African literature – realism and symbolism

Not only Kenya mourns the loss of Ngũgĩ Wa Thiong’o, who died in exile in the US at the end of May at the age of 87 at the age of 87. He was the all -round giant of the Kenyan literature. With his works and his Marxist-revolutionary thinking, Thiong’o, who came from poor conditions and had more than 20 siblings, contributed to not banishing the painful colonial past from the collective memory, but gradually overcoming if that ever works completely. To do this, he had to take many victims himself. The almost typical path of a big man. Thiong’o was imprisoned, harassed and persecuted for (too) franking writings and criticism of ruling elites. He left Kenya gene USA with his family. The then known writer was recorded at various US universities, where he taught English and comparative literary studies.

Najem Wali, Vice President of the German Pen Center, has never met Ngugui Wa Thiong’o himself, dealing intensively with his work over the years. “He was not only an important novelist, but also a literary and intellectual symbol of cultural resistance, a loud voice against colonialism and postcolonial politics and a fighter who redefined the identity of African literature as a tool of resistance, the promotion of national dignity and cultural authenticity,” he told this newspaper.

The Kenyan was always too little to focus on novels. Wa Thiong’o’s work therefore also included plays, short stories, essays and children’s literature. “His novels such as” a wheat grain “and” Mesopotamia “reflect his ability to interweave stories that combine realism and symbolism,” says Wali. After his international breakthrough with “Weep Not, Child” in 1964, WA Thiong’o gradually began to privilege his mother tongue Gikuyu when writing his texts. As a symbol of independence and freedom – he called the short “decolonization of thinking”.

The colonial languages ​​and colonial leading culture, whose superiority are not only stuck during the colonial period, but also from an early age, are dilemma. He has been writing almost exclusively on Gikuyu since the 70s; From then on, he abandoned his Anglo-Christian name James, whom British colonial lord had once forced him. He did not want to use the English language literarily, did not take hold of it. With the democratic-proletarian play “I’m getting married, whenever I want” he and Kenyan farmers and workers managed to “free the theater from elitism and make it a platform for public debates,” says Wali. After the premiere in 1977 in Nairobi, Thiong’o was arrested and was prison for a year where he was tortured. In 1982 he was allowed to leave London and then stayed in exile.

His short story “The vertical revolution: or why men go upright” (2019) was translated into at least 30 languages. In it, he converted a folk tale into a universal symbol of liberation. Again and again he was under discussion for the Nobel Prize. For Najem Wali, Thiong’o’s death does not mark the end, but the beginning of a rediscovery of his legacy “. The works of the deceased will “encourage generations to think about identity, language and cultural resistance.”