Ngũgĩ wa Thiongʼo

Ngugi wa Thiong'o

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o

Micere Githae Mugo

James Ngugi

Ngugi and Micere Mugo have built a powerful and challenging play out of the circumstances surrounding the trial of one of the celebrated leaders of the Mau Mau revolution.

The Trial of Dedan Kimathi

Marion

What was it one of those soldiers said? "The way the enemy makes us thirst to kill one another." How right he was! He must be one of the lost sons of the soil. H'm. Take the case of us peasants, for one.

We are told you are Luo, you are Kalenjin, you are Kamba, you are Maasai, you are Kikuyu. You are a woman, you are a man, you are this, you are that, you are the other. [after some thought: Yes. We are only ants trodden upon by heavy, merciless elephants.

Partnership in Progress, that’s the new motto

Another Ngugi wa Thiong’o classic. I’ve always had abit of an antagonist relationship with Ngugi’s work since I was forced to learn it in high school but rediscovery as an adult has led to a new found appreciation for his work who’s effect on the Kenyan revolution and African pedagogy can not be overstated. I love that all his plays were published as books, they make for really incredible reading.

This particular play is centred around the trial of dedan kimathi—leader of the Mau Mau resistance group in Kenya. I found this article in Africa is country(

https://africasacountry.com/2016/03/the-hunt-for-the-trial-of-dedan-kimathi/ 

) about how for a long time the details of this trial were lost to which makes this 1976 fictitious trial in Ngugi’s play an important part of history. As Ngugi states in his powerful introduction to this play the Mau Mau history had not been exhausted enough in literature.

Really incredible play that sadly is still relevant today as we look back at the successes and failures of decolonisation on our continent.

“Partnership in Progress, that’s the new motto”

Another Ngugi wa Thiong’o classic. I’ve always had abit of an antagonist relationship with Ngugi’s work since I was forced to learn it in high school but rediscovery as an adult has led to a new found appreciation for his work who’s effect on the Kenyan revolution and African pedagogy can not be overstated. I love that all his plays were published as books, they make for really incredible reading.

This particular play is centred around the trial of dedan kimathi—leader of the Mau Mau resistance group in Kenya. I found this article in Africa is country(https://africasacountry.com/2016/03/the-hunt-for-the-trial-of-dedan-kimathi/ ) about how for a long time the details of this trial were lost to which makes this 1976 fictitious trial in Ngugi’s play an important part of history. As Ngugi states in his powerful introduction to this play the Mau Mau history had not been exhausted enough in literature.

Really incredible play that sadly is still relevant today as we look back at the successes and failures of decolonisation on our continent.

The Trial of Dedan Kimathi

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