikuyu Songs”
(2015-09) Wanjiru, Elizabeth; Kaburi, Colomba; Waita, Njogu
The purpose of this article is to examine the transformations in social construction of gender among the Gikuyu community in Kenya. The article does this by interrogating how modern Gikuyu songs have been modified to remove gender misrepresentation and create new identities. Data was collected through field research and the songs discussed here were purposefully sampled from the reservoir of the data collected during the field work. The discussion shows that songs are adapted and adjusted to suit the occasion or situation. This adaptation and change was necessitated by the fact that Gikuyu traditional songs were despotic to women hence modern singers have found the need for modification to counteract the oppressive nature of traditional songs. As a genre, song is seen as the most flexible in Gikuyu oral literature and has contributed enormously in bringing about change in social construction of gender in the community.
Oral Literature and the Communication of Change and Innovations in Kenya
(University of Cape Town, 2003) Waita, Njogu
The major object of pursing this study was to understand how oral literature has been used in the communication of change and innovations in Kenya. The study focuses attention on Central Province of Kenya. In the work, oral literature has been studied as a literary media delineating the genre's communicative role in relationship to messages in social-cultural, political and health ﬁelds. In this study, we begin from understanding the traditional context and the literary content of the study sample and proceed to analyze and discuss the new and innovative messages communicated by the genre. In the course of the work, oral literature emerges as continually changing and adapting to the social, historical and health challenges that confront the people of the Central Province of Kenya. The primary sources of data used for analysis in this study have been from the Kikuyu people of Central Kenya. Oral texts were recorded and sourced from oral artists, composers and storytellers during ﬁeldwork in this region. Oral narratives, oral poetry in the form of songs, proverbs and oral dramas constitute the main data used for analysis in this study. We have also used in the analysis a few texts from secondary sources. The texts are analyzed as literary genres that are culture-bound. Interviews provided useful collaborative and augmentative data for the study. We have four broad categories of classifying content in our analysis. These include: (i) courtship, marriage and family, (ii) social construction of gender, and (iii) politics and governance and (iv) HIV/AIDS communication. Oral literature among the Kikuyu emerges in this study as a genre that continues to communicate normative values while at the same time exploring new contradictions that have affected the various institutions of courtship, marriage and family. The study also indicates that oral literature continues to play a visible role in gender socialization validating disparate roles for men and women. The genre contributes to the gender debate by extracting a multiplicity of standpoints on gender relations. At the same time, it emerges a medium of contesting not only traditional gender values but also the emerging modernist positions. Over the last century, oral literature also emerges as having played a key role in communicating change and innovations in the politics and governance of Kenya. The resilient nature of the genre is further demonstrated in this study by the way oral literature has responded to HIV/AIDS epidemic in the country. In confronting this relatively new phenomenon, oral literature becomes a tool that helps the people in conceptualizing and protecting themselves against the disease. The conclusions that we draw from this study is that oral literature continues to play a signiﬁcant role in social communication in spite of various technological and literacy changes that have taken place in Kenya. The genre is constantly being created and recreated to serve speciﬁc needs and to respond to the crises of the moment.
Orality and the Written Word in the Age of Globalization: The Case of Ngugi WaThiong’o’s Kikuyu Novels
(2014-11) Waita, Njogu
Ngugi Wa Thiong’o is one of the foremost post-independence novelists in Africa. His novels include, Weep Not Child (1964), The River Between (1965), A Grain of Wheat (1967), Petals of Blood (1977), Devil on the Cross (1983), Matigari (1987), and The Wizard of the Crow (2007).Since 1978. WaThiong’o vowed that he would create artistic works only in his vernacular language, Kikuyu. Consequently, his last three novels mentioned above and a number of children’s stories have all been published in Kikuyu language. Our paper discusses the interface of the oral and the written in his last three novels. The novels were all first published in Kikuyu language before being translated into English. They were originally published as Caitaani Mutharaba-ini (1980), Matigari Ma Njirungi (1986), and Murogi WaKagogo (2004).In our analysis, we discuss the influence of indigenous Kikuyu folklore on the narrative strategies and thematic conceptualization of these novels. The paper further discusses how the folkloristic material is used to interrogate and communicate to the reader the new realities of globalization. The paper in effect assesses the extent to which the Kikuyu folkloristic tradition has contributed to the greatness of the works even in their translated forms.
Orality and Written Word in the Age of Globalization: The Case of Ngugi wa Thiong'os Kikuyu Novels
(2014-11) Waita, Njogu
Ngugi Wa Thiong’o is one of the foremost post-independence novelists in Africa. His novels include, Weep Not Child (1964), The River Between (1965), A Grain of Wheat (1967), Petals of Blood (1977), Devil on the Cross (1983), Matigari (1987), and The Wizard of the Crow (2007).Since 1978. Wa Thiong’o vowed that he would create artistic works only in his vernacular language, Kikuyu. Consequently, his last three novels mentioned above and a number of children’s stories have all been published in Kikuyu language. Our paper discusses the interface of the oral and the written in his last three novels. The novels were all first published in Kikuyu language before being translated into English. They were originally published as Caitaani Mutharaba-ini (1980), Matigari Ma Njirungi (1986), and Murogi Wa Kagogo (2004).In our analysis, we discuss the influence of indigenous Kikuyu folklore on the narrative strategies and thematic conceptualization of these novels. The paper further discusses how the folkloristic material is used to interrogate and communicate to the reader the new realities of globalization. The paper in effect assesses the extent to which the Kikuyu folkloristic tradition has contributed to the greatness of the works even in their translated forms.
Representations of Kenyan history in oral literature: 1948-2002
(2013-07) Waita, Njogu
This paper discusses the representation of Kenyan history in oral literature between 1948 and 2002. The paper relied on library and ethnographic data. The ethnographic data included audio recordings of renditions of well known Mau Mau folksongs, popular and topical songs and a narrative. The play, Ngahika Ndeenda, by Ngugi Wa Thiong’o and Ngugi Wa Mirii was treated as an oral drama. The texts were translated from Gikuyu language to English and the content messages categorized for analysis. The analytical categories cover the literary representations of the Olenguruone land crises, the Mau Mau uprising and the independence era. The independence era is divided into Kenyatta and Uhuru and the Post Kenyatta era of 2002. The paper lays no claim to historical objectivity but interrogates the texts as literary artifacts. In the analysis and discussions, the Olenguruone land crisis emerges as the genesis of the armed resistance to colonialism and Kenyatta is represented as the collective wish for the de-colonization of Kenya. The paper further discusses the literary representations of the political changes surrounding the governance of President Jomo Kenyatta, President Daniel Arap Moi and the fight for democratic pluralism in Kenyan politics. This paper concludes that oral literature is a significant instrument in the reflection of change and innovations in politics. As a cultural artifact, it also becomes a form of national consciousness.
Representations of Kenyan History in Oral Literature: 1948-2002.
(2013-07) Waita, Njogu
This paper discusses the representation of Kenyan history in oral literature between 1948 and 2002. The paper relied on library and ethnographic data. The ethnographic data included audio recordings of renditions of well known Mau Mau folksongs, popular and topical songs and a narrative. The play, Ngahika Ndeenda, by Ngugi Wa Thiong’o and Ngugi Wa Mirii was treated as an oral drama. The texts were translated from Gikuyu language to English and the content messages categorized for analysis. The analytical categories cover the literary representations of the Olenguruone land crises, the Mau Mau uprising and the independence era. The independence era is divided into Kenyatta and Uhuru and the Post Kenyatta era of 2002. The paper lays no claim to historical objectivity but interrogates the texts as literary artifacts. In the analysis and discussions, the Olenguruone land crisis emerges as the genesis of the armed resistance to colonialism and Kenyatta is represented as the collective wish for the de-colonization of Kenya. The paper further discusses the literary representations of the political changes surrounding the governance of President Jomo Kenyatta, President Daniel Arap Moi and the fight for democratic pluralism in Kenyan politics. This paper concludes that oral literature is a significant instrument in the reflection of change and innovations in politics. As a cultural artifact, it also becomes a form of national consciousness.